Come on. Did they think no one would notice?

[ht:Emergent Village]

Truly outrageous… like Jem.

[ht: Vintage Faith]

Session 1: Dwelling in the Cross – C.J. Mahaney

Session 2: Dwelling in the Kingdom Mission – Ed Stetzer

Session 3: Dwelling Incarnationally – Eric Mason

Session 4: Dwelling in the Text – Mark Driscoll

Session 5: Dwelling with Non-Christians – Darrin Patrick

Session 6: Dwelling in the Gospel – Tim Keller

Session 7: Dwelling through the Text – Mark Driscoll

Session 8: Persuasion – Tim Keller

Dwell Conference Manual

Makes me proud to be an Atlantan.

Steve has a radio show, in which he recently invited Tony Jones to be a guest. Now, I like Tony and think he has some really interesting and important things to say, and no way would I ever demonize him, although other reformed folks seem to have made that their task. But, along the lines of Steve Brown, I do have my own set of concerns, particularly in relation to epistology. Here’s the whole radio show/podcast:

I did appreciate the friendliness that existed between the two throughout the conversation, in a way two theologians reflected a Christ-like attitude in discussion. Now, on Tony’s point about developing doctrine in context, I definitely understand that role for the emerging church. He states that Augustine developed doctrine in the context and language of his time, and that the emerging church is doing in the same in this time of pluralism, globalization, and post-modernism. I think a bit of the fallacy there is the lack of acknowledgment that young reformed folks are doing the same thing, but coming to the conclusions that the old guys might have hit on a few things that still apply today.

I had a hard time with his statement that liberalism and conservativism are only contemporary terms. I had a class with Shirley Guthrie at my first seminary, and it was a major tenet of his that liberal and conservative branches of Christianity have always existed, and tend to be like a pendulum in terms of their momentum, swinging back and forth between the two groups. Starting with Marcion, and his doubts about authority of scripture, through the Waldensians and guys like St Francis of Assissi, there have always been liberal strains of Christianity in comparison to more orthodox conservative branches. Now modern liberalism is certainly a product of the enlightenment, led by Schleiermacher, followed by folks like Bultmann and Tillich, but just because our terms for liberalism and conservativism is fairly contemporary, both waves have always existed.

Now, I once talked about Christian doctrine being like an open box, where you are surrounded on four sides by the stead and supportive wall, but to allow for doctrine to have an accessibility to it that is not closed off as completely and total absolute. Scripture is truth, our doctrinal systems are like Paul’s statement about seeing dimly through a mirror… they reflect truth, but in a incomplete way. That being said, I do have trouble with Tony’s model of comparing church to liberal democracy. Steve Brown points out that, “There are eternal verities, that if we get everbody off the street and have input and come out with a position paper, that you can call that Christian. There is a sense that there are verities that are revealed and not voted on, but are taught.” Its one thing to say that you can be wrong, and I am open to that completely. No one has a grasp on 100% truth, and I would hope most theologians would approach theological stances with the humility of possibly being wrong, but that is not to throw out the ability of discerning things that are untrue. That’s where I think Tony and Steve have their issues, because eventually you have to be able to point out something that scripture is clear on and say, “That is untrue… there’s really no debate on it.” While we can have discussions about homosexuality or feminism or a handful of other culturally significant issues that we may disagree on, there are truths in the Bible such as God’s love, Christ’s divinity, etc, that should be non-negotiables for us.

I appreciate Tony and his interest in creating churches where people are welcomed to have different opinions. It should be the safest place to ask questions and seek truth, no matter how liberal or conservative you may be. But, at the end of the day, there is some truth to be grasped, and there is a Bible to turn to for it, and if God wants us to have this book identified as breathed by Him, then he may want us to come to some conclusion about truth.

I guess I definitely connect with Driscoll’s frustration, because I know so many people who read the next big ‘trendy’ book and endorse it as if its the Bible. I’m all for reading books, particularly some that you don’t agree with or that push you a bit, but make sure you do so discerningly. Whether its Tony Jones or John Piper, get some Bible knowledge in you so you can tell truth from opinion, particularly misguided opinion. Just because it sounds nice, doesn’t mean its biblical.

All of this is in conjunction with the upcoming Olympics taking place in China, where many perceive China as violating human rights in the Tibet region, something that is fairly well documented and known about. World Vision has a report about some of the problems and the protests they have caused. All this led me to one question:

Why is the world better activists than Christians?

The human-rights issues in Tibet (and Darfur, Sudan, etc) are something every Christian should have awareness and conviction about. Yet, it seems like Christians are one of the most silent voices on the issue. Obviously there are some Christian groups doing something about it, but by-and-large it hardly feels like a hot button issue. I can understand why Christians don’t hold the same banners as groups like Peta or the Sierra Club (thought sometimes we should), but human-rights issues we should be as passionate, if not more, than those in the world. I understand too the difference between peaceful protest and those that cause civil unrest, and I definitely think Christians should opt for the peaceful form.

What was even more amazing to me, as I flipped through the news today, was two separate interviews that were the only “Christian” related subjects today. The first was a woman who was asked why she wanted McCain to remove Mit Romney from the list of possible vice-presidential candidates. Her reasoning is that he has allowed same-sex marriages in his state as well as waffles on abortion even after his conversion. She said as a Christian, those are not values we can stand for. Secondly, in a separate interview, a school in the midwest was having some ‘wacky clothing’ week, and one of the days was a cross-dressing day. There was an old curmudgeon from the Christian media world talking about how it was some sort of abomination that this was taking place, even though little to no parents or students really saw it as a problem.

That’s what Christians stand for in America? Has it really gotten this bad? Why has evangelism become so difficult and been met with so much resistance? Because the world has sometimes come to represent Christ better than Christians. Obviously that is not a universal statement in all social and moral areas, but when the non-Christians of the world are concerned about a lot of these global issues and Christians have essentially remained mute, what appeal is that?

A lot of this was summed up in what went down with Joel Hunter. Joel was a Theology of Ministry professor of mine at Reformed Theological Seminary and is currently the lead pastor at Northland Church in Orlando. When I had heard he was elected to head to Christian Coalition (founded by Pat Robertson), I was rather surprised, but hoped he would bring much vision to the organization, which he did attempt to do. He offered a broader vision to the group, including ‘compassion issues’ such as human rights. He was quickly asked to step down from his position, because they were worried that they would lose focus on what the Coalition stands for? If the Christian Coalition doesn’t stand for compassion, I think they need to remove the word Christian from their title.

Why don’t Christians stand for compassion anymore?