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Don Draper Meets Abraham Kuyper

—Russell Moore—

Few would think of television’s Mad Men series as religious programming. The show, set in the 1960s era of cutthroat Madison Avenue advertising business, is almost a high-class soap opera, saturated with adultery, substance abuse, and backstabbing. The program’s worshipful aspects might have been recognized, though, by a turn-of-the-century Dutch politician and theologian.

In his new (and groundbreaking) intellectual biography of Abraham Kuyper, historian James Bratt examines Kuyper’s interaction with the challenges of modern secularism, especially in his later travels abroad, including to the United States. Kuyper recognized a loss of authentically Christian identity in the so-called “Christian” countries of Europe and North America.

As a theologian, a church leader, a newspaperman, and an elected official who had served in Parliament and as Prime Minister, Kuyper had a wide-angled lens on cultural forces. Kuyper saw two “lords” at work in the spirit of the age around him, contesting the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The first lord, Bratt explains, was Mammon, which he defines as “a thorough absorption in getting and spending within the horizon of the material world.” Kuyper saw this form of idolatry as worse than the golden calf of Israel’s wilderness folly. The calf, after all, was an unapproved image of God, but contemporary worship of Mammon entailed “the displacement of God altogether,” in the quest for more as a religion all its own.

The second lord was more intriguing to me: Art. Kuyper recognized the organic connection between art and religion, both for good and for ill. This creative impulse still attracted a “spiritual aristocracy” seeking a “small mystical oasis” in the “materialistic wilderness.” Kuyper’s point here is strikingly prescient. After all, what gives a sense of transcendence and even communion in the postmodern era if not the arts, especially music and film?

After we have disenchanted nature, seeing beauty but without an overarching Logos behind it, we can still recognize creativity and teleology in art. And in recognition of this beauty, we can find a sense of communion with one another.

Read more at RussellMoore.com

#mad men #Russell Moore

Boy Scouts at the Brink — The Moment of Decision Arrives

—Albert Mohler—

Meeting Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether it will retain or revise its historic membership policy on the issue of homosexuality. The 1,400 voting members of the B.S.A. National Council hold the future of one of America’s most iconic organizations in their hands. In reality, they are not only deciding a matter of membership policy. They are actually deciding the future of the entire organization.

The culture wars came to the Boy Scouts many years ago. For the last few decades, the Boy Scouts have had to fight battles with both secularists and homosexual activists. The secular challenge came first, with demands that the Scouts drop their historic requirement that boys affirm belief in God as a criterion for membership. Soon thereafter, the demand for the full inclusion of homosexual members and leaders followed. The Scouts have had to fight legal battles both locally and nationally, costing the venerable organization millions of dollars in legal fees. In 2000, the B.S.A. prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court when the nation’s highest court ruled that the Boy Scouts had a constitutional right to exclude openly gay boys and leaders from the organization, so long as that exclusion is based in one of the organization’s core convictions — an “expressive message.” The B.S.A. won the case because that is exactly what they claimed. They argued that excluding openly homosexual boys and leaders from Scouting was necessary and required by the Scout Oath.

Last year, the B.S.A.’s board affirmed the policy in no uncertain terms. Bob Mazzuca, then the organization’s chief executive, said: “The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address the issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisors and at the appropriate time and in the right setting.” In other words, the B.S.A.’s chief executive said that the board recognized that “the vast majority of parents” did not want the policy changed. Deron Smith, the B.S.A.’s national spokesman said that a special committee asked to advise the national board “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts.”

That was less than a year ago. Then, just a few months later, everything changed. Earlier this year, the B.S.A. announced a proposed change that would remove the restriction as a matter of national policy, leaving the decision about the inclusion of openly homosexual scouts and leaders to local units. This proposal, rushed after a leak within the organization let the word out to the public, was greeted with a firestorm of protest. As many predicted, that policy proposal went nowhere. A local option on an issue of this importance would satisfy no one and would lead to geographical problems that would be insurmountable. Furthermore, parents would be in the position of having to interview local Scout units in order to determine which did and did not accept openly homosexual scouts.

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler #boy scouts

Is Your Church Ready for the Marriage Revolution?

—Russell Moore—

The Supreme Court of the United States is set to hand down a set of decisions this summer that could advance a cultural and political shift in the way marriage is defined in this country. Is your church ready for this?

By that, I don’t mean whether your church has a position on the definition of marriage, or whether your people are ready to express their opinions or vent their outrage on social media or talk radio. All that’s easy. The question is whether our churches are ready to create marriage cultures that matter, regardless of the cultural moment.

In a few weeks, my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, will gather in Houston for our annual meeting. If you’re coming, you’re invited to a special conversation about reclaiming a marriage culture in troubled times, sponsored by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

I’ll be joined by my friends, pastors David Platt and J.D. Greear, women’s ministry leader Susie Hawkins, and Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We’ll talk about how you can get your congregation ready to think through the next fifty years of discipleship on marriage.

I have argued for years that our churches aren’t an embassy of biblical ethics in a land of sexual revolution. The embassy is aflame, and the sexual revolutionary flag is waving atop our consulate. We’ve surrendered on marriage in too many ways: on its permanence, on fidelity, and even too many times on its nature rooted in sexual complementarity. Just because we’re not marrying two grooms or two brides, yet, doesn’t mean we’re standing firm on marriage.

We’ll talk about how to disciple people toward Ephesians 5, not toward a cultural ideal (even if that cultural ideal is “traditional”). We’ll talk about how to protect your church from religious liberty incursions that come along with marriage redefinition. We’ll discuss how to explain the changing cultural conversation to children and to teenagers. We’ll discuss how to preach these issues. And we’ll talk about practical matters your people will ask. Is it okay to attend a same-sex marriage since Jesus ate with tax-collectors? Should a Christian florist deliver flowers to such a wedding? What should we do about the divorces in our churches right now?

Read more at RussellMoore.com

#Russell Moore #Marriage

Cooperative Ministry in the New Testament

—Chad Brand—

Are churches independent or interdependent? I’d argue that the New Testament answer is “both.” That is, local churches are not subject to the authority of any external body or individual. And yet in order to fulfill their ministries, they must cooperate with each other in tangible ways. This article will explore New Testament precedents for cooperative ministry between local churches.

PETER AND JOHN IN SAMARIA

In Acts 8 Peter and John travel to Samaria. Philip the evangelist had been engaged in a great ministry there. When the apostles in Jerusalem hear of this work, they dispatch Peter and John to the city (Acts 8:14).

We ought not to see this as a presumptuous act on the part of the Jerusalem apostles, but rather as their glad participation in and assistance to the new Samaritan Christian experience. The new work “was endorsed, received, and enthusiastically participated in by the whole church.”[1] Upon arriving, Peter and John pray for them, and the Samaritans then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (8:17). After the Spirit falls upon the Samaritans, Peter and John return to Jerusalem after first preaching in other Samaritan villages (8:25), and even Philip is led by an angel to leave in order to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26-39).

The Jerusalem church did not attempt to govern the Samaritans from afar, but rather joined in the work in this new location, not to “supervise” it, but only to share with it what it had to give.

SENDING BARNABAS TO ANTIOCH

A second example of cooperative ministry concerns a church that will itself later commit to cooperative work. The stoning of Stephen had sparked a wave of persecution of the Jerusalem Christians (Acts 8:1-3). That wave of animosity sent many Christians packing out of Jerusalem to other places. Fear of reprisal, however, did not cause them to be silent about their faith. Instead, they became powerful evangelists for the cause of Christ in places such as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, “speaking the message to no one except Jews” (Acts 11:19). Some daring men of Cyprus and Cyrene took a different approach in Antioch and preached the gospel to Gentiles. This was not an innovation, since Peter had already done the same thing at the house of Cornelius; but it is still the case that evangelism of the Gentiles was uncommon before this experiment. Luke writes that “the Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21 HCSB). Again, the Jerusalem church heard about this evangelistic effort and sent a favored son, Barnabas, to visit.

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler #Boy Scouts

The Goodness of God and the Reality of Evil

—Albert Mohler—

Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face.

Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless accident, a wasting disease, or an awful crime demands some explanation. Yesterday, evil showed its face again as a giant tornado brought death and destruction to Moore, Oklahoma.

For the atheist, this is no great problem. Life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University’s Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity.

For the Christian Scientist, the material world and the experience of suffering and death are illusory. In other religions suffering is part of a great circle of life or recurring incarnations of spirit.

Some Christians simply explain suffering as the consequence of sins, known or unknown. Some suffering can be directly traced to sin. What we sow, so shall we reap, and multiple millions of persons can testify to this reality. Some persons suffer innocently by the sinful acts of others.

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler #Evil

SBTS Graduation

#SBTS #Graduation

“By What Power or by What Name Did You Do This?” The Question Every Minister of Christ Must Long to Be Asked

2013 Spring Graduation Commencement Address by Dr. Albert Mohler

And so, you graduate. The Seminary Lawn is filled with hundreds of graduates, faculty, family, and friends. Everyone is playing his or her part. Parents are proud, spouses are glad, friends are happy, and a good number of infants are hungry. The faculty is feeling old and the graduates are feeling wise. And you are wise, for you have completed demanding courses of study that are rightly respected and widely envied. You are wiser for the knowledge that what you have learned thus far is only a prelude to a life of consecrated learning for the cause of Christ and the aim of faithfulness in Christian ministry. This great congregation gathered on this sacred soil is here to celebrate with you, and to thank God for you. Furthermore, we are here to set you loose and to pray for you as you go out into the fields of ministry, for, as our Lord has promised, the fields are white unto harvest.

In our imagination, we can see you in any number of contexts where you will surely go. We see so many of you in the pulpit, teaching and preaching the Word of God. We see many of you on the mission fields of the world, taking the Gospel where it has never been heard. We see you making disciples. Some will lead in worship and song, others in leadership and service. We can see you in so many places.

One of the most ridiculous books given to some high school graduates is Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. It is filled with the kind of logic that fuels the self-esteem movement and the culture of self-expression. It’s message is encapsulated in passages like this: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.”

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler

Willie Nelson, Jewish Moms, and the New Deadbeat Dads

—Owen Strachan—

In 1978, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson covered one of the classic songs of recent decades. Performed first by Ed Bruce, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” hit number 1 on the charts and touched a cultural chord. No doubt there were a few aspiring cowboys who were diverted to new career paths due to the tongue-in-cheek song.

So much for the backyard reenactments of the Wild West. Mothers, in aggregate, were likely pleased; sons were likely aggravated, at least for a youthful season.

I was reminded recently of the song when listening to a recent episode of Al Mohler’s “The Briefing” podcast. Mohler covered a news story from the New York Times on the phenomenon of mothers searching online for wives for their adult sons (see the multiple mention of TheJMom.com, a site for Jewish mothers). Mammas, it seems, want their babies to grow up to be husbands, but their sons don’t want that.

This kind of story can elicit many responses. In me, it brought out a mixture of thankfulness, sadness, and alarm.

First, I’m thankful for what this story says about mothers. Their sons are, in many cases, struggling to launch into adulthood, and these moms are taking it upon themselves to help their boys. Let’s just appreciate that for a moment. Mothers are a gift of God’s common grace. They often live deeply sacrificial, others-centered lives. I’m not going to make the case that mothers are more virtuous, inherently, than fathers, but I will say that it’s noteworthy, for example, how many single mothers there are in the world. Even when sin breaks a family down, it’s commonly Mom who sticks around and runs herself into the ground to keep her kids fed. That’s worth saying, isn’t it?

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler

Family Ministry: Shaping a Child’s Soul, a Task Too Important to Be Turned Over to the Professionals

—Timothy Paul Jones—

I saw something beautiful one day while walking down Breckenridge Lane. In a front yard not far from my home, a young mother was removing a layer of leftover leaves from the fall in preparation for planting spring flowers—an ordinary activity in the middle of an ordinary day.

What was extraordinary about this scene was what I saw beside this young woman.

A tow-haired boy, perhaps three or four years old, was attempting to assist her. His rake was man-sized, his movements were far from efficient, and he was leaving more leaves than he moved. Yet, as I passed this mother and child, I heard no criticisms. Instead, I heard a constant stream of encouragement: “Daddy will be so proud of your hard work! Can you try to get those leaves over there? You know, honey, it might work better if you turned the rake over.”

If this woman’s sole goal for the afternoon was leaf removal, her best bet would have been to plop her preschooler in front of a television to watch professionally-produced children’s programs that pretend to equip children with skills for life while leaching away their capacity for meaningful relationships. If this mother had chosen this option, she could have pursued the goal of planting spring flowers far more efficiently.

But this woman had a goal that was far bigger than any flower-bed.

This woman understood that her deeper purpose on this day was not to improve a yard but to shape a soul. She was teaching her child the value of work and partnership and family structures, in addition to the quite crucial skill of knowing which side of a rake is supposed to face the ground. She was an amateur, in the best and oldest sense of the word “amateur”: a person who engages in a particular activity because of love. She most likely possessed no transcripted credential in the fields of motherhood or leaf removal. But that was all for the best anyway because no credential could develop in a child what this mother was engraving in her son’s soul that afternoon.

Read more at AlbertMohler.com

#Albert Mohler

On Mother’s Day, Remember the Infertile

—Russell Moore—

Mother’s Day is a particularly sensitive time in many congregations, and pastors and church leaders often don’t even know it. This is true even in congregations that don’t focus the entire service around the event as if it were a feast day on the church’s liturgical calendar. Infertile women, and often their husbands, are still often grieving in the shadows.

It is good and right to honor mothers. The Bible calls us to do so. Jesus does so with his own mother. We must recognize though that many infertile women find this day almost unbearable. This is not because these women are (necessarily) bitter or covetous or envious. The day is simply a reminder of unfulfilled longings, longings that are good.

Some pastors, commendably, mention in their sermons and prayers on this day those who want to be mothers but who have not had their prayers answered. Some recognize those who are mothers not to children, but to the rest of the congregation as they disciple spiritual daughters in the faith. This is more than a “shout-out” to those who don’t have children. It is a call to the congregation to rejoice in those who “mother” the church with wisdom, and it’s a call to the church to remember those who long desperately to hear “Mama” directed at them.

What if pastors and church leaders were to set aside a day for prayer for children for the infertile?

Read more at RussellMoore.com

#russell moore

Churches need worship leaders who take their task seriously. Corporate worship is too important for worship leaders to take their cues from whatever is on the radio. The goal of this year’s Think: Worship conference is to confront that pattern and challenge worship leaders to think seriously about every aspect of worship. At this conference, pastors and worship leaders will have the opportunity to hear God’s Word from men who are passionate about glorifying God in corporate worship and about equipping both current leaders and the next generation to serve faithfully in the church.

FIRST-PERSON: Mental illness & the church

—Jeremy Pierre—

Many grieved with Rick and Kay Warren over the loss of their son Matthew to suicide. And many are paying attention to something we typically find hard to think about. Mental illness in the church has taken the headlines. But to have a productive conversation, we'll need to avoid a couple of unhelpful ways of talking about it. The most obvious one, I think, is to discuss the private state of Matthew's mind or surmise what condition he suffered from. I imagine those closest to Matthew are suffering enough under the why question, and they don't need all of us to figure it out for them. Another unhelpful way to go about this conversation is to lob generalities at the church regarding its failure to adequately care for those with mental illness. I've never seen generalities change anything except people's blood pressure. Maybe we're not quite sure what the church addressing mental illness even means, although we're hitting on some important aspects of it. Swirling around in the discussion so far are two separate, but closely related, issues. The first is the shame of those struggling with mental illness and the pressure to keep it secret. And the second is what we actually mean when we say mental illness -- its nature as physiological disease. While we cannot separate these two issues, distinguishing them for the sake of discussion may help us move forward in a productive way. Shame and secrecy Everyone knows the unpleasant impulse to hide something about himself that others wouldn't approve of. For those who experience overwhelming emotions or find themselves caught in patterns of unusual behavior, this impulse is more than unpleasant -- it's terrifying. We are aware of the general standards of normalcy around us, and when we don't measure up to those standards, we feel shame. The easiest way to stay included is to hide those things about us that don't measure up. Lest we demonize the church, let's admit that this is true in any sphere of relationships -- the neighborhood, the workplace, the rec league.

Read more at RussellMoore.com

#Russell Moore

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