April 05, 2007
Why has there's been no new content at His Evidence for over a month? The Lord has redirected me to focus more intensely on, and dedicate my thinking and writing to, the Servants Quarters program of Truth and Grace Ventures. If you'd like to follow our progress, you can catch glimpses at the TGV Blog.
February 28, 2007
A Brief Report from Truth and Grace Ventures:
Last Thursday, the Servants Quarters community gathered to discuss 40 Days of Nothing, our walk together through this season of Lent. In undertaking 40 Days of Nothing, we have entered a season of intense, deliberate reflection, self-denial and, hopefully, transformation. We are striving to limit our consumption to the basic necessities, resisting the empty promises of the world that we can find well-being through indulging our endless wants and instead focusing on God’s promise that His grace is sufficient.
The spirit of our discussion and the character of my new friends impressed me greatly. Our discussion topic, revolving as it did around radical self-denial, is not particularly attractive on its face. On the contrary, it seems to possess significant potential to generate feelings of depression and self-pity. In my opinion, though, our time together could be best characterized as joyful. Despite the nature of the material and its serious implications, the room was filled with laughter and joking and a sense of hope. Perhaps some would suggest that it was nervous laughter, but I believe the atmosphere was born of a common sense of peace not unease. These young leaders shared thoughts and stories evidencing not only a commitment to allow God to transform them, but a willingness to share that blessing with others. I believe that was the immediate reason for the hope permeating our time together.
February 16, 2007
February 09, 2007
From the Truth and Grace Ventures Blog
When Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 21, the Servants Quarters community will embark on 40 Days of Nothing. As described in the Book of Common Prayer,
The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. [Likewise, we are invited] in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
The Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday calls on us to confess, among other things,
the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, [o]ur self-indulgent appetites and ways, . . . our exploitation of other people, . . . our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, [o]ur intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, . . . our blindness to human need and suffering, . . . our indifference to injustice and cruelty, . . . our waste and pollution of [God’s] creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us . . . .
Having confessed, we turn to the Lord, praying that He would restore us and accomplish in us the work of His salvation so that we may reflect His glory in the world. This is why we will undertake 40 Days of Nothing, so that we may honor our Lord by deliberately and systematically identifying and removing obstacles that impede our relationship with Him.
February 03, 2007
A couple weeks ago, I participated in the third and final weekend residence of the 2006 Centurions Program. Like the two prior residences, the time was marked by intense, humbling intellectual challenge and spiritual conviction, as we heard – and hopefully learned – from the likes of Peter Kreeft, Chuck Colson, Gary Haugen and Ken Boa. (Unlike before, my bride was allowed to accompany me, making for special, if not particularly romantic, memories.)
With the passage of a little time, it’s interesting to reflect on what ideas from that weekend hold fast within me. To this point, one question posed by T.M. Moore rings more loudly and regularly in my head than anything else: “What is it about ‘everything’ and ‘without ceasing’ that we don’t understand?” He was referring, of course, to St. Paul’s instructions that we pray about “everything” (Philippians 4:6) and “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Undoubtedly, T.M.’s question haunts me, because I pray sporadically not continually. And on the continuum between nothing and everything, my prayer life lies closer to the former than the latter. I know better. Now I have to do better.
January 28, 2007
The Orlando Sentinel had a story yesterday about Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, Georgia, where “God takes credit cards. Debit cards, too.”
Two “giving kiosks” sit just outside the church’s chapel, next-generation collection plates that allow churchgoers to swipe their credit or debit cards and instantly send donations to the church. . . . Pastor Marty Baker has renamed the black terminals “automatic tithe machines.” “We’re just trying to connect with the culture,” Baker says. “And that’s how the culture does business. It’s more than an ATM for Jesus. It’s about erasing barriers.”
The giving kiosks do seem to have erased some barriers to giving. Since their installation in early 2005, Stevens Creek has experienced an 18% increase in donations. And they are, in some sense, helping the church “connect with the culture.” One woman “says she knew the church was the right fit for her the first time she saw the kiosks. ‘This church gets how I live,’ she says.”
As a Christian committed to helping others understand the joy of giving, I’m intrigued by Pastor Baker’s success in leading his flock to a higher plane of generosity. As a Christian trying to help the Church and the wider society understand each other, I’m encouraged that Stevens Creek is looking for ways to connect with the culture. Yet, I wonder whether there is reason for the Christian mind to be concerned with Pastor Baker’s giving kiosks.
January 20, 2007
The following entry is cross-posted from the Truth and Grace Ventures (TGV) Blog. TGV is a charitable organization aimed at equipping people to live joyfully as faithful stewards and servants.
Servants Quarters 2007 is in full swing. We convened last night for the third time to continue our year-long dialogue exploring the implications of biblical stewardship principles for living in a culture captive to materialistic ideals. During this latest gathering, we planned to discuss the worldview perspectives reflected in a specific product of American culture: the critically-acclaimed and highly popular film, The Shawshank Redemption. God had other plans.
I hope and trust we were following His lead, as we shelved our Shawshank examination in favor of a spirited discussion concerning the crisis facing The Episcopal Church (TEC). In particular, we explored what it means for The Falls Church (and other parishes who only recently disaffiliated from TEC) to be wise and faithful stewards of the property with which they have been blessed – as the Diocese of Virginia and TEC press headlong into litigation aimed at reclaiming that property.
Given the dynamic and volatile nature of the situation, I abstain, at this time, from sharing my specific thoughts on the matter. What I will say is that we are striving to approach the situation with not just a Christian ethic and Christian spirituality (which no doubt are important) but also a Christian mind. We are striving to help each other “think christianly” – “to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? p.44). We are striving to “set[ ] all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, . . . see[ing] all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell” (id. at 4). In one sense, that’s the primary business of Servants Quarters.
Because of that fruitful detour, we’ve decided to hold our Shawshank discussion here in this forum. All are welcome to pose questions, share observations or take issue with what I’ve written previously. (In short, I observed that (1) Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) reflected in important ways the biblical notion of how important it is to maintain an eternal perspective, while living here and now; and (2) the redemption of Andy’s best friend, Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) was suggestive of a Christian-like process of repentance.)
If you prefer specific to open-ended questions, let’s begin the discussion with the subject of beauty. What is attractive in the film? What people, places, behavior or ideas? To whom? How is it made attractive?
January 19, 2007
John Yates and Os Guinness discuss the decision of The Falls Church to disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church on the Albert Mohler Radio Program last Friday.
January 12, 2007
In a brief New Year’s Day essay, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, shares her perspective on how Christians ought to “reach the unchurched.” As a Christian, I think it’s great that Bishop Schori is seeking to teach the importance of not just evangelism but effective methods for it. I agree that “to begin in listening” can be effective. And I agree more generally, to some extent, that “we must learn new words and ways to tell our story” to “reach the unchurched” in this postmodern culture. That said, Bishop Schori’s essay begs the question: what exactly is “our story?” Moreover, it raises the question: might some “new words” that we use to reach the unchurched actually undermine “our story?”
January 11, 2007
Not surprisingly, Chuck Colson can grasp why I and many others have left the Episcopal Church.
This is not front-page news because the New York Times editors are concerned about church splits. I doubt they would have covered Martin Luther if the Reformation were going on today. This is front-page news because the Times can use it to make Christians look bigoted. . . . What I . . . take issue with is the Times and other critics telling us we are bigots. I have been in those prisons and seen our people ministering to AIDS victims over the years. I don’t see these critics there. I see our people doing this day in and day out.
In any event, it’s telling that the Times would choose to draw attention to something like this rather telling you what is really behind it. In leaving the Episcopal Church, many of these congregations are enduring public scorn and potentially devastating financial loss—including the loss of their church buildings, pastors’ pensions, and so forth. Why? Because, in conscience, they must remain true to Scripture and their convictions. The issue is orthodoxy, not homosexuality.
