Internet Monk Radio Podcast #147

podcast_logo.gifThis week: The Gospel in a celebrity worshiping culture. Thoughts on evangelicals and homosexuality.

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LCMS Plan for Ministry To Homosexuals and Their Families. (Get the pdf in the first link)
Andrew Marin, Love Is An Orientation

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God Isn’t Gamey: My New Hot Button

redbutI’ve got a new hot button. I experienced it this week and I think it’s best to warn the general public that until I make some progress in sanctification, pushing this button could result in an ugly scene.

(Before I say this, I know there are a bunch of books on this subject and I’ve read some of them. I could just recommend a good book, but I need to get this off my chest.)

My new hot button is “You need to pray until you find God’s will.”

First of all, I believe in God, and I believe he has a will. I believe God sovereignly runs the universe pretty much like the Westminister/Second London Confessions say, though I have absolutely no idea what that means other than God is in control in a way I can’t understand and am not capable of understanding. (My brain is too small.) It’s an assertion, and as much as I know God only in Jesus, it’s a comfort.Continue reading “God Isn’t Gamey: My New Hot Button”

First, Second and Third Thoughts on the CStone 09 “Gay Rights and Wrongs” Panel

090On Friday, July 3, I moderated a panel at Cornerstone 09 on the topic of “Gay Rights and Wrongs.” Here is the blurb from the CStone web site:

Gays, Rights & Wrongs (Moderator: Michael Spencer, w/Andrew Marin, Richard Amesbury, Tony Jones, Christine Sneeringer & Frank Carrasco ) “Is homosexualty still a sin – or a sin somehow worse than all the rest? Can gays really change? Should the church change the way it engages with gay culture? What are Christians to think about gay marriage? This formidable panel will address these formidable issues.”

Audio for this panel should be available at some point in the future.

1. As I’ve said earlier, it was an honor to moderate this panel. All of these folks have far more to say to this issue than a blogger like myself. My own ministry journey has rarely put me in contact with adult gays and lesbians. Most of my experience with this subject comes in the context of student ministry. As moderator, my original goal was to keep the focus on ministry to the gay community. I did not want to moderate a debate on subjects that evangelicals debate endlessly and for which there are hundreds of resources available. I wish I’d been more successful with that goal.Continue reading “First, Second and Third Thoughts on the CStone 09 “Gay Rights and Wrongs” Panel”

CStone 09: A Few Thoughts Now and A Lot More Later

idit1UPDATE: A few photos are at my Facebook page. I still can’t upload photos here for some reason.

Denise and I just returned home from Cornerstone 09. We have a lot to do, but I will get right back to blogging and podcasting later tonight and tomorrow.

My apologies to the Pirate Christian radio audience. You’ll get a re-run of a previous Internet Monk Radio tomorrow (Monday). No time to podcast this past week at all.

Also, my apologies to a few people whose comments wound up in the “moderation” queue, and I did not check this page while I was gone. All your comments are fine, but it took me a few days to get to them. No offense please.

My apologies as well to a bunch of people who send me questions to be answered. I can get to so few of them anyway, and I may not get to them at all. This isn’t disrespectful to you, I assure you, but is a realistic reflection of my life, which includes job and family demands that have to come before writing lengthy responses to reader requests. In this case, travel just made it impossible. Again, please don’t take offense.Continue reading “CStone 09: A Few Thoughts Now and A Lot More Later”

“What are your thoughts on a Biblical model for youth ministry?”

rrrdMoving on, folks. Moving on.

Reader Chris has written me a couple of notes on my overall views of youth ministry. I owe him an answer, but I’d like to open up a couple of posts on the general idea of where we are going in youth ministry. I’ve been involved primarily with teenagers for 30 of my 34 years of church ministry. For more than a decade, I did lots of church consultation and I had successful youth ministries in two large churches. I made it to a lot of large youth events down through the years and heard most of the best speakers on the youth ministry circuit.

There was a time I was really sure how to “do” youth ministry. Today….a lot of my thinking has changed. Here’s a few thoughts. More coming.Continue reading ““What are your thoughts on a Biblical model for youth ministry?””

Danny Akin’s Comments on Mark Driscoll

Southeastern Theological Seminary President Danny Akin on Mark Driscoll:

I appreciate Mark Driscoll and Acts 29. Southeastern has no formal relationship with either, but I am thankful for many aspects of both ministries. I think there is much that our students can learn from them. Mark and I have become good friends, but I do not agree with everything Mark says or does. In particular, I disagree with some of the language he has used in the pulpit in the past (though not in several years!) and I am uncomfortable with his position on beverage alcohol. I do appreciate his courage to tackle the difficult book The Song of Solomon and to address sexual issues with the adults in his congregation who have serious and important questions needing answers. Continue reading “Danny Akin’s Comments on Mark Driscoll”

The Driscoll Debate: iMonk vs Turk, Part 2

skelUPDATE: Justin D. Barnard at Mere Comments has a much more useful and on point critique of Driscoll here.

First of all, let me thank Frank for the opportunity to have a good discussion about the issue of pastoral accountability in the internet age (a very important topic) and for having such a constructive and positive dialog. Though I expect to be denounced to the lower reaches of the pit by a couple of commenters at his place, Frank’s been a first class conversation partner, and has said nice things about another post of mine to boot.

I have very little to say in response to Frank’s SECOND POST, available now at his blog, but I will say a bit.

Frank’s conception of a “global pulpit” or “addressing the global church” is a slippery, ultimately subjective concept that primarily seems to be meaningful in the minds of a small group of theo-bloggers. I think that a room full of non-internet using Christians, even conservative ones, would need considerable help working with Frank’s idea that the orthodoxy of the “global church” is presided over by an unelected jury of successful pastors such as John Macarthur and C.J. Mahaney.Continue reading “The Driscoll Debate: iMonk vs Turk, Part 2”

A List of Factors Affecting Current Events in the SBC

huntLast night I had the opportunity to talk to a group of about 20 longtime SBCers on recent events in the SBC. These are folks who work with me at a ministry that is partially (6%) funded by Cooperative Program funds, so there is some interest. Many, not all, are older and had a lot of sympathies with the moderates in the conservative resurgence.

I made a list of factors that I saw as significant in bringing the SBC to its current situation. I am just going to list them without extensive commentary. If you aren’t Southern Baptist, feel free to ask a question, and I’ll try to give you a brief answer. If you are Southern Baptist, I’d like to hear your responses.Continue reading “A List of Factors Affecting Current Events in the SBC”