On a Journey – Part VIII

I’ve missed two days and so much has happened. The Resurgence Conference has kicked off and is full steam ahead already. But let me start with Sunday. On Sunday morning I went down for breakfast in the hotel and hooked up with a couple of guys from Bethlehem Baptist (John’s Piper’s church) who were also attending the conference. We were all really keen to attend a Mars Hill service that morning so we went along to the 11am service at the Ballard campus. And so after listening to all the podcasts, watching all the vodcasts, reading the books and reading the blogs I finally arrived in the flesh at Mars Hill Church. It was kind of a surreal experience in many ways to be thousands of kilometers across the ocean at the place you’ve read and heard so much about. And it definitely wasn’t a let down. The church is fairly massive but its nothing like any other mega church you’ll come across. Its got a very industrial look, being a converted warehouse. The lighting inside is all done up to create kind of grunge rock concert feel. Technology and multimedia is all over the place. And then the band got up to play – and it was nothing like any contemporary worship music. Instead the music had kind of an indie-rock feel to it with a lot of the songs being old hymns rearranged. It was a pretty awesome worship experience. And then Mark Driscoll took to the stage to preach. He was in the middle of a series of answering questions that the congregation had asked him. On this occasion he tackled the issue of the emerging church – but you can’t really just preach a sermon on the emerging church so before long he turned to Acts 17 and gave us a run down of how Paul engages culture with the gospel of Christ. At one stage he passionately declared what the foundational beliefs of Mars Hill Church are which he centered completely on the cross. At the end of that passionate little proclamation the congregation just broke into applause and cheering. It was unlike any kind of cheering or applause I’ve ever heard in a church – these guys were applauding the gospel! The entire experience was amazing.

After lunch the pre-conference tracks began and so I sat in a session of Q & A with the various campus pastors who explained how they’re figuring out the workings of multi-campus church. Mars Hill currently has 6 campuses. Mark Driscoll only preaches at Ballard (6 times on a Sunday) but the live video feed is sent to the other 5 campuses. Each campus has its own pastor (who only preaches when Mark is away), music team, community groups and is basically a church plant. It was interesting to hear how an operation the size of Mars Hill operates.

That evening I went out of supper with the guys from Bethlehem Baptist and then got to bed early for the next day of full sessions.

We started the morning with a session with Tim Smith, the worship pastor at Mars Hill, entitled ‘Building Missional Bands’. I was I quite surprised to see the Tim and Mars Hill were big into David Peterson’s ‘Engaging God’ – in fact Tim spoke quite passionately about avoiding the use of music as a spiritual mediator between you and God. It was so refreshing to hear guys that have a great theology of worship but still perform really high quality music in their church.

After that we had the main opening session of the conference with Mark Driscoll speaking on ‘Putting Pastors in their Place’. Mark came out all guns firing highlighting the centrality of preaching in church today – he was extremely passionate and extremely hard hitting – as only Driscoll can be. After his session we had a session with CJ Mahaney who preached on ‘Pastoral Character and Loving People’. CJ Mahaney is one of those guys who just oozes godliness and humility. He gave a challenging talk reminding pastors to have a heavenly perspective on the Christians that they serve. The final evening session was by John Piper entitled, ‘Why I trust the Scriptures’. It was an amazing privilege to finally hear Dr. Piper in the flesh. In fact Mark Driscoll was visibly moved as he introduced the great man of God. Unfortunately my brain was beginning to shut down by that time of the evening and so I’m glad all these talks will be available online shortly.

In between the last two sessions I got to have supper with Mike Gunn who is the international director of Acts29. He was super keen to hear about the potential for church planting in South Africa and so today I’m having lunch with a few other guys who are interested in planting internationally.

Its going to be another long day.

BTW check out Justin Buzzard’s blog – he’s live blogging the conference as the talks happen. Remember that you can also stream the talks live from the Resurgence site.

The Quest for Authenticity

Its no secret that I’m often quite fed up with many contemporary expressions of the church. My big issue is authenticity or lack thereof. I want authenticity, I want to be involved in living breathing communities committed to the Gospel in a fresh but authentic manner.

I want to meet with Christians who ‘let it all hang out’ so to speak. I want to meet Christians who understand that they are rebellious sinners, who understand the broken nature of this world – but that also live with the tension of being instruments of proclamation and blessing. I want to meet Christians who want a real Jesus, not a soft sissy who loves everyone so much that he’s lost his moral compass and can’t judge sin for what it really is. At the same time I want to meet Christians who realize that Jesus isn’t just handing out ‘get out of hell free’ tickets but is actively teaching what it means to love and live like residents of the New Creation. I want to meet Christians who struggle to die to self everyday and acknowledge it. I want to meet Christians who know what God’s will is for this planet and don’t run around all day long chasing ‘peaces and fleeces’. I want to meet Christians who take what God has said in scripture both seriously and with humility and don’t use it as a power tool to make their own selfish and megalomaniac alterations on society. I want to meet Christians who love outside of church and home group meeting times. I want to meet Christians who think past guitars and drums when I mention the word ‘worship’. I want to meet Christians who fail but are big enough to run back to the Cross of Jesus and beg for real mercy. I want to meet Christians who know that if they don’t have Jesus then they have nothing – and this is worth fighting tooth and nail for.
I want to meet these people and live with them. I want to see others be transformed and become these people. I want to see myself transformed and become ‘these people’.

10 Tips for On-Line Christian Discussion

I read and write comments on a number of blogs that I personally wouldn’t always identify with theologically. If you go through the sidebar you’ll see that although the majority of the blogs come from a theologically reformed position, not all of them do. To be honest I probably spend more time reading the blogs that aren’t theologically reformed than the ones that are. I also don’t think I’m alone in these reading adventures, I think a large number of bloggers often read outside of their own theological school – its surely a healthy blogging habit to pick up. Naturally though, as bloggers read other bloggers from different schools, the debate begins to flow back and forth over certain issues. Now the blogshphere has a bit of a reputation for getting out of hand in these situations, and since we write Christian blogs this really is the last thing we want. Yet at the same time healthy debate is good for all of us in the blogging community. So what I want to share with you are a few tips that I’ve picked through trial and error as I’ve waded into certain debates around the blogsphere:

Tip#1: Don’t go intentionally looking for a brawl. If you’re one of those bloggers who’s only interested in controversy and is always found near it then – shame on you! Put your energy into something more constructive.

Tip#2: When debating a specific point always be open to admit the weaknesses in your own argument. Healthy debate is a learning process – if you can’t face up to the fact that your argument might not be flawless then don’t enter the discussions.

Tip#3: Always praise the good and the areas of agreement in your opponent’s case. Christian unity is only ever going to be built around what we all agree on. Look for those points of contact and work gently from there.

Tip#4: Be quick to apologize. Often we misunderstand someone or say something rashly – don’t be afraid to say that you were wrong and apologize.

Tip#5: Keep checking with your opponent to see if you understand him/her correctly. There’s nothing worse then two people going at each other and they arguing on two completely different levels. Make sure you understand what the discussion is about.

Tip#6: Never throw your weight around in a discussion if you haven’t done the reading. Many posts that preempt discussion often quote other on-line posts or articles and call for a response, if you haven’t already read the material under discussion then to just throw in your opinion is highly arrogant.

Tip#7: Try and open up email contact. The comment threads are often limited in how much actual discussion can take place. When discussing really important topics see if those who are involved with you are not interested in probing the topic further through email correspondence. I know this takes the discussion away from the public sometimes, but it also helps build trust and relationships between people from opposing viewpoints (I’ve personally experienced this on three or four occasions).

Tip#8: Always remember the gentleness and humility that comes with being a Christian. We are Christians before we are bloggers – being behind a computer screen doesn’t absolve you of your ethical and moral responsibility.

Tip#9: Don’t be afraid to give your viewpoint. Being confident over your view (due to evidence in support there of) and being arrogant are not the same thing. You can still be humble and gentle but firm in certain convictions. We always want to please God and man – there will be occasions where this is not possible. Please God first and then man.

Tip#10: Have fun. Ask lots of questions, approach things from different angles, be a learner.

Laying Aside Pretensions

“…as it is clear from ch. 6, his (Isaiah) whole pattern of thought has been affected by the tremendous contrast between the greatness of God and the corruption of humanity. But caught up with this contrast is the amazing paradox that if humanity will lay aside its pretensions to deity, the true God will raise us to fellowship with himself (57:15). These two thoughts form the heart of the book’s theology” p.31

John Oswalt on the theology of Isaiah (The Book of Isaiah Chapters 1-39 NICOT)