Riffs: 09:03:07: Is Roger Olson Committing Blasphemy?

logo.gif[UPDATE: Justin Taylor calls me out for saying this is at least partially about the “forbidden zone” of critiquing Piper’s theology. But not to worry; Steve Hays is here to show us how to blog.

Read Rick Phillip’s reaction to Roger Olson’s criticism of John Piper. HT to John H for the head’s up.]

I once attended an Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals conference and heard Rick Phillips speak. A good organization at the time, with a remarkably good attitude about how to talk about theology. Phillips seemed like a competent fellow, but that was before he could announce to his team that disagreeing with some Calvinists on how to describe God’s involvement with tragedy is a matter of possibly blaspheming the Holy Spirit.Continue reading “Riffs: 09:03:07: Is Roger Olson Committing Blasphemy?”

Post-Evangelicals and the Path of Catholic Spirituality

fossil-blue.jpgIn Ian Morgan Cron’s book Chasing Francis, (reviewed below) burned-out pastor Chase Falson calls his Uncle Kenny- A Franciscan priest- to begin his path of rediscovering his faith. His pilgrimage takes him through the world of Saint Francis and into a discovery of the faith-tradition of Catholicism. Falson returns to his evangelicalism with a rich appreciation for what that tradition offers to all Christians.

Falson is a product of the evangelical movement. The evangelism explosion of the s. Inter-Varsity. Baptist Seminaries. Church growth models. Purpose driven spirituality. Apologetics and theology with a rational answer for everything.Continue reading “Post-Evangelicals and the Path of Catholic Spirituality”

Recommendation and Review: Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron

51q1e9h1pyl_sl210_.jpgThere’s a place in Ian Morgan Cron’s Chasing Francis where his spiritually-brokedown-now-on-pilgrimage pastor protagonist returns, looks his congregation in the eye and says “When I left here, I wasn’t sure what a Christian looked like anymore. My idea of how to follow Jesus had run out of gas.” The characters may be (barely) fictional, but with those kinds of sentiments at the bottom of this book, it should receive a wide audience.

Cron is pastor of Trinity Church in Greenwich, Connecticut, an evangelical/Anglican/emerging church that is intentionally designed around the emphases of ministry that come from the life of Saint Francis. Chasing Francis isn’t exactly Cron’s story, but it’s close. It is a kind of narrative fiction that allows the author to tell his story in the form of another story. Chase Falson’s loss and recovery of faith entails a breakdown in the pulpit, a pilgrimage to Italy with a posse of Franciscans, mysticism, food and an unlikely love story. It’s well written, with lots of catchy humor. I read the book in three hours and made plenty of notes along the way.Continue reading “Recommendation and Review: Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron”

Dear CBD: Why the endorsement of Joel Osteen?

joel_blink.gifUPDATE III: While we wait for CBD to apologize, we can all play Oprah or Osteen.

UPDATE II: Can anyone in a Lifeway Store or working for Lifeway confirm that Lifeway is selling this book? Please tell me it isn’t true. If TIME Magazine can tell us this fraud is a prosperity preaching wolf in sheep’s clothing, what does CBD know that TIME doesn’t? UPDATE: Ed Stetzer is in the comments with a response. Short version: They will order it, but they want to recommend customers avoid it. That’s about a C+, but I’m glad it’s not what I was afraid I’d hear. Thanks Dr. Stetzer.

UPDATE: My infamous Joel Osteen post. With lots and lots of links. Read the Harry Smith Interview. Also, read Ben Witherington on Osteen. Here’s Osteen from the Harry Smith interview:

Smith compared Osteen’s preaching to Norman Vincent Peale’s, and Osteen agreed.

“It’s amazing,” Osteen said. “I was preaching two or three years when someone gave me one of his books. I was going to say, ‘He thinks like me.’ I think like him. It seems like it’s the same base there. God is on our side and if you think right, I believe, like Norman Vincent Peale did, that your life follows your thoughts. You get up negative, oppressive, you’re (sic) day will go that way.”

Did someone once say “I find Peale appalling and Paul appealing?” Not Osteen.

Dear CBD,Continue reading “Dear CBD: Why the endorsement of Joel Osteen?”

IMonk 101: A Generous Catholicity

symbols.jpgHere’s an essay from the archives that discusses that part of post-evangelicalism some find the most obnoxious: the confession that I believe in the catholic church and a catholic Christianity. It’s called “A Generous Catholicity.”

With discussions of ecclesiology beginning to heat up in Southern Baptist life and among the many new church leaders looking at the future of denominational alignment, catholicity is a vital issue. The earliest Christian creeds set the table, but many contemporary conservatives refuse to come and eat a fellowship meal.

Read: A Generous Catholicity

No Riffs/Just Read: Jared Wilson on the “Cool/Uncool” Christian Videos

jaredw.jpgIt’s not often that I don’t have anything to say, but I would insult you to try and add to anything my brother Jared Wilson says in this post lamenting the “cool Christian/uncool Christian” video ads used by some churches.

This is raw, honest, real stuff. It’s the lament for and about the gospel we need to hear in pulpits and pews.

Read: Jared Wilson on “A Gospel Rant.”

Recommendations and Reviews: Brand Jesus by Tyler Wigg Stevenson

brandjesuscover11.JPGHow do you know I like this book? I spent three hours writing the review, hit publish and WordPress promptly ate it.

I’m rewriting it.

Tyler Wigg Stevenson is a writer, preacher and political activist with credentials as wide-ranging as a Yale Divinity M.Div., a year as an assistant to John Stott and being part of the beginnings of a Strategic Security think-tank with the late Senator Alan Cranston.

He’s also part of the new voices within evangelicalism that defy easy categorization as “left” or “right,” but who are offering evangelicals a new, more honest, view of themselves as Christians living in “the empire” that is the modernized west. The discussion of Christians and empire involves mostly scholars from the center/left of the evangelical spectrum- Wright, Crossan, Walsh and Keesmaat- but the applications of that study are desperately needed among Christians and churches that are unlikely to ever hear it from their pastors.Continue reading “Recommendations and Reviews: Brand Jesus by Tyler Wigg Stevenson”

Mother Teresa and the Mystery of God’s Absence

070129_rain.jpgUPDATE: I am not going to publish comments claiming that Roman Catholics are not Christians.

Critics- atheistic, fundamentalist, truly reformed and those too correct to be labeled- will probably go completely bonkers with pleasure at the revelation that Mother Teresa struggled with the dark night of the soul much of her life and ministry. In letters kept after her death, her doubts and struggles confided to spiritual directors and confessors tell a story of lifelong struggle with a sense of God’s presence and the certainties of faith. Time Magazine’s detailed quotes from an upcoming book and sympathetic story and analysis will only feed those who already consider Mother Teresa to be a phony, over-rated, medieval throwback and Roman Catholic myth.

Of course, many of us will recognize in Mother Teresa’s words the familiar story of our own faith and the faith of others we revere and seek to emulate. While none of us are cut from identical cloth or have identical experiences of God’s presence or absence, there is a familiar aire to what Mother Teresa writes. Many of us have been there; some of us for years; some for a season; some of us for longer than we can recall. If you are familiar with the stories of the spiritual journeys of other honest human beings, you will recognize in Mother Teresa a fellow pilgrim down what is often a dark road.Continue reading “Mother Teresa and the Mystery of God’s Absence”