The Blue Parakeet: How to Compete with Christianity

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Jay F Guin

parakeetWhile we Christians are worrying about the decline of Christianity in the US, the atheists are worried about their inability to keep their children away from God.

In an editorial in today’s New York Times, Charles M. Blow writes,

“Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.”

So goes the rationale of my nonreligious friends.

Maybe, but a study entitled “Faith in Flux” issued this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life questioned nearly 3,000 people and found that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one. Indoctrination be damned. By contrast, only 4 percent of those raised Catholic and 7 percent of those raised Protestant later became unaffiliated. Continue reading →

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CENI: Introduction

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Jay F Guin

church_split1I’ve been planning to say something on CENI hermeneutics for years. Now I finally get to it.

For those not familiar with the term, “CENI” is the internet abbreviation for Command, Example, and Necessary Inference. And CENI is the foundation of 20th Century Church of Christ hermeneutics.

A fuller expression of the slogan is Direct Command, Binding (or Approved) Example, and Necessary Inference.

Let me try to explain what’s going on. You see, CENI makes no sense unless you also teach the Regulative Principle. This principle goes back to John Calvin and his efforts to purify the church from the accretions of Medieval Catholicism. Calvin taught that, in worship, anything that isn’t authorized in the scriptures is not allowed. In other words, silence is a prohibition. This was supported by various passages that express God’s concern for how he is worshiped, such as the story of Nadab and Abihu. Continue reading →

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Ed Stetzer on Reversing Our Decline: Leaders

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Jay F Guin

downward_trend.jpgBack in April 2008, Ed Stetzer wrote a post on how to reverse the decline in the Southern Baptist Churches (SBC). He’s just followed that up with some additional thoughts following a year of experience and reflection.

Stetzer is a consultant to the Southern Baptist Churches, frequent speaker at seminars for many denominations, and has lots of thoughts well worth pondering. And his advice is particularly appropriate to the Churches of Christ because —

* The SBC announced that its numbers were in decline the same year that Dr. Flavil Yeakley reached the same conclusion about the Churches of Christ.

* We are a lot like the Southern Baptists. Deny it all you wish, but we share conservative theology, congregational autonomy, and an evangelistic ideal.

As you read his comments, you’ll find other similarities, some of which may surprise you.

I’m going to alternate his advice with my own reflections and reactions, translating into Church of Christ terms as we go. Continue reading →

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The Fine Line: Re-envisioning the Gap Between Christ and Culture

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Jay F Guin

finelineKary Oberbrunner’s The Fine Line: Re-envisioning the Gap between Christ and Culture wrestles with the line between Christianity and culture. The author explains,

The first camp separates itself from people, society, and culture in order to stay “unstained.” They turn God’s commands, plus hundreds of other rules and laws, into a heavy burden that supposedly grants personal holiness .. . These people make up the Separatist camp.

The second camp conforms itself to the ideals and philosophies of the world. … These people make up the Conformist camp.

(p. 22) Oberbrunner describes both camps as irrelevant, because —

it isn’t love that characterizes either camp, as Jesus commands, but unbalance. And the church and the world both suffer because of it.

(p. 23)  Later Oberbrunner explains that the failure of the two camps is a lack of love. The Separatists love God but fail to love people as they should. The Conformists love people but fail to love God as they should. Continue reading →

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Shout Out for Justin Michael Allen

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

A few of you may have noticed that my Indexing system is UP TO DATE!!!  HOORAY!!!

Justin has agreed to handle the indexing duties and has — remarkably — managed to catch up the indexing despite the deluge of posts over the weekend. (I think the Glen Coffee post got him excited. 😀 (I mean, Christianity and Alabama football … surely the new heavens and new earth will have football stadiums)).

Anyway, it’s been a huge relief for Matthew Proctor to take on the tagging and Justin to take on the indexing. The tagging helps the hit count (meaning more people get some good out of all this, I hope), and the indexing helps people look stuff up and maybe find something helpful to them. Google is great, but just try looking up “truth” and see how many links truly tell you what/who truth is!

And so, if you ever find something helpful to you via the Indexing system (the Index tab at the top of the page and the list of Pages on the left of the page), insert a comment thanking Justin for his help. Indexing is hard work.

(Now if I could find someone to write this stuff …)

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Baptist Sacramentalism 2

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

A while back, I posted the full text of an article by Stanley K. Fowler noting the increasing convergence of Baptist and Church of Christ baptismal theology. It turns out that was a pre-publication copy of an article to be published in Baptist Sacramentalism 2, which is volume 25 of a series called “Studies in Baptist History and Thought.” The book has been available in England for a few weeks, but is just now available in the U.S. I can’t find it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble yet, but they should have it soon.

I was privileged to receive the book for free — in exchange for promising to mention in the blog. I made no promises to be complimentary … just to mention it. I can’t be bought that cheap.

Anyway, the book is a collection of 15 essays by Baptist authors on the Baptist view of the sacraments, particularly baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And the articles are uniformly thoughtful, insightful, and well written. Continue reading →

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Once in a Lifetime Book

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Scot McKnight is the author of The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, a book on hermeneutics that I’ve been building a series of lessons on here for my church’s adult classes. McKnight is also a leading voice in the emerging church movement — you know, the movement recently trashed by the Gospel Advocate. WIth that in mind, I thought the readers would find this post at his popular blog, Jesus Creed, fascinating —

Once in a Lifetime Book

EFH.jpgEvery now and then, but not very often, someone writes a book that is a once-in-a-lifetime publication. Wow! Everett Ferguson has just given us an exhaustive study of baptism in the first five centuries: Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries..

What are the most decisive arguments in the baptism debates — infant or adult? Submersion, immersion, sprinkling? What most convinced you of your view? Or, do you think the parents or person choose and that the church makes a few options available?

This master historian, well-known for his works on backgrounds to the New Testament, sketches the whole picture: from the Jewish and/or Greco-Roman backgrounds to the New Testament to infant baptism (late 2d century) to baptismal liturgies to baptismal theologies and baptistries themselves — it’s all here.

This book is not innovative; it is not an attempt to argue a brand-new theory; it’s an examination of what can be known from the ancient evidence about baptism. For years I have always gone to G.R. Beasley-Murray’s justifiably well-known book on baptism (Baptism in the New Testament). I will now go first to Ferguson’s magnum opus.

Every pastor, theologian, ecclesial thinker, and theologian needs this book.

Interesting bit of irony — and I’m sure a masterful book. I have a birthday coming and I’m kinda hoping …

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In the Shadow of the Temple, by Oskar Skarsaune

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Jay F Guin

intheshadowIn the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (2002) is another book that radically changes our understanding of the history of Christianity. I don’t think it’s suitable for a Bible class or small group study, but it’s an important work for the serious Bible student. It’s not a light read.

The author does a remarkable job of showing how very Jewish the early church was in its thinking — for centuries. Of course, over time the church was taken over by Greek influences, but in the early centuries, the church was deeply rooted in Judaism, even as the church became largely Gentile.

For example, the author notes how Acts describes Paul going from city to city teaching “God fearers,” who were Gentiles who already had become worshippers of the God of the Old Testament. And we can’t help but notice how, even when writing to a predominantly Gentile congregation, Paul argues his points from the Old Testament, presuming that his readers know their Torah. Continue reading →

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Glen Coffee’s Draft Status Enhanced by His Outspoken Christianity

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Jay F Guin

coffeeI just have to point out a remarkable story about Glen Coffee, running back for Alabama who left school a year early to enter the draft. He was originally rated well below the top-10 running backs in the draft — but his stock rose so that he was drafted as the first pick of the third round.

Why the improvement? His Christianity.

Here’s an earlier post about how Coffee was converted by his roommate while in college. And here’s a story from the Birmingham News about how his draft status went up due to how well he handled himself —

Coffee’s agent Todd Crannell said that they get these scouting reports from the NFL when the the process begins, and Coffee was originally ranked as the 15th best running back, which translates into being a 5th round pick. But Crannell said because of the job Coffee has done representing himself and because of his workouts, he’s climbing.

It’s impossible to tell right now, but Crannell said Coffee is now considered to be the 6th or 7th best back, which might land him in the second or third round. Some of it because of Coffee’s sterling character displayed by his strong faith. So that’s interesting…

Coffee’s recent appearance on the “700 Club” was impressive, as he spoke simply of his faith: http://www.cbn.com/media/index.aspx?s=/vod/SB78v1.

In age when professional athletes are famous for their arrests, drug use, and selfishness, it’s encouraging to see an athlete rewarded for his faith.

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The Lost History of Christianity, by Philip Jenkins

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Jay F Guin

I’ve got this big ol’ stack of books I’ve read over the last few months that I keep meaning to post something about.

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died
is a truly fascinating book. Jenkins covers the history of Christianity in Asia, showing that the church made it all the way to Japan by 1000 AD, only to be pushed back and nearly destroyed by Islam. And he points out many of the mistakes that the Asian church made that led to its near demise.

The truly interesting part of the book is its coverage of a part of Christianity that’s been largely ignored by historians. We tend to think of Christianity as a purely Mediterranean phenomenon until the Age of Exploration, but it’s not true. I’m a pretty good student of history, and yet I had no idea until this book that the church had had such great success in Asia for over 1,000 years. Continue reading →

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