Pulpiteering

Piper and the City

Here's an interesting article in Christianity Today on Pastor John Piper's Bethlehem Baptist Church struggles in a big city filled with big churches. It's interesting to see that even he has had personality clashes and that his determination to hold to God's Sovereignty has led to criticism from other pastors who believe otherwise.

Popping out Pups

"Dear Pulpiteer,

I have a friend who has been married for a few years. They don't have kids and he claims it's because his wife has medical problems. I believe that they are willfully sinning by not trying. Please confirm my suspicions.

Sincerely,

The Valliant Quiver-filler"

Dear VQF,

You are a moron. Who are you to impute motives onto someone else's circumstances? What do you know? If your brother in Christ has said that it's a medical issue then that should be the end of discussion. His "yes" is his "yes". I hope you haven't "shared with him" your "concern" over this issue, or have been stupid enough to break fellowship. This couple is obviously hurting and you've stuck your nose into a very touchy subject with them that's none of your business, on top of which you have declared it to be sin. There are far too many idiots like you out there with the "if you've got 'em smoke 'em" attitude with your sperm. There's more to Fatherhood than just a one time sweaty deposit. Yet fools like yourself probably had kids before you even established a household that was financially able to sustain a family, which means you married without a plan and without the means to protect your wife. Now I'm not talking about people who lost their jobs in the course of a pregnancy because no one can control that except God Himself, rather I'm taking aim at lazy jerks who impregnate their wives with no plan for living or sustaining a family at all. You suck and your attitude toward your "friend" is appalling. Seek his and God's forgiveness and repent you prideful twit.

Sincerely, Pulpiteer

Book Review

A Primer on Worship and Reformation: Recovering the High Church Puritan
By Douglas Wilson
Published by Canon Press (www.canonpress.com)
Release Date: November 11,2008

At a brisk 68 pages it’s hard to really evaluate Douglas Wilson’s latest book which proposes true Reformation can only come through faithful worship without giving away much of the content. Certainly there are a number of points that should be discussed and the book warranted more than one reading (in my case I read it three times) but not because Wilson failed to substantiate his arguments. In typical Douglas Wilson fashion each page, paragraph, and chapter of this book is packed with argument after argument that backs up his call to the renewal of worship as the center of every Christian’s life.

This book isn’t an argument for one form of worship over another though. Those who are cringing at the thought of “High Church Puritanism” as a return to black clothes and witch burnings can put those fears to rest as well. As explained by Wilson the High Church Puritan is, “ high Church, he does not behave like a schismatic, separatist, independent, or individualist. He has a high view of the covenant, and of our corporate identity with one another. Because he is a Puritan, he intends to be a theological cavalier, and he fights for the integrity of obedience. He does not do this as some gloomy caricature, sitting in the back pews, lamenting the regrettable apostasies up front.”

Unlike the love it or leave it attitude of many church faring “reformers”, Wilson calls for a slow and steady fight for what’s right where you are now but not as a complaining lout who does nothing but critique from the back pews but as a concerned citizen of the Kingdom of Christ you are reminded to pray, discuss, and contribute in a positive God-honoring fashion. Wilson’s book is less a lament of how the Church is going downhill and more of a rousing read that stokes the fires of any concerned church member to pray for and move in way that will insure true reformation of our worship and the covenant community as a whole. One of the earlier chapters reminds the reader that this is not the work of a maverick but a work that must include ALL of the church as a corporate entity, the Bride of Christ. It is quite a departure from the typical “gun then run” style of many self-proclaimed reformers in the church community today as Wilson puts to shame their selfish and self-aggrandizing way aptly labeling them as patently unbiblical. According to Wilson a renewal of proper corporate worship is the key to any true reformation and I whole-heartedly agree.

In the end I truly enjoyed Douglas Wilson’s book and it served to fire me up with each subsequent read. And at 68 pages it’s short enough that even the most attention-challenged individual can get through it in a week. An edifying read all around.

Welcome

My wife tells me that Typepad is nicer than tumblr; so I'm going to give this place a try. Since she's usually pretty good with this sort of thing, I think I'll stay here for a while. Sorry for all the moves folks, and hopefully this will be the last one for a very long time.

Congrats to our newly baptized sister

It was my privilege to baptize our little sister Jennifer Wang yesterday.  May God bless you in your spiritual growth and may he continue to be glorified in your life Jennifer!

Politics

Tomorrow Canadians will be going to the polls to find out who will run this Country Federally.  It’s been interesting to watch.  There is a Socialist-lite party known as the New Democratic Party whose sole goal it would seem is to maintain a minority government so that they can peddle their influence as swing vote holders.  Their platform is based on complaining about those in power without actually offering anything of substance as to how to alternatively run the country.  In other words the NDP thrive in chaos and complaining.  If you think about it, this is the sweet spot for anyone who enjoys some influence while shirking any real substantive duties.  You look good and progressive because you can critique everyone and everything all the while not really having to do anything.

It’s the same way in the church, but instead of the NDP you have those who dress up their complaints in platitudinous prayer items and “concern” which they’ll voice for anyone foolish enough to offer them an audience.   These individuals get to complain all they want, exert a little influence over some lame ducks, and come out looking like spiritual giants all because they’ve learned to dress it up in Christian-speak.  Yet nothing edifying for the church is done, only the stroking of a few massive egos.  There is also a strange correlation between amount of complaining with attendance at church activities.  More specifically, those who complain the most are the least participatory amongst the church population.  That’s because, according to them they have other more important and spiritual matters to deal with, such as hours of private prayer, reading through the Bible again for the (sighs) one hundredth time, or attending other meetings with fellow blowhards where they get to talk about how spiritual they are and how unspiritual their home church is.

The question begs: Why don’t these trouble making people just leave?  The answer lies in my NDP example.  A few years back my province of Ontario was stupid enough to actually vote the NDP into power (thankfully only on a provincial level).  When it came time to actually tackling our province’s financial woes the NDP government decided that they would spend their way out of it, sort of like an person with huge credit card debt spending more money in order to get themselves out of financial trouble.  In the end the province was in massive debt (duh) and the NDP were promptly voted out of power.  Now back to the church troublemaker and the question of why they won’t leave.  First, if they left and went somewhere else someone at the new church might call them on their baloney and ask them to actually do something, which would leave the troublemaker open to attack and critique from others like them.  Second of all, they may actually be incompetent. And third, like the NDP they’ve found the complainer’s sweet spot at their current church, which allows maximum complaining, maximum self aggrandizing, with minimum work.  Why would anyone want to leave such a perfect position?  They wouldn’t.

Married and stupid

Our College and Career group are reading a book on Emotional Purity.  Through it I have been reminded of the plight of the single person and their second worst enemy (the first being themselves): the happily married couple who insists that everyone must be married in order to be as happy as they are.   There is no greater disservice a married couple can do than to instill by their actions and words that a single person ought to be dissatisfied with what God has allotted to them for this moment in their lives.  Crimes perpetrated by said couple of destructions include the misguided and hastily put together set up (“let’s mash this guy and that girl together and they’ll HAVE to be happy!”), to just dumb questions such as “so when are you gonna get married?”  It gets more awkward when they start bringing friends into church groups just to meet the girls or guys.  In comes the slobbering fool like a buffalo at a buffet asking such subtle questions as “what are your views on male headship?”, and the key, “how many kids do you want?”  It’s embarrassing for everyone there and it proliferates a dissatisfaction with God’s provision because, as the couples’ actions and words betray Marriage is the only thing that can fulfill a person.  Such utter and complete nonsense shouldn’t find its way into the church family.

Stealing Church growth

There seems to be a church growth strategy based on sheep stealing.  Pastors are actively going out there looking for those who have something to complain about and enjoy contrasting themselves to the disenfranchised soon to be former ministry team.  Pastors who practice this sort of “church growth” and then brag about how they’re “growing” are morons.  Anyone who goes out there looking for usurpers, insurgents, and the generally unhappy amongst us just to cushion his numbers is building his ministry and his subsequent boasting on crap.  No one is ever taught that as members of your local church you are to deal with problems relationally anymore..  Instead they bolt into the waiting arms of the next idiot willing to take them.  Now I’m not saying that there aren’t any legitimate reasons for someone to leave a congregation, there are, but if some “pastor” out there who isn’t part of your congregation, in essence an outsider happily chimes in on your complaint-fest, you have to wonder about that man’s integrity.  It’s like asking for a doctor to do a physical on you over the phone.  Only a quack would do it. There just isn’t enough data.  Any pastor worth his Bible would direct the attention of the dissident to his current pastor to work things out and not fuel an already out of control fire.

Race relations

Upon signing on at Toronto Baptist Seminary (TBS) someone asked me in light of TBS’s reputation for Reformed teaching why I decided to go there.  I didn’t quite understand the question and upon further pressing of the matter it finally came out: Reformed folks have the reputation of being small minded racists.  Now mind you what he meant was not out and out cross burning, N-word-using, interracial- marriage-not-having racism, but a subtle, systemic one that permeates their attitudes in how they deal with churches that minister to ethnic minorities, including condescension and exclusion from wider Reformed circle activities and conferences.   I just laughed it off.  Surely my associate was mistaken in a tragic and misguided way. Toronto is a metropolitan city that is home to a plethora of different cultural communities and when I first visited TBS the first few students I met came from many different countries.  So I just brushed off the comments and stored them in the Nutter category of my mind.  Ultimately my time at TBS was incredible and most of the people I’ve met through my experiences there are amazing and godly.  Some have become my very best friends and continue to contribute and offer input into my present ministry. So my first experience with people of Reformed theological persuasions was terrific.  All that said (and I’m sure as you’re reading this you’re waiting for the “but” statement, and here it is…), after having been in ministry for twelve years I cannot deny that the issue of race has been influencing a number of (But definitely NOT ALL) Reformed circle pastors and how they interact (or don’t interact) with ethnic churches and their pastors.

Before I go further I should get the definitions out of the way.  When I talk about Racism I am referencing the definition offered by Merriam-Webster:

“a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”

Let’s tackle the first part of that definition,” a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities”.  I believe Reformed churches have the reputation of being racist primarily because they have been exclusively catering to Caucasian, English speaking pastors and congregations.  Is this racism?  Let me illustrate with an example from American history.  Rosa Parks was an African American woman who sparked outrage in her community when she refused to get up out of her seat on a public bus and move to the back so that a White man could take her seat.  The pervading attitude there was that “White” people deserved the better seating at the front of the busy while the “Blacks” should sit in the back and suck exhaust.   The racist attitude then was that African American people were sub-human and less deserving of what was best.  Rosa Parks fought this attitude and by staying put in her seat stated that she was good enough and maybe even on par with a “White” man. In the same vein of thinking why do Reformed theological pastors relegate Ethnic churches to the back of the theological bus?   If Reformed theology is as precious as the current Reformed circle of churches would have us believe it to be, then is it too good for ethnic churches and pastors?  The answer would seem to be yes judging from the monochromatic attendance at many of our local Reformed circle events.  Shouldn’t we be weeping over the number of ethnic churches that get sucked into mainstream Evangelicalism adopting their watered down and often heretical theologies?    Instead the Reformed churches see fit to plant churches in the middle of a number of other ethnic churches with an emphasis on primarily evangelizing White Yuppies who may be floundering in the sea of ethnicity known as Downtown Toronto.  Now some may protest this accusation saying that of course people of all races are welcomed, yet the ethnic peoples that will fit in are less ethnic and more Canadianized, in other words white on the inside.  Some pastors may protest my post by saying that they have ethnic friends.  I’d bet that these so-called ethnic friends (and I mean close real friends and not Facebook type acquaintances mislabeled as “friends”) are as white washed as I am.  Instead of working or seeking to work with ethnic churches they would rather proliferate little white reformed clone churches.  It would seem that bad theology is ok as long as it stays “out there” with the “others” yet we’d weep if our children ever got sucked into it. 

Hearts and minds don’t change unless time and effort are put into it. At the church I work in we have two congregations: on that speaks English and the other primarily Chinese.  The Chinese congregation does have some non-reformed theological leanings, so why don’t I leave (as was suggested by one of my Reformed brethren)?  Because I want to see that congregation come around to reformed theology and it won’t be promoted by me planting some other church or leaving in a huff; rather it will take years of earning trust and theological steadiness to convince even a handful of people as to the validity of Sola Scriptura.

It’s a shame that this attitude of exclusion is as pervasive as it seems to be.  No one race is superior to the other so why should our practices betray such an attitude.  It is my prayer that my brothers who are guilty of this will get their act together and get rid of their reputation for racism.