Coram Deo Blog
Archive for October 2005
31 October 2005 at 6:42 am by Bob Thune · ecclesiology, holy spirit
The fifth core value of Coram Deo is all about the Spirit of God. We want the Spirit to be desperately, powerfully, convictingly at work within our community; for unless the Spirit is leading us, Jesus is not leading us (see Acts 1).
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How can we tell when it’s “really” the Holy Spirit who’s doing something? How do we live lives that are full of the Spirit, immersed in His power, serving others out of His work within us? Here are some more resources:
Link 1: Jonathan Edwards on how you discern a true work of the Holy Spirit from a false one.
Link 2: John Piper on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Link 3: Are regeneration and being given the Holy Spirit the same thing?
Use the comment thread to post additional thoughts or responses.
Permalink
27 October 2005 at 8:08 pm by Bob Thune · ecclesiology
A blog is an interactive environment, and therefore should be a vehicle for our communal learning. In a few weeks, our launch team will consider the question: Why do we gather for worship? In preparation for that discussion, I’d like to ask that question here so some of you can post your answers.
So what about it? Don’t be shy… check your ego at the door and throw an answer out there for us to bat around.
If it’s true that we are the church, and that we live all of life before the face of God, and that God is present (and can therefore be worshipped) everywhere, then WHY do we gather together to worship?
(Someone better post some comments, or I quit.)
Permalink
24 October 2005 at 7:42 pm by Bob Thune · culture
Last Sunday night I urged us to speak the truth of Scripture in language and images that connect with the culture. “Revelation is accomodation.” God has revealed himself using human language and images. We image Him when we “enter and re-tell the culture’s stories with the gospel” (Tim Keller).
From Eugene Peterson:
The Christian gospel is rooted in language: God spoke a creation into being; our Savior was the Word made flesh. The poet is the person who uses words not primarily to convey information but to make a relationship, shape beauty, form truth. This is St. John’s work; it is every pastor’s work.
…The Christian communities as a whole must rediscover poetry, and the pastors must lead them… The word is creative: it brings into being what was not there before – perception, relationship, belief.
…We live in an age obsessed with communication. Communication is good but a minor good. Knowing about things never has seemed to improve our lives a great deal. The pastoral task with words is not communication but communion – the healing and restoration and creation of love relationships between God and his fighting children and our fought-over creation. Poetry uses words in and for communion… liturgy and story and song and prayer are the work of pastors who are poets.
Permalink
22 October 2005 at 8:05 pm by Bob Thune · culture
Coram Deo believes that the church must engage culture. Living out this value is designed to keep us from “falling off the horse” in two ways. One way to fall off the horse is to bless the culture’s idolatry, soft-stepping around tough issues and changing the essence of the gospel to make it “palatable” to postmodern ears. The other way is to hold to orthodoxy in a way that ignores or drowns out the questions that the culture is asking. Unfortunately, Christianity at large is guilty of both errors.
Christians usually see the first as a more egregious error – a syncretistic slide toward relativism. But the second may be even worse for the progress of the gospel and the honor of God’s kingdom.
James B. Jordan is as conservative a theologian as they come. For those of you who know your categories, he is a Reformed Presbyterian of the theonomist/reconstructionist bent. So for him to make the statement I’m about to quote is massive in light of his own convictions and the people he generally runs with. I quote Mr. Jordan to point out that engaging the culture is not some radical notion that only church planters talk about. In fact, if Mr. Jordan is correct, it’s our lack of cultural engagement which threatens to doom the church to irrelevance.
Here is what James B. Jordan wrote in a recent article:
“…the Protestant age is coming to an end… The paradigm is exhausted, and the world in which it was worked out no longer exists. We must take all the great gains of the Calvinistic heritage and apply them with an open Bible to the new world in which we are now living. We must be aware that there is far more in the Bible than the Reformation dealt with, and that many of our problems today are addressed by those hitherto unnoticed or undeveloped aspects of the Bible. Those who want to bang the drum for a 450-year old tradition are dooming themselves to irrelevance. Our only concern is to avoid being beat up by them as they thrash about in their death-throes.”
I am a Reformation Christian. If pushed, I’d even be willing to call myself a Calvinist, though I eschew much of the unbiblical and uninformed baggage that comes with that term (usually from those who haven’t studied the primary sources). But Mr. Jordan has hit the nail on the head. Living the heritage of the Reformation doesn’t mean “beating the drum for a 450-year old tradition.” It means taking the great gains of our history and “applying them with an open Bible to the new world in which we are now living.” That’s a great perspective on what it means to engage the culture.
Permalink
19 October 2005 at 4:45 pm by Bob Thune · announcement
Coram Deo is a young church. Much of our congregation is made up of young families, young singles, and college students. We’re not even having public worship services yet. And we may not be for a couple more months.
This year, Christmas falls on a Sunday. So here’s the question: should we have a Coram Deo worship service on Christmas? Post a comment and let me know your opinion.
Don’t ask, “Will we be public yet?” or “What time of day would we be talking about?” or any other questions like that. The answer is: I don’t know. Just register your opinion about having church on Christmas!
Oh, and no anonymous posts. If you choose to use Blogger’s option of “posting anonymously,” put your name in the text of your comment. If you have an opinion, own it!
Permalink
18 October 2005 at 7:54 am by Bob Thune · legalism, mission, music
On Sunday night, Todd called us to repentance for making “being missional” our new legalism… for making our pursuit of mission the thing that makes us worthy before God. During communion we used Derek Webb’s song “I Repent” as a way to fuel our interaction with God. In case you missed them, here are some of the lyrics:
i repent, i repent, of my pursuit of america’s dream
i repent, i repent, of living like i deserve anything
of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife
in our suburb where we’re safe and white
i am wrong and of these things i repent
i repent, i repent, of parading my liberty
i repent. i repent, of paying for what i get for free
and for the way i believe that i am living right
by trading sins for others that are easier to hide
i am wrong and of these things i repent
Of all the singer/songwriters dotting the planet right now, Derek is one of the most intriguing and theologically deep. Read more about him at DerekWebb.com.
Permalink
13 October 2005 at 12:21 pm by Bob Thune · formation
My friend Brett has an insightful post over at the Musings blog that’s right in line with the thoughts on internal change that we’ve been discussing. Check it out here.
Permalink
13 October 2005 at 7:13 am by Bob Thune · mission
Last night I had my first experience with Middle Space.
Middle Space is the term we use at Coram Deo for that “third space” – a neutral place for dialogue and conversation about spiritual matters. It’s the middle ground between a church service environment and the secular, “talk about anything except God” environment we often work in.
Last night, Derrick and I sat down for coffee with three of our friends from Starbucks who have definite issues with church. We read the first chapter of John out loud and talked about what questions it raised in our minds. Then we just chatted for an hour about all sorts of things: their view of Christianity, the existence of the soul, their understanding of God, what bothered them most about church people. It was an honest, no-bull conversation.
I walked away feeling full in my soul. I hurt for their bad experiences with Christians. I feel united with them in the brokenness of life because of sin. I long for them to find Jesus attractive and compelling. And most of all, I am thankful for their friendship. I don’t feel compelled to “share the gospel” with them, as if what is keeping them from Jesus is just a lack of facts about sin and salvation. What is keeping them from Jesus is Christians. And that will only change through long-term friendship, and dialogue, and them understanding that following Jesus doesn’t mean voting Republican and hating gays.
Derrick and I created this middle space opportunity just by asking. People are pretty cool about reading the Bible or talking about God when you give them the chance. May God use Coram Deo to create all sorts of these conversations, all over the city!!
Permalink
11 October 2005 at 10:05 am by Bob Thune · culture, ecclesiology
An interesting angle on the changing church landscape in America is offered by George Barna in a new book based on some of his cultural research. Apparently the culture-watchers are cluing in to the difference between going to church and being the church. Click here to visit Barna’s site and read more.
Caution: Take Barna’s confident assertions with a grain of salt. Remember, his goal is to sell books. He has a penchant for oversimplified distinctions that cater to the consumerist mindset of the Christian subculture. As Will Rogers said, “There are lies, there are damn lies… and then there are statistics.” The latter is Barna’s specialty.
Permalink
10 October 2005 at 7:12 pm by Bob Thune · formation
“Change isn’t change unless it changes what I WANT.”
That was the sound bite from Sunday night, as we focused on what it means to live in light of the gospel.
Behavior modification – the “change strategy” that drives most of Christianity – doesn’t work in the long run. In the short run, it can bring some benefits. But it doesn’t change our desires. It doesn’t change our hearts. It doesn’t change our character. Dallas Willard explains why a focus on behavior masks the real problem: “…There is a rigorous consistency in the human self and its actions. This is one of the things we are most inclined to deceive ourselves about. If I do evil, I am the kind of person who does evil; if I do good, I am the kind of person who does good… Actions are not impositions on who we are, but are expressions of who we are.”
Consider the clear teaching of Scripture that sin starts with what we WANT:
James 1:13-15: When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Eph 4:22-24: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Jesus put it this way: …the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil (Matthew 12:34-35).
So change isn’t change unless it changes what I WANT. And that is exactly what the gospel promises to do. Perhaps the best barometer of your spiritual growth is to ask the question: What do I want? Can I see my desires changing? Is there a true, honest, heart-longing for Christ and for the mission of God within me?
What about you – what’s your take on the idea that “change isn’t change unless it changes what I want?”
Permalink
next entries »
