The Emerging Church

Some of you may have heard about the "emerging" church or the "emergent" church and I thought it might be helpful to post some videos on here that will explain the differences between the emergING and emergENT church. As you watch these videos or follow up with some further research, keep in mind that not all guys who have been connected to either of these labels actually fits in them, and that there are numerous distinctives within both the emerging and the emergent church.

Very briefly, the emergING church are conservative evangelicals who are trying to adapt orthodox theology to an ever-changing society. They are tinkering with methods of evangelism while preaching the biblical gospel. The emergENT church, however, is tinkering with both method and doctrine. Many emergENT thinkers and leaders advocate homosexuality as a valid lifestyle, believe that salvation is possible outside of the Christian faith, and distrust the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures. So, emerging guys are on our team for the most part, while the emergent guys are tinkering with some vital Christian doctrines, and in some cases they have abandoned the faith altogether.

The following videos are from Mars Hill Church, pastored by Mark Driscoll, a guy who identifies himself on the conservative side of the emergING church. The second video is a radio interview with John MacArthur, who is very much against the liberalism of the emergENT church and what he sees as the cultural accomodation that is present in the emergING church.

Mark Driscoll on the Emerging Church
John MacArthur on the Emerging Church

Book Sale

As an avid book reader, these sales excite my heart! Sovereign Grace ministries publishes some great stuff, and I have benefited from the writings of C.J. Mahaney. During the month of February, they are reducing the prices of all their books to $7, cd's to $6, and other books $4!

So, during the month of February, make sure to check out this store for some incredible savings on some great books!

Bob Kauflin at Worship Matters announced the sale.

Winter Trip

Hello everyone- I hope the snow has not inconvenienced any of you too much. I really enjoy the snow when it snows a lot!! I spend most of yesterday digging out the family vehicles and clearing the driveway, which happens to be a 60ft section of Cherry Street! Kind of a pain, lots of shoveling, but a good workout. Also, my good friend Jake Whitaker drove over on his massive 4wheeler with a snow plow and let me use that to clear a lot of snowy road, so "work" was combined with "play" for me yesterday.

Anyway, I wanted to remind you parents that the winter trip balances need to be $0 by Sunday, February 8th. That is the last Sunday before we leave, and everyone needs to be paid up by the time of our departure. Call the church office to get your current balance if you are not sure what that is.

Also, I have received only 3 Medical Release Forms back from the mailings. These also need to be turned in by Sunday, February 8th, so we can have them notarized here at the church office by the time we leave.

Lastly, I have heard from a few students that there may be school on President's Day due to the snow days this week. I am going to call all the schools and try to have the absences excused for the students who are going on our winter trip. We are still planning to leave early Friday morning and return early Monday evening, so please contact Dustin at the church office if this is a problem.

Kids reveal a lot about themselves online

A new study shows that more than half of teenagers mention drugs, alcohol, sex or violence on their MySpace pages. Yet getting teens to clean up their pages is easier than many might assume, researchers say.

More than 90% of adolescents have Internet access, and about half of these use social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook, according to the study of 500 18-year-olds in Monday's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Continue reading here...

Text and Drive No More!

A car key that prevents teens from talking on cell phones or text messaging while driving has been developed by University of Utah researchers.

The Key2SafeDriving system includes a device that encloses a car key. The device connects wirelessly with the user's cell phone via either Bluetooth or RFID (radio-frequency identification) technologies. To turn on the engine, the user must slide the key out of the device or push a button to release it. The device then sends a signal to the driver's cell phone, placing it in "driving mode" and displaying a "stop" sign on the phone's display screen.

Continue reading here...

Call of Duty: World At War- a 3D Review

Greg Jones provides a review of this popular game using CPYU's 3D media evaluation method.

Get Outta My Face!!!

Ever hear that from your teen? Maybe from your pre-teen? I have bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that if you haven't yet heard this phrase from your child, you probably will soon. The good news is that a book has been written to help you talk with teens who don't want to talk to you. The following is the Publisher's Description:

Get Outta My Face!, written for Christian parents, teachers, and youth workers, is about reaching angry, unmotivated, disinterested teens with biblical counsel. Such teens confused and insecure - are selfish; they want what they want, right now. They are corrupted by sin and this corruption is the cause of their problem. Despite all their sin problems, they are still made in the image of God, and this is the key to helping them. This book will help with addressing the teen's sin and bringing them to their God-given desires and godly actions. Far from dismissing or sugarcoating sin, this approach opens wide the door to evangelizing the unsaved teen and to helping the Christian teen grow in holiness and wisdom.

You can read the book's table of contents here and the first chapter here.

Get Outta My Face!, which retails for $13.95, is currently being sold by Westminster Bookstore for $4.88, a 65% off sale. The shipping is $3, so for $7.88 you can be educated in the art of talking with angry and frustrated teenagers. This sale will not last long. I bought a copy, so I will be able to lend it to you after I finish it if you want to read it without spending the money!

Seeking the positive in recession

Joshua Harris, senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, recently preached two sermons covering Luke 12:13-34. He sought to encourage his people to evaluate the current economic recession from a biblical perspective, and here are links to the sermon audio along with a few good quotes that Tony Reinke extracted from the sermons.

1. The Folly of Greed- Luke 12:13-21

• This recession can be good if we allow it to open our eyes to the folly of greed and covetousness.

2. Don't Worry...Seek the Kingdom- Luke 12:22-34

• This recession can be good if it helps reset our definition of "need."
• This recession can be good it if makes us more aware of our helplessness and God's faithful provision.
• This recession can be good it if helps us see that only King Jesus and His kingdom are worth living for.
  
• This recession can be good it if encourages us to lay up treasure in Heaven.

I'd encourage you to follow the links to the sermons and listen to them if you are struggling with thoughts about God's care and protection of His children during this difficult time, or if you simply want to be encouraged and reminded that God does in fact love you and have your best interest in mind. After all, "if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

Superbowl Party

While it is regrettable that everyone's favorite NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles, have once again fallen short of the big game, we're still going to party! On February 1st, the day of the Superbowl, we'll head over to Chuck and Cheri Parks' house after the pm service. Students will need to be in attendance at the evening service to go to the party. There is no cost for the party, and we'll provide food and drinks.

We'll take a van over to the Parks' house, but you'll need to pick up your child at the Parks' residence immediately after the game.

Winter Trip

Hey all- just wanted to remind you all that the balance for your student's trip to Gatlinburg needs to be paid in full by Sunday, February 8th. That way, we're not scrambling around the week that we leave to collect payments. Some of you have already utilized the "pay as you can" method to pay down the balance and others have paid in full up front. I just don't want you to get to the week of departure and have a balance left that is unpayable. Consider paying $20 a week until the balance is zero or some other installment of payments to avoid having to pay one large sum if you can. I'm stoked about going!!! We're taking 37 or 38 students, which is huge and awesome!!!

Day of Silence, Day of Horror

Today, as you know, marks the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized baby-murder in the United States. Below are a number of links to sermons, articles, and websites which will provide helpful information and pastoral wisdom on the issue of abortion as you seek to understand the issue from a biblical mindset.

R. C. Sproul's teaching series simply titled "Abortion."
Justin Taylor on "One Simple, Practical Way You Can Make a Difference for Women and the Unborn."
John Piper's sermons on abortion.
A new and improved Abort73.
John Ensor on making abortion "unthinkable."

How Barack Obama Will Make Christ a Minister of Condemnation

I have long appreciated and benefited from the teaching and preaching of John Piper, and I point you towards a brief blog entry he posted regarding Obama's selection of Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal priest, to pray during the inaugural proceedings.

At Barack Obama’s request, tomorrow in the Lincoln Memorial, Gene Robinson, the first openly non-celibate homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation for the inauguration kick-off.

This is tragic not mainly because Obama is willing to hold up the legitimacy of homosexual intercourse, but because he is willing to get behind the church endorsement of sexual intercourse between men.

Continue reading here...

The long-term consequences of the hook-up culture

Once confined to dorm-room gossip sessions, salacious details about the hook-up culture on today's college campuses have become fodder for serious sociological analysis.

These authors often differ in their analyses of the hook-up culture's root causes and costs. Yet the proliferation of similar studies in recent years suggests an emerging consensus among experts that today's anything-goes campus sexual mores carry lasting consequences we only have begun to understand. And those consequences extend well beyond unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Continue reading here...

Note especially this line, found towards the end of the story: "It's hard to imagine better preparation for adultery than years of emotionally detached, random sexual couplings." We promote this unwittingly by allowing the teenage dating culture to go unchecked, unquestioned, and unchallenged. Much more could be said here, but I think I'll save my thoughts for a later post. Suffice to say for now that we will be partly to blame for the next generation's moral failings if we do not address what we know to be a moral problem among this generation's teens.

Out of the Shadows

A Web page labeled "Ana Boot Camp" recently offered its members a seemingly irresistible proposition: a 30-day regimen designed to help them drop some serious pounds, no exercise needed. The catch was that the group's members were to vary their daily caloric intake from 500 (less than half the daily minimum requirement for women recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine) to zero. They were supposed to track their progress, fast to make up for the days they accidentally "overate" and support each other as they worked toward their common goal of radical weight loss.

Pro-anorexia, or "pro-ana," Web sites (with more than one using the "Ana Boot Camp" name) have for years been a controversial Internet fixture, with users sharing extreme diet tips and posting pictures of emaciated girls under headlines such as "thinspiration." But what was unusual about the site mentioned above (which is no longer available) was where it was hosted: the ubiquitous social networking site Facebook.com.

Continue reading here...

Teen 'sexting' craze leading to child porn arrests in US

In a new trend spreading across America, teens are sending nude or semi-nude pictures to one another on their mobile phones in a practice called “sexting”.

But what started out as risqué fun among adolescents has spread fast, and is starting to lead to serious consequences. Recently, teenagers have been arrested on child pornography charges and there have been reports of high-schoolers losing jobs or college scholarships as a result of being identified in sexually-suggestive pictures that have appeared on the internet.

Continue reading here...

I point you to this article for two reasons. One, I want you to know that this is a very popular trend amongst the teenage population in this country. Two, I want you to pray for the UK and the pastors and missionaries who are working in that godless country. Scroll down to the bottom of the preceeding story and read the comments that have been posted by England's citizens. Most of them express their disgust with America's "prudishness" in it's handling of the sexting trend rather than with the moral and ethical impasse our country's teeangers find themselves at.

If you want to be bold, pick up your child's cell phone sometime and thumb through their pictures. Scroll through their inbox and outbox to see what they're discussing with their friends. If you find something objectionable, address it with your child. You are not doing them any favors by granting them "freedom" to "express" themselves- you may simply be passively permitting them to sin.

Christianity Is No Longer Americans’ Default Faith

For much of America’s history, the assumption was that if you were born in America, you would affiliate with the Christian faith. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group, however, indicates that people’s views have changed. The study discovered that half of all adults now contend that Christianity is just one of many options that Americans choose from and that a huge majority of adults pick and choose what they believe rather than adopt a church or denomination’s slate of beliefs. Still, most people say their faith is becoming increasingly important as a source of personal moral guidance.

Continue reading here...

Pray for Rick Warren

I know a lot of people are suspicious about Barrack Obama's selection of Rick Warren to pray the "inaugural prayer," and the fears are broadly two-fold.

First, (and this causes me consternation), is Obama seeking to fortify his standing in the evangelical world by simply selecting an evangelical to pray at his inauguration ceremony? Evangelicals have been, in large part, coopted by the Republican party in recent decades to the point that the Republican platform has become synonymous with Evangelical Christianity in the minds of many. This has given rise to a lack of critical engagement with and discussion of all sorts of issues by conservative Christians.
1. Many blindly support any war effort taken up by America without giving thought to the innocent blood that will be inevitably spilt and the fact that this is one of the things that provoked the wrath of God.
2. Few give thought to our command to be stewards of the environment. Many see red anytime a green environmental protection measure is introduced by Congress, curiously equating protection of God's creation with liberal hippy political positions, rather than with the biblical mandate to subdue (read: not rape, pillage, destroy) the created order.
3. A genuine lack of compassion for the homeless, single mother, and unemployed in this country is palpable within evangelical circles. The prevailing mindset within evangelicalism towards these citizens is (until very recently, and it is still the mindset of the majority, I think), that 1) the homeless can and should get a job and an apartment 2) the single mother is entirely to blame for her single-motherhoodness and so she must simply deal with it and 3) the unemployed, like the single mother, are at fault and therefore should suffer for their inability to be employed. A gross ignorance of the facts of homelessness, single motherhood, and unemployment is exhibited in the mindset of many evangelical Christians. Sure, there are exceptions: the homeless drug addict who would rather get a fix than a job, the woman who refuses to marry and sleeps around, collecting welfare checks simply because "she can," and the lazy or intentionally unemployable guy who watches cartoons every weekday rather than scouring the wanted ads in the paper.

Wow, that turned out to be longer than I intended. Suffice to say, we are not as compassionate towards the disadvantaged as Scripture urges (commands?) us to be. My fear with Obama's selection of Warren is that he is seeking to attempt the same coopting of the evangelical world, baptizing his policies by including evangelical pastors in the inaugural proceedings. I think he knows that there is enough ignorance out there that some people will respond with this horrid reasoning: "Obama can't be that bad- look who he asked to pray at his inauguration!" May we not be so naive!

The second fear within evangelicalism with respect to Obama's selection of Warren is that Warren is abandoning the evangelical faith, capitulating to a society and president whose publically stated policy positions are at odds with the Bible. Here is a story that might at least give you a bit of encouragement regarding where Rick Warren stands, and hopefully this article will encourage you to pray for this man, as he is sure to receive vitriolic and hateful backlash from the secular media for the content of his prayer today.

Update: I want to clarify that I don't believe that all of Obama's policies are at odds with the Bible. Some certainly are, but as Christians we must be very careful to think biblically before we think politically as we evaluate public policy decisions.

Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at SBTS, explain here.

Incredible, but not shocking

64% of white evangelicals believe that Judaism can lead to eternal life.
35% of white evangelicals believe that Islam can lead to eternal life.
33% of white evangelicals believe that Hinduism can lead to eternal life.
Most shocking of all, 26% of white evangelicals believe that atheism can lead to eternal life!

Now, a couple things to note as you digest these numbers. First, they are the result of Pew Forum polling, so the numbers have to be understood as broadly representative.

Second, the definition of an "evangelical" does not mean what it once did. Evangelicals used to be defined by belief in the virgin birth, the physical bodily resurrection of the Jesus Christ and his imminent second coming, the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures, and other critical Christian doctrines. Not so in today's pluralistic postmodern society. People are free to remain within "evangelical" circles and churches while questioning or outright denying any or all of the previous doctrines.

David Wells, a keen observer of contemporary evangelicalism and professor of historic and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, recently wrote a book entitled The Courage To Be Protestant. In it, he laments "Much 'born-again' religion is simply cultural spirituality that has no doctrinal moorings, inspires little or no Christian commitment, and often opposes itself to the institutional church and to Christian truth. As a slice of American religion, it is interesting. As a barometer of Christian believing, it should be taken with a grain of salt." Later, he writes "A majority of 52 percent of born-againers in fact reject the idea of original sin outright." So, the "evangelical" response in the Pew Forum study is skewed towards contemporary American spirituality as opposed to the historic doctrinal commitments of true evangelicals.

Anyhow, here is a link to the Pew Forum report. It's very interesting, very saddening, but it's also encouraging. Interest in spirituality is relatively high, and if we are willing to look for God's activity, we'll be sure to find opportunities to engage our communities in gospel conversations.

Sexting

As if keeping tabs on teenage sexual behavior hasn’t become difficult enough, teenage sexual trends have now gone mobile. Recent news stories from across the country are reporting on a new trend known as “sexting.

By using the text messaging service on their cell phones, teens engage in sexting by sending flirtatious messages back and forth. Innocent adolescent flirting via cell phones may be harmless enough, however, over time the text messages may become more sexually explicit in nature, even referring to or requesting specific sexual acts and behaviors. Though sexting is still an early phenomenon and little to no research has been conducted yet, it can be assumed that at least some of these cell phone communications lead to actual physical sexual encounters. The most popular entry on the online Urban Dictionary defines sexting as “the act of text messaging someone in the hopes of having a sexual encounter with them later; initially casual, transitioning into highly suggestive and even sexually explicit.”

Continue reading here...

Salvia Divinorum

The newest drug, which is legal in many states, though outlawed in several, is Salvia, affectionately known by users as Diviner's Sage, Magic Mint, and Sally-D, among other names. It is a hallucinogenic drug, similar to LSD, giving users experiences ranging from a calm state of relaxation to fits of uncontrollable laughter to vivid hallucinations of shapes, colors, and intense memories from earlier in childhood. It can be chewed, smoked, or brewed to make Salvia-tea.

There are two references that I think will be helpful if you want to investigate Salvia further. The first is a trend alert essay from Walt Mueller. The second, believe it or not, is the article on Salvia Divinorum on Wikipedia (If it's on the internet, the info has to be accurate, right? Haha). But really, the Wikipedia article is lengthy, informative, and will provide links to other explanatory articles.

Wow

Some of the craziest stuff pops up when you use google, and this is one pic that I couldn't stop staring at. Sorry if it freaks you out, but I for one got a good chuckle.

Drugs

I thought that it might be beneficial to post a series of blogs on various drugs, especially for the parents who read this blog. So over the next few weeks I'll be posting short summaries of various drugs, briefly summarizing the experience associated with them and what the body actually does with the consumed drugs.

These posts will not be found in any medical textbooks! They are simply intended to give you an overview of drug use and abuse, and I'll post links to helpful articles pertaining to the world of drugs.

Winter Retreat update

Hey- we're good to go with our cabin! I spoke to the rental agency this morning and they confirmed with the cabin owners yesterday afternoon that we can rent the smaller cabin that sits behind the larger cabin that we already had reserved. I'm stoked about this! The cabin that we had reserved is amazing, and it sits on 40 acres of land, so there's plenty of room for exploring and walking around. The second cabin is right next to the large cabin and everyone will be together essentially, eating together, using the same kitchen, etc...

I just wanted to pass this good news along!

Summer 2009

We are currently working on the schedule for Spring and Summer of 2009 and we will be posting that information here and on the church website calendar within a few weeks. We will post a summary entry on here as soon as the schedule is set.

The only things that will not be included on this schedule are one-day, local activities, like swim parties and baseball games. Any multi-day or large-scale events will be posted on here well in advance.

Thanks, and keep checking in!

Winter Retreat Reminder

Hello all- It's been awhile, but I hope you enjoyed the holiday break as much as I did. But alas, it's back to work, school, or both for most, if not all, of you.

I just wanted to pass along another reminder of where we're at with Winter Retreat stuff:

1. There is a $30 non-refundable deposit due by this Sunday, the 11th. I am working on making sure we have enough room for everyone who wants to go- I spoke with the rental agency that we have a cabin reserved with this morning, and she was still waiting to hear back from the owners of the cabin about renting the second cabin on the same property as the cabin we have reserved now. She was planning to call the family when we got off the phone and get back to me by the end of today, and she was quite sure that we'll have room for 50, using both cabins. So we should be good to go by the end of today.

2. We are going to mail the Medical Release forms home, rather than trying to pass them out at Collision or Student Life services. These need to be filled out by a parent/legal guardian for a student to be able to go with us to Gatlinburg. You will notice that the form needs to be notarized- you don't need to find a notary to do this, as Judy Peace is a notary and will notarize all those forms for us. This form will cover students for the 2009 calendar year as far as HBC is concerned.

That's it for now- please get a $30 deposit in for each student going by this Sunday so we know what we're looking at. I'll update you all on the cabin situation as soon as I have confirmed plans.