An Obituary

DGM republishes William Piper's Greenville News obituary, written by his son, John Piper.

Sun Valley

Lord willing, I'll be touching down in L.A. in a bit under a day en route to the Shepherds' Conference at Grace Community Church. In the event that anyone who helped make this possible is reading, I'm tremendously grateful.

I plan to spend most of my time and energy learning, spending time with old friends, and maybe making a few new ones (not blogging—I'll leave that to the professional). But maybe something will get me all fired up and I'll lose all sense of personal discipline.

In case any readers will be in the Valley, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at the address in the sidebar.

Outsourcing Evangelism

In The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever discusses how biblical evangelism must include the corporate witness of a congregation of believers, not merely individuals witnessing personally. That doesn't diminish the need for personal evangelism, whether in written or spoken form. Rather it reminds us how the church is a visible display and confirmation of the truth of the gospel.

Dever argues based on John 13:34-35 that

our Christlike love for one another is intended by God to be the church's most powerful tool for evangelism. This is the reason that depending on a program for evangelistic effectiveness is a little like outsourcing the main responsibility of the church. Evangelism programs are not necessarily or categorically bad. Some are quite good. But I fear we sometimes depend on them so much that we forget that the church itself is God's evangelism program. The mutually loving relationships in the church are designed by God to be attractive to an unbelieving culture. The covenantal, careful, corporate, cross-cultural, and cross-generational love that is to characterize the church and glorify God is at the same time intended to evangelize the world (112).

A Tool for Easter Outreach

Desiring God Ministries does a great job making simple, straightforward, inexpensive resources available that help churches and individuals communicate the biblical gospel to non-Christians. In the past, we've used For Your Joy and Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Right now, DGM has a great offer available on The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die. If you agree to give the books away for free, they only cost a little over a dollar apiece.

Preaching the Gospel in a Muslim Stronghold

Thabiti Anyabwile talks about his recent experience speaking to a Muslim audience in a Muslim region.

Preaching That Fails to Revere the Word of God

If you're a pastor or an aspiring pastor, and you've never read Charles Bridges' The Christian Ministry, you've missed a real treat and some wise advice. If you've suffered under preaching that conforms the text to the preacher's message, Bridges' comments below may be surprising. Though I'm glad to say I've never had a pastor who practiced this abuse of the text (my experience comes from other sources), I sense that many from my generation think this is a contemporary problem. The fact that Bridges was published in 1830 suggests that it is not.

The meaning and object of a text is a definite passage from the word of God, as the ground-work of some statement of truth, drawn from the word. This is natural and obvious. But we question the propriety of selecting texts merely as mottos for pulpit dissertations. Instead of the sermon being made from the text, the text is made from the sermon. It is read as a customary introduction. It furnishes the occasion of the discursive inquiry, but its component parts, or its connexion with the context, are left untouched. This method—besides that it loses the office of the expositor—seems scarcely to acknowledge due reverence to the word of God. And though it may sometimes afford opportunities for useful discussion, yet it tends to 'divert the mind from the inspection, meditation, and weighing of sacred scripture, which is the true food of the soul, and the treasury of Divine wisdom: and to which alone the converting grace of the Holy Spirit is annexed.' (197-198)

I can't help but give thanks for how this approach is being repudiated, with a sound text-driven approach advocated in its place, in so many college and seminary classrooms today.

Mohler on CNN Tonight (2/26)

Al Mohler is scheduled to appear on Larry King Live tonight to discuss the discovery of what has been purported to be the place where Jesus was buried along with Mary and assorted family members. James Cameron, producer of a documentary about this discovery, is scheduled to appear with Mohler along with some other folks.

LKL airs at 9 p.m. Eastern, and if I recall correctly it re-airs at midnight. Somebody please do me a favor and upload it to YouTube.

"Amazing Glaze"

In recent days leading up to the release of Amazing Grace the movie, I've been able to see the evangelical marketing machine in high gear from a vantage point that's a little more up-close-and-personal than usual. Prominent evangelical leaders seem to be saying that this is a great movie and that we have a moral obligation to go see it this weekend to show Hollywood that clean, Christian-themed films can be profitable and to encourage a wider release in coming weeks.

I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone who would prefer to see more movies produced like Amazing Grace and fewer like just about anything else currently in the theaters. But I'll toss a little thought out there. When a secular publication like the Wall Street Journal is arguing that Hollywood has emasculated the evangelical core of the story, should evangelicals be cheering? Should we be less discriminating than secular newspapers? Are we so addicted to feeding at the table of American culture that we'll treat scraps like a feast?

BJU and Liberty: Reconciled?

I'll venture to say that very few news pieces in the student newspapers of educational institutions about updates on their accreditation status carry anything resembling broad theological significance. I believe this recent release from Liberty University is an exception.

The vast majority of the story is pretty garden-variety, containing significant but not surprising information that would be of interest only to the immediate Liberty family. But this little paragraph near the end caught my eye:

Liberty is also accredited through another agency. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) has been accrediting schools since 1991, and some historically unaccredited schools, such as Bob Jones University, have recently been accredited through it.

The question that immediately entered my mind was, "Why in the world would folks at Liberty want to refer to BJU in a story about its own accreditation?" Obviously, I don't have the answer, but it seems clear that the students at Liberty want to highlight their school's new relationship to BJU that's been generated through BJU's recent TRACS accreditation.

So what? Well, I know a few BJU alumni who don't even like to talk about their relationship with BJU too much, but to my knowledge those alumni were never called "the most dangerous man in America," as Bob Jones Jr. is widely reported to have spoken about Jerry Falwell, Liberty's President back in 1980. The upshot is that it seems clear to me not only that BJU has something to gain from its new relationship with TRACS, but also that Liberty believes it has something to gain from its new relationship with BJU. I think it's fair to say that in many fields, BJU is the gold standard for academic achievement and polished professionalism among Christian colleges and universities. Apparently, there are motivations for Liberty to exploit this association for its own benefit, and as best I can tell, students or alumni or administration have every right to do so. I think this is evidence for the point that I made almost two years ago:

What is not surprising is that TRACS has seen fit to extend candidate status to BJU. There can be no doubt that the academic reputation of BJU will actually increase TRACS' own credibility rather than vice versa, which would seem to be a more conventional objective of academic accreditation. At least two knowledgeable sources said that TRACS lobbied BJU to pursue membership in the 1980s, but BJU was not interested. What is so surprising is the fact that BJU pursuing accreditation at all. This development presents the opportunity to consider accreditation as a case study in the changing face of ecclesiastical separation.

Advice for Women: Before You Marry a Guy . . .

. . . make a point of being around when he's helping someone in your church move. As in carrying boxes and furniture onto trucks and into a house. You won't learn everything, but you'll learn some pretty important things. Is he showing initiative to find out what's next or hanging around waiting for instructions? Does he find creative ways to use cargo dollies to move stuff more quickly and efficiently? Is he a quiet hard-working loner, a benevolent team-oriented organizer, or a loudmouth boss? Or is he really more like a stationary piece of furniture himself?

Here's the most important one: Does he always seem to be conveniently available but not quite on the business end of the couch when it's going up the stairs?

And buy the way, try to act like you're not paying attention. Stay busy helping pack or clean the kitchen and sneak a peek every now and then. Otherwise he'll be picking his moments to try to impress you.

[This concludes today's public service announcement.]