Francis Schaeffer’s birthday
January 30, 2009
I first was introduced to Francis Schaeffer’s works when Contemporary Christian Music magazine honored Schaeffer on the cover when he died in 1984. I was in high school and recently converted. It was not until college that I read Schaeffer at the urging of my campus minister Hal Farnsworth (he also was the first to urge me to read John Owen!). I think A Christian Manifesto was my first read. By the end of my junior year I had purchased the 5-volume The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer and was well on my way to reading it all. I can’t resist noting that Crossway omitted Schaeffer’s short work explaining and defending infant baptism from the ‘complete’ set–but hey, they’re selling books, and I guess we can’t have credo-baptists stubbing their toes over Schaeffer’s covenantal theology.
I am deeply indebted to Schaeffer’s work for the framework and earliest assembly of a Christian world-and-life-view in my own life. I still think True Spirituality and No Little People are some of the finest Christian writings of the 20th century. His work exhibits a breadth of knowledge and wisdom, uncompromising commitment to biblical truth, and a practical, loving concern for people. Schaeffer was an early model in the Truth-Authority-Integrity-Love philosophy of ministry.
Today is the anniversary of Francis Schaeffer’s birth in 1912. Fred Sanders pays homage and gives an assessment not unlike my own at Scriptorium.
Book review: Death by Love
December 2, 2008
But far be it from me
to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14). Jesus’ death on the cross is the place where the justice, love, mercy and wisdom of God are most clearly displayed. The depth of our sin and the heights of God’s love cannot be grasped apart from the cross. Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, and Gerry Breshears, professor of theology at Western Seminary, have co-authored a book that seeks to apply the work of Christ to the real-life mess of people’s lives in their new book Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (Crossway, 2008).
Death by Love has an intriguing format. Each chapter begins with a brief profile of a real person whom Driscoll has counselled. Then follows a pastoral letter to that person in which Driscoll and Breshears apply biblical teaching about the person and work of Christ to the issues of sin and grace in that his/her life. The chapter concludes with an “Answers to Common Questions” about the theology presented in the letter. A look through the table of contents reveals a list of painful sins and problems:
Introduction: We Killed God: Jesus Is Our Substitutionary Atonement
“Demons Are Tormenting Me”: Jesus Is Katie’s Christus Victor
“Lust Is My God”: Jesus Is Thomas’s Redemption
“My Wife Slept with My Friend”: Jesus Is Luke’s New Covenant Sacrifice
“I Am a ‘Good’ Christian”: Jesus Is David’s Gift Righteousness
“I Molested a Child”: Jesus Is John’s Justification
“My Dad Used to Beat Me”: Jesus Is Bill’s Propitiation
“He Raped Me”: Jesus Is Mary’s Expiation
“My Daddy Is a Pastor”: Jesus Is Gideon’s Unlimited Limited Atonement
“I Am Going to Hell”: Jesus Is Hank’s Ransom
“My Wife Has a Brain Tumor”: Jesus Is Caleb’s Christus Exemplar
“I Hate My Brother”: Jesus Is Kurt’s Reconciliation
“I Want to Know God”: Jesus Is Susan’s Revelation
Appendix: Recommended Reading on the Cross
Driscoll speaks to each situation with candor and compassion. He is not afraid to say hard things. Best of all, he skillfully applies the person and work of Christ to each person’s needs: overcoming bitterness, rejecting self-righteousness, dealing with heinous sins of others, putting away malice and bitterness, turning away from sexual sin and addictions. The one theological objection I have is in “My Daddy is a Pastor,” a chapter written to his youngest son Gideon. He encourages his son not to take faith for granted (which is good) but does so in the context of a doctrine he calls “unlimited limited atonement.” Driscoll confuses the question of the power of the atonement with question of its design. He wants to safeguard the Reformed doctrine of “limited atonement” from the charge that it leaves no room for a sincere offer of the gospel to everyone without distinction or for a reconciliation of the world by the cross, but his explanation seems more confusing than enlightening.
Even with that bit of theological quibbling, I would recommend Death by Love without hesitation. It has given me fresh courage to speak of Christ and his finished work with greater boldness into the mess of people’s lives. It has refreshed my personal communion with God by enlarging the shadow of the cross in my own life. Take, and read, my friends.
Ordination: lashed to the mast
November 14, 2007
I was ordained to the gospel ministry on November 13, 1994, by Southeast Alabama Presbytery. That was thirteen years ago yesterday. I remember it very well. I won’t bore you with the details. But, in God’s good providence, I found this on the web today: a recording of Rev. Greg Thompson of Trinity PCA in Charlottesville, Virginia, performing a beautiful song he wrote for an ordination service. You can listen here. I transcribed the words as best I could from the recording (with Joe’s help). If I have misheard something, I apologize and welcome correction.
Ordination Song
by Greg Thompson
Father, O you are the beautiful shepherd.
Who am I, Lord, that you summon me now
To serve at your table, to bless in your name, to shepherd your people somehow?
The way that you lead is a way that leads downward.
O, if I follow, the low place is mine.
Honor forsaking, my glory my shame, my footsteps imaging thine.
In darkness thou my portion art, my laughter in the light,
My comfort on the downward path, my goal and my delight.
From self-reliance, O King, would you guard me?
Almighty hands are more able to bear.
The Fall’s ridden sorrow and Eden’s lost dream, teach me to lay down there.
You are my Father and I thy beloved—this, my identity, etch in my soul:
Driven by mercy, singing of love, welcome thy welcoming goal.
So now do send me to comfort your people.
My God, I beg you, to go with me there.
The strength of my weakness, my poverty’s wealth, this, for thy glory, my prayer:
Further thy kingdom.
Restore our true home,
And may I be found with thee there.
4 big ideas: #4-love
February 5, 2007
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. Here’s the last of the four big ideas, which are truth, authority, integrity and love.
LOVE: Faith expressed in genuine, demonstrable love. In Galatians 5:6 Paul writes, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Also in 6:1-10 he writes about the ways that faith works through love in the mutual sharing of burdens, in honoring those who teach us, in living holy lives, in persevering in the work God has called us to do, and in continuing to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The freedom Christ has gained for us is the freedom to serve one another in love (5:13-15).
But this is something we don’t do so well. Doing theology right or having well-organized programs and ministries is a lot easier to pull off. When we join the church we expect to be part of a loving, happy group of people who live in harmony with each other–and guess what, it doesn’t automatically happen! Yet the New Testament, especially 1 John, is telling us again and again that we must love the brethren, that failure to do so is an indicator of phony religion. Read Eugene Peterson’s marvelous insights on this:
Men and women are not admitted to the community by presenting credentials of love skills, nor do we maintain our place in the community by passing periodic peer reviews on love. We are here to be formed over our lifetimes into a community of the beloved, God’s beloved who are being formed into a people who love God and one another in the way and on the terms in which God loves us. It’s slow work. We are slow learners. And though God is unendingly patient with us, we are not very patient with one another. Outsiders, observing our embarrassingly slow and erratic progress in love, wonder why we bother. Well, we bother because God is love: he created us in love; he saved us in an act of love; he commanded us to love one another. Love is the ocean in which we swim. So what if many of us can only wade in the shallows, and others of us can barely dog paddle for short distances? We are learning and we see the possibility of one day taking long, relaxed, easy strokes into the deep.
Don’t become cynical about the possibility of genuine, demonstrable love in the church. I know of some sightings, sometimes as rare as panther sightings in the Mississippi woods–rarely seen, but magnificent nonetheless. I have shown it myself once or twice and have been shown it a few times more than that. Don’t settle simply for a common creed or a common cause. Love God and love the brethren.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
4 big ideas: #3-integrity
January 18, 2007
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. This is the third of the four big ideas, which are truth, authority, integrity and love.
INTEGRITY: Walk in step with the gospel. In Galatians 1-2 Paul asks, Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. He is reminding these folk of the integrity of his doctrine and life. The two were one. In ch.2 when he describes his confrontation with Peter, he writes I say that their conduct was not in step with the gospel. Peter acted differently toward the Gentile converts when the brothers from Jerusalem came to town. Paul calls this breakdown of integrity conduct…not in step with gospel. The welcome and acceptance Christ has shown us was not reflected in Peter’s behavior. Peter did not announce a change in his views. I’m sure he could, at that moment, have preached a dead-solid-perfect gospel sermon, but his behavior was not in step with the gospel.
In the final chapter of Galatians, he writes that the distinction between circumcision/non-circumcision is irrelevant. What is relevant, what counts for everything is a new creation (6:15; cf. 4:26-29; 2:20). Therefore everything else that identifies us or gives us significance or status with each other doesn’t count for much at all. I might as well boast of the shape of my eyebrows. What matters is a new creation–the mindset of utter reliance upon Christ demonstrated by a faith working through love–a path of Christ-exaltation over self-exaltation. I think about Paul’s words in Philippians 2, Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit and am convicted by how much of my activity, even as a minister, springs from rivalry (‘Let me prove to you that I am better than ______…’) or conceit (‘Hey, watch me do this and be impressed!’). Instead, I must walk in step with the gospel that exalts the Savior and humbles the sinner–all the time.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
4 big ideas: #2-authority
January 7, 2007
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. This is the second of the four big ideas, which are truth, authority, integrity and love.
AUTHORITY: Some people speak, and we ought to listen. As believers we recognize, exercise, and submit to godly authority in Christ’s name. Most of the first two chapters of Paul’s letter to that Galatian churches is a reassertion of Paul’s apostolic authority. The revelation of the gospel of God through the ministry of men makes us attentive and submissive to those who serve us in the ministry of the gospel (1:1, 1:11-2:14; 5:11; 6:17). God has instituted the government and discipline of the Church. Pastors, elders, presbyteries, councils, and church courts can erred and have erred, but this does not negate their legitimate authority.
I have taken a vow in which I promised submission to my brethren in the Lord. They have a right to exercise that authority in conformity with word of God. My brethren in the Lord have a right to examine my theological views, to ask me if I’m sleeping with anyone other than my wife or if I’m dealing well with my children. Convened as a Session, Presbytery or General Assembly, they have a right to make decisions that I oppose. I have promised to submit. My friend Tim Starnes in Cleveland, Mississippi, was the first one I ever heard say, “I don’t mind submitting, just as long as it was something I was already inclined to do anyway.” Thankfully, Tim was being facetious, but I understand all too well that impulse.
I have also taken a vow in which I promised to exercise godly authority in the Church. Paul urges Titus, ‘Exhort and rebuke with all authority,’ and he speaks twice to the Corinthians about the authority the Lord has given him ‘for building up and not for tearing down’ (2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10). My comfort or convenience cannot trump my duty to exercise my God-granted authority as a minister of the gospel.
We live in an age that chafes against authority, and thus our minds become so trivial and banal and petty and earthly that we find ourselves incapable of trembling under the Word of God. We do not shudder to think of the horror of rejecting Christ. We yawn at a word like anathema. The wrath of God is revealed to shake us out of our stupor and humble us, and God typically informs of us through human authorities.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
4 big ideas: #1-Truth
January 2, 2007
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. In this and the next three blog posts I’ll share some thoughts on each of them. The four big ideas are: truth, authority, integrity and love. (Editorial note: Yes, I realize that the form the acronym TAIL, but I am not fond of the use of acronyms, nor am I about to go around reminding people, ‘Hey, remember now, it’s all about TAIL.’)
TRUTH: This is simple: God always gets the last word. His agenda trumps all others. We must embrace tightly the truth of the gospel, especially at those points where the truth is most under assault. Paul does this in Galatians through his defense of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. I trust I don’t need to spend a lot of time writing about the importance of the truth of Scripture. We live in a time when the claims of materialism, naturalism, relativism, Islam and other religions ring loudly in the ears of many. Thus, the exclusivity of the gospel of Christ is an affront to many people. Ours is a time when we must contend for the truth once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
Moreover, on a personal level we all need to hear, speak and embrace the truth. The deceitfulness of sin, our tendency to let our emotions rage and rule over us, and our patterns of unbiblical thinking need to be confronted by biblical truth. And, as I noted in a recent post, that truth is not simply a theological system or philosophy, nor is it a set of principles and purposes. It is a person named Jesus. In Christ we hear the call to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness along with the comfort of free grace that paid for all our sins. Hear the truth, know the truth, speak the truth. Without the truth that God has revealed, I have nothing to offer, nothing to say.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
