Quick Hits (5/14/08)

Several links to articles and sermons to pass on…

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Here are two great links on educational choices and the local church. As a pastor of a church which has something like 1/3 public school kids, 1/3 Christian school kids, and 1/3 home school kids, I heartily agree with the Harris’ perspective and the need for churches to unite around the gospel and not secondary issues like education.

• Josh Harris’ comments can be seen on this video.
• Greg Harris’ comments can be read at this blog post.

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This 9Marks lesson on discontentment and its effect on local church life is excellent. What a great perspective on a real-life issue.

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CJ Mahaney’s article on modesty (initially released in 7 blog posts) is available as a pdf here. I don’t think I’ve come across a better treatment of the topic. Somehow, he manages to promote standards as high or higher than most fundamentalists, but he does so without sounding like, well, a fundamentalist. It’s very, very good.

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Dave Doran’s recent message on the Cross was a great blessing to me. Give it a listen.

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Tim Keller’s message on the Gospel’s impact on the question of suffering is helpful, as well. It’s an audio version of a chapter from his best-selling book, The Reason for God. I don’t always agree with Keller, but this message provoked my thinking and stirred my heart.

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Joe Tyrpak, the assistant pastor at TCBC, just finished a very insightful series on OT Poetry. I commend it to you—especially the one on the Psalms. They’re fairly heavy, but extremely helpful.

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Finally, I’m in the middle of a series on gender relationships in the church. Though not always comfortable, it’s been a profitable series for us. Two messages of what I intend to be a 4-part series are up on TCBC’s SermonAudio site.

Things I Wish I’d Said, 2

Here are some insightful statements I’ve come across in recent weeks. Many are from T4G, which I enjoyed very much. (Links to all the T4G “talks” are available at Andy Naselli’s place.)

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This statement from Mark Dever’s T4G message is on-target:

“Pragmatism is more of a danger to evangelical Christians than Open Theism will ever be.”

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This is a summary of a statement by Lig Duncan from his T4G message and may not be an exact quote. Duncan suggests that the claim of many that they are stepping away from doctrinal questions is really untrue and impossible:

“Everyone is theological and everyone does Systematic Theology. The question is whether they will do it poorly or well.”

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Good thoughts from John MacArthur’s T4G message (again, they may be paraphrases rather than exact quotations):

“Soft preaching makes hard people. Hard preaching makes soft people.”

“Paul said, ‘I become all things to all men.’ But his message did not.”

“Never offer Jesus as the One willing to fulfill the sinner’s natural desires. Assault his sinful desires; don’t pander to them.”

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John Piper on the chief blessing of our salvation:

“The best gift of the gospel is not the forgiveness of sins. The best gift of the gospel is not the imputed righteousness of Christ. The best gift of the gospel is not eternal life. The best gift of the gospel is seeing and savoring the supremacy of Christ himself. The greatest reward of the cross is knowing the supremacy of Christ.” (Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, 43; this is the gist of another helpful book by Piper, God Is the Gospel.)

Note: I’ve thought of this principle in theological terms, as well: justification is not an end in itself, but is rather the means toward the even greater blessing of reconciliation. What a rich thought!

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This counsel for writers from C. S. Lewis is infinitely useful. Well, it’s very useful, anyway.

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William Booth gives some sound advice regarding the danger of pushing our daughters aggressively toward marriage and motherhood; it’s a message Christian parents need to consider:

“Don’t instill, or allow anybody else to instill into the hearts of your girls the idea that marriage is the chief end of life. If you do, don’t be surprised if they get engaged to the first empty, useless fool they come across.” (quoted by Joshua Harris in I Kissed Dating Goodbye, p. 84)

Note: Reading this book has been bitter and sweet. It’s a must-read for all parents, especially parents of young children. I just wish I or my parents had read it sooner. I hope to post more on it later. Read it.

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I can’t remember who made this comment to me, but it rings true:

“Pacifying discontent or angry people is less like disarming a bomb and more like lengthening a fuze.”

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I’ll end with one that’s a bit rough, but very funny:

“Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.” (The “Tradition” De-motivator)

Also, check out the new t-shirt from despair.com. Nice. I posted on De-motivators here. Funny stuff.)

Covenant Life Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber? Why?!

Over the last few years, I have come to appreciate the spirit and focus of Sovereign Grace Ministries, and especially of Covenant Life Church in the DC area. I’ve appreciated several of the songs SG has produced and have enjoyed some helpful correspondence with CL’s music minister Bob Kauflin. Also, I’ve learned much from the books written by CL’s pastors CJ Mahaney and Josh Harris, and I’ve commended the books to others. In fact, I’m enjoying a great study of Living the Cross Centered Life with two young men in the church I pastor right now. So before you read further, understand that I appreciate much of what Sovereign Grace and Covenant Life are doing. Now, do I differ with them on matters like cessationism, the styles of music appropriate for worship, and issues of separation? Yes. But even where we disagree, I admire their serious-mindedness, gospel focus, love of sound doctrine, and humility. I’ve learned from these men and am sure that I should learn more. Which is why the following is so baffling to me…

In a blog post from Friday evening, Josh Harris invited those from the DC area to attend a production of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat being put on by the youth ministry of Covenant Life Church. Of course, I’m not responsible for what another local church decides to do, nor are they at all obligated to answer to me. However, because the program was advertised publicly and because that’s such an influential ministry, I thought I’d pursue the topic a bit, hopefully with a gracious spirit.

Knowing what I do about that ministry and that musical, it seems like the two are incompatible, or should be. I wasn’t surprised that Joseph was acceptable fare in my public high school many years ago, but I can’t imagine why a church that obviously loves the Scriptures and the Savior would put on a production (a) by Andrew Lloyd Webber (b) that was originally presented as a sequel of sorts to Webber’s blasphemous Jesus Christ Superstar and (c) that makes a punchline of a biblical narrative. It seems that this would be at odds with the larger goals of their ministry.

I wonder, when there is so little reverence toward biblical truth today anyway—especially among teens—what can a gospel-loving church hope to gain from having its young people laugh along as a portion of Scripture is lampooned via Joseph’s honky-tonk brothers and an Elvis-wannabe Pharaoh? What is the upside that would make performing such a program worthwhile, especially for a local church? What are the benefits that I’m missing, and do they really outweigh the liabilities? What purpose of the New Testament church does such a program—even if it weren’t making light of Scripture—fulfill? The questions are worth considering, I think.

I wouldn’t be so surprised by this if I didn’t have such regard for the leaders of Covenant Life Church. But because I do (not did!), it just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t have any doubt that what their teens do will be much more tasteful (or at least modest) than the clips available online (here, here, or here, for example), but I’m still left wondering…

Why?!

(Note: Those who are looking for an excuse to criticize these men or ministries can do so elsewhere, but not here. Ungracious or off-topic comments will be deleted.)