Doug Wilson has 7 principles on “how to motivate young men of middle and high school age to enjoy singing well to the glory of God.” You may not agree with all of this, but I think there is some pretty good stuff here. Principle 1 talks about the priority of raising boys to be masculine. Principle 2 follows with this: “We learn by imitation, and imitation involves persons and personal characteristics. If the music master is not the kind of man that the boys would like to be when they are grown, then they are generally going to avoid the musical pursuits that this man is offering to train…
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Russell Moore on NPR
Russell Moore was on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” to discuss the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to the oil spill. Two weeks ago, the SBC passed a resolution calling on the government “to act determinatively and with undeterred resolve to end this crisis … to ensure full corporate accountability for damages, clean-up and restoration … and to ensure that government and private industry are not again caught without planning for such possibilities.” Moore played a key role in getting this resolution passed, and he argues on NPR that Christians have to break with conservative stereotypes to rethink the issue of creation-care. He explains: “There’s really nothing conservative — and certainly nothing evangelical…
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Manute Bol’s Radical Christianity
Jon Shields says that Manute Bol was a fool for Christ. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Shields argues that Bol’s Christianity was authentic and fruitful, even though sports writers don’t acknowledge it. He writes: ‘Bol’s life and death throws into sharp relief the trivialized manner in which sports journalists employ the concept of redemption. In the world of sports media players are redeemed when they overcome some prior “humiliation” by playing well. Redemption then is deeply connected to personal gain and celebrity. It leads to fatter contracts, shoe endorsements, and adoring women. ‘Yet as Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering…
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Christ & Katrina
Russell Moore’s reflections on the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is a must-read. He writes: “I always feared seeing my hometown turn into Armageddon, and five years ago, sure enough, that’s just what happened. As a small child, I would sit in the pews of my church and imagine, as our pastor flipped through one apocalyptic scenario after another in his prophecy charts, what our town—Biloxi, Mississippi, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico—would look like after the seals of the Book of Revelation had been opened, after all hell broke loose on the world as we knew it… “I outgrew the dispensationalism (while holding onto the gospel underneath…
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Mohler’s Homestretch
Albert Mohler announced today that his daily live radio program will come to an end in two weeks. At the end of his show earlier today, he explains why. He says ending the program is one of the most difficult decisions he’s ever had to make. Listen to him in his own words below. Start listening at 35:40. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/totl/2010/AMP_06_21_2010.mp3] I’ve loved “The Albert Mohler Program” and have enjoyed listening to it over the years. He talks about issues in the news in a way that no one else on radio does. When this program ends, it will be greatly missed. Be sure to tune-in these last two weeks or to…
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The New Face of Evangelicalism?
ABC News interviewed some young Christian leaders in a piece about “The New Face of American Evangelicalism.” The video is linked above (HT: Euangelion). The most important feature of the interview is not what was said, but what wasn’t said. When asked about the most important issues facing the church, none of the young Christians mentioned the gospel. All of them fastidiously avoided mention of abortion and gay “marriage.” In short, they argued that the “new face of evangelicalism” is a return to the social gospel. My only comment about this piece is that the sampling of young “evangelicals” is unhelpfully skewed. These five individuals obviously hail from the left…
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Acts29 Rap at SBC
A bit of comic relief followed the long and arduous session debating the GCR Task Force Report at the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of the messengers were leaving the hall when this happened, but I was there and heard the whole thing. An SBC messenger came to a microphone and offered a motion to affirm the Acts29 church planting network. But this wasn’t just any motion. This guy offered it in the form of a rap. After he finished making the motion, the chair called for a second, and the place erupted with seconds. I think everyone appreciated the light moment. The motion was subsequently ruled out of order. UPDATE:…
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The Scandal of Southern Baptist Divorce
Today, the messengers at the 2010 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will be debating a resolution on “the scandal of Southern Baptist divorce.” According to Baptist Press, it reads, in part, that “the acceleration in rates of divorce” in SBC churches “has not come through a shift in theological conviction” but rather “through cultural accommodation.” It further says the SBC has been prophetic in confronting assaults “in the outside culture” on God’s design for marriage “while rarely speaking with the same alarm and force to a scandal that has become all too commonplace in our own churches.” Here is the last half of the resolution:
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Initial Reflections on GCR Victory
I have been at the Southern Baptist Convention this week, and today was a big day. Outsiders watching it all unfold probably thought the process looked positively Byzantine, but it really wasn’t. Southern Baptists adopted the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report and thus took the first step in what I hope will be a long journey of renewal for our denomination. I won’t take the time here to narrate everything that happened during the deliberations on the GCR (for that read here and here), but I will make a few observations.
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BP Needs Reform
No, we’re not talking about British Petroleum. It’s the other BP—Baptist Press. In an editorial for the Florida Baptist Witness, state paper editors Jim Smith, Marty King and Gary Ledbetter argue that the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention is biased. They write, “Concern about Baptist Press has arisen among some Southern Baptists… over its perceived lopsided coverage of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force… “The evidence of BP’s bias against GCR is so obvious as to not require an exhaustive listing of the facts. This should suffice: over just a three-day period, BP ran four opinion pieces by Chapman totaling more than 18,000 words opposing various aspects…