The “Map” Discussion

map-london.JPGIn the aftermath of reading Alastair’s “The Denominational Church,” A discussion took over my group blog, “The Boar’s Head Tavern,” for most of two days. That discussion, prompted by Jack’s use of the metaphor of a “map” for the various confessions and theologies that distinguish various denominations and traditions, was one of the best all-time BHT go-rounds I’ve ever been part of. Thanks to BHT fellow John H who turned the discussion into a “top down” document that you can now read here at IM.

You won’t understand it all, and some of you will likely be offended. I don’t know why, but it’s a certainty where the BHT is concerned. It’s hard to drop down in the middle of anything at the BHT and totally get it, but I think there are some really helpful, even exciting aspects to this discussion, and I want to share it with you. The poster’s name occurs AFTER their post.Continue reading “The “Map” Discussion”

Riffs: 06:16:07: Alastair Roberts on “The Denominational Church”

logo.gifLet me begin by thanking God for Alastair Roberts, his clarity in writing and his heart for the Church and Gospel of Jesus.

Alastair has a post at Adversaria called “The Denominational Church” that is, in a phrase, magnificently helpful for me where I am right now.

The post is prompted by the passage of a report at the recent Presbyterian Church in America General Assembly critical of the so-called “Federal Vision” and “New Perspective on Paul.” (This post is not, btw, about the FV/NPP controversy, and I won’t publish comments that go in that direction.)

Alastair quotes one voice in agreement with the PCA’s condemnation of the Federal Vision/New Perspective on Paul:

Maybe I am weak in my nerves, but when the corporate body of Christ speaks with such unison, I am humbled. Yes, assemblies and counsels may err, but this is the Visible Church speaking here! Aren’t we to have a high regard for the Visible Church?

To which, Alastair responds:Continue reading “Riffs: 06:16:07: Alastair Roberts on “The Denominational Church””

The Baptist Way: A Hopeful Look Forward to Reformation/Renewal in the Southern Baptist Convention

logob.gifSBC Outpost has long been the leader of SBC blogs. I read with sadness today that SBC Outpost is leaving the blogosphere. This post is in honor of Marty and what he modeled and accomplished with that blog. God bless him and his family, and God speed a reformation and true renewal in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Reading over some of the sermons at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting this week, I was struck by something.Continue reading “The Baptist Way: A Hopeful Look Forward to Reformation/Renewal in the Southern Baptist Convention”

Worshiping the Missional God

abraham.gifI’ve been thinking about how much we can know about God. In particularly, how does a deeply missional God work the knowledge of himself into a life like mine?

The “pomo warning light” is now on at TR Blogwatch Central, but I’m not going down that road. I’m looking at Abraham, and I’m wondering what he knew about God and how that knowledge worked in his life.

Abraham is the person the Bible looks at most to demonstrate the life of faith. He was a person who began from point “A” with a missional God. In a lifelong journey, God revealed himself, one step at a time, as Abraham learns who it is who has called him and who it is that he trusts along the way.

God called Abraham, it says in Genesis 12, and told him what he would do for him if he left his family, city and security to bet everything on a God whose name he didn’t even know.

He told him nothing else. There had to be dozens- hundreds- of questions, all unanswered.Continue reading “Worshiping the Missional God”

“Come to Me”: God’s Invitation

dv0103come-to-me-posters.jpgMatthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Certainly, one of the most compelling aspects of the Bible is the personal invitation to come to God through his son, Jesus Christ. The invitation from Jesus himself to every person is one of the Bible’s most powerfully comforting messages.Continue reading ““Come to Me”: God’s Invitation”

A Moment of Refreshment and Exaltation: Jesus is Our Mediator

jesus_cross.jpgI Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

It is the simplest of verses, but its truth creates worship, rejoicing and exaltation in me every time I think about it.

There is one, one and only one, that stands between God and human beings. That one is our Great High Priest. Perfect God, with all the requirements of righteousness and holiness within himself.

At the same time, he is one of us. Fully and completely human. A man with a nature like our own, yet without sin. He will be, on the cross, in the place of the sins and sinners of world, bearing freely undeserved judgement in love for us.Continue reading “A Moment of Refreshment and Exaltation: Jesus is Our Mediator”

iMonk 101: Out of Business With God

snake-oil.jpgEarly on in my blogging career, I encountered some of the ideas of N.T. Wright and a strong dose of the theology of Robert Capon. It’s safe to say that both “saved me” in a way that I need to revisit frequently. Here’s an early essay where I was just getting a feel for what these brothers were saying and the implications of their theology for my own experience of the Gospel. It was, to say the least, a revolution in the way I looked at the Gospel and God. From 2002.

“What this says to you and me who have to live with the business of trying to confess our sins is that confession is not a pre-condition of forgiveness. It’s something that you do after you know you have been forgiven. Confession is not something you do in order to get forgiveness. It’s something you do in order to celebrate the forgiveness you got for nothing. Nobody [nobody] can earn forgiveness.” -Robert Capon, “The Father Who Lost Two Sons”

Exactly what do I mean?

I am setting out to do something that is unlikely to be extremely popular. I am writing a theologically tentative essay about a word most of my readers have never heard and an issue I’ve only heard one other person discuss. Why this word would inspire serious theologizing on my part, and require an essay to explain, will only be evident to those who expend the effort to read and think along with me. (And as I said, this is a very tentative project.) While it isn’t my goal to persuade, I believe that some segment of my readership will find this essay a further step along a road they’ve been traveling for some time.

The word is “transactionalism.” I no longer believe in it, which won’t bother anyone who has no idea what I’m talking about. Fair enough. The dictionary defines a “transaction” as “a communicative action or activity involving two parties or things that reciprocally affect or influence each other.” Transactionalism would be a belief system that involves a transaction- actions on our part and results- between God and a human being. All based on reciprocal actions.Continue reading “iMonk 101: Out of Business With God”

The Baptist Way/iMonk 101: Walls That Won’t Fall: Basics for the Local Church

watford_church.jpgIn January of 2006, I wrote an essay covering what I believe about the local church: “Walls That Won’t Fall: Basics for the Local Church.” I’m very happy with this piece, because it covers a lot of things that I believe the Bible plainly teaches and that work for the health of Christians and their churches.

I’m particularly interested in stressing the four “C’s” in the second half of the essay: Creed, Confession, Covenant and Constitution. (The church where I am a member has none of these and no plans to acquire them, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.)

For those of you who apparently missed that I’m a Baptist, post-evangelical or not, you might want to check in with what you missed. Here’s a mini-course about the local church as the basic expression of the Christian movement.

READ: “Walls That Won’t Fall: Basics For the Local Church.”