MENU

Culture
Category

On December 11, 2015 By In Music, Worship

Pipes Worth Playing: Four Lost Lessons from the Pipe Organ

PipesWorthPlaying-FeaturedImageI know what you’re thinking. Organ: funeral, ball game, grand dusty cathedral. Why should modern Christians of such a technological age revisit a thousand year-old instrument? Don’t worry, I will not be trying to punch another hole in my Weird Music Preferences and Opinions card here. The truth is, our Christian culture is missing out on one of the great blessings to the Christian church, an instrument with capabilities that lend both strength and maturity to how we worship. Only a caricature of what it once was, the pipe organ has endured a history that has left it unloved or at best uninteresting to most Evangelical Christians in America today. By remembering its origin and the theology connected to its design, we can push air once again through the pipes with joy!

First, the pipe organ was built for the Christian church.

It was installed into the actual walls and framework of protestant and catholic churches and cathedrals throughout western civilization. No other instrument is installed with such permanence. This is not an argument of who had it first, rather this is a call for Christians to revisit the value of this instrument not in the narrow light of its present-day uses, but in the broader light of history. The pipe organ’s design was intentional, purposeful in church worship, and ever pointing to God as no other instrument was made to do.

Second, the pipe organ highlights God’s diligent sovereignty in creation.

  All is lifeless without His hand as the organ does not spontaneously create music without a master’s hands. The hundreds of pipes and sound combinations require the fingers of a master musician on the keyboard manual and the subsequent inspiration of air through the bellows and pipes. The hollow tubes of metal and wood stand dormant until this inspiration gives way to sound. The pipes of various lengths and sizes remind us that through the multitude of layers in God’s created order, all come under submission to the composer and chief musician who gives them life and purpose. The pipe organ’s bellows moving air through flue and reed pipes much like the human lungs moving air through larynx and vocal reeds is a creational model of the Holy Spirit breathing life and transforming cacophony into a symphony of sound that proclaims his goodness and glory. (more…)

Read more

On December 5, 2015 By In Culture

Questions About Same Sex Attraction

A firestorm started with The Gospel Coalition’s recent posts on same sex attraction. They published two posts both focusing around Ed Shaw’s book Same Sex Attraction and the Church: The Surprising Plausibility of the Celibate Life. The first post, entitled “Godliness is not Heterosexuality” was an excerpt from the book. The second post was a glowing review of the book by Ron Citlau, who also written a book on how the church can minister to homosexuals. Tim Challies then posted another very positive review of the book.

In response, Rick Phillips gave four propositions on homosexual desire. Douglas Wilson entered the fray with two posts, here and here, expressing his concerns about the way the TGC articles approached the issue. Denny Burk added his voice, which gives some context to the TGC articles from Shaw’s book. Outside of these articles there have been quite a few other blog posts, as well discussions on social media. The issue is an important one and will have lasting consequences moving forward for the church and her members, including those who struggle with homosexual temptations.

I am firmly in the Wilson-Phillips camp. I find the arguments brought forth by the gay-celibate/SSA movement to be weak and in many cases dangerous. The TGC articles were no exception. Perhaps those articles put in the context of Shaw’s book would alleviate some of my fears.

There are several questions that need to be clearly answered in this debate and rarely are. By the way, I do not like the term SSA. But I use it in this post for charity’s sake. Also I focus on men not women because that is mainly who is writing on this subject. (more…)

Read more

On December 1, 2015 By In Culture

Van Til and “the Real Estate Signs”

VanTil-teaching_lrgWilliam Harry Jellema was a legendary philosophy professor at Calvin College. His students included Nicholas Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga, and William Frankena.  He was also Cornelius Van Til’s teacher.

Van Til and Jellema came to represent two very different strands within the Dutch Calvinist community in the 20th century. Jellema is known to have told his students that he fully expected to meet Socrates in heaven—not the kind of verdict that sat well with Van Til’s strong emphasis on the antithesis between biblically grounded presuppositions and those based on non-Christian worldviews.

As someone who often found myself being pulled back and forth between the two perspectives—and as an admirer of both Van Til and Jellema—I was delighted by a story that John R. Muether told in his fine biography of Van Til. Toward the end of his life, Van Til returned to Grand Rapids and visited Jellema, who was close to death. On this occasion Van Til thanked his former teacher for what he had learned from him. Jellema responded: “Yes, but Kees, it was you who at times kept us from going too far.”

While I never went as far as Jellema in my own views on common grace, I certainly went further than Van Til would have liked. But I might have gone even  further if it was not for Van Til’s influence on my thinking. His 95 page book, Common Grace, was the first serious theological work that I read, as third year college student, and I went on to read extensively in Van Til’s writings. (more…)

Read more

On November 30, 2015 By In Culture, Theology

Following Rob Bell: The Edges of Faith and the Center of the Zeitgeist

UPDATE: My friend Uri Brito and I had a conversation about the impetus behind (and reaction to) this post here.

Several days ago, Kent Dobson, successor at Rob Bell’s famous Mars Hill Bible Church, stepped down as teaching pastor. He opened his announcement/sermon by reading the Scriptural story which gives name to the church, the account at Mars Hill. Dobson says when he first came to Mars Hill, he was animated by Paul’s example of cultural engagement. Paul quoted the poets of the people; he spoke their language. Dobson said he understood Paul to be preaching a traditional gospel message but using different, more relevant, packaging.

Likewise, he said the church was meant to have the same gospel but deliver the message in a more hip way. Specifically, he wanted a “cool church” with “cooler shoes” than the traditional church down the road. However, Dobson said he not only began to question the packaging of traditional “church,” but also the message – the gospel. To fully understand his evolution he says, “you’ll have to read my memoirs.” The CliffsNotes version, for those of us who can’t wait, goes thusly:

“I have always been and I’m still drawn to the very edges of religion and faith and God. I’ve said a few times that I don’t even know if we know what we mean by God anymore. That’s the edges of faith. That’s the thing that pulls me. I’m not really drawn to the center. I’m not drawn to the orthodox or the mainstream or the status quo… I’m always wandering out to the edge and beyond.”

If you don’t have time to watch the whole sermon, just picture Portlandia doing a Dane Cook spoof. Slouched in his flannel shirt, he swivels on his chair as he muses about his restlessness, his angst, and his exploration into the unknown. I don’t know how he actually came off in the room, in the moment. But watching from a distance, he seemed like a romantic vagabond, a sensitive soul longing for a home he’s never known—perhaps like Huckleberry Finn if Huck were super into Spiced Chai Lattes and self-indulgent journaling.

(more…)

Read more

On November 4, 2015 By In Books, Culture, Theology

On the Mount, for the World: Ethics in the Kingdom of God


William Edgar’s contribution to Resurrection and Eschatology deals with the view of culture espoused by Geerhardus Vos. In describing the Vosian view of culture, Edgar shows the differences that exist between the Reformed and the Anabaptists vis-à-vis the kingdom of God. Edgar does this masterfully by contrasting the Reformed reading of the Sermon on the Mount with that of Richard B. Hays in The Moral Vision of the New Testament—arguably the most influential work on ethics written in the past 50 years. Says Edgar:    

“Contrary to Hays’s radical view, the point of the Sermon on the Mount is not to set up a special ethic for the church, but to proclaim a new world order, one where the kingdom of God has come, one where the blessedness of its members is for now, not just later. True enough, the sermon tells us about God’s radical love in Christ, a love that forgives enemies and gives good gifts to its children. But the sermon is neither ascetic nor revolutionary. There is no section of life to which it does not speak. The key to the sermon is Matthew 5:17, in which Jesus proclaims he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. His teaching explains the full extent of God’s law, and puts an end to casuistry.

(more…)

Read more

On October 20, 2015 By In Books, Culture, Theology, Wisdom

The Redemption of Friendship

 

I’m always happy to read a book on friendship (just this year, I was immensely helped by Wesley Hill’s wonderful new book on the subject). However, it’s especially fun to read a book on friendship written by a really good friend (it’s like reading a book on blood draining by your favorite butcher!). In Friendship Redeemed, my comrade Adam Holland has written a fine work on a subject that desperately needs more thoughtful reflection. I think anyone who picks up the book will take away a number of very helpful insights. Particularly, the book will give you (1) a lens through which to view friendship, (2) examples of what redeemed friendship looks like, and (3) practical tips for living out redeemed friendship.

To begin with, Holland offers a lens through which to view friendship:

“Fixing our relationships with one another is not going to be resolved by a 10-step program or adding just a couple things. Living in this new humanity calls for a person to put on a new pair of glasses, through which he will look and see the world.”

The first chapter is simply an examination of friendship through the lens of the biblical story: creation, fall, redemption. We were created to have friends:

 “Mankind was created in the image of the triune God. We were created to live in harmony or perfect unity with one another.”

Holland doesn’t just start in the beginning, he starts before the beginning, grounding our friendship in the triune nature of God. Of course, he quickly shows how that communal nature of man is broken:

 “Man learns how to interact with one another through how they interact and relate to God. Once man sins by refusing to listen and obey the word of God, it then impacts man’s relationship with one another.” He then goes onto say, “When our vertical relationship with the Lord is not right, it has ramifications into our horizontal relationships with one another.”

As you might guess by the title, the rest of the book shows how friendship is being redeemed under Christ’s reign. Perhaps the whole book is best captured in the following sentence, “Christ’s death makes reconciliation possible not only with God, but also with one another.” For Holland, the biblical story isn’t simply head knowledge, something to be tucked away for Bible-trivia night. No, the gospel changes things, it redeems. At the end of the book, you’ll see how the biblical story invites you to participate, to pick up the script of the gospel and engage in the drama of redemption.

The second thing you’ll take away from the book are examples of what friendship actually looks like. Particularly, you’ll see what friendships looks like in the life of Paul. Holland justifies his use of examples in the following way:

 “If we truly want to fix our relationships and have our relationships fulfill their intended purpose, we need an example in which to look.  The famous agrarian and short story writer Wendell Berry once said, ‘It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.’  We need an example to demonstrate to us how to live. Imagine that you never saw a football game in your entire life. It would not be likely that you would ever become a football player. Imagine now that you had Peyton Manning come teach you about football and train you how to play the game. The chances of you growing in your knowledge and ability to play football would increase dramatically.”

In my mind, this is where the book really pays off! Many who grew up in evangelical circles have been burned by “exemplar” models of preaching. We were taught to identify with the hero of a given story, and left church knowing we were supposed to “try harder,” but not really knowing how. In reaction, the current emphasis is (rightly!) to see Jesus as the hero of every story. Once we understand that Christ is the “better David,” we’re then motivated to obey out of love and gratitude, not out of a folksy “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality.

While this is all well and good, we must not become more biblical than the Bible. Or, as my mom might say, we shouldn’t be “too smart for our own britches.” The Bible is full of fallen, yet worthy characters who we are called to emulate (just read Hebrews 11!).

It’s not easy to apply character studies in a Christocentric way, yet that’s exactly what Holland does! From Tychicus, to Onesimus, to John Mark, to Epaphras, to Luke, to Demas, Holland shows how Paul’s various friendships can serve as a model, an example of how to live out gospel-centered friendship.

Lastly, you will take away various “tips” on how to live out redeemed friendships. While I didn’t do a verse count, I suspect there were more references from Proverbs than any other book. In fact, the whole book has a “proverbial” feel to it. Said differently, it drips with wisdom. As one example, take the theme of vulnerability. Below are three passages related to vulnerability which will give you a taste for the practical flavor of the whole book:

“Forgiveness within our friendships is not about righting the wrong, but it is about lavishly pouring out the love of Christ, even when it is at our own expense.”

“In Paul’s list here of his friends, he has two friends now that have abandoned him. How can you tell whether one of your friends is going to be a John Mark (a friend that leaves and comes back) or a Demas (a friend that leaves you and never returns)? You can’t! So, should we shut the door on any friendship in fear that they may abandon us or hurt us? No! Paul models for us how living on the other side of the cross calls for believers to take risks with others. Sometimes you are going to get hurt.”

“Paul’s life and ministry are a testimony to others willing to take a risk on him. Paul went from killing Christians to being one. I imagine that Christians were not lining up to have him over for dinner shortly after his conversion. Rather than being safe, take risks for the sake of the gospel. Rather than leaving the church because you have been hurt, stay and be an agent of change. You may get hurt along the way, but the joy of seeing others transformed will far outweigh any pain that you may receive.”

In the end, Holland has written a fresh, readable, biblical, winsome book on friendship. While I’d recommend it to anyone, I especially think it’d be useful in a small group setting.

Read more

On October 17, 2015 By In Culture, Music, Worship

Project Aims to Make Liturgical Music More Accessible

A new set of worship songs rooted in the ancient praise of God

This week, Santa Cruz, Calif. church planter Rob Patterson launched a Kickstarter to create a new liturgical music project to serve the Church—particularly church plants like his.

In an interview with Andrea Bailey Willits (The Diocese of Churches for Sake of Others) he explained his the motivation behind the project.

“My journey into Anglicanism, with its liturgies, seasons and rhythms, has given birth to some new worship songs,” Patterson says. “These songs are meant to serve the church, particularly liturgical church plants where big rock worship can feel too big, and where some of the tradition’s older music can feel a bit inaccessible.”

Folksy Liturgical Style

In a folksy acoustic style, Patterson has taken some older texts and set them to singable melodies that embrace both the tradition and modern expression. He has also written some new songs specifically to serve the modern liturgical context.

“The songs I’ve written for this project are pieces of my journey into Anglicanism, bits of theology and heart set to music, meant to bless the Church and honor the Lord,” he says.

The Kickstarter Campaign

Over the next month, Patterson hopes to raise the money he needs to make this music a reality. He plans to record in Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the World, with a stellar group of musicians, including producer Ramy Antoun. 

“I don’t think you can find a cooler guy around. Ramy grew up in Egypt and has a deep love for the Lord,” Patterson says. “I first met Ramy when he played drums on a project I recorded in L.A. some years ago. He went on to play with folks like Black Eyed Peas and Seal. Ramy’s now producing worship records, and I’m super excited to team up with him to make this new project.”

Please consider helping fund this new liturgical music to serve the Church. Make a donation.

Read more

On October 16, 2015 By In Books, Culture, Interviews, Politics, Theology

Sandlin on Christian Culture

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (19.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

ccl

I’ve highlighted the work of P. Andrew Sandlin, president of the Center for Cultural Leadership, before.  I find Dr. Sandlin to be one of the most articulate, compelling, and capable defenders of a uniquely Christian cultural engagement. Dr. Sandlin calls the interview below “the most wide-ranging” he’s done. From revivalism, to environmentalism, to the health and wealth gospel, Dr. Sandlin sets a great example of how to apply the Christian worldview. As someone in education, I especially appreciated his comment that, historically, there’s never been a distinctly Christian culture without a serious focus on Christian education. Hopefully, after listening to the interview, you’ll want to dig deeper into his work. If that’s the case, I highly recommend his book Christian Culture: An Introduction (which John Frame calls “biblical, accurate, insightful, and concise.”).

Read more

On October 5, 2015 By In Culture, Politics

Peter Leithart to speak at Morthland College in Southern Illinois

The Founders Institute of Public Policy will be hosting two lectures by Dr. Peter Leithart this week in Southern Illinois. Leithart is the president of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. Both events are free to the public; see schedule below.

Thursday, October 8, 7 p.m.
Washington Hall at Morthland College
202 East Oak St., West Frankfort, Illinois

Immigration After Obergefell — Obergefell v. Hodges is the latest in a string of Supreme Court decisions that have made it clear that American law no longer rests on Christian foundations. The old Protestant establishment is dead, and that means that Christians must assess and respond to public questions in a new framework. Using immigration as his key illustration, Dr. Leithart argues that the church must become an “alternative public” and that Christians must retrain ourselves to think about and respond to public issues more as churchmen than as American citizens. (more…)

Read more

On August 26, 2015 By In Culture

The Morning After or Preparing to Fight the Long War

After all the protests on Saturday, I began thinking, what now? Where do we go from here? This is a post, slightly edited, I wrote before the protests occurred. It is reminder that the war has been going on for a long time and will continue well into the future.  It is particularly a challenge to the under forty generation. Are we ready for a long war? 

As the videos continue to post, I wonder if Christians feel how Jews felt when Allied soldiers entered concentration camps at the end of WWII. Finally, the world is able to see what has been going on. Finally, they will see the ovens and the bodies stacked like cord wood. Finally, they will see the little arms and legs cut up into pieces. Finally, they will see the death of all these little ones.

While this sting operation by the Center for Medical Progress might be a kind of D-Day, it is not the whole war. Even before these videos, abortion clinics were closing on a regular basis. For decades men have been fighting against abortion through sermons, prayers, picketing, and books. Hundreds of pastors, including John Piper, have faithfully preached against abortion year after year. I think of my friends Charles and Al who regularly picket in front of abortion clinics. I think of  R.C. Sproul Jr. who whenever tragedy strikes reminds us of the greater tragedy of the thousands of babies legally killed every day. I think of Francis Schaeffer and his work in the early eighties. I think of pastors who have converted women walking into death clinics and helped them find homes for their newborns. I think of all the older ladies who pleaded with God to end the murder of the unborn.  I think of parents who have many children or who have adopted unwanted children. On and on the list goes.  God’s people have always hated abortion.  Christians are not waking up for the first time. But there is physical proof of what we have always known. Babies are being chopped up for profit. Like pictures coming out of Germany in 1945, these videos vindicate the war. There is a reason we fight.

Thanks to all the brothers and sisters, pastors and priests, mothers and fathers, who fought, often in obscurity, since Roe v. Wade. We are grateful for your faithfulness. May our generation be worthy of walking in your footsteps. May we look to you, our Savior, and the Word to give us strength to endure in this battle against abortion and the other battles we will face in the coming years.

I also think of all those hipster Christians who thought abortion was old news. Who got tired of the war. Who rebuked those who said abortion was wicked. Who were silent in the face of the holocaust. Who loved their reputation more than Jesus. We need to move on they said, after all it is legal. Separation of church and state they bellowed. We should ignore the barbed wire and the smoke and the smell. We will preach Jesus, but we do not need to make a political statement. Ours is a spiritual kingdom.  We love women so much we will let them kill their child. They lost their moral authority when they abandoned the Scriptures. Now they have been exposed as those who ate and drank while members of their congregation and city sacrificed their children to Molech. They are hirelings (John 10:13). May their tribe decrease. May they see their folly and publicly repent of disgracing the name of Christ.

Then I think of us, the under forty generation who are working with renewed vigor to end this atrocity. As we all know, this battle is far from over. Doug Wilson reminds us we to pursue. We must push through to Berlin. We must keep doing the things which matter most such as loving God, telling our neighbors about Jesus, repenting of our sins, praying without ceasing, and gathering for worship. We must persevere in the behind the scenes work we have been doing in our churches, homes, and communities.  We must keep pressing forward in the direct assault on Planned Parenthood as well through sharing the videos, blogs posts, elections, and legislation. We are seeing victories in the fight against abortion, which is wonderful. But these victories did not happen overnight. The war did not start with these videos. The war will not end with these videos. There are years of battle ahead of us, which is the great danger for my generation. We like quick fixes and easy answers. We lose steam fast. A few tweets and Facebook posts and we move on. But three weeks is not very long. Three years is not very long. Three decades is not very long. Besides the abortion battle, there is sodomy, a wicked and corrupt government, a compromised church, evolution, the denial of Scripture as God’s inspired Word, the rampant sexual immorality in the church, and many other battles to fight. Abortion is but one front, albeit an important one, in our work for Christ’s Kingdom. Are we prepared for the long haul?  Will we fight for decades like our fathers did? Can we keep the pressure on year after year? Or will our attention wane and vigor wilt? Will we bend the knee to the world in the end? Will we grow weary and go back to binge watching on Netflix?  I am grateful for the impact these videos are having. I am grateful for the almost 70,000 who protested Planned Parenthood last Saturday. It is nice to win a battle now and then. But we must prepare our churches, our families, and ourselves to fight the long war. Without endurance, all that has been gained will be lost.

Read more