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by on 6.27.08

when I wish you could have been here

“Here” is the annual meeting of the Western Canada Baptist Fellowship, a group of good men with whom I join in hearty fellowship… but haven’t officially joined the organization! One these days…

The speaker for our conference this year was Mark Minnick, pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, my former homiletics professor and my preaching model for my own ministry.

The meeting was timely in light of recent events and personal correspondence. But I have to say that the meeting was also an especial blessing and encouragement for me in the ministry as well as for all those who attended.

Besides the content of the meetings, I am tremendously encouraged by the presence of so many solid fundamentalist ministries here in Alberta and across Western Canada. I grew up here. I was ordained here. Thirty years ago you could count all of the fundamentalists in Alberta on one hand, practically. Now there is a growing fellowship of increasingly strong churches. The Lord truly is blessing, though the growth is nowhere near as rapid as we would like. But when I compare the 30 year span, the growth is REAL.

Now, why would I wish you could have been here.

One: for pastor Minnick’s two evening messages covering Ephesians. I have never heard a more encouraging set of messages for men in ministries of any size, but especially in the small ministries we have here in Western Canada. What a privilege it is to serve the King, and to bring glory to His name … and to the Father’s name as well.

Hopefully I will be able to post copies of the messages or at least links soon. Stay tuned.

Two: for the open discussion of current issues facing fundamentalism we held this afternoon. Our session ran about two hours, no one was bored (contrary to predictions of some!!) and I think a good deal was accomplished. A few notes [more may follow later]…

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Filed Under: Fundamentalism, Issues, New Evangelicalism, Separation
by on 6.18.08

listening to sermons on my way to camp

and blogging about them out of doors, with the sounds of my family enjoying themselves and me obsessively reading the latest in the unending fundi-neo wars…

A friend of mine asked me to listen to two messages preached recently by two men of similar age and relatively similar standing in the world. So my son and I listened to them on the way to camp. Here is our take:

  • One preacher knows what worldliness is; one thinks its very complicated.
  • One is clear; one is vague.
  • One is proud of his heritage; one isn’t so sure.
  • One is determined not to allow corruption any possibility of infiltration; one thinks we need to think it over oh so carefully.

One wonders what kind of impact these differences will have on the Christian church in the next few years.

~~~

I’ve also noticed another preacher taking potshots at this space. I’ll not name the preacher, or where it was done, but it is typical of the individual involved. May God help him.

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Filed Under: Issues, Preaching, Separation, Worldliness
by on 6.14.08

is there an answer here?

On another blog, a discussion is ongoing regarding the Mark Dever – Mark Minnick interview. I, along with some others, contend that our friend Mark Minnick didn’t answer the last question Dever asked. Others say that he did answer. I have taken the trouble to transcribe the last six or seven minutes of the interview, hopefully accurately, so that you can analyze what was said and come to your own conclusions.

Here is the transcript, beginning at about 1:01:35 of the interview:

1:01:35 Dever: “What would we have to do to change for you to be free to preach here?”

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Filed Under: Dever, Fundamentalism, Issues, Minnick, New Evangelicalism, Personalities, Separation
by on 5.25.08

when you wish more was said…

Frank Sansone alerts us that the 9Marks interview with Mark Minnick by Mark Dever is now available. I stayed up late to listen to it because, as you know, this is my main topic.

Frank heard about it from Andy Naselli and I see that Greg Linscott is linking to it as well over at his site. I expect this to immediately be the topic du jour in the fundamentalist blogosphere.

Why would that be? Because as Minnick points out very well in the interview: “Associations matter.”

This interview matters because associations matter. I think I understand what Pastor Minnick is trying to do in having communication with Pastor Dever, but even this low-level public association matters (though it is certainly not the same thing as sitting on a platform in a cooperative effort or appearing on the platform of Capital Hill BC, for example).

This interview, I predict will be the buzz this next week because associations matter.

But, oh, how I wish a little more had been said!

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Filed Under: Dever, Fundamentalism, Issues, Minnick, New Evangelicalism, Personalities, Separation
by on 5.23.08

so what to make of all this?

Today’s church is a mix of all kinds of groups, some of them seemingly far removed from traditional norms. Many of the ‘contemporary’ and ’emerging’ groups look at more traditional churches and say things like “If the 50s ever come back, your church is ready.” (That would be which fruit of the Spirit?)

Yesterday, an event was held in Reston, VA called ‘the Whiteboard Sessions‘. Here is the description of the event:

The Whiteboard Sessions is about the power of an idea in its raw, most conceptual form. One simple idea could forever change your life and ministry.  We’ve invited 8 of the most inspiring leaders in ministry to share one compelling idea in just 30 minutes each. They come from different ministry circles and use a variety of methods, but they all have one thing in common: a love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a desire to see lost people reached. You will be stretched by their thinking and challenged by their insights. The very idea you resist could be the key to God’s future for you. Who knows, you might even find confirmation for the dream God’s already revealed to you. But whatever the reaction, one thing is certain: you will never be the same.

The speakers were described by some of those involved as coming from the Reformed tradition, the Contemporary Church world, or from the Emerging Church – the ‘right wing’ of the Emerging church, that is (i.e., the allegedly ‘good’ side).

Here are the speakers, most of whom I do not know:

  • John Burke, Gateway Community Church, Austin, TX
  • Darrin Patrick, the Journey, St Lous, MO (Vice President of Acts 29 Church Planting Network – Mark Driscoll’s group)
  • Vince Antonucci, Forefront Church, Virginia Beach, VA
  • Mark Batterson, National Community Church, Washington, DC
  • Tim Stevens, Granger Community Church
  • Perry Noble, NewSpring Church, Anderson, SC
  • Ed Stetzer, Director of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence.
  • Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC

The group is very … eclectic … shall we say?

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Filed Under: Dever, Issues, Personalities, Separation
by on 5.22.08

who is your God?

To address this question today, I’d like to link to two quite widely divergent internet resources. One is a local paper from the interior of BC and the other is my online friend, Scott Aniol.

First, consider this lifestyles article from the lakecountrycalendar.com, Keepers of the sacred. The article discusses the decline in Canadian church attendance, among other things. The article comes to no real conclusion, certainly to no conclusion satisfying to me, but it does contain a telling observation concerning the focus of affection in Canadian hearts:

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Filed Under: Charismatism, Issues, Music, Separation, Worship
by on 5.2.08

does desiring God mean this?

A post from Lighthouse Trails points out that the BGC magazine contains an article advocating mystical, yoga-like contemplative prayer, including pictures of yoga-like meditation poses. The BGC is the Baptist General Conference, the denomination of you know who…

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Filed Under: Issues, Personalities, Piper, Separation
by on 4.10.08

new evangelicalism – course and consequences

I’ve been blogging my old Church History class notes [minus the doodles] for a little while now. The next two sections concern new evangelicalism:

The Course of Neo-Evangelicalism

  1. Sellout of schools: Fuller Theological Seminary and Wheaton College [as examples]
  2. Emergence of honoured leaders:
    Harold Ockenga
    Carl Henry
    Edward Carnell
    Donald Ray Barnhouse
    Vernon Grounds
    Bernard Ramm
    Alan Redpath
  3. Emergence of Propaganda Vehicles
    Christianity Today (an answer to the liberal Christian Century)
    Christian Life
    Eternity

As I think about this section, I must not have fully understood the lecture, or else ‘sellout’ is my term. Fuller was created for the purpose of advancing the neo-evangelical cause. It has always been committed to a course of compromise, whereas Wheaton turned away from a more militant beginning to the position it holds today.

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Filed Under: Church History, Fundamentalism, New Evangelicalism, Separation
by on 4.4.08

more ‘dialogue’ sightings

Running the risk of additional misunderstanding, I note today another emergence of the “d” word. It is used in a CT LiveBlog article, “The Politics of Proselytization“. The article comes to no conclusion, but is hopeful, apparently, that somehow everyone can get along. The issue is illustrated by the offense some have taken over a Good Friday prayer by the Pope:

Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men…Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved.

We don’t agree with the Pope, or dialogue with him either, but we do agree with this prayer. Apparently the Pope hasn’t figured out dialog either, since he regularly gets himself into un-PC imbroglios like this.

But CT is all about dialog. It is, after all, their word. So we learn from the article that Richard Mouw is all for dialogue (no surprise) but

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Filed Under: New Evangelicalism, Separation
by on 3.26.08

two random quotes from CH class

Here are two quotes from my 1980 Church History class. The section I am dealing with in recent posts are basically preliminary to a discussion of new evangelicalism vs. fundamentalism. Here are the quotes:

A schismatic spirit is one that insists upon total agreement on non-essentials as well as on the essentials.

and

Fundamentalist creeds do not include denominational distinctives.

Is there any correlation between these two ideas?

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Filed Under: Church History, Separation
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