Missio Dei

Reading Outside of Christian Literature

2011-04-04T13:56:00.003-05:00

There is a great post today over on Tim Challies' blog giving a rationale for why Christians should read beyond their holy huddle of trusted Christian authors. While readily confessing that reading Christian authors is a good thing (and I certainly agree) Challies challenges us to read outside of this narrow sliver of published works. He gives 4 basic reasons for this encouragement.

1) Common Grace

2) Cultural Engagement

3) To practice discernment

4) There is much to learn

Read more of his rationale here.

And on a more personal note...

2011-02-22T16:04:00.005-06:00

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

I was praying with my children last night. Well, that’s the way the pastor side of me would like to start this story, though in reality it isn’t really the full truth. Allow me to start over.

One of my daughters was defiantly disobeying her father’s instruction last night just before bed-time. Well, that’s the self-righteous side of me which would like to offer justification for being a harsh and unloving father. Crud. I guess I’ll try this again.

I lost my temper and was unkind to one of my children last night. Yep, that’s pretty much it. With that confession out of the way, here is Paul Harvey’s “rest of the story”.

As we were preparing the children for bed-time last night things were running along nicely for the most part. The 5 year old was down in his room after an afternoon of hard playing at the park, the 2 year old was headed towards an appointment with “Goodnight Moon” and I was working with the 9 and 8 year old to get them in bed.

It was a later night than usual for several reasons and I was feeling the pressure of finishing up so that I could have at least a brief conversation with my wife before she herself lost coherency and succumbed to her own exhaustion. Man, there I go again. That isn’t really true either. Actually I was attempting to rush the whole bed time thing because Hawaii Five-0 was coming on and I wanted to turn my brain off for a while. (If you haven't seen this re-make, you really don't need many brain cells to keep up with the plot. Which, after years of brain cramps caused by LOST, is actually somewhat refreshing.)

So the harder I worked towards getting them in the bed, the more excuses they found to not do what I was asking. The 9 year old eventually pursued one superfluous chore too many and I lost it. Now before you call the church office or DHR, understand that I am not much of a yeller. My “loosing it” is actually fairly steady and even keel, and I used to take great pride in that fact. In actuality however, the older I get the more I see how I can be just as destructive and unloving in my “steadiness” as any rage-a-holic. May God’s gracious process of sanctification continue in my own heart.

After registering my displeasure with my daughter’s disobedience in a less than fatherly and loving way, I noticed her face slowly beginning to distort. It was that distinct facial contortion of a little girl who feels that tears may be just around the corner, but they don’t want to give you the satisfaction of seeing them. It was the face of one who had received a deep wound. And as is often the case, the wound was too deep and the feminine childhood hormones were too powerful for her to hold back the flood.

At this point, not knowing what to do with the explosion of female emotion (and in reality which of us men really does?), I asked my 8 year old daughter to begin her night-time prayers. Now for all my faults as a father, God really has actually blessed me with children who are fairly spiritually mature. My 8 year old, having just witnessed this entire scene, proceeds to pray a Spirit-filled prayer for forgiveness and reconciliation which filleted my chest wide open, and exposed my heart to the Gospel once again. By the time she reached her “amen” I could do nothing else but repent, ask forgiveness and seek reconciliation.

For her part, the 9 year old confessed her lack of obedience and attempted to take the blame for the whole scene. In her words, if she had not disobeyed then I would not have spoken angrily to her. Thankfully the Holy Spirit spoke with a wisdom which I do not often possess. Under Divine guidance I complimented her valiant attempt at martyrdom and thanked her for her sensitivity, but refused to allow her to take the blame for my own sin. In the end forgiveness was requested and given all around and relationship was restored.

For all of the chaos of the evening, the three of us ended up in a 20 minute conversation ranging from original sin, forgiveness, the necessity of Jesus’ crucifixion and the mystery of the Trinity. I walked out of their room amazed at both the goodness of God and the depth of a child’s understanding.

I really wish these kinds of moments happened more often. I pray that I would be able to quickly see my own sin and repent boldly in front of my children. If this occurs, then perhaps they, through watching my fumbling example, would be able to grow up with a healthy understanding of both severity of their own sin and totality of their forgiveness in Christ. And in so doing, maybe they would begin to grasp the absolute necessity of casting themselves in weakness upon the only One who can truly redeem broken things. Judging by their example last evening, they certainly seem to be on the right track.

LookUp316.com

2011-01-27T09:43:00.004-06:00

Over at The Fixed Point Foundation, Executive Director Larry Taunton has an interesting initiative going on. He and others have spent the past year marshaling resources and creative talent to create a Super Bowl commercial highlighting, not beer, not potato chips, not a political agenda, but rather the simple hope of the gospel articulated in John 3:16.

You can hear Larry talk about the motivating vision behind this initiative here.

He also discusses this in a little more detail over on his blog in a post entitled "Finding God at the Super Bowl.

After the game on February 6th, you should be able to catch the commercial on the website for this initiative entitled LookUp316.com.

Oh yeah, and extra bonus points to whoever can catch how many Oak Mountain Church members show up as extras in this commercial!

The Entrepreneurship Initiative

2010-12-15T11:04:00.002-06:00

The Entrepreneurship Initiative. Using business and entrepreneurship as a vessel through which the Gospel might renew and build culture anew. All I have to say is "Wow."

EI Overview from Redeemer Video on Vimeo.

The Four Holy Gospels

2010-11-15T13:53:00.002-06:00

Wow! Makoto Fujimura discussing his work for the forthcoming illuminated manuscript The Four Holy Gospels.
ht Justin Taylor

Fujimura - 4 Holy Gospels from Crossway on Vimeo.

"We today have a language to celebrate waywardness but we do not have a language, a cultural language, to bring people back home. And so everything I do, my paintings, the International Arts Movement, everything has something to do with that." ~ Makoto Fujimura

The Reason for God DVD Series

2010-11-04T16:01:00.002-05:00

Looking for a model of how to interact with non-believers over their questions regarding Christianity? Take a look below.
ht Tim Challies

The Reason for God Trailer from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

Who's Game?

2010-10-19T18:30:00.006-05:00

I have mentioned Joe's Place in a previous post. Joe's Place is a collaboration between Crossroads Fellowship, a PCA congregation in Maplewood, MO, and the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District to address the very real issue of homelessness among the student population.

Click here to see an updated glimpse into their story.

I have also mentioned in a previous post that 12% of Birmingham City School students are listed as homeless. So who's game?

How did Jesus prayed for us to live?

2010-10-15T06:09:00.001-05:00

Don't let the soft voice and the gentlemanly British accent disguise these powerful words encouraging us to live in light of how Jesus prayed for us to live from His High Priestly Prayer found in John 17.

What she said.

2010-10-12T06:39:00.000-05:00

Art House Dallas from Charlie peacock on Vimeo.

More Context

2010-10-08T06:29:00.001-05:00

On this past Tuesday, in response to reflecting upon my recent 20th year high school reunion, I mentioned that a subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood. This whole concept of a proper comprehension of context leading to a proper understanding of reality eventually got me to thinking about Western evangelicalism's representation of “the gospel”. (Completely logical tie-in, don’t you think?)

While I have linked a brief discussion on this subject before, it bears repeating that “the gospel” which many well-meaning, faithful saints define as “Jesus Christ died for my sins”, is in fact a statement removed from its larger, Biblical context. Because this statement of Gospel has been removed and separated from its greater context, a complete understanding of its proper interpretation and application runs the unnecessary risk of being hindered.

Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, speaks to this idea of a larger context in a 2009 Christianity Today article where he states that,

"The gospel is not simply the story of Christ dying on the cross for sinners. It also involves Christ rising again as the first fruits that will eventually make all things new. There is a universal dimension to the gospel."

A similar sentiment is repeated from another corner of the Evangelical world by Soong-Chan Rah in his challenging book, “The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity”. In his chapter on individualism Rah says that,

“Our understanding of salvation is contingent upon how we view what we are being saved from, namely sin and it’s consequences. When sin is limited to the individual realm and does not extend to the corporate realm, our understanding of salvation is also limited to the individual realm. Sin, therefore, is found only in the individual, not in structures and systems. The possibility of redemption, therefore, is also limited exclusively to the individual. A relationship with God limited to the private and individual realm ultimately limits our experience with God.”

In other words, we need to look at a context much larger than the individual in order to properly understand the subject of the gospel. Again, a subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood.

The Gospel is not a “get out of Hell free” card lying upon the grand Monopoly board of life. As long as you pick up the card, you can then go on living however you want. If you ever do get into trouble, just whip out your handy card and all is good.

The Gospel is not simply something that sinful heathens need so that they can become “good Christians” like the rest of us “upstanding church folk”.

No, the Gospel is a story, with implications both for the believer as well as the non-believer. That is not to say that it is merely a story, in some diminutive sense, but it is a story nonetheless.

Michael Williams, author, theologian and Professor of Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary says it this way in his 2005 publication entitled “Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption”.

“The Bible as a whole is best understood as a story or drama. To be sure, the Bible does more than tell a story. Scripture includes psalms, proverbs, songs, prayers, moral instruction and doctrinal reflection. But what holds all of it together, what makes it a unified revelation is the storyline, what theologians often call the drama of redemption. The nonnarrative pieces fit into and make sense only within their appropriate contexts in the biblical storyline.”

What we are talking about is an amazing, mind-blowing, borderline absurd grand narrative beginning in eternity past when God, within the wisdom of his own counsel and at the initiation of his own sovereign will decided to speak creation into being. He created all things in a set period of time and then pronounced over what he had created that it was good, very good even.

It was into this good creation that an Evil came and fractured what was good and right. In Genesis 3 we read the historical account of perfect creation, lost; perfect relational connection, lost; between man and woman, between humanity and its God.

Lost. Broken. Fallen.

Yet immediately following, we are introduced to the coming next chapter. In Genesis 3:15 we see the announced coming of One, referred to as the offspring or seed of the woman who will come and bruise the head of the serpent. Far beyond a mythical back story explaining why humans and snakes haven’t historically gotten along, what we witness here is the iron clad promise of One who is coming, this seed of the woman, who will ultimately defeat the serpent. This language of “offspring” is picked up again within a few short verses in Genesis 4:25 referring to the birth of Eve’s son, Seth.

Have you ever wondered why all of those genealogies are in the Bible? For example, you have Genesis 5, tracing the line of Adam and Seth through to Noah and his son Shem. Then picking up in Genesis 11 we trace Shem through to Terah, who was the father of Abram. Arriving much later at the New Testament, the very first thing we read in Matthew 1 is another genealogy! This time Matthew picks up with Abraham, who has had his name changed from Abram, and traces a direct link through 16 verses to Joseph, the husband of Mary.

So what’s the point? The point is that from the very beginning, we are heading towards Matthew 1:18, the birth of the long ago promised offspring of the woman as the cure for a disease which began in Genesis 3:15. The story we get from Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch through the historical books, prophets and poetry of the Old Testament, point us towards that which is clearly articulated in the Gospels and subsequent pages of the New Testament. This Promised One is coming, not simply to give people a game board piece or to enable individuals who need a little extra push towards morality in order to be made fully whole. Rather, He is coming to defeat the serpent and to reverse, ultimately in its totality, the effects of that which was lost in the Fall.

This is a message far greater than the self help, Oprah spiritualism that masquerades as gospel in some communities of faith today.

What is God doing? He is telling us a story with one repetitive plotline. Things, people, creation, it’s all broken and He is about the business of restoring broken things to their proper, pre-fall places. Rather than an individualistic story of therapeutic feel-good, we are talking about nothing short of God’s reconciliation of all things to Himself through Jesus Christ.

In the next post in this series on context, we will seek to look at the “so what” implications of all of this and why it makes any difference at all in the way we live our lives.

Context is Everything

2010-10-05T16:41:00.002-05:00

Over this past weekend I attended my 20th high school reunion. Honestly, it has placed me in a rather contemplative mood. There has been much taking stock and self-analyzing introspection, some of which I have had to toss and some of which has actually been pretty healthy.

To my wife (for whom I will not reveal which of her reunions we last attended, mainly because she knows where I sleep, unguarded and defenseless) this was one of the first times she had spent any extended time around this group of people with whom I shared much of my formative youth.

Afterwards, as we were driving away, having spent many hours reliving old war stories and laughing at tales of youth and immaturity (some of which I pray my children never, ever hear about) I asked her for her observations on the day.

“There was a lot of storytelling,” she replied. She went on to explain that at her last reunion (which shall remain numerically unidentified) she and her classmates spent much of their time catching up on life since graduation. They spoke of marriage, kids, careers, etc. With my class, however, we spent the majority of our time simply reliving the tales of a shared childhood, reflecting on a common heritage and experience.

5 random things my wife better understands about me after having attended my 20th reunion:

Why I like country music so much. (including why I know the words to every Hank Jr. song ever written.)
Why I have a serious aversion to certain beverages.
Why I can dance slightly better than the average (suburban, white, PCA) bear. (Thanks Roiant)
Why I should never, ever be trusted around unattended, classic muscle cars with keys in the ignition. (Sorry Lee. But, man, that car could fly.)
Why I still, after all these years, enjoy watching re-runs of “The Dukes of Hazzard”. (CMT, I owe you a debt of gratitude I could never repay. P.S. my wife hates you.)

What Susie received, as an outsider to this group, was a context which illuminated a greater understanding of the whole. In short, by taking in the greater context, she walked away with a greater understanding of her husband.

A subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood.

Honestly, all of this may completely bore you to death. In reality, however, acknowledging the relationship between right context and right understanding is vital to our overall comprehension of, well, pretty much everything.

Coming up next: I will attempt the intellectual, acrobatic high-wire act of connecting the above, quasi-ridiculous article with a somewhat more serious discussion of how an inadequate comprehension of Biblical context has led to an incomplete understanding of and application of the Gospel.

Wedgwood Circle, a unique take on patronage

2010-09-27T16:46:00.004-05:00

It has become increasingly popular (thankfully, in my humble opinion) in Christian circles to speak positively of creating Art and culture, and of doing so from a uniquely Christian perspective. From pastors such as Tim Keller, Andy Crouch, Scotty Smith and others who ultimately stand upon the towering shoulders of Francis Schaeffer to artists like Bono, Andrew Peterson, Michael Card, Charlie Peacock, Makoto Fujimura, etc., many are promoting creativity as a mimicry of the Divine and the creation of beauty as a valid avenue of bringing glory to the ultimate King of Glory.

There are also some who are beginning to address the issue of creating environments of creativity, caring not only about the end product, the art, but also caring well for the artists. Wrapped up in this larger discussion is the interesting aspect of caring for artists by purposefully developing a market for their art. In other words, if artists are to thrive and help us as a society “see” what few in our increasingly frantic culture have the time or trained eye to see, then we must think through the creation of avenues by which artists may earn an actual living wage for their work. In other words, we are talking about the revival of a system of patronage.

Wedgwood Circle is one particular group pursuing just this kind of endeavor. Check them out.

If you are anything like me, your reaction will probably follow a similar path. Mild confusion – elementary understanding – utter disbelief – growing excitement – an uncontrollable urge to initiate something similar – an uncomfortable reminder that I am not, nor do I know any “high net worth investors” – low level depression – reminder that it is ultimately God who is the Author of all good things – and then my final arrival at a place of dependence upon the Lord to do what He will.

(Why must I always go through such emotional gymnastics before I arrive at dependence upon and rest in Him? Oh well, yet more evidence that I have not yet arrived. Man, and I thought the whole seminary degree had taken care of that one.)

Deep thoughts about Puerto Rican food

2010-09-16T11:24:00.008-05:00

I like arroz con gandules.

I know that sounds strange coming from a white guy who grew up in South-west Alabama, especially since most people don’t even know what arroz con gandules is. Basically it is a rice-based dish from Puerto Rico made with pigeon peas. Every family function or special occasion includes this, the unofficial national dish of the island. And it is heavenly. Mmmm.

I also particularly like mofongo and lechon, both traditional Puerto Rican dishes. There is actually much about Puerto Rican food and culture that I love dearly.

I love the island and its slower pace of life. I love the people with their celebratory lifestyles. Absolutely everything is an opportunity to throw a party. And the music! I am firmly convinced that the true, complete and pleasing worship of the Triune God will never be fully realized until we begin writing more worship music with merengue and salsa rhythms. (said tongue planted only partially in cheek)

So how does a slightly red-neckish guy from LA (that would be lower Alabama) come to love the food, culture and rhythms of a small Caribbean island like Puerto Rico?

Well, in short, I fell in love with all of these things because I love a Puerto Rican. My wife was born in San Juan and much of her family still lives both in Rio Piedras and Caguas. Though she grew up much of her life in the States, when you stepped through the front door of her family’s home, you were in Puerto Rico. It is because of my love and intense affection for a particular person that I have become enamored with and have begun to develop at least an elementary understanding of the culture of a particular people.

And this concept got me thinking. If there are particular cultures or people groups towards whom I display a lack of understanding or even affection, could at least part of the reason be because I have not loved particular people well?

Rather than the fault being with “them”, and you can fill in your own blank with whoever this might be for you. It may be a particular racial group (Hispanics for example or maybe African-Americans), a certain segment of society, (maybe the mentally ill), a specific socio-economic group (perhaps the poor or maybe even the very rich), a particular affinity group (artistic types or free thinkers). Whoever our specific group may be, rather than finding fault with “them” for not conforming to our standards of whatever is “normative”, perhaps the weight of the matter rests upon the sad fact that we simply have not loved well.

I love Puerto Rico because I love a Puerto Rican. And it is because of my love for a Puerto Rican that a more fully orbed picture of the true Kingdom of God has been opened before me. A Kingdom that includes God-glorifying things like arroz con gandules and Merengue.

We are told in Scripture that there is coming A Day when we will all see this carried out to it’s fullest conclusion, when the King of Glory returns and people…

“from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages [stand] before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and [cry] out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And when I picture this scene from Revelation 7, with no intended irreverence at all, I can’t help but hear the multitudes sing with a slightly Latin-infused rhythm. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Oak Mountain and La Quemada in the news

2010-08-12T06:25:00.000-05:00

Oak Mountain Church is part of a larger community of people seeking to bring the light of the gospel into a world darkened by drugs, gangs, prostitution and abject poverty. And one of the coolest parts? This is not simply a one-time event motivated by a particular populations appeasement of their "affluent guilt" complex. There are a group of passionate, long-term committed, relational, sold-out-for-the-sake-of-the-nations type of people who are down here on a regular basis meeting the needs, not of "poor, helpless people" but of individuals created in the image of God, fellow image bearers.

Check out local news coverage of one recent event here.

Loving Well

2010-08-09T19:01:00.000-05:00

Scott and Alison Herron are friends that Susie and I got to know during our time in St. Louis. The Herron's currently live in Bentonville, Arkansas where Scott teaches high school. They have jobs, kids, responsibilities, in short, they have a full plate.

Not too long ago, Alison felt the Lord leading her to invite Marie, a young woman having a tough time, into their home and to provide her with stability, mentoring, friendship, a shoulder to cry on (and with). In short, Scott and Alison decided to love well.

This is a snapshot of the story from Marie's point of view.

Art House America

2010-08-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

Begun by Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock in Nashville, TN, Art House America seeks to "cultivate creative community for the common good". The following quote from Charlie's article Creative Community for the Common Good sums up their vision fairly nicely.

Like a farm that nurtures good health, Art House America is in the business of cultivating creative people who bring good health to people and planet. Sometimes these creative people are artists in the most traditional sense — makers of music, theater, films, dance, paintings, and metalwork. You know the kind. With the word “art” in our name you know we take this seriously. Just as important, though, is our work of encouraging everyone, in everything, to live imaginative and meaningful lives. We really do believe that every human being is made to be a creative contributor, to play his or her role in the artful, meaningful life of caring for people and planet. We really do believe, along with C.S. Lewis, that the imagination is the “organ of meaning,” and that its fruit is creativity of every kind.

This is also similar to what many here at Oak Mountain Church have begun to see manifested within our local context with The REnaissance Project. It is encouraging to see a broader movement throughout the church at large towards such a movement where beauty and creativity are not only accepted, but purposefully developed and encouraged to flourish. May God continue to bring glory to himself through the continued expansion of such a movement.

The REnaissance Project part 4

2010-08-02T06:11:00.001-05:00

part 1 A Transitional Movement
part 2 A Revival of Classical Influence
part 3 A Flowering of the Arts and Literature

So how will The Renaissance Project seek to practically carry out this vision?

II. Structural framework (borrowing from Redeemer PCA's Center for Faith and Work)

The REnaissance Project seeks to:

Build communities of artists where they can know and be known by God and by one another (Seeking GRACE from God)

Provide opportunities for artists to create in a safe, nurturing and grace-centered community, for the benefit of the church and the city of Birmingham
(Sharing GRACE in community)

Lead the community of faith at Oak Mountain Church to engage with the art and artistic communities in and around Birmingham
(Showing GRACE to all)

The REnaissance Project part 3

2010-07-30T07:22:00.001-05:00

So what is the REnaissance Project?

I. Philisophical Framework (in 3 parts)

(part 1 of 3) A Transitional Movement: a re-structuring of priorities
(part 2 of 3) A Revival of Classical Influence: a re-discovery of ancient inspiration

(part 3 of 3)
A Flowering of the Arts and Literature: a re-birth of creativity

During the Renaissance there was an explosion of creativity and beauty which brought glory to the ultimate Author of creativity and beauty. This was not the first time in human history when such a movement took place. We have seen how in God’s creative act in Genesis 1 that he set the paradigm for creating and highlighting beauty. We also saw from Exodus 31 and in David’s serving as a poet, a songwriter and a musician how creativity flourished among God’s people.

As we look at the Bible itself we see varied genres of literature displayed highlighting the diversity and creativity even within specific areas of the Arts. We witness everything from History to Poetry and music to Prophecy. We see the creative use of language as the author’s own personalities and artistic gifts are used and even highlighted by the Holy Spirit.

The Renaissance Project also desires to assist, encourage, and participate in yet another God inspired explosion of creativity and beauty which brings glory to the God of all creation.

The REnaissance Project part 2

2010-07-28T05:43:00.000-05:00

So what is The Renaissance Project?

I. Philosophical framework (in 3 parts)

Part 1) A Transitional Movement: a restructuring of priorities

Part 2) A Revival of Classical Influence: a re-discovery of ancient inspiration

After 400 years of slavery and oppression in the land of Egypt, the Lord brings the people of Israel through the Red Sea to the foot of Mt. Sinai in order to introduce himself to a people who were only vaguely aware that they were a people. Through the giving of Genesis by the divinely inspired pen of their divinely appointed leader Moses, we see a record of God’s introduction of himself to this recently freed group of slaves. People, meet Yahweh, your God. The first recorded act that a sovereign and purposeful God chooses to record, the first characteristic of himself revealed to this people is as Creator. Genesis 1:1 states that, “In the beginning, God created…” God as Creator. Creativity is a divine attribute. The very act of participating in the creative process is a mimicry of the Divine.

As we look around at the results of this divine act of creation, even in its fallen state our breath is taken away by jagged, snow-capped peaks, by vast, sparkling oceans, by the heart stopping beauty of a sunset, by the panorama of colors revealed upon a canvas of Fall leaves. Even in the amazing diversity and creativity displayed within the countless flora and fauna found across the globe, God’s creative nature screams to us in a symphony of varied revelations.

In Exodus 31 we see in the commissioning of Oholiab and Bezalel as craftsmen and artisans for the Tabernacle the importance which God places upon the creation of beauty for His own Glory. In the creation of beautiful things, whether that be a carefully built piece of furniture, a well constructed story, a beautiful painting, a spectacularly designed landscape or a finely crafted song, not only are we bearing and reflecting the image of God by mimicking the divine attribute of His creativity, we are also bringing glory to God by the creation of beauty.

Historically, particularly during the middle ages, much of the finest art in the area of music, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, etc was produced for and commissioned by the church. Where would Michelangelo or Da Vinci been without the church as a patron? Where would Handel have been without the body of Christ supporting his composing music for God’s own glory? It could even be argued that David in his composition and performance of music at the request of King Saul was a beneficiary of Saul’s (admittedly schizophrenic) patronage.

The Renaissance Project desires to encourage and work towards a return to the churches broader involvement in and support of the arts community.

An Introduction to The REnaissance Project

2010-07-26T15:00:00.004-05:00

So what is The REnaissance Project?

I. Philosophical framework

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “renaissance” as the following:

1 the transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century in Italy, lasting into the 17th century, and marked by a humanistic revival of classical influence expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature and by the beginnings of modern science b : the period of the Renaissance c : the neoclassic style of architecture prevailing during the Renaissance 2 often capitalized : a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity 3 : rebirth, revival

In the coming days we will look briefly at each of the following three elements.

A transitional movement
A revival of classical influence
A flowering of the arts and literature

A Transitional Movement: a re-structuring of priorities

We, as a Reformed denomination founded upon the importance of sola scriptura, have historically and correctly placed a very high degree of importance upon the hearing and teaching and preaching of God’s Holy Word. Whatever we do, whatever we teach, we do so because those things are found within the pages of the Bible. This is good. This is right. This is true.

However, as imperfect, fallen individuals, fractured by the Fall in ways beyond our full comprehension, we have at times failed to apply the high degree of importance found within the pages of Scripture to the full spectrum of life in the same ways which Scripture does.

All of life is under the Lordship of Christ. Where we have rightly placed importance upon the faithful preaching of God’s Word and holy living, we shall say “Amen”. However, in areas where we have not historically appropriated the Lordship of Christ, we must repent for our incomplete application of gospel Lordship and seek, under the authority and motivation of Scripture, to move forward in the reclaiming of those areas.

The Arts is one such area that has historically been neglected within the larger Reformed community of believers. In seeking to raise the importance of this particular area of life, we do not in any way seek to de-value areas where we have historically been strong. The Renaissance Project seeks to reclaim and champion an important and vital area of God’s good creation by emphasizing the Lordship of Christ over all areas of the Arts and claiming them for His glory.

The Power of a Mentor

2010-07-19T13:33:00.005-05:00

I read an interesting article over on CNN earlier today about Donald Miller and David Gentiles (pictured above). Never heard of Gentiles? Well, if it weren't for Gentiles you probably would never have heard of Miller. Regardless of what you think about Miller's personality, theological positions or political affections, this article is a great testimony to the power of mentoring.

One life being poured into another for the sake, not just of that individual, but for the sake of the broader kingdom.

It is what Atlanta business-man Regi Campbell in a 2009 book titled "Mentor Like Jesus" calls "intentionally investing in the next generation .... for God's glory." It is a process patterned by Jesus and commanded by Jesus. And it is an area in which many modern evangelical churches, for all of our technological know-how and theological precision are amazingly anemic.

So read about Gentiles' impact on Miller. Consider the books not written, the initiatives not begun and ask yourself, who are those in the next generation into whom you are pouring your life?

Then join me in repentance over our failure to give away what we have been so freely given, namely our lives and the grace by which to live them through faith in the unmerited favor and blessing of a Savior greater than we could ever imagine. Then, and only then, in light of this amazing grace shown to us, let us move forward into the amazing and humbling challenge of pouring what we have been given into the lives of others. For the glory of God.

For hospitality or for narcissism?

2010-06-13T06:42:00.000-05:00

The average North American consumer spends between 30 – 40 percent of their monthly income on home related expenses. Much of that same group rarely experiences any social interaction at all within that home with the exception of their immediate family.

We often justify the purchase of homes and lifestyles so that we will have enough space to have friends over, to “entertain”, or within the evangelical community to “use for ministry”. However, too often we end up working so much to pay for our financial over-extension that we never have the time or energy left over to engage in actually entertaining or “ministering” in our neighborhoods.

So if this significant investment of such a large portion of our financial resources is not truly being used for the sake of loving others well through acts of service and hospitality, thereby expanding the influence of the gospel within our immediate communities, are we then not doing so simply for the sake of narcissism and personal comfort?

May we see our sin and negligence towards Christ’s command to love neighbors well.

May we be grieved.

May we be driven in desperation to the compassion and mercy that only the cross of Christ provides.

And may we then, from that place of forgiveness and assurance of the Fathers good pleasure towards us, move forward into our communities, throwing open our arms as well as our front doors and love well those whom God has sovereignly placed in our path.

A Church for the Non-khaki Crowd?

2010-06-08T12:59:00.006-05:00

This past weekend was a festival filled extravaganza around the Birmingham area. There was The Preserve Jazz Festival in Hoover, the 8th annual Art in the Gardens at Aldridge Gardens, also in Hoover, and then there was the Magic City Brewfest held at Sloss Furnaces. Basically, if you weren’t out and about in and around Birmingham this weekend, you missed some amazing opportunities.

For my wife and I, the appointment on the calendar was for the Magic City Brewfest. Some friends of ours had extra tickets to this sold out event and invited us to tag along. While this may not necessarily have been a “normal” outing for us, the free tickets fit very nicely into our family budget and we really do enjoy spending time with the couple who invited us, so we gladly accepted.

There were several things that struck me about the day. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Birmingham and its residents are in no way shape or form an “over-churched” city. This is not to say that there are not segments or cultural pockets of our city that are not saturated. There seems to be no shortage of churches seeking to grow Christ’s kingdom by reaching people who dress like them, eat like them, smell like them, speak like them and agree with every conceivable point of doctrine and theology.

And of course, there is certainly a place for this. After all, men in khakis, loafers and golf shirts need the gospel too. However, if we only surround ourselves with echoes of what we already are convinced is “normal”, it becomes all too easy to slip into a continually shrinking community of individuals who simply “amen” our ever narrowing perspective.

Which, I guess, leads me to a second realization. Many within the churched culture do not spend time outside of our circles of social comfort very often. In short, we do not deal with “different” very well.

But what I witnessed on Saturday afternoon at a beer festival in downtown Birmingham was a church plant waiting to happen. The people there struck me as a crowd Jesus would have felt very much at home with. And those whom I had the opportunity to spend time with struck me, somewhat surprisingly I must confess, as a somewhat Jesus friendly crowd. (Of course they were a generally friendly crowd to begin with and became even “friendlier” as the day went on.)

About half way through the afternoon, I looked at my wife and wondered aloud, Where is the body of Christ followers pursuing this particular group of people? People like the guy with one argyle sock permanently tattooed from ankle to mid-calf on one leg. People like the young couple gently pulling their two toddlers behind them in their Radio Flyer wagon as they went from booth to booth sampling the various products on display. People like the molecular biologist who has a guitar case full of half finished verses and partial choruses at home, never bringing them out for public display because he wasn’t a “real” musician. People like the band member from one of the bands performing that day, who loves his wife and kids, faithfully shows up at work every day and spends all his free time playing multiple stringed instruments and perfecting his own home brew.

Will these individuals be reached by a community of believers who often pride themselves in a devotion to traditionalism and conformity to cultural norms over and above a devotion to Christ and a conformity to Biblical norms? Or will it take a return journey, past a church who often still pines for the “golden age” of the 1950’s, beyond the revivalism of the 18th and the 19th centuries, through the 16th century and all of the glory that was the Protestant Reformation, going all the way back to the 1st century and a wandering Palestinian preacher who made it a point to pursue those not welcomed within the acceptable circles of established religion of the day?

My brain is churning, my heart is enflamed, and my prayer is for Christ to invade and move among a people who do not yet know that they are a people. May the glory of the Lord illumine eyes that are dark and warm hearts that are cold, wherever they may be found.

Extreme Giftedness; Dedication to Craft; Desire to Glorify God

2010-05-18T14:12:00.004-05:00

What do you get when you mix an extreme giftedness, and dedication to craft with a desire to glorify God by forming and impacting culture?

Makoto Fujimura is an artist who creates beauty from a place of deep theological understanding. And he does so to wide critical acclaim as well.

What if all of Christendom lived out the inescapable call to bear the Creator's image in each of our uniquely assigned realms? There is only one possible outcome of such a movement...

REVIVAL.

A Former Monastic, An Actor, A Pastor

2010-05-12T16:25:00.009-05:00

(image by John L. White P/D)

Several years back, when I was a student at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO, I was fortunate enough to be able to work in the seminary's admissions office. As a full-time student, and a full-time father and husband, being able to have a job where I could walk straight out of class and into a setting where I was immediately applying practical ministry skills was an incredibly valuable part of my preparation for being a shepherd of God's people.

And the opportunities to shepherd were numerous and varied, like the guy who was investigating seminary because his boss at Taco Bell said he couldn't really do anything else worthwhile, so he might as well be a pastor. (We decided that seminary probably wasn't the most appropriate path for him, by the way.)

And then there was the evening a guy named Jim Butz walked in and asked to talk to someone about applying to seminary. There were several things that stood out about Jim. For one, he had spent some time living in a monastic community. A real live monk. You don't meet many monks in real life, so when you do you kind of want to take advantage of the opportunity.

Another thing that stood out about Jim was his passion for life and his respect for the image of God in people. This conviction of a persons intrinsic value manifested itself early in Jim's marriage when he met a homeless guy downtown in Forest Park and invited him to come home and sleep on the couch until the guy could get back on his feet. Did I mention that Jim and his bride had barely been married a year at this point? This was no ordinary guy (or ordinary bride for that matter).

Jim was also an actor. A real live, honest to goodness, Shakespeare-in-the-park kind of actor. It was actually after one of his performances of Shakespeare in the Park where Jim met his homeless roommate. Just met him and brought him home.

I have remembered my conversations with Jim often. It was one of many opportunities God has taken to introduce me to individuals who pursue art, craft and beauty to the glory of a creative God.

I was excited recently to discover this April 2010 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about Jim and the relationship between his craft and his faith. Imagine, a man living out in his God-given, creative spirit what it means to be both an artist and a pastor.

I, for one, pray for many more "Jims" to be called by a God who creates and ordains beauty; a beauty which sings of His own great Glory.

Being morally and spiritually distinct without being culturally segregated

2010-04-29T09:58:00.004-05:00

An excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian's Unfashionable: making a difference in the world by being different.

Martin Luther was once approached by a man who enthusiastically announced that he’d recently become a Christian. Wanting desperately to serve the Lord, he asked Luther, “What should I do now?” As if to say, should he become a minister or perhaps a traveling evangelist?

Luther asked him, “What is your work now?”

“I’m a shoemaker.”

Much to the cobbler’s surprise, Luther replied, “Then make a good shoe and sell it at a fair price.”

In becoming Christians, we don’t need to retreat from the vocational calling we already have. Nor do we need to justify that calling, whatever it is, in terms of its “spiritual” value or evangelistic usefulness. We simply exercise whatever our calling is with new God-glorifying motives, goals, and standards—and with a renewed commitment to performing our calling with greater excellence and higher objectives.

One way we reflect our Creator is by being creative right where we are with the talents and gifts he has given us. As Paul says, “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. . . . So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God” (1 Corinthians 7:20, 24). As we do this, we fulfill our God-given mandate to reform, to beautify, our various “stations” for God’s glory.

I once heard Os Guinness speak about what such reform will require. He said the main reason Christians aren’t making more of a difference in our world is not that they aren’t where they should be. There are, in other words, plenty of artists, lawyers, doctors, and business owners that are Christians. Rather, the main reason is that Christians aren’t who they should be right where they are.

Outwardly, there may be no clearly discernible difference between a non-Christian’s work and that of a Christian. Many have noted that a transformational approach to culture doesn’t mean every human activity practiced by a Christian (designing computers, repairing cars, selling insurance, or whatever) must be obviously and externally different from the same activities practiced by non-Christians. Rather, the difference is found in “the motive, goal, and standard.” John Frame writes, “The Christian seeks to change his tires to the glory of God and the non-Christian does not. But that’s a difference that couldn’t be captured in a photograph. When changing tires, a Christian and non-Christian may look very much alike.”

Not only is Christ the Lord of the church; he’s also supreme over the family, the arts, the sciences, and human society at large. In the famous words of Abraham Kuyper, “There is not one square inch in the entire domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”

That’s why we must not withdraw from the world but rather bring the standards of God’s Word to bear on every dimension of human culture. Making a difference for Christ means bringing every area of our lives under his lordship. We must live in passionate devotion to him at all times and in all circumstances. As we do this, God’s renewing power is unleashed through us.

So, while Christians are to separate from the self-glorifying motives, God-ignoring goals, and subpar work standards of the world (our spiritual separation), we’re not to separate from the peoples, places, and things in the world (a spatial separation). We’re to be morally and spiritually distinct without being culturally segregated.

In Luke 16:9, Jesus encourages his disciples to match the resourcefulness of worldly people in reaching goals, but he specifies that the goals Christians pursue are different. We’re to focus on the glory of the age to come, not on the worldly pursuits of pleasure, profit, and position. The old saying that Christians shouldn’t be so heavenly minded that they’re of no earthly good is true as far as it goes, but in today’s world Christians’ earthly good depends on our heavenly mindedness. This reminds me of C. S. Lewis’s remark that the Christians who did the most for the present age were those who thought the most of the next.

One artist's interaction with the book of John

2010-03-29T11:01:00.001-05:00

Seth Conley is an artist in East Nashville, TN. This is a snapshot from his story.

Can your back yard impact the Kingdom?

2010-03-24T10:59:00.006-05:00

Were you aware that the state of Alabama has the 12^th highest rate of food insecurity out of all 50 States?

What about the fact that we rank 48^th according to the United Health Foundation America’s Health Rankings in national health status due to the high rates of obesity (28.4%) and diabetes (8.7%), increasing rates of children in poverty, and high premature death rate?

According to other recent studies addressing our specific area of the state, “over a third of Birmingham city children live in families below the poverty level. Younger generations, especially among the lower income communities have been shown to be becoming increasingly reliant on lesser nutritious convenience and fast foods. In conjunction with the tendency for Alabama children to eat the fewest fruits and vegetables of other states surveyed, Alabama children living in poverty are at even greater risk for health complications that can be easily prevented by dietary improvements and educational intervention.”

For many of us, this type of information is the equivalent of watching TV news reports of large scale African famines complete with swollen bellies and swarming gnats and flies. We would honestly rather just change the channel.

And we have.

Rather than seeing what is there, we would rather hang out at The Summit or Patton Creek. It’s pretty easy actually. As long as you never cross Red Mountain, one could easily go on indefinitely without ever stopping to contemplate the crisis that exists 15 minutes to the north of us.

But what if someone cared enough to move past the “I wouldn’t even know where to start!” stage? What if we began to contemplate the grace shown to us in our own relative economic blessing? What if there were a small handful of people who decided to apply for a Hope for the ‘Ham grant and walk into a downtown elementary school to do something like this? Or this? Or perhaps this?

Or what if a church decided to challenge its members to tap unused backyard space to produce, well…. produce? Each Friday, whatever is harvested for that week is then transported to an adopted downtown school where a small scale farmers market is erected. As children leave school for the weekend, they leave with a small sampling of fresh produce to take home to their families. Students families could also sign up for a “garden mentor” to spend one Saturday a month during the gardening season visiting with the family and laying out a home garden space, aiding them in becoming self-sufficient gardeners.

How long can we continue to simply change the channel? How long before God’s people are moved to see this dilemma, not as a welfare issue, but as a spiritual issue, an issue of our inadequate understanding of the grace shown to us by a merciful Father?

May God grant His people the eyes to see, the heart to care, and the will to address the issues that grieve His heart.

Matthew 25:35 – 40

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Lessons in Hope from a Backyard Gardener

2010-02-25T17:04:00.004-06:00

I like to garden. I mean, I REALLY enjoy gardening.

Perhaps it’s the feel of a rough, wooden hoe handle against my fingers, sanding away softness and creating calluses which remind me of my grandfather’s hands, hands which always held great comfort, experience and wisdom. Those hands that could make anything grow, no matter how hard the soil. And they did their fair share of cultivation in my own life as well.

Or maybe it’s the excitement of a four year old discovering a secret subterranean world of earthworms and grubs as he digs potatoes.

Oh, and compost, glorious compost. Ahh.

(I need therapy, I know.)

Maybe it’s the smell of rich, dark, freshly turned soil, or the first flash of bright, defiant green breaking the earthen plane, boldly declaring to winter that though her icy fingers were persistent and her winds blew with violent ferocity, they could not hold back the eventual and sure dawning of a new Spring.

Yes, I think that’s getting closer to it. In a word, I guess the practice of gardening reminds me to…. hope.

Hebrews 11 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

When I begin prepping my plots, there is still a chill in the air. When those first seeds are placed in the soil, the trees have not yet tipped their hand towards Spring by showing forth their new buds. Gardening often begins when there is little evidence suggesting that winter is yet over.

And yet it is not a completely blind leap. Because of past experience, I do know Spring is coming. My hope is, as the ESV Study Bible puts it, “not a vague hope grounded in imaginary, wishful thinking.” Rather it is “a settled confidence that something in the future – something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God - will actually come to pass because God will bring it about.”

How can I know this? Because He has proven himself faithful in the past, both in my own story as well as in countless stories revealed to us within His Word. Because of God’s “observable track record” I know that He is worthy of the hope I place in Him.

Gardening can remind us to hope. It can remind us that in our own winters when icy fingers are attempting to grip our soul and the ferocious winds of fear and despair are seeking to assault our spirit that there is such a thing as Spring. And the warmth and new life that characterize this yet unseen season are just as sure as the cold wind which may be all too real today.

Yes…. hope. Spring IS coming. And honestly, sometimes we could use the reminder.

Numbers Matter

2010-02-17T15:46:00.005-06:00

I have been playing some with numbers lately. Actually my job has a lot to do with numbers. As Pastor for Newcomers and Outreach at Oak Mountain Church, you might say that numbers play a pretty big role in my daily life. The number of members, the number of 1^st time visitors, the number of repeat visitors, the number of new members….sometimes my desk feels like a never ending flow of numerical data.

Some people may balk at that. Decrying an over-emphasis on numbers can sound very “holy” and “righteous”. That is, of course, until you begin to realize (much like we learned in last night’s episode of LOST... Sorry, couldn't resist.) that every one of those numbers actually represents a unique individual, created in the image of God and in desperate need of a Redeemer.

Then you kind of begin to make a connection between 1^st time visitor number 347 and the guy who is walking through the doors because his wife decided last week that, after years of marriage she actually didn’t love him after all. And there he is saying, “Tell me again that God is in control. Tell me why to believe and how to explain all this to my 2 year old daughter.”

You begin to realize that new member number whatever and fifty-four is actually a legalistic, hard-nosed CEO whose wife and children hate him almost as much as his employees do. And there he is, hearing for the first time in his life of this new concept of grace. And he is saying, “How does this apply to me? What impact does this have for my socially functional yet relationally and connectionaly anemic, gospel-less marriage?”

Here is my point. Numbers matter because people matter.

We, as individuals, come into contact literally with THOUSANDS of people each week. If you add in contacts through social networking contexts like Facebook, Twitter, etc. that number then explodes exponentially.

Simple question. Who in your sphere of contacts are you inviting into your community of faith?

Two ways to take that question really. First, who are you literally inviting to become a member of the family of God? With whom are you, on a consistent basis, sharing your faith? You too? Hmm….

Secondly, who are you inviting into your locally recognizable community of faith, your church. If your church and its pastors are proclaiming the truth of the gospel, that God pursues the broken, the undeserving and the rebellious (and if they are not proclaiming this message, then why are you still there?), then wouldn’t it make sense to simply invite someone to attend worship next Sunday?

Here is what it might look like in our particular context at Oak Mountain Church. We have approximately 1,400 adult members of our church. For simplicity sake, let’s take that down to 1,000. If we then take HALF of that 1,000, that then leaves us with 500.

Stay with me now.

There are 12 months in a year. Let’s drop December because of the Christmas holidays and March because of Spring Break. That leaves us with 10 months.

500 people, inviting 1 person a month for 10 months, just gave us 5,000 unique visitors walking through our front door, exposing them to gospel infused, Christ-focused ministry and all of this with a relational connection already in place to our church. YOU!

5,000 people, whose lives could be dramatically changed.

Imagine with me for a moment what our church would look like with ….. no, wait, what our city would look like with 5,000 new people being influenced by the gospel? What would that do to the fact that 12% of Birmingham City School students are recognized as homeless? What would that do to our city’s murder rate? What effect would that have on our region? I think I could get kind of excited about dreaming like that.

So who are you bringing this Sunday?

RedeemingTechnology for the Sake of the Gospel

2010-02-09T16:00:00.003-06:00

Um...wow.

Among the many interesting items in this video,

"The mobile device will be the world's primary connection tool to the internet in 2020."

What implications does this have for the church, for our growth and movement forward in engaging the next generations? What tools may we be completely ignoring while their potential for redeemed gospel usefulness goes untapped? This technological revolution could be every bit as seismic in our generation as Gutenberg's printing press was in his.

In Response to the Disaster in Haiti

2010-01-18T15:11:00.003-06:00

photo from website of Churches helping Churches

Churches Helping Churches is the new site for a dedicated work begun by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA and James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Church in Napierville, IL. The mission is simple, summed up by Paul's words from Galatians 6:10.

"So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

MacDonald's words in response to the earthquake disaster in Haiti tug at my heart as it breaks for my brothers and sisters in this ravaged island nation which Christ dearly loves.

"The world will always be better, faster, and more effective than we can be at the important work of relief. As individuals, we should give to these efforts, pray for these efforts, and even volunteer to help, if God so directs.

BUT the primary focus of the church gathered, the priority calling of the body of Christ, the first response of all biblically-informed believers must be to help the church. Locating local communities of brothers and sisters in Christ, assessing the needs of local churches in hardest hit areas, rallying the church in North America to rescue and restore the church, wherever it is ravaged by natural disaster or human tragedy . . . This is the most important step of obedience we can offer to Christ and His kingdom.

Who will help the church? By God’s grace we will, together we can."

This sentiment is expressed beautifully in the song and video on Churches Helping Churches home page.

Our own denomination, the PCA, is also currently assessing what we can do in response to this tragedy. Updates can be followed here.

Locally, here at Oak Mountain Church we will be taking up a special dedicated offering for the work in Haiti this coming Sunday, January 24th. Checks may be made payable to Oak Mountain Church with "Haiti" designated at the bottom.

May the Lord God whom we call both sovereign and compassionate grant mercy, healing and peace to his bride the church in the coming weeks and months. And as always, may God be glorified and may His kingdom come.

Facing North with Scott Roley

2010-01-12T10:36:00.003-06:00

Great thoughts from Scott Roley, Senior Pastor at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. Challenging as well. How many pastors do you know have the opportunity / take the opportunity to tour with a band in order to take the pulse of those traditionally outside of the church?

Hope for the 'Ham

2010-01-06T09:28:00.004-06:00

Many of the best ideas are simply copies of someone else's brilliance. At least that's the way it typically goes with me. Not much originality here, I just don't have the brain cells.

This has been the case with Oak Mountain's Hope for the 'Ham grant proposal for our LIFE Groups. "Hope for the 'Ham" is simply a repeat of Mars Hill in Seattle's MicroMissions project (albeit with slightly less funding). What we are hoping to do is to encourage our LIFE Groups to fulfill the third part of our church's vision statement, the "Showing grace to all" part, by providing seed funding for ministries of outreach and mercy. The goal is simply to enable our members, through their small group communities, to love their neighborhoods well through acts of gospel-motivated service. In other words, to show grace to the "least" and the "lost" whom we cross paths with every day.

Read an example of what this has looked like for one of Mars Hill's community groups here. Be inspired and then light a fire under your LIFE Group. Don't wait for someone else to lead.

Want to give a unique gift this Christmas?

2009-12-11T15:12:00.003-06:00

Mentoring Spotlight - Ben and Dennis from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.

There are three boys, brothers, who need a mentor right now.

Three brothers who have lived for half their lives with no mother. She was murdered.

Three boys who have lived much of their lives with a father who struggles heavily with addiction. He is currently incarcerated.

Three brothers who currently live with a relative… all in a one bedroom apartment.

Three brothers who are in one school for the longest period of time they have ever experienced…. at a year and a half. If you are a member of Oak Mountain Church, there is a possibility that one of these three brothers are in your child’s classroom.

Three brothers who statistics show have a dim future ahead of them….. except for you.

Many say, “I would love to do something if I only knew what to do.”

Here is your chance.

Contact Jason Tucker at jtucker@ompc.org

Believe the gospel, and do something.

2009-12-07T08:03:00.000-06:00

From The Mentoring Project .

The Mentoring Project - Elephant Musth Cycle from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.

Believe the gospel, and do something.

Authentic belief in the true gospel leads to active mission

2009-12-03T08:48:00.001-06:00

I continue to be blown away by the creativity and ingenuity of people at Oak Mountain Church who are gripped by the gospel to such a degree that they then move forward into all areas of life with this message of redemption. Because they are convinced that this very same gospel that has spoken to them in real and life-changing ways actually has something to say to the world around them, mission happens.

Nations Outfitters is one example.

Thank you Holy Spirit for the work you are continuing to do among us.

from abc 33/40 news

Gotta' have more Bezalel

2009-11-30T15:47:00.004-06:00

x31art.com is a unique website showcasing believing artists and their work. One of the things I trulylove about the site is how each piece is accompanied by a short video of the artist discussing that particular work.

The name (x31art) comes from Exodus 31 where we witness the LORD explaining to Moses that He has chosen Bezalel and has "filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft." (Exodus 31:3-5) He then appoints Oholiab to assist him in carrying out the LORD's instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle, the place of worship.

Did you get that? God, the LORD Most High called, filled and gifted specific individuals within this community of faith in the areas of ability and intelligence, knowledge and all craftsmanship, in order to devise artistic designs so that the people of God may be provided for and led in worship.

There is a principle of Biblical interpretation that basically says the following: Any teaching in the Old Testament that is not explicitly changed in the New Testament is therefore still appropriate and applicable in the life of the New Testament believer. For example, we no longer offer sacrifices of animals in payment for sin because of the once and for all offering of the ultimate Sacrifice, Jesus himself, which makes these animal sacrifices unnecessary (Hebrews 10). In the same way, we no longer adhere to the Old Testament dietary laws because of Peter's vision in Acts 10 where we see "the voice" telling Peter that "What God has made clean, do not call common."

Here is the point. If God, by the wisdom of his own counsel, saw fit to select and appropriately gift individuals to effectively lead his people in worship by means of constructing and artistically rendering things of beauty, why then are we not seeking out those individuals among God's people today? Are we then, by our non-verbal tip of the hat, revealing ourselves to be selective interpreters of Scripture, doing whatever fits our own pre-conceived ideas of what "proper church" looks like?

Of course, the proper course of action is to faithfully explore the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word, the very breath of God (2 Timoth 3:16), to seek God's wisdom in interpreting it faithfully, and then by the power of the Holy Spirit to actually apply it.

So here's to finding more Bezalel's in our midst, so that the people of God can continue to be led in this glorious, multi-faceted act that we call worship.

A Simple Act of Service and Humility

2009-11-12T14:18:00.006-06:00

In David Nasser’s new release from Baker Books, he recounts his story from early childhood in Iran, through the Revolution and then to his surreal life as an Iranian boy growing up in (of all places) Birmingham, AL. The tagline on the cover reads “The gripping story of one man’s escape from revolution to redemption.

From what I have read so far it truly is a compelling story, not just of a family’s escape from political and religious persecution in the Middle East, but also of one boy’s journey in being continually drawn towards the freedom and grace of the gospel. Some of the stories of how God pursues Nasser are truly amazing. The following is a paraphrase of one such story.

David tells of being invited to go to church by a friend in high school. He really didn’t want to have to tell his friend no, so he decided to ask his dad and let him be the “bad guy”. You see, David’s family was Muslim and he knew there was NO WAY his dad would ever allow him to attend a Christian church. So David and his friend approached his dad late one evening.

Upon asking permission to attend church on the next Sunday David, rather than receiving a straightforward “no”, was surprised by his father’s question of which church.

“Shades Mountain Baptist” was the response.

“I know some people that attend that church. They are good people. You may attend that church. But only that church.”

The rest of the story is that several weeks prior, there were a group of leaders from Shades Mountain Baptist that had been eating at the Café De France at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which David’s father operated at that time. The restaurant was slammed and service was getting backed up. Instead of getting frustrated with the slow service, this group of men actually got up from their table and pitched in. (Hmm. Christians influencing the world around them through simple acts of service and humility. What an amazing concept!)

Because of the humility shown by this group of faithful men, David was allowed by his Muslim father to attend a Christian church. A major chapter in David's story and one of the multiple steps on his pathway towards grace.

Simple and obvious question. Where would David Nasser be today had these anonymous men not lived out the gospel in such a practical way? Profound.

Now here is the question that hurts. How many David Nasser’s have I crossed paths with in my life? (Yes, I know. God is sovereign. As a Reformed, Calvinistic pastor, I agree absolutely. But I would also submit that “proper theology” is never an excuse for an unfaithfulness to Christ's commands.)

If the gospel is true, then it must impact the way we live our lives. Not only in the Bible studies we teach or the sermons we prepare, but in the way we treat the server who pours our coffee, the janitor who empties the wastebasket in our office and the unknown neighbor who lives next door.

There is simply no “off button” to the Christian life. As believers, we are always “on”, always serving, always observing, always seeking ways to show a hopeless world that grace and hope do exist in a man. His name is Jesus and we as the church are his body.

“That’s too much,” you say. “I can’t live under that kind of pressure. It is just so much easier to lay low, fly under the radar and live out my simple, quiet faith.”

My response? “You are right. It is too much. Realistically we can’t respond well at all times. But that is precisely why the gospel is true and valid for believers as well as non-believers. Though our position as sons and daughters of the Most High God is absolutely secure, we are also desperately in need of His continued pouring out of mercy, grace and strength upon us as we walk through a broken world seeking to display His care and mercy to others as marred and wounded image bearers ourselves.

May God continue to expand his Kingdom by jealously pursuing a people to call his own, and by His mercy and grace may he continue to use broken people like us in the process.

A Christian and The Arts - A Perspective from Schaeffer

2009-11-05T12:01:00.004-06:00

As I mentioned recently, there are a group of people at our church who have recently been thinking about the gospel, the arts and what relationship these two areas have or should have with one another. Intriguing. I have been challenged and encouraged.

I have also been blown away on a fairly regular basis to discover just how many supremely talented and artistic people we have at our church. There is an entire community among us who are virtually unknown..... and just possibly, unfortunately, unsupported and unvalidated in their God-given calling.

We are currently seeking ways to encourage and engage many of these individuals in the particular areas of life which they have been called to bear a unique aspect of the image of their Creator. We would love to see this area of interacting with local artists possibly grow into an active bridge, through which we can touch many within this broader community who have no regular interaction with the body of Christ. If you are interested in joining us, or feel that you have ideas or perspective from which we may benefit, feel free to contact me at jtucker@ompc.org.

The following are selected quotes from Francis Schaeffer regarding this topic of Christianity and the arts taken from a longer paper by David Fairchild over at The Resurgence.

“As evangelical Christians, we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life. The rest of human life we feel is more important. Despite our constant talk about the Lordship of Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a very small area of reality. We have misunderstood the concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole of man and the whole of the universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives, and for our culture.”

"This does not mean we simply accept art without thinking about its message. On the contrary, we must think about its message so that we can learn to appreciate art as a work of art, as well as discern how this art either agrees or contradicts the biblical message. As Christians, we must see that just because an artist — even a great artist — portrays a world-view in writing or on canvas, it does not mean that we should automatically accept that worldview. Art may heighten the impact of the world-view — in fact, we can count on this — but it does not make something true. The truth of a world-view presented by an artist must be judged on grounds other than artistic greatness."

“The arts and the sciences do have a place in the Christian life — they are not peripheral. For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God — not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. An art work can be a doxology in itself.”

A Pastors Painful Self-anylazation at Stewardship Time

2009-10-29T15:09:00.006-05:00

I sat down the other day to update our family budget. This is a fairly normal occurrence, particularly with this being the time of year for our church’s stewardship season. I do typically try to sit down once a month or so to look at what we are bringing in as a family, what we are sending out and just where it all goes.

I don’t know what this process is like in your family, but for us this can easily become an exercise in futility. With a full house of 6 people, 4 of whom are continually outgrowing every item of clothing and toy we purchase, as well as inhaling every morsel of food that comes into the house (sometimes even before it can make it from the grocery bag to the pantry) it is way too easy to end each of those months with a negative number. And after you have seemingly cut everything to the bone and you still see little to no improvement, it can honestly get just downright depressing.

I recently heard about a group of individuals though who got me to thinking. I really haven’t made up my mind exactly where my thoughts fall out on this, but I am certainly drawn to their passion and commitment. That in itself isn’t a claim that their path is right or should be normative for everyone, after all there are lots of very cracked pots out there who are passionate and committed to some whacked out lifestyle or another. However, I am certainly convicted by the fervor with which they pursue the welfare of others and are willing to back it up with their lifestyle.

This group of people have committed to cap their family budgets at or below the median U.S income and then give the rest away.

U.S. census figures for 2007 list the U. S. median income at $50,740. For the state of Alabama that number drops to $40,596. For our specific area, here are how the median income numbers line up.

>

	median income	difference from state median	difference from national median
U.S.	$50,740
Alabama	$40,596
Jeff. Co.*	$44,908	$ 4,312	$-5,832
Shelby Co. *	$67,031	$26,435	$16,291
Pelham*	$54,080	$13,484	$ 3,340
Hoover*	$61,982	$21,386	$11,242
Vestavia*	$70,623	$30,027	$19,883
Homewood*	$45,431	$ 4,835	$- 5,309
Birmingham*	$26,735	$-13,861	$-24,005

(* most recent available figures from 1999)

So here is how it works. If someone living in Hoover makes the median income of $61,982, they would commit to capping their family expenses at the national median of $50,740. That would then leave an annual difference of $11,242 to give away, to your church, to a reputable charity, to save one child from a future of forced prostitution and rape for profit by adopting an infant girl from Thailand, India or one of the many African countries. You get the idea.

2 Cambodian girls, under age 12
recently rescued from brothel by International Justice Mission

“But wait,” you say. “I can’t cut my expenses by $11,000 a year. How would I pay my mortgage, my car note? How would I fund my 401K?” And there is the rub. It now begins to meddle in the area of preference and lifestyle choice. Really what we are saying is that we are unwilling to choose a Hyundai over a Lexus or one particular house over another in order to then give the monetary difference away.

But many of us don’t see it this way. We are surrounded by a culture who lives much the same way we do. We think nothing of the car we drive because everybody in our neighborhood drives something similar. We think nothing of the house we live in because everyone around us lives in a similar home. We look just like everybody else.

Now let’s look at this same concept, financially conforming to the standards of those around us. Take this and move it to the realm of moral standards and holiness. Do we conform to the standards of those around us? I read a CNN article recently advocating the end of monogamous marriage relationships because, according to the “experts” these relationships had outlived their usefulness and benefit to society. Do we as the church then chunk marriage because those in the broader culture advocate such a choice?

Remember, I am thinking out loud. I am not declaring a “holier than the rest” club nor am I saying that if you really love Jesus you will adopt this kind of lifestyle.

But here is the question, what would the world have to say about an American Evangelical church that actually lives this out? In what ways would God’s glory be revealed in our city and to the nations if a group of formerly narcissistic, idolatrous “stuff” worshippers began to sell their homes and their land and (gasp) downsize?

What would the employees of a company have to say about a CEO who shows up at work in a 2005 Ford Taurus instead of his shiny new Benz….and then explains why, for the sake of the gospel, he has made this choice? What if, instead of that new flatscreen you have been drooling over for Christmas, you as a family made a conscious choice to support a mother and an infant in a third world country through Compassion International. For $20 a month a mother and child unit can be supported with food and infant formula, vitamins, proper vaccinations and other helps.

I am truly not one to use guilt as a motivator…..very often. Actually I probably use it more than I care to admit, but it is mostly isolated to my parenting rather than my broader ministry, and it is always a sin for which I have to later repent. (Sigh.) I believe that guilt by itself is anti-gospel and only a short-term motivator at best, but can we truly sit at peace in front of our shiny new technological altar and worship the sacrifice of countless lives that our whimsical purchase could have averted? What will it take for revival to arrive on the scene?

What will it take for Christ’s church to take her rightful role as a counter-cultural voice that causes the broader culture to then claim, “I don’t agree with everything that they say, but simply by the way they live their lives you’ve at least got to take a valid look at what they are claiming.” Or, as the pagan Roman Emperor Julian put it, “Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of the Christians as their charity to strangers...the impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor, but for ours as well.”

May God grant us the grace to hear his voice, the strength to respond to his call and the wisdom to discern how to go about the task.

"No wonder they tune us out."

2009-10-22T16:38:00.006-05:00

New release "Unfashionable" from Tullian Tchividjian (Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church)
The following is an excerpt.

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Years ago I was one of five thousand people listening to a panel discussion at a Christian conference. An editor of a conservative political-theological magazine was expressing his frustration with many of the political left-wingers and doing so in an unnecessarily sarcastic and condescending way. When he finished, John Piper (another speaker on the panel) turned to him, and with the utmost seriousness and precision, he said, "For a long time I have appreciated your ministry. You are an astute observer of our culture. I read your magazine every month. It's always insightful. But there's one thing missing from your ministry."

The editor looked at Dr. Piper and asked what it was.

"Tears," Piper replied.

The world so often senses our anger, but do they ever sense our grief? They think we are angry simply because we're not getting our way, but I am afraid they don't feel our sorrow over sin's negative, dehumanizing effects. We fail to communicate our anger in a way that says, "You were made for so much more than this." They assume our anger is only because we're not getting what we want. No wonder they tune us out.

Church Crazies and the Imago Dei

2009-10-20T15:28:00.004-05:00

There is a group of people at our church who are crazy. That’s not really news. Every church has them.

How do I know they are crazy? It’s because of the way they talk and the ideas that they have. This group of people, they think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is SO big and SO transformational that it actually has something to say to the world that exists outside of the Sunday School classroom.

They believe that God, as Creator and as the Source of this image which we bear, has something to say to the creative classes of people which surround us. Painters, musicians, actors, sculptors, photographers, graphic designers, the list goes on. Whether they are Christian or not, they are all in some imperfect way, reflecting something of the character of the Most High Creator. And as a bearer of this image of God, they are worthy of honor, respect, love. In short, they are worthy of being shown worth.

This group of people at our church, you know the crazy ones, they are beginning to ask a simple question. What is our role in taking forth the gospel of Jesus Christ to this community of artists? By showing worth to this community of people who are often found far outside of our “respectable” evangelical enclaves of Norman Rockwell worship, could we actually be scratching the surface of what it means to be truly Christian?

See, I told you they were crazy.

And from where I am sitting, crazy kinda’ looks a whole lot like the stories I read about Jesus.

Does church membership really matter?

2009-10-14T11:20:00.004-05:00

A thoughtful post from Kevin DeYoung on why church membership actually matters.

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“Why bother with church membership?”

I get that question a lot. Sometimes it’s said with genuine curiosity–“So explain to me what membership is all about.” Other times it’s said with a tinge of suspicion–“So tell me again, why do you think I should become a member?”–as if joining the church automatically signed you up to tithe by direct deposit.

I think for many people membership sounds stiff, something you have at your bank or the country club, but too formal for the church. Even if it’s agreed that Christianity is not a lone ranger religion, that we need community and fellowship with other Christians, we still bristle at the thought of officially joining a church. Why all the hoops and classification? Why box the Holy Spirit into member/non-member categories?

Well, believe it or not, membership matters. In addition to some very tangible benefits to membership (for example, only members can hold church office), here’s five good reasons why Christians should join a church.

1. In joining a church you make visible your commitment to Christ and his people. Membership is one way to raise the flag of faith. You state before God and others that you are part of this local body of believers. It’s easy to talk in glowing terms about the invisible church–the body of all believers near and far, living and dead–but it’s in the visible church that God expects you to live out your faith.

Sometimes I think that we wouldn’t all be clamoring for community if we had actually experienced it. Real fellowship is hard work, because most people are a lot like us–selfish, petty, and proud. But that’s the kind of group God calls us to.

How many of Paul’s letters were written to individuals? Only a handful, and these were mostly to pastors. The majority of his letters were written to a local body of believers. We see the same thing in Revelation. Jesus spoke to individual congregations in places like Smyrna, Sardis, and Laodicea. The New Testament knows no Christians floating around in “just me and Jesus” land. Believers belong to churches.

2. Making a Church commitment makes a powerful statement in a low-commitment culture. Most bowling leagues require more of their members than most churches. The church is often a sad reflection of its culture. Ours is a consumer culture where everything is tailored to meet our needs and satisfy our preferences. When those needs aren’t met, we can always move on to the next product, or job, or spouse.

Joining a church in such an environment makes a counter-cultural statement. It says “I am committed to this group of people and they are committed to me. I am here to give, more than get.”

Even if you will only be in town a few years, it’s still not a bad idea to join a church. It lets your home church (if you have one) know that you are being cared for, and it lets us know that you want to be cared for here.

But’s it’s not just about being cared for, it’s about making a decision and sticking with it–something my generation, with our oppressive number of choices, finds difficult. We prefer to date the church–have her around for special events, take her out when life feels lonely, and keep her around for a rainy day. Membership is the way to stop dating churches, and marry one.

3. Church membership keeps us accountable to each other. When we join a church we are offering ourselves to one another to be encouraged, rebuked, corrected, and served. We are placing ourselves under leaders and submitting to their authority (Heb. 13:7). We are saying, “I am here to stay. I want to help you grow in godliness. Will you help me to do the same?”

Mark Dever, in his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, writes,

Church membership is our opportunity to grasp hold of each other in responsibility and love. By identifying ourselves with a particular church, we let the pastors and other members of that local church know that we intend to be committed in attendance, giving, prayer, and service. We allow fellow believers to have great expectations of us in these areas, and we make it known that we are the responsibility of this local church. We assure the church of our commitment to Christ in serving with them, and we call for their commitment to serve and encourage as well.

4. Joining the church will help your pastor and elders be more faithful shepherds. Hebrews 13:7 says “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” That’s your part. Here’s ours: “They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” We take seriously our responsibility before God to watch over your souls. At almost every elders’ meeting, as per our denomination’s Book of Church Order, we “seek to determine whether any members of the congregation are in need of special care regarding their spiritual condition and/or not making faithful use of the means of grace.” This is hard enough to do in a church like ours where there is constant turnover, but it’s even harder when we don’t know who is really a part of this flock.

To give just one example, we are trying to be more diligent in following up with people who haven’t been at our church for a while. But if you never became a member, it is difficult to tell if you are really gone, because we might not be sure if you were ever here! It’s nearly impossible to shepherd the flock when we don’t know who really considers this their flock and really considers us their shepherds.

5. Joining the church gives you an opportunity to make promises. When you become a member here, you make promises to pray, give, serve, attend worship, accept the spiritual guidance of the church, obey its teachings, and seek the things that make for unity, purity, and peace. We ought not to make these promises lightly. They are solemn vows. And we must hold each other to them. If you don’t join the church, you may miss an opportunity to publicly make these promises, and in so doing, invite the elders and the rest of the body to hold you to these promises–which would be missing out on great spiritual benefit, for you and for us.

Think about why membership might matter more than you thought. And if you are looking to make a counter-cultural commitment and invite more accountability and responsibility into your life, why not join a church?

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If you are interested in learning more about membership at Oak Mountain Church, give me a call at 981-4364 or shoot me an email at jtucker@ompc.org.

Who are the poor? A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

2009-10-07T11:53:00.005-05:00

I am still chewing on the implications of the following video from Claudio Oliver. It is a brief yet deep glance into the idea what it means to be poor. His conclusion is a thought-provoking one. Basically the premise is that poverty is NOT and economic issue. It is intrinsically a relational one. The solution to poverty (okay, “solution” may be an overstatement) is not to direct more financial resources in a particular direction. Since the core issue is relational, a better plan of addressing this issue is for us to actually befriend those recognized as poor.

And here is where we, as the independent, Western evangelicals that we are, begin to feel uncomfortable. Surely we can’t actually befriend the poor. We can’t invite them into our homes. What if they steal from us? What if they abuse our friendship? What if they take advantage of us?

Have you seen Les Misérables? I fear we too often worship at the false altar of safety and security.

Another great contemporary example of this is Robert Downey Jr.’s character from the film The Soloist. Downey never can quite understand this mentally ill, classically trained, homeless musician until he ends up spending the night on the streets of LA’s Skid Row with him. Something remarkable happens as this homeless man is transformed from a journalistic experiment to a real live human being, who is a friend. Were there risks? I will simply reference the scene where Robert Downey Jr is crawling away after being beaten by the very friend he was attempting to help.

Again, I fear we too often worship at the false altar of safety and security.

Claudio Oliver’s point cuts home. What happens to the poor if they are truly surrounded by those who care, say for example like the church, or like you? Can a person like this really go without a place to sleep? Would we let one we call a friend live on the streets? Obviously we don’t have all the answers, but my brain and my heart are enjoying the discomfort brought on by the topic. Sometimes, it is this discomfort stirring in my heart which brings a welcome reminder that there are still dragons left to slay.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Scott Roley answering "Where has the church failed?"

2009-09-29T14:42:00.001-05:00

Life. Together.

2009-09-28T14:43:00.004-05:00

My wife and I spent this past weekend in St. Louis visiting some old friends and a few old haunts. We hit downtown, the Arch, the new City Garden, Soulard and then finally McGurk’s for some live, authentic Irish music. There is just something about being among people and places that are familiar, where life has been shared together, in community that breeds, well……life.

We were able to spend time with our dear friends who had struggled for years to have a baby. I still remember the simultaneous joy and pain a couple of years ago when Susie and I discovered we were pregnant with our 4^th and imagining how to share this news without delivering a dagger to these friends whom we dearly love. Well, they delivered their first born just a few weeks ago and as we entered their home, I witnessed the tears flow as Susie was overcome with emotion and joy.

We were able to eat dinner with other friends one of whom we had known for many years previously in Birmingham. I can remember when they moved to St. Louis, a relatively newly-wed couple, and helping him totally demolish the kitchen of their home as he remodeled their first house together. And now, here they were, that same little house busting at the seams with the two beautiful children that God had given them.

I can still remember getting into a conversation with someone at this couple’s house and being 10 minutes or so into the conversation before I realized that this person was not a Christian. I remember the shock and then the subsequent conviction of being surprised by the presence of a non-believer in a Christians home. This is one event that shaped my outlook on Christian ministry almost more than any class I sat through during seminary.

Countless other interactions throughout the weekend continually reminded me of the value of a life lived together, in community. It was all capped off by a tremendously encouraging sermon at Riverside Church entitled “the Neighbor Jesus Loves” by one of my former professors. It is actually one of a series of messages that would be well worth the time to download to podcast for further reflection and digestion. The truth of Scripture delivered with his trademark humility and conversational style reminded me why I was so impacted by the life and the instruction of a guy named Zack Eswine.

And now here I am back at home, energized, thankful to God for the reminder of his faithfulness, and looking forward to the people whom we will cross paths with over these next several months and years. These “neighbors whom Jesus loves” who one day years into the future, Susie and I will be able to visit and recount days gone by when, through the power of the gospel true life was lived, together.

Six ways to engage culture, fromJonathan Dodson

2009-09-17T14:29:00.004-05:00

Jonathan Dodson, pastor of Austin City Life Church, has a great article over at Boundless.org discussing six basic ways thru which Christians may redemptively engage culture. They are as follows: 1) prayerfully, 2) carefully, 3) biblically-theologically, 4) redemptively, 5) humbly and 6) selectively.

Here is an excerpt from point # 3.

3. Engage culture biblically-theologically. Why hyphenate biblical and theological? Why not just say "think biblically"? Well, the plain fact is that the Bible does not explicitly address most cultural issues. It does not tell you what political party to join, which school to go to, movies to watch, whether or not you should date, whether or not to abort your baby, or how to respond to cloning. Instead, the Bible offers theological principles which we can appropriate in order to form opinions and convictions about cultural issues.

For instance, there is no verse in the Bible that reads: "Thou shalt not have an abortion." However, the Bible does inform us that God is the author of life and that to take life is murder, which is prohibited by God. The circumstances surrounding abortion can be complex. A mother's life may be threatened if the life of the baby is not taken. The Bible does not say, "Preserve the mother's life." However, there are principles and practices in Scripture that can help us make wise decisions about cultural and ethical dilemmas.

The problem, however, is that we often start with cultural assumptions about what is right, beautiful and good and go to the Bible to prove them. Instead, we need to bring cultural questions about what is true, good and beautiful to the Bible, reflect on them theologically and then prayerfully and carefully form our opinions.

Don't begin with cultural convictions and end with biblical proof-texts; end with cultural wisdom by beginning with biblical-theological reflection. Start with the biblical text and reflect theologically on the cultural issue. Move from Text to Theology to Culture, not the other way around.

You can read the rest of the article in its entirety here.

A little slice of heaven

2009-09-16T14:45:00.002-05:00

In case you were unfamiliar with our denomination, welcome to the PCA.

New City Fellowship, Chattanooga, TN

Social Media Revolution

2009-09-11T09:02:00.003-05:00

Intriguing video commentary over at The Resurgence looking at the place of social media in larger society . While I feel we (particularly the younger generation) can over-emphasize this medium, often spending unhealthy amounts of time and effort on pursuing electronic communication and interaction at the expense of relating interpersonally, there are certainly valuable ways to use this relatively new tool as we pursue relationships for the sake of the Gospel. Check it out.

Swingsets, Tools and Pigs

2009-09-03T10:30:00.001-05:00

My neighbor (I will just call him “Bill”) walked over yesterday evening. I was in the back yard working on a swing set / play yard for the kids and he just walked up. (By the way, what ever happened to the inexpensive $50 contraptions with the hollow aluminum poles filled with yellow jacket nests? I always thought that kind of added to the excitement of playing outdoors. Like a high risk obstacle course of sorts. Now we have to go all out and spend hundreds of dollars to put together a structure better than what at least 1/3 of the world’s population uses for permanent housing.)

Anyway, back to “Bill” coming over. Over the past year of being neighbors we have had a few conversations, always initiated by Susie or myself, and mainly on the subject of home repair since we have both been doing some remodeling.

Two weeks ago I was putting up some crown molding and needed a particular saw that I didn’t have. I knew that a church member who lives nearby had one, but I also figured that “Bill” had one as well. I had a decision, I could drive to the home of the church member, or I could simply walk next door. Easy decision, right? Actually I must confess that it took a little effort to force myself to cross that great chasm otherwise known as my driveway and to knock on the door. (And just think, I do this whole “build relationships with non-christians thing” for a living!)

The short version of the story is that he did have the saw I needed. During the course of the conversation I also discovered that “Bill’s” weed eater was on the fritz, so I lent him mine. I also happened to mention that we were cooking a 90 lb pig in our back yard on Labor Day, were expecting 50 – 60 people for dinner that evening, and would be more than happy for he and his wife to join us. (I will share a little more of the rationale for why we are throwing a party for non-christians in our neighborhood at a later date.)

So like I said, yesterday “Bill”, who has never initiated any contact at all over the past year, took the initiative to walk over, let us know they were looking forward to the party and to offer his driveway for extra parking space for the event. That was kind of a big deal.

You see, the Gospel is not merely a set formula that we use on people to manipulate an intended outcome. (Granted, if we truly love people then there is obviously a desired outcome. We certainly would love to see those we are in contact with come to know Christ as we know him.)

The Gospel is, at least in part, relationship. It is loving people well. It is our motivation for initiating relationships and it is our reason for continuing to invest in those relationships over the long haul, regardless of whether or not the individual “responds”. It is getting to know others and seeking out, recognizing, and honoring the image of God which they bear, however dimly that image might be. While it can be a one time, one shot type deal, often it is deeper and more effective when it is part of an ongoing relational context in which life is shared. Sharing this Gospel can look like sitting down with someone and talking through Christ’s claims about himself in Scripture. Or at times, steps in the process can look like borrowing a saw, loaning a weed eater or even throwing a party.

Man, I am really looking forward to loving people with pork by throwing a Jesus-type party this coming Monday, if this playground doesn’t kill me first.

Announcements from this past Sunday's worship at OMPC

2009-08-31T11:46:00.003-05:00

If you happened to miss this past Sunday at Oak Mountain, then you missed this explanation as to why we are now doing all worship announcements by video.

And if you like that, then here are the video announcements from this past Sunday's worship service.

Utilizing people's gifts and abilities in all areas of creation for the glory of God. Gotta' love it!

Scott Roley on the money

2009-08-26T09:52:00.002-05:00

Scott Roley is the Senior Pastor at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. Pretty cool thoughts. The money quote for me?

"There is nothing wrong with us sharing the good news, but when it becomes something that is a manipulative tool to force someone to think like I think, then I don't think that's Christianity."

Many "church folks" I think would (sadly) disagree with this statement at first blush. But this simply reveals our misconception that Christianity is merely a slight adjustment of a persons moral values. Christianity is not moral philosophy or behavioral-ism.

Good stuff for us to wrestle with.

Sometimes, it gets complicated.

2009-08-24T15:24:00.003-05:00

I was over at a friend’s home in our neighborhood recently for a small social gathering. This family, over the past year, has actually become some of our closest friends in the community. Our kids play together. We eat meals together. We attend local events and concerts together. We just enjoy being together. It is actually kind of a unique deal in that I am a pastor and this family does not attend our church. This family actually does not attend any church.

Part of my role, my calling in my job here at Oak Mountain is to encourage and to help people think through aspects of our calling as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ to build relationships with non-Christians for the sake of the gospel. Honestly, I love this part of my job. I get totally fired up by watching people catch a vision for their neighborhoods or their communities and coming up with creative ways to integrate the gospel into their everyday lives and interactions. I “heart” non-Christians.

I was reminded, however, at this recent friendly gathering of neighbors, the majority of whom would likely feel more than a bit uncomfortable walking into any church, of at least one of the reasons why so few us who claim to follow Christ do this “relationship with nonbelievers” thing well. It is simply so much easier at times to surround oneself with others who look, feel, act and think just like we do. It just gets plain awkward at times. And we don’t do awkward very well. It offends our illusion that we are in full control of what is going on around us. Our twin idols of comfort and safety are rocked from their place on the altar, and that makes us really nervous.

Allow me to display exhibit A.

We arrived at our friend’s home and waded in. Good food, music, kids playing together. It was awesome. Eventually the fella’s ended up congregating outside while many of the wives remained inside with the younger children. The expected subjects were all covered, sports, weather, etc. And then suddenly the conversation took a turn. It all started with, “Hey, I heard this joke.” And we went downhill from there.

And there I was, Mr. reformed pastor dude who loves non-Christians, backed into the corner of a crowded deck, with no way to discreetly evacuate myself from the situation. A flood of thoughts ran through my mind. Everything from “Wow, the way that guy just put together all of those assorted words in a colorful and illustrative word portrait was actually rather linguistically impressive.” to “Okay, do I make a scene and leave, running the risk of injuring this relationship I have worked so hard to foster?” to “Is my presence here condoning to topic of conversation?” and “Am I completely ruining Christ’s reputation for being here?”

In truth this whole scene only lasted a few moments. Fortunately one of the small children wandered outside and, to everyone’s credit, the conversation quickly righted itself. Whew! Later on, as my cold sweats and I were replaying the evening, I was struck with how awkward it can be at times to relate with those who operate from a different foundational basis for life. And yet we simply cannot expect those who have not been made new in Christ to live their lives as if they had, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

So should I have left immediately? Did I “ruin my witness” in those few moments? First of all, I thankfully serve a sovereign God who is able to expand his kingdom quite in spite of my fledgling efforts fumbling around at how to do this whole “love people well in the gospel” thing. And secondly, I’m not so sure there is a hard and fast rule that is going to apply in every one of these situations. Loving people, pursuing relationships with people is messy. Yes, our goal is that they will see and hear the gospel and be drawn to the beauty that is Christ, our Savior. But this assumes that there is an actual relational context upon which to frame this gospel truth.

So dive in, expect the awkward and experience the inadequacy. If you are anything like me, these will become some of the all too rare times where our veneer of self sufficiency is adequately deconstructed to such a degree that we begin to depend upon God as we should have been doing all along.

No more cable?

2009-08-20T13:21:00.004-05:00

So let me go ahead and lay my cards on the table first thing. I am by no means a member of the "No TV" movement. For verification, just ask my wife. Honestly I have kind of felt at times like many in that camp were of the "all culture is evil and should be avoided at all cost, even if it means that we are completely out of touch with any and all reality" type people. (Okay, I am employing hyperbole there. You know, literary device whereby one purposefully over exaggerates a point in order to make a point. Relax.)

But the following article has me thinking. What if the time I spend watching TV every day was committed to thinking for, praying for and acting on behalf of my neighborhood and for the sake of the gospel. Forget the financial savings (which the author estimates to be a little over $800 annually). What resources am I wasting relationally, both with my neighbors and with my wife as well? Good stuff to at least think through.

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What’s the smallest change that’s made the biggest difference in your life?

That’s an easy one for me: We canceled cable.

One phone call. Big difference.

Becky and I didn’t do it because of some profound philosophical shift we underwent. Nope, what happened was we sat down to watch X-Files one Sunday night - as we were in the habit of doing in those days - and got bored. The show was never the same after that molten metal guy from Terminator took the place of David Duchovny you know?

And so, with our first child sprawled out sleeping mouth-open on my legs, one of us said something very percipient like “TV sucks.” We turned it off and watched our girl suck an invisible pacifier while she dreamed. Like I said, not the most profound reasons for doing it, but it had a profound effect on our lives. Here are just a few of the benefits of going cable-less we’ve accidentally discovered:

1. Time. A neighbor asked Becky once where we got the time to hang out in the front yard every afternoon. “I don’t have that kind of time,” they said. We once thought that too but we were wrong. In 2008 Americans, on average, spent 2.3 hours a day watching television (that’s 16.4 hours a week or two nights of sleep or 900 miles of travel by car). That’s less than we spent on television during the pre-Facebook and blog days but still a big chunk of time. We got those hours back when we tossed the TV. (Source)

2. People. Reality TV is an oxymoron. In college I spent a good chunk of time watching something called the “Real World” while in the real real world I claimed I didn’t have time to study, work, call my parents, exercise, volunteer… Now we have 16.4 more hours every week to spend on real life - a lot of it with those two-legged organisms the scientific community calls “people.”

3. Morality. Forgive the simplistic analogy, m’kay? Imagine I took in a house guest. And let’s say that guest regularly told my kids I was stupid, hung pictures of half-naked women up on the walls, constantly told my kids the opposite of what I told them and routinely asserted that God is a liar. How long would it take me to kick that guest out of my house and change the locks? There’s some innocuous stuff on television, sure, stuff I miss. But most of what I watched portrayed fathers as incompetent idiots, told me it was OK to disrespect people, and contradicted the teachings of Christ in subtle and not-so-subtle ways over and over again. I have 16.4 fewer hours with a destructive house guest now.

4. Money. The average cable bill in the back half of 2008 was $71. The average for satellite was $74. (Source) And that’s on the rise - up 7.5% from the previous year. So imagine my confusion when folks tell me after a concert that they’d really love to provide food, clothing and health care for a child in the third world (with a hefty does of Jesus) but, dang it, they just can’t afford to. To which I always respond, “Do you have cable?” When we canceled cable we were spending $68/month. That’s $816 a year - or enough money to meet the spiritual and physical needs of one child in the third world and still have money left over for that gym membership I said I couldn’t afford, or that annual weekend getaway I promised Becky.

5. Silence. Constant noise keeps me from knowing myself, knowing you and knowing God. And I’m addicted to it. So I try to rehabilitate myself with intentional times of silence throughout my day. And I’m better for it. At the peak of my noise addiction I was afraid of silence, afraid of what I might discover, what I might have to face. It was an escape from reality and that was fine for thirty minutes, but I didn’t stop there. I couldn’t. I kept pouring myself another glass, and another, I kept escaping and, like an addict, I never stopped to deal with the real me, the real world. Right now the only noise I hear are my fingers clacking on a keyboard and after I publish this post the only sound I’ll hear is silence. In the silence I’ll have to hear my thoughts. And maybe, I’ll get to hear God.

5. Happiness. As if we needed a study to prove it: The University of Maryland (among others) has found that happy people watch less television than unhappy people. Happy people spend time outside, socialize (face-to-face in the real world), go to church, have hobbies, etc. Unhappy people sit on their butts and watch other people live...er, pretend to live. (Source) Scientists are quick to point out that they don’t know if unhappy people watch television because they’re unhappy or if television makes people unhappy or both, but either way, it’s not a good connection right? Just because we don’t have cable in our house doesn’t mean we’re perfectly happy, of course. But we’re happier.

So, what’s the smallest change that’s made the biggest difference in your life?

Missions and Community

2009-08-18T09:38:00.004-05:00

The following is a post from another blog I stumbled across recently which includes some intriguing thoughts on living our life, even the mundane stuff, with full-on gospel intentionality and motivation.

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Missions and Community Through the Ordinary

The gospel must be lived out in everyday life. Community building can’t be merely regulated to a mid-week small group meeting and a Sunday morning service. It must extend far beyond these events to fulfill all the great “one another passages” of the New Testament. Moreover, the work of evangelism (mission) can’t be accomplished through mere door knocking, tract passing, or making sermons more “relevant to the unchurched.” Our missionary methods must extend into the ordinary activities of our routines if we are to follow the New Testament model. We must intentionally evaluate and reform our everyday lives around the the gospel. We’ve created a simple exercise to help the folks at our church move away from a primarily program-based way of “doing” the Christian life towards a more natural way. Maybe you’ll find it helpful as well.

First, simply list out all the activities that make up your daily, weekly, and monthly routines. You should write down everything in these routines even if they seem mundane. Your daily list might include things like eating meals, go to the gym, driving to work, walk the dog, and play time with the kids. Your weekly list might include things like watch football, go to the park, grocery shopping, trip to the library, and play basketball. Your monthly list might include things like see a movie, take trash to the dump, get a haircut, camping, and budgeting. I would recommend opening up a Word doc and revising it as your routines shift over time.

Second, begin to assess all these ordinary activities through a tri-fold lens of community, mission, and gospel. You want to consider whether or not you can take these activities and add each of these three components. For example, let us consider the universal routine of grocery shopping. It is quite easy to add a communal and missional component to your weekly trip to the grocery. The first step would be to invite a Christian from your local church and a non-Christian friend to join you in this common routine. The second step is to bring the gospel into the activity. The gospel component can be added in a natural but intentional way as you converse throughout the activity. Shopping will bring up very important topics such as stewardship, family, and health. These topics can easily be used as a path to explicitly talking about the gospel. The third step and perhaps the hardest is to try your best to make this more than an one time event. You want this to become part of your weekly shopping routine. Just think how the kingdom would expand if you took as many of your routine activities as possible and disciplined yourself to include these three components! Moreover, you aren’t adding yet another event to you already crowded routine but rather sanctifying your everyday life!

In conclusion, I understand that this is exercise doesn’t answer everything. Some of your activities are meant to be solitary. This certainly is acceptable. However, it is probably a different issue altogether if the lists you have constructed don’t include about dozen activities that can be reformed to include all three components. I find people prefer programic evangelism and community life (if you can even call it that) because it doesn’t invade their personal space. That is irreconcilable with the life of Jesus and implications of the gospel. We must change.

America needs more churches?

2009-08-12T16:54:00.004-05:00

from Ed Stetzer's Planting Missional Churches

In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2000, there were 12 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2004, there were 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans.

In 1900, the Census Bureau counted 212,000 churches. In 2000, the number of churches that existed in the United States was 349,506. In other words, the number of churches increased just over 50% while the population of the country has almost quadrupled.

Another interesting stat?

Today, one in ten Americans was born in another country.

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So what does this tell us about the need for planting new, gospel-centered churches? How does this inform our thinking? How does the fact that 1 out of every 10 Americans is actually foreign born change our ideas of what these new churches should look like?

Too often we are lulled into thinking that, because we live in North America, we are a "churched" nation. These statistics by the Director of Research for the North American Mission Board with the Southern Baptist Convention seem to point us to a different conclusion. We desperately need an explosion of churches across North America.

Christ Community Church

2009-08-05T11:22:00.008-05:00

As you have probably heard by now, Oak Mountain, in partnership with Altadena Valley PCA, is going to be planting a new congregation in the Pelham / Helena area. Or as a friend put it, we are looking to plant a church in the greater “Pelhenabaster” region.

Why in the world do we feel like the South needs another church? Phil Chambers, our current Missions pastor and the church planter for this new congregation has some great answers to that very question. I would encourage you to contact Phil and buy him a cup of coffee. Get ready though. If you ask, he WILL talk. You will leave with absolutely no doubts as to his passion for Christ and the expansion of Christ’s kingdom.

In addition to taking Phil to coffee, the following is a recent blog post with some good thoughts on the issue. It kind of challenges our assumptions regarding America’s long term prospects of remaining the center of the evangelical world.

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The Need for American Church Planting
by Doug Roman

Here are two statistical reasons why American churches need to be concerned with planting churches in the United States:

The US population continues to grow rapidly.

David T. Olson’s writes in his 2008 book, The American Church in Crisis,

Alyzandra, or ‘Aly’ as her parents nicknamed her, was born in Chicago on October 18, 2006, just before six o’clock in the morning—near the exact time the Census Bureau predicted that the U.S. population would reach 300 million . . . Whoever was the 300 millionth America, his or her arrival made one thing perfectly clear—at a time when the populations of most developed nations were stagnant or declining, the United States was growing at unprecedented numbers (David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis, 34).

As the population increases, we need to be more committed—not less committed—to establishing gospel-preaching churches in the United States.

The number of churches in America is not keeping up with the need.

4,009 churches are started every year but when churches that closed are factored in (3,700 every year!), we are simply not keeping up. Again from Olson’s book,

Unfortunately, the 3,700 churches that close per year reduce the impact of the 4,000 new churches that start, leaving a net yearly gain of 300 churches in the United States. A net gain of 3,205 churches is needed each year for the American church to keep up with the population growth (David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis, 146).

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We often wrongly assume that if we can maintain what we have, if we are not loosing members, then we are doing well. Or even if (praise God) we are in a particular church that is growing, then we assume we are doing all we can for the Kingdom. Yet there are many individuals and families that, for fear of size or possibly lack of identification with an established churches perceived socio-economic status, will never consider walking into a larger, established church. Church planting is an incredible opportunity for reaching out to those in our communities who may not be comfortable with what is being offered at a larger church, or also for reaching those who may not be churched at all.

Redeemer PCA in Manhattan has the following response to the question of why they are committed to planting multiple churches throughout the city.

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Why does Redeemer put a priority on church planting?

The Biblical Mandate

Jesus' Great Commission was not simply a call to "teach" and "make disciples" but also to "baptize". Baptism in the New Testament meant incorporation into the worshipping community where there would be teaching, administration of the sacraments and accountability. (Acts 2:41-47)

Practical Wisdom

New churches best reach the unchurched.

Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its members (60-80%) from among people outside any worshipping community, while churches over 20 years old gain most of their new member (0-20%) from people moving from other congregations. Therefore new churches are 5-10 times better at drawing new people into the Body of Christ.

New churches best reach new residents, new generations and new people groups.

New residents are disproportionately found in new congregations because newcomers do not need years of tenure before their voices are heard or before they can gain real leadership and influence in the church. New and younger generations are found in large numbers in new churches, because there is greater openness to new ministry approaches and to new leadership. Newly arrived groups of people are found in new congregations because of a contextualized approach in evangelism, worship and discipleship. (Language, cultural sensitivity, worship styles).

Labor Day is coming

2009-08-03T12:14:00.003-05:00

Mark your calendars, Labor Day is coming. Typically this is a long holiday weekend, the last hurrah before the Fall kicks off in full swing (or for those of us in the South, before Summer continues its strangle-hold on all of creation until that one week time span we refer to as “Fall” finally shows up around the end of October.) The point is that it is a brief respite in a typically overloaded schedule. Some of us may even now be thinking through a last minute trip to the beach or the lake. I have an idea. Why not stay home and throw a party?

Think about it. Most of us with kids are diving into school in the next week or so anyway. You are in town. Many of us don’t really have the money (come on, take a “Dave Ramsey” honest look at your accounts) to do a last minute vacation anyway, so why stress out the credit card? Why not stay home and invite 2 or 3 or 10 or 20 neighbors over and introduce everyone to each other? Imagine the gospel impact in your subdivision just by throwing some burgers on a grill!

Steve McCoy over at The Subtext has the following great thoughts on this subject.

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Last weekend we had a cookout. It was mostly community friends we’ve connected to through local school involvement, but we also invited a church friend or two and a visiting couple from the previous week’s worship service. We had about 40 people there, some I knew well and others I met for the first time. It was a blast. Here are a few things you should do to make your cookout a hit.

- Introduce people. If you are bringing folks together who don’t already know each other, and you should, make sure you introduce them so they all feel comfortable.

- Have plenty of good food. We had too much food because we wanted to be generous. Nothing like a cookout where you feel underfed. And make it good food, please. I don’t want to come to your house if you are going to buy the hot dogs with the highest amount of rat hairs and bone chips. Not all hot dogs and hamburgers are created equal. Get quality stuff. And spice it up. We got burgers at Sam’s and then added a layer of Famous Dave’s burger seasoning. People raved about the burgers, though most of them didn’t know why. You want your neighbors happy.

- Let people bring something if they want to. Sometimes people feel obligated. Sometimes they really enjoy bringing something. Don’t presume on people and don’t ask them to bring something. But if they want to bring something it can be a good thing. It makes them feel like they’re a good neighbor too. For our Memorial Day most everyone insisted. Some brought a dish, or chips and soda. One family brought a ton of Edy’s ice cream they got for free in a contest. It added a super-charge to the cookout that none of us could probably afford otherwise.

- Have plenty to do. We had more games we didn’t use than we used. You are providing opportunities, not a schedule. We had kids playing baseball in the church field, jarts, football, a fire pit as it cooled off in the evening, lots of lawn chairs, sparklers for kids after dark. And think of the little things, too. We fogged the yard before people came to kill most of the mosquitoes and then we had several cans of Off available. We had sunscreen. We had music. We tried to cover all the bases, though we learned a few bases we didn’t cover as well as we will next time.

Make this summer a great one, one where you grow in your relationship with folks around you by participating in the life of your suburb, serving your neighbors rather than waiting for someone else to serve you, and firing up the grill to bring people together.

The Kingdom of God, as Jesus saw it.

2009-07-29T15:35:00.005-05:00

Michael Green in his book “Evangelism in the Early Church” writes the following about Jesus and the types of followers who flocked to him.

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He came preaching the kingly rule of God; he exemplified it in his community of followers, which embraced Pharisees like Nicodemus, Herodians, ordinary patriots like James and John bar Zebedee, collaborationists like the tax collectors Matthew and Zacchaeus, and extreme Zealots like Simon the Zealot, and perhaps Judas Iscariot and Peter. He welded this collection of political irreconcilables into a deep and united fellowship as a foretaste of what he could do in reconciling political and social tensions anywhere.

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That’s just plain cool. Can you imagine one church, one movement, where Democrats, Republicans, members of the Green Party and the Libertarians, representatives of whatever polar opposites of the political spectrum you can dream up, all came together under the singular influence of the gospel? What would that movement look like?

Well, we have only to look at Scripture to truly see what occurred. Men were transformed and a movement was begun, empowered by the Holy Spirit in which enough of the various “cheese in charge” types got so upset they murdered or exiled many of this movements leaders. Exciting, huh? And yet read the rest of the story. The world was transformed.

What is holding us back today? Is it fear of repercussions? Are we afraid that the first to pop his head up may loose it? Do we fear loss of reputation? What will others think of the crazy dude rocking the boat? More frightening yet, are we so comfortable with the existence we currently maintain, that we actually fear the Holy Spirit showing up and doing a work that we have not penciled into our plans?

May the God of both comfort and dis-comfort grant us the grace and peace, both in His eyes and in the eyes of one another, to pursue with undivided hearts the Kingdom of God.

Calvinism at 500 years

2009-07-22T11:38:00.003-05:00

The following is a short video from Pat Robertson's CBN on Calvinism (borrowed ever so humbly from another blog I follow regularly). It is a rather well-done 7 minute piece referencing Calvin's impact on American civil government as well as Western theology.

The PCA and its Reformed University Fellowship actually get some pretty good face-time. The piece references Tim Keller and Redeemer PCA in Manhattan as well as some comments by PCA teaching elder Greg Thompson, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA (and one of the leading "young guns" in the denomination). Thompson actually makes a great point regarding Calvin and Reformed Theology and the impact that it is having in the lives of younger generations in regard to issues of mercy and social justice. The piece also makes reference to the rapidly expanding influence of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Overall it is a pretty good video. It is interesting however to hear Robertson at the end offer his "disclaimer" regarding election and predestination. I guess he felt he just had to include that.

Which Are We?

2009-07-14T10:09:00.005-05:00

Good stuff from Ray Ortlund Jr., lead pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN

In his brief article, "Three Kinds of Men," C. S. Lewis explains that the world is not divided into good people and bad people but into three categories of people. "The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them." Some people are happy-go-lucky unbelievers, busy with self-gratification.

Lewis continued: "In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them – the will of God . . . or the good of society – and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow." These are people with a sense of God, even a sense of Jesus. Their consciences are somewhat awake. They know they should do right. But "doing right" divides their lives up like a schoolboy's life – time "in school" when they have to do what the teacher says, and time "out of school" when they can do what they want. For them, going to church is like paying a tax to God. When they feel they have paid that tax, and thus obligated God to improve their lives, they feel diminished by having to deal with him at all. But when they fail to pay the God-tax, they feel guilty and fearful that he might punish them. They may smile some, but their hearts have never known real joy.

Lewis concluded: "But the third class is of those who can say like St. Paul that for them 'to live is Christ.'" These folks have gotten beyond the tiresome calculations that divide life up between the claims of Christ and the claims of Self. They have rejected Self, in order to embrace Christ. "The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs," Lewis wrote. This third way, and this alone, is Christianity: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44). "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8).

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Birmingham is filled to the brim with people in Lewis’ first two categories. There are non-believers and then there are people who pay their “God tax” as Ortlund puts it.

Obviously, revival fire, the kind which gives birth to a movement that sweeps through cities and regions, the kind which transforms individuals, families and entire communities, the kind which we see evidence of in Acts, will never begin from this first group. But neither should we expect it to be birthed out of this second group. Our pews are filled with too many people playing at religion, when what we need are people who, through a relationship with Jesus, are so enflamed by the gospel of God’s grace that they can do nothing but pursue the agenda He has set, which is radical heart renewal leading to kingdom expansion to the ends of the earth.

If Lewis is correct, then we must place ourselves on this spectrum. Where are we?

Repent – Believe - Fight

OMPC and La Quemada in the B'ham News

2009-07-09T09:43:00.003-05:00

By: ANNE RUISI

Birmingham News staff writer

Vivid reds, blues and lime green are the accent colors, but it's the smiles of the children playing that brighten the new playground near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.

"It's got a lot of slides. I like slides," said 7-year-old Melanie Rodriguez of the playground on 17th Avenue designed and built by volunteers from Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church.

"It goes fast," added her friend, Maricela Javarrete, 8.

It's the first time the girls and their friends have had such a playground in this cramped, mostly Hispanic pocket of Woodlawn. Most of the homes, bland cinderblock buildings fronting alley-sized streets, have tiny yards that limit play.

The church is a familiar presence in the neighborhood, having sponsored children's activities there for about four years, said the Rev. Mark Hunter, the church's associate pastor. Its minister to the Hispanic community, Octavio Samper and his wife, Rosie, have a children's Bible Club. One Saturday a month, about 30 youngsters are brought to the Shelby County church for soccer games and a cookout.

Usually the church organizes an annual overseas mission trip, but with the shaky economy, members decided this year to do a project in town and chose to build the playground, Hunter said.

Church member David K. Eyrich, a landscape architect with Environmental Design Studio in Cahaba Heights, designed the playground and led the project. About 40 volunteers, including some families, built the playground the week of June 8-13, Hunter said. Each adult donated $250 to participate.

Before they started work, Tractor & Equipment Co., a neighboring business, graded the site and prepared it for construction. The company also let the church store playground construction materials on its site.

The playground is more of a mini-park, with separate areas for activities, such as the centerpiece tower with climbing equipment and four slides. A construction company donated two tractor tires, 6½-feet wide, which were partially buried upright. One tire acts as a short tunnel for walking through and the other has more tread so the kids can climb up it, Eyrich said.

Old utility poles were used to build an arbor with its own wooden porch swing under a black cherry tree. Residents such as Maribel Calderon enjoy the shady swing while they watch their youngsters play.

"It's good, very good," she said through an interpreter.

Some of the utility poles were cut into short lengths, then painted in bright colors and set into the ground. They're used for sitting, or as Melanie and Maricela demonstrated, to hop from one to another.

The neighborhood's children got to put their own stamp on the playground by the decorating large wood cutouts of hearts and flowers placed on the fence that rings the site. They autographed and painted their palm prints on the cutouts, so everyone can see that Alex T., Melanye and Tito are among the kids playing here.

About $12,000 was spent on materials, but the group would have easily spent a minimum of $35,000-$40,000 if they'd hired paid labor, Eyrich said.

"It was a lot of work for do-it-yourselfers," he said.

The playground site is owned by Myrtis Herring, who lives next door. Lawyer Greg Mixon, a church member, worked out a lease agreement for $10 a year, Hunter said.

Until she became disabled in recent years, Herring used to take neighborhood children to Crestway Baptist Church for activities, said her daughter, Deborah Herring. Her mother knows the Oak Mountain Presbyterian group, since she's allowed them to use the site for its program for Hispanic youngsters.

"My mom was happy to let them do this," Herring's daughter said.

Announcing New "Hope for the 'Ham" Grant Money

2009-07-01T14:46:00.006-05:00

Nothing supports evangelism better than a church involved in extremely generous, loving, vital community service. Listeners to the gospel are far more likely to find it credible if they see Christians meeting needs. Acts 4:32-35, Matthew 5:16, and Luke 6:32 show us that radical generosity had an evangelistic impact in early church history. When we simply live a morally “pure” life, the world may see it but may only feel somewhat condemned by it. However, when the world sees us meeting common, material human needs through deeds, it pays attention.

~ Tim Keller

How can we as Oak Mountain Church be a blessing to the neighborhoods and communities in which we dwell? How can we have an impact beyond simply paying our taxes and keeping our lawns well manicured?

These are some of the questions that we have been asking. Often the church can exert so much energy on maintaining herself that she has nothing left over to be a blessing to those whom God has, in His complete and purposeful sovereignty, caused us to dwell among.

Throughout the entire history of God’s relationship with his people, he has had on his mind an external outlook. Adam and Eve were instructed to have dominion over all of creation, meaning both the spiritual as well as the physical realms. Abraham in Genesis 12:2 was told that he would be blessed “so that you will be a blessing”. It is through this interaction that we see God’s agenda for Abraham and his descendents after him (including us).

Through God’s servant Joseph an entire geographic region was protected from the real and physical threat of famine. Indelibly included within the DNA of Israel were laws of social responsibility caring for neighbors, widows, orphans, aliens, the helpless and the oppressed. Jesus himself spent much more than a token amount of his ministry meeting the real, felt needs of those he came into contact with, even going so far on occasion as to reverse the very effects of death itself.

Listen to the testimony of the pagan Roman emperor Julian.

“Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of the Christians as their charity to strangers...the impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor, but for ours as well.” It was to these acts of service and an externally focused love for neighbor that Julian points as a major reason for the growth of Gospel community.

If Oak Mountain Church gave your LIFE Group $100 to bless your neighbors, what would you do? Would you have a neighborhood cookout? What about cleaning up a local park, or painting a couple of classrooms at your local neighborhood school?

See, that’s the beauty. This is not the staff of the church calling people to participate in a program somebody else thought up. We are asking for YOU to listen to the Holy Spirit and ENGAGE in your area of town. The gospel is not communicated solely through verbal means. Physical engagement and proximity often speaks just as loudly. So what can you dream up?

LIFE Groups lead this endeavor. Here’s the lowdown.

1) IDEA - Any individual can propose an idea for engaging ones neighbors through acts of service or mercy. The idea is presented to the LIFE Group to further flesh out details.

2) APPLICATION – When a LIFE Group has arrived at an idea for a project, a member of the group then submits a grant proposal. This could be the LIFE Group leader or any other member of the group that has been designated.

3) REVIEW – The grant committee will meet to evaluate grant requests. For approved projects, funds will be distributed upon completion of the project. (RECIEPTS REQUIRED) We do not anticipate many rejections, but some groups may be asked to revise their requests or to rethink a certain aspect of their idea.

4) IMPLEMENT – the grant committee will extend approval to the LIFE Group leader and the group will “get after it”!

5) FOLLOW-UP – Upon completion of the project, the designated project leader submits the following materials to the grant committee:

Receipts: the LIFE Group will be reimbursed for any project related expenses up to $100.
Waiver: In some particular cases, there may be a required liability waiver that documents permission for work done and permission to use any records/photos that document the work.
Story: Summarize the project either in written, photo, or video format. The purpose of this will be to share projects with the larger church body for information and vision building purposes.

6) REPEAT - Currently there is no limit to the number of projects that a particular LIFE Group can initiate and participate in. Grant proposals will be accepted and approved until the funds run dry, at which time we will faithfully and expectantly ask God for more funding.

For any additional information please contact Jason Tucker at jtucker@ompc.org or 205-981-4364.

Another example of one small groups efforts to put feet to the gospel in their neighborhood

2009-06-27T05:54:00.002-05:00

as told by one of the small group members at this Seattle area church.....

So how did we find out that the Phinney Neighborhood Center needed help landscaping their park? We asked. They informed us that their park was in need of some spring cleaning, which included weeding, removing overgrown bushes, planting new trees, bushes, and plants AND spreading a huge truck load of bark. Unbeknownst to us, this work party actually marked the ten-year anniversary of the Heart of Phinney park which was built a decade ago by volunteers just like us.

We, as the Green Lake/Phinney Community Groups, felt this was the perfect way to utilize the MicroMission funds to love and serve our neighborhood. It was a privilege for our community groups to partner along side neighbors, university students, and Phinney Neighborhood Association members to beautify a park that acts as a popular gathering space for the entire community. And it was an honor to provide the funding for all the supplies, materials and even the burgers for our work party BBQ.

Our heart in this MicroMission was simply to love our neighbors, which is what Jesus commands us to do (Matthew 22:34-40). It’s encouraging belonging to a church that desires not just to preach the gospel, but to live it out as well. Thank you elders for providing us this MicroMission fund and for helping us to utilize it.

An atheist's encounter with a believer, in his own words

2009-06-25T06:06:00.000-05:00

Impacting a community for the sake of the gospel

2009-06-22T06:12:00.002-05:00

Here is the story of one group of believers in Seattle who took advantage of a small service grant provided by their church and transformed a portion of their neighborhood. This and other similar stories can be viewed here.Some of the values that undergird this church’s provision of these funds are as follows.

Relationships. Serve who you know; know who you serve (Mk 12:31).
Compassion. Concern for both the spiritual and physical well-being of all beneficiaries (Mt 25:40).
Sacrifice. Demonstrate commitment, accountability, and sincerity through tangible contributions of time, money, and effort (2 Cor 8:8).
Humility. Those meeting needs are also being served as they serve, growing closer to Jesus, cultivating greater compassion for people, and bringing him glory in the process (Mt 9:13).

Jason, a community group leader for less than three months, lives in the Rainier district. He has a love for the people in his neighborhood and deeply desires to care for them. This community is mired in gang violence and marred with graffiti. He knows that Jesus has removed the stench from his past and he desires to symbolically do the same in his neighborhood by physically cleaning it up.

He is building a community group dedicated to cleaning graffiti and the neighborhood they live in. Last week they took MicroMission funds and funded a cleanup of four traffic circles. He chose this project because he was involving women and children on this project. (Jason believes that when they clean up graffiti there are some risks, so he plans to do that just with the men.) Little did he know that this was not quite as safe as he thought.

They set out removing trash, weeds, and anything that distorted the beauty of the area. They clothed the newly cleaned ground with fresh bark that they paid for. As they were cleaning up one of the traffic circles, one of the members found a gun hidden in the bushes. One does have to wonder what that gun was used for if it was disposed of. Coincidentally, there was a gun fight in the area just days before. It is a blessing that it was discovered by Jason’s team before a child found it.

As they removed the last of the garbage and carefully placed the last of the bark, they gazed upon how much the area was transformed. As Jesus is in the business restoring each of us despite our brokenness, Jason’s group reflects this truth by cleaning up their neighborhood. Afterward, they celebrated with several other teams in the park enjoying Vietnamese sandwiches–pondering what the next project would be like.

In the following days, the city sent them a letter thanking them and giving them an award “The Best Road Rage Killer” for their hard and persistent work.

There are likely thousands of opportunities like this to show the love of Jesus in our neighborhoods. How could we learn from Jason’s example to allow God to use us in such restorative way?

Think. Engage. Impact.

2009-06-17T05:48:00.002-05:00

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

*Chorus*
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

Regina Spektor is a Russian born Jewish singer songwriter who moved to New York at age nine with her photographer father and music professor mother. Her songwriting skills seem to only be surpassed by her astute gift for observation and an uncanny ability to marry her razor sharp wit with her unique and haunting vocal abilities. This is an artist. She is also, coincidentally, the voice singing the final song in the second Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian.

In her new single "Laughing With" from her latest release “Far” she offers up a beautiful (and somewhat painful) double sided critique both of the church, who often presents God as “a genie who does magic like Houdini” as well as the culture at large who laughs “at a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke” but would never think to laugh “when the doctor calls after some routine tests” or “when it’s gotten real late
and their kid’s not back from the party yet”.

It is a helpful thing to have our ear to the ground and be aware of what the culture at large is saying, particularly when they are pointing to things that are true. By no means am I stating that Spektor is a believer. I am saying, however, that as the rain falls on the Christian farmer and non-christian farmer alike, allowing their crops to flourish so that populations can be fed and blessed by their labors, in these lyrics we find truth present.

We also find a unique conversational bridge with those who follow her music. There are message boards discussing the meaning behind these lyrics all over, from the benign Yahoo Answers to blogs and sites with titles like songmeanings.net and thinkatheist.com. What more effective method of evangelism than to simply join in conversations people are already having? With our hearts pointed outward in love for a people who are on the heart of God, with our minds informed, thoroughly sharpened and prepared to engage, with our feet firmly planted upon the truths of Scripture let us…..

Think. Engage. Impact.

God is concerned about economics?

2009-06-15T14:14:00.005-05:00

So what does the above illustration from a recent Brookings Institution finding tell us about our city? At first glance it tells us two things at a minimum. First, the economy in our area has done a good job of expanding and adding jobs. Hooray. That is certainly something to be applauded. There are many areas of our nation that have not fared nearly as well. (I'm feelin' ya' Detroit.)

Second, these findings tell us while our economy has done relatively well, the benefit has not been felt proportionally throughout the area's population. If you live within 3 miles of the city center, you are living under very different circumstances than the rest of the area. What we basically see is that, in comparing a resident of downtown Birmingham and one from an area in Northern Shelby County particularly when it comes to issues of economic opportunity, we might as well be looking at two different countries. Many of these residents are then hit with a myriad of issues which snowball out from jobs moving further and further from where they live.

Elizabeth Kneebone, researcher for the Brookings Institute study, listed some of the following adverse effects of having a job market sprawling over a larger geographic area.

• Infrastructure. In diffuse, low-density development, the cost of water and sewers may be 20 to 40 percent higher than for high-density development. And the urban core may be left with a depleted tax base that cannot support existing infrastructure and services.

• Transportation. Growth without limits along interstates and commercial corridors like U.S. 280 fails to integrate residential and business uses, and leads to longer commuting times and road congestion. It also prevents efficient and profitable public transportation.

• Access. Decentralization separates under-employed workers from better job opportunities.

• Innovation. Lower-density development means less interaction between businesses and may reduce idea sharing and innovation.

• Energy consumption. Lower-density development increases the overall number of vehicle miles driven each year, making the per-person "carbon footprint" of a metro region greater.

How do we live out the implications of the gospel in such a way that it impacts not only what we do on Sunday mornings, but also how our local job market looks? How can we strive to take the Bible's words about the poor, the orphan, the widow, the alien and actually live it out in such a way that a watching world sits up and takes notice? People expect the church to talk about "spiritual things", but when the church stands up and begins to speak with Biblical authority on issues like economics, job creation, and social justice people likely will truly begin to pay attention, even if it at first it is only out of shock!

May we be a church that redeems shock value for the purposes of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

La Quemada Day 2

2009-06-09T19:58:00.005-05:00

Day 2, whew! What a day! The changes to this formerly empty lot are dramatic in just the past two days. Today the playground equipment was delivered and almost completely installed. The shade arbor got rafters started and should be finished up by tomorrow as well. We were also able to the main posts for a fence along the street up and ready for fence slats tomorrow (maybe). We started off digging the holes with pick axes and post hole diggers until someone had the bright idea to rent an auger attachment for our bobcat. Technology is an AWESOME thing.

The Bible Club went well today also. Yesterday there were a little over 30 kids there. Today there were around 50. There are kids everywhere. Some of the children actually came to Oak Mountain’s VBS last week and were excited when we told them we were coming to their place this week, although they didn’t fully understand why.

When they were leaving the church after VBS one day last week some of the kids asked if they could play on our playground there before returning home. We had promised the parents that we would have the children back by a certain time every day, and there just wasn’t time. They were sad and made the comment that there wasn’t anywhere to play where they lived. Octavio, who works with Oak Mountain’s Hispanic ministry mentioned to them that we were coming to build a playground just for them at their home. They still didn’t understand. They went home telling each other that we might come in for one day with a bunch of inflatables. That would be great for a day, but it’s still not the same thing as a permanent playground. Octovio said they just couldn’t bring their little minds to believe that we would come in and build a permanent structure. Makes since when you think how so little in their lives are permanent.

Parents leave, either to find better employment or to return to their home country, often leaving the children behind with a spouse or another relative. Friends leave, either moving with parents, or to get a job in another city, or sometimes with the older kids, their friends leave permanently because of gang violence, moving to the nearest cemetery. Why would a group of wealthy people (and no matter what we may think about our own economic status, we are WORLDS apart economically from the people we are serving here) leave their manicured lawns and well kept houses (all of which their families do for us by the way) and build anything permanent for them?

It’s actually a good question for them to be asking, as long as we are willing to give them an answer that communicates an ongoing, gospel influenced, relational presence in their lives and their community. If we are simply here for one week to build a shiny tribute to ourselves so that we can pat ourselves on the back for our “good deed”, then we have only reinforced what these residents already fear about themselves. That they are unimportant and that their value to us is only a temporary value based upon our use of them in helping us feel good about ourselves. This would not only be condescending and incredibly self-centered on our part, it would set up a clear contrast to what the Creator of the individuals in this community says about them.

These “poorest among you”, the fatherless, the widow and the alien, are dearly loved by the One who repeatedly calls us to love boldly and to serve humbly. Their value rests in the fact that they are created in the image of the One whom we call LORD. In recognizing His image in them, however dim we might say it is, we bring honor to God and communicate true worth and value to those Jesus himself calls “blessed”.