This isn’t exactly new-news, but it’s possible that some of you are just now hearing about or reading Barna and Viola, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, which argues against the institution of the church (e.g., its worship service, the sermon, the pastor, clergy salaries, etc.).

Ben Witherington has an excellent and thorough four-part review of this unfortunate-but-influential book:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

There’s also this review by Trevin Wax, which offers basically the same conclusions as Witherington’s but without the length and depth.

A friend just pointed me to this excellent series of quick blog posts on spiritual gifts. Hopefully more posts on this theme will follow; so far, Driscoll has covered:

• Spiritual Gifts: Introduction
• Spiritual Gifts Misunderstood
• What’s the Point of Spiritual Gifts?
• The Spiritual Gift of Wisdom
• The Spiritual Gift of Knowledge
• The Spiritual Gift of Faith
• The Spiritual Gift of Healing

This Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll return to our study of Luke’s gospel account, particularly 8:22-56.

It’s a section of Luke that is packed with miracles and emotions. Read through the passage and see what I mean. The short of it is this: in the passage’s three different miracle stories — stories of Jesus’ power over nature, power over demons, and power over sickness — there are 11 explicit references to varying emotions. That seems like a lot, so it must be pretty central to what Luke was trying portray in this section.

Looking forward to soaking in these verses with you this coming Sunday. Invite a friend to come with you.

Some of you know I’m a part-time (very part-time) PhD student. It really is quite a lot of work and time, and seems like it’ll never come to an end. I wonder if I should consider this alternative:

McDonald’s plans to offer ‘McPhDs’ to boost staff training … under plans to attract more university graduates into burger bar management.

HT: CRT

Once again, Carl Trueman writes a prophetic, edgy, and spot-on piece for Ref21, this time analyzing the hopeless inconsistency of conservative-but-light, empty, trivial, contemporary Christian worship. You can read the whole article here, but let me note the quote-worthy parts for you:

The service ended, not with a benediction or even a prayer, but with another chance to meditate, this time not to waves crashing on a beach but to a recording of Kenny G playing `Amazing Grace.’

The service was, in many ways, a multifaceted microcosm of a lot that is wrong with the church at large today. I remember sitting in the room and looking around at the earnest faces as they concentrated on the crashing waves, or empathized with the linguistic struggles of the spontaneous inclusive language guy, or were carried heavenward by the mellifluous tone of Mr G’s saxophone.

Ironically, not all conservative services are much better than their liberal equivalents.  Now, the difference is that liberal theology should inevitably lead to liturgical nonsense in a way that orthodoxy should not.  After all, orthodox theology grew out of the worship and liturgy of the ancient church, so it should be no surprise that the collapse of that theology connects to the collapse of worship and liturgy. After all, it is hard to see the musical genius of Kenny G giving birth to the Nicene Creed, or, for that matter, providing an atmosphere in which the same might be sustained.

What are surprising, therefore, are accounts of services where the theology is supposedly orthodox but the content is sheer trivia.  If God is awesome, sovereign and holy; if human beings are small, sinful, and lost; if Christ died and rose again by a most miraculous and costly act of grace, then this should impact the way things happen in church.

A church service involving clowns or fancy dress or skits or stand-up comedy does not reflect the seriousness of the gospel; and those who take the gospel seriously should know better. Frankly, it is more appropriate to liberal theology which does not take the gospel, or the God of the gospel, seriously. Serious things demand serious idioms.  I heard recently of a church service involving dressing up in costume and music taken from a Tom Cruise movie.  Now, if I go for my annual prostate examination, and the doctor comes into the consulting room dressed as Coco the Clown, with `Take my breath away’ from Top Gun playing in the background, guess what?  I’m going to take the doctor out with a left hook, flee the surgery, and probably file a complaint with the appropriate professional body.  This is serious business; and if he looks like a twit and acts like a twit, then I can only conclude that he is a twit.

You can tell a lot about someone’s theology from what they do in church.  Involve Kenny G’s music in your worship service, and I can tell not only that you have no taste in music but also that you have nothing to offer theologically to those who come through the church doors; indeed, what you do have can probably be found better elsewhere.