The Irrelevancy of Inerrancy

On my lunch break, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what I've been reading lately.  I'm currently reading Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.  It's an honest look at the emerging/emergent church movement and offers some keen insight into the concerns this movement raises. 

The title of this blog post is a subheading from a section of the book that talks about the emergent church's view of the Bible.  In a nutshell, they tend to view the Bible as a means through which God speaks, but not necessarily the inerrant Word of God.  In Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian, he uses a character named Neo (very original character name, huh?) to argue for a postmodern understanding of the Bible, one without propositional truth (something that is true or false).  Many emergent leaders may themselves hold to a more orthodox view of Scripture, but to pander to their postmodern audience, they like to use vague language and posit questions about its authority and inspiration.  To this, DeYoung says:

"I'm not sure what the emerging church believes about the Bible. And this concerns me. Burned-out evangelicals who go emergent and talk squishy about the Bible may still basically treat the Bible as if it were completely true and authoritative. This would be a fortuitous inconsistency. But what happens in the second generation? What happens when an erstwhile church planter with a few Neo books under his belt starts doing church with a radical skepticism about the authority of the Bible and forms a people by musing on about how his community affirms the Bible (in part?), therefore making it "welcome" in their conversation? We can wax eloquent about the beauty of the story and how the Scriptures read us, but unless people are convinced that the Bible is authoritative, true, inspired, and the very words of God, over time they will read it less frequently, know it less fully, and trust it less surely."

I concur.

Missional Senior Citizens

On our trip home from New Mexico today, I encountered a divine appointment. You see, we decided to keep pressing on past noon and wait until 2:00 to eat lunch...partially because of a late breakfast and partially because there were zero towns for about an hour and a half. Nonetheless, the small town of Brownfield, TX was the location where God's providence and our hunger met...and it was at Burger King of all places.

When we walked in, I noticed a group of about 25-30 chronologically advanced men and women sitting throughout the tables. It looked like a Jr. High dance, the men were huddled on one side at a couple of tables, and the women were huddled on the other side. Imagine my surprise when I saw a couple of long tables displaying some homemade desserts in the middle of the eating area. I knew then that something was up.

We ordered our food and sat down at a table away from the festivities, and as we were eating, one of the ladies came by and told us that once all the senior citizens had gotten a chance to get desserts, we could help ourselves to some as well. Amy asked her what they were doing, and she said, "Well, I'm a Christian and I just love people. I organize this monthly birthday party for senior citizens, and the owner of the Burger King lets us do it here." She said she paid for everything out of her own pocket, which I imagine was a stretch, seeing as she was probably on a fixed income.

As I sat and watched these senior citizens talk and laugh and pass out birthday cards to those who were having birthdays in July, a smile came across my face. Then, I noticed other people in the eating area who were not a part of the party going and getting some desserts as well, including a police officer and what appeared to be a homeless man. This lady's generosity spilled over to her generation as well as the community around her.

She might not think all of it was that big of a deal, but I saw a missional senior citizen shining the light of Christ into that Burger King. She used the context of a birthday party to open up doors of relationship in a fast food restaurant. The church was being taken into the marketplace. I would give anything to have individuals from the senior generation leading out in love in my church when we plant. In a day where most churches just plan trips to Branson for their 55+ Sunday School classes, this lady was mobilizing the aged for the Kingdom. As the psalmist says, "One generation will declare Your glory to the next."

Oh, by the way, the peach cobbler and banana pudding were incredible!

Wii...we're off to New Mexico

A real quick post here to brag on my wife. Amy has been amazing the past couple of days. She has cleaned the house, washed clothes, packed and prepared for our trip to New Mexico. She baked me a double-decker chocolate birthday cake with fresh strawberries in the middle, and she put the Survivor TV show logo on top of the cake. She organized a birthday party for me with some friends tonight since we'll be gone next week on my birthday. She cooked dinner for the party, including some awesome chicken enchiladas. She managed to keep Will from telling me what my birthday present was (which is remarkable) and ended up giving me a Wii game system for my birthday!!! I was blown away...it was a total surprise. Sorry, fellas, she's all mine, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, we're headed out early tomorrow morning to Ruidoso, NM to visit with family.
We're also planning on stopping by Carlsbad Caverns while we're there.

Exporting the Prosperity Gospel

Take a look at this video. The voiceover is John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. If you've never heard of him or read his stuff, he is a prophetic voice in Christianity today. He's authored many books, and I would highly recommend them. Here's 3 I would recommend for every Christian to read:

Don't Waste Your Life
When I Don't Desire God
Let the Nations Be Glad

Cowtown Collier Brand

This is our new family brand, courtesy of my good friend and co-worker Blake Hicks. We're getting family T-shirts made for me, Amy, and the boys. I guess when we move to Colorado, we'll return to being the "Colorado Colliers" and have to change the logo to mountains or something, but until then, this is what we'll use. By the way, the nickname for Fort Worth (where we live) is Cowtown because it was a major city along the western cattle drives. Thus the term "family brand" instead of "family crest."