Bible Giveaway

Just a quick blurb here: Logos is giving away some very nice looking Bibles over the next 6 months. For an entry you need to just give them some free publicity, like this:

--Begin Logos-written plug--

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

--End Logos-written plug--

So, check it out if you feel like it...their software is useful if you can afford it (I got a copy free when I enrolled in seminary). I've also added a "Bible search" gadget from them over on the right side of the screen here for your Bible-browsing pleasure or ignorage as you see fit.

New Baby!

Just a quick note:

Baby Erik Benjamin was born 6/14. He was 18.5 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 12 oz. Despite a surprise C-section (he had managed to work himself into breech/transverse position) mommy and baby are doing fine.

Success

In reading for one of my classes ("Principles of Biblical Leadership") I came across what I think is a great, biblical definition of success in ministry. In Shepherding the Church, Joseph M. Stowell writes:

Success in Scripture is a matter of living out our lives according to God's expectations and standards in undaunted routine faithfulness. (p. 90)

He goes on to list three components of this success:

What - The reflection of God's character and likeness through us
How - Commitment to goodness, faithfulness, and servanthood.
Where - Ultimate focus is on eternity, not on how impressive our accomplishments look in this world.

I think this definition of success does a good job of reflecting what God has called us to do and the broad example of people in the Bible who did what was pleasing in God's eyes (e.g. Hebrews 11). (as opposed to "cherry picking" only the scriptural examples from the book of Acts that show great numerical success)

Unfortunately, the professor of this class appears to have a very different notion of "success" in ministry. In his first lecture he told us "some people are not able to have a church of 2,200 people because they are just not willing to do what it takes to be that kind of leader. They just won't ever experience that level of success." This prof often claims that numbers are not the only measure of success, but what comes out of his mouth the rest of the time says just the opposite...and I've gotten up on this soapbox before so I'm going to stop now before I go on another multiple page rant.

At least the book I quoted from is excellent. I would highly recommend it for anyone going into the pastorate.

The Book of Acts: Descriptive Not Prescriptive

I just finished the second week of my summer class entitled "World Missions and the Local Church." So far the class discussion has primarily been a big let's-bash-the-way-missions-is-currently-done fest. The big complaint that seems to be driving most of this is something along the lines of: "Just look how the church at Antioch and the apostle Paul 'did missions' in the book of Acts. Modern missions is nothing like that!"

Even ignoring the clear overstatement of "nothing like that," I think this is an unwise way to approach the subject of missions (or any other aspect of theology or methodology for that matter). The book of Acts is presented primarily as an account of the history of the early church (see Acts 1:1-2). It is primarily descriptive: it recounts what happened in the early years of Christianity in a narrative manner.

The book of Acts is not presented as a prescriptive book. That is, it is not presented as a manual on how a church should be run (you'll find a lot of that in the epistles) or missions should be conducted. It describes what did happen, not what should/must/will happen in every time and culture.

This does not mean that we cannot learn from this book things about God or about the general kind of actions and attitudes that should be going on in the church. However, it does mean that we should be very careful about pointing to any one part of the book and declaring that it is the only methodology/result/whatever that we should be doing/seeing/whatever in Christianity today! We must remember that life in the first century Roman Empire was significantly different than life in the 21st century world. Additionally, this was a transitional period in history as it relates to God's plan (from Law to Grace/Church if you care to look at it from a dispensational point of view): The Holy Spirit now began indwelling Believers in a new way, Gentiles were being brought into God's family without having to follow the OT Law, authenticating signs and wonders accompanied the new message of the Gospel, etc.

"Cherry picking" individual examples from the book of Acts that support your own personal view of how church should be run (or missions conducted) and denouncing any ministry we dislike as "not being found in the book of Acts"/"not the practice of the early church" and therefore invalid does not seem to be accurate, honest treatment of God's Word. If this kind of argument were consistently applied I'm not sure too many people would agree with the results. We would have no church buildings, no Sunday school, no VBS, no mission agencies, no church camps, no faith based drug rehab programs, no Bible colleges, no seminaries, etc. and we should be speaking in tongues, healing the sick, raising the dead, receiving visions and prophecies, holding all property in common, etc. ...and while some people might agree with some of the things on that list I think few people would really want to go that far.

Are there some aspects of modern missions that should be "tweaked" (or even undergo major change)? Probably. Do we need to ditch the whole current system because "it's not how the early church and the apostle Paul did it?" I really don't think so.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? When I tried to bring it up in class discussion no one really responded.

P.S. I just proofread this and some of the transitions in there are kind of rough/disjointed, but after two weeks of class my brain is already shot so I'm just going to apologize and not bother making it more coherent right now...sorry.

Book Reviews

In the couple weeks since I last posted anything here I've been enjoying being able to read just for fun (there was also an unpleasant incident where I got put on probation at work for a supervisor's actions over which I had no control, but that just makes me hostile to think about so I won't talk about it right now). I've decided to review the books that I read for fun this summer. If you like to read maybe it'll give you some books to add to your "to read" list (or avoid). If you don't like books then you can be happy that my summer classes started this week so I won't have as much time to read for fun and you might not be subjected to too many more of these. Anyway, here's what I've read so far this summer:

The Last King: Romes Greatest Enemy by Michael Curtis - This is historical fiction about the life of Mithridates Eupator IV (the Great) who was the last king of the kingdom of Pontus in Asia Minor. He caused the Roman Empire so much trouble that his eventual death led to parties in the streets of Rome. It was interesting to learn about a person (albeit a ruthless, cruel person) and part of history I didn't know much about. However Mithridates was exaggerated to the extent that he sounded more like Hercules or Conan the Barbarian (but with a higher level of intelligence) than a real historical figure. To me, it just made the story feel shallow rather than mythical (which is what I think the author was aiming for). Rating: 2 out of 5

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - This is one of the classic dystopias (along with Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451). The picture Huxley paints of a society that has given up truth, faith, and love in order to have stability and a sort of frantic, hedonistic "happiness" (maintained by never being alone or quiet, lots of casual sex, and mind-altering drugs if, Ford-forbid, you should ever actually start to think or feel unhappy) is scarily reminiscent of the way our culture is headed. Granted, the cloning and subliminal brain-washing aspects of the story aren't going on yet, but this is sci-fi. An excellent dystopia, especially considering how relevant it is even though it was written 70+ years ago. Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Eric by Terry Pratchett - This is one of the Discworld novels. Chronologically, it's the next book about Rincewind (the wizard who can't do magic) to happen after Sourcery. Overall, I think I prefer Pratchett's earlier Discworld books...the later ones that I've read (including this one) tend to mock faith/religion/Christianity excessively (though I suppose I should have expected that with this book since it's a variation on Faust). Rating 2.5 out of 5

The Screwtape Letters with Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C. S. Lewis - In this book, Lewis's thoughts on temptation, sin, and virtue are cleverly presented as letters from a senior demon to a novice tempter. The two themes I appreciated the most were: a life genuinely submitted to God is contrasted with a life lived in trying to impress God and others; and the extent to which feelings can be confused for spirituality (or lack thereof) and lead us astray. I disagree with the implication throughout the book that salvation is an extremely tentative, unsure state, but I'm not sure whether that is actually C. S. Lewis's personal view or just "wishful thinking" on the part of the demons. Rating 5 out of 5

And that's it for now. I'm already most of the way through several other books so more reviews may be coming soon if classes don't keep me too busy. Yeah, I know you're thrilled.