Too Much?
Guy at “the M blog” as named this site his favorite blog of 2009 in his post “2009 Favorites.” That’s too much, Guy! I’m greatly honored and humbled (yes, at the same time) by your declaration.
Guy says:
Hand’s down, my favorite blog in 2009 was Alan Knox’s The Assembling of the Church. I follow 86 blogs in my Bloglines Feed reader. Out of these, there are some excellent writers, but the one that most consistently comes up with quality and thought-provoking material is Alan’s “Assembling…” If I had a suggestion for Alan, it would be to maybe post only 2-3 entries/week. There is simply too much good stuff to absorb!
So, Guy says my blog is good, but it’s too much. Too many posts…
Interestingly, when I started adding “biblical theology” and “NT Greek” posts last month, I started posting more often.
Would you prefer that I continue posting 2-3 posts per day, or would you prefer 2-3 posts per week?
Do we even realize it?
Arthur at “the voice of one crying out in suburbia” has written an excellent post called “Academic responsibility.” He takes an author to task for making statements about Scripture that are simply not true… that is, the facts are not in Scripture. Instead, Arthur says, the facts are found in the author’s tradition or theological system.
I’ve found the same thing, especially when the church is concerned. People have made statements to me that are not found in Scripture. They stand by these statements and believe them to be 100% true. When I point out that this or that is not actually said in Scripture, I usually hear something like this: “Well, I haven’t studied it for myself, so I really can’t discuss it with you.”
To be honest, I think many people (myself included) believe many things to be scriptural which are not found in Scripture at all. Of course, Arthur is right… if someone is writing a book, they should probably check their facts. But, many of these traditions are simply taken for granted. In other words, we often don’t even consider the possibility that what we believe may in fact be wrong.
Notes on Koine Greek
Michael at pisteuomen has done us all (especially those just learning Greek) a great service by posting his “Notes on Koine Greek.” (That is a link to his first “note.” So far, he’s published 41 notes.)
Primarily, Michael follows Dave Black’s Learn to Read New Testament Greek. When I first took a Greek class, we did not use this book as the textbook. However, it was highly recommended by others, so I purchased it as a supplement. Black’s morphological approach makes so much sense to me that I use his book whenever I teach NT Greek.
Two-Thirds Christian
One of the latest observations from Dave Black (Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 8:12 am):
In this connection, perhaps I could remind everyone what Balthasar Hübmaier said about the Reformers. He complained that they had learned only two of the three critically important doctrines of the Christian faith. The first doctrine was salvation by faith (“der gloub macht uns selig“). The second was that the Christian cannot do anything good by himself or herself (“wir mugen ausz uns selbs nichts guts thon“). He went on to say that the Protestants had completely overlooked the third lesson, namely that faith without works in dead. He wrote, “Under cover of these two half-truths all evil, unfaithfulness and unrighteousness have gained the upperhand, completely … so that the old saying is fulfilled ‘Ye alter ye böser.'” We cannot have a two-thirds faith, he said: “das volckh nit mer denn zway stuck geleernet hat.”
Good advice, that. Don’t be a two-thirds Christian!
Are you a two-thirds Christian?
Of course, we can teach and lead as a two-thirds Christian as well, when our teaching or leading do not include serving by example.
A New Remnant and a New Kingdom
Lionel invited me to write occasional Bible studies / devotionals for “Step thru the Scriptures.” This is a new blog that publishes posts to go along with a daily Bible reading plan. If you follow the plan, you will read through the Bible in a year, with an Old Testament and New Testament reading each day. If you follow the new blog, either through RSS or email, you’ll also get a Bible study / devotional for each day’s reading, and you can interact with other readers in the comments.
I published my first Bible study / devotional today at Step thru the Scriptures. It’s called “A New Remnant and a New Kingdom.”
Learning before serving?
Andy at “aBowden Blog” continues his series on sanctification in a post called “sanctification, part III.”
He begins with the following description:
There we were at the men’s breakfast. The biscuits, grits, eggs, and bacon were quickly devoured. Our attention turned to the group facilitator who began the morning discussion. He began by explaining his joy over men’s ministry and then asked the rest of us for suggestions about what our purpose should be. Many piped up with “community service projects,†“evangelism,†and “Bible study.†To my surprise, an earnest debate ensued. One man argued, “We should not seek to serve until we have had enough teaching.†Sadly, he won the discussion. His logic was that the men were not ready to serve yet. What they lacked was adequate teaching. Silently I marvelled. How could Sunday morning Sunday school, Sunday morning sermons, Sunday night sermons, and Wednesday night Bible study not be enough teaching? As the weeks progressed, the men’s breakfast quickly fizzled and then completely died.
Then he continues with this observation:
I think the solution is quite different. I think the best lessons are learned, not in the classroom, but in the trenches, with sleeves rolled up, hands dirty, and back sore. Those men at the morning breakfast could have had innumerable teaching times, about love, service, etc, or they could have chosen to DO, to love, to serve. Sure, they would have made a ton of mistakes and realized their lack of love, but isn’t that the point? Don’t we learn best by doing?
I think that Andy is learning a lesson that I’m learning as well: people primarily learn by doing. So, separating “learning” from “serving” actually decreasing learning.
Do you want people to learn about the love of God? Then take them with you as you demonstrate that love to others. It really is that simple… and that difficult.
One Bread and One Cup
Dave Black is writing about the Lord’s Supper again (Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 3:50 pm):
I remain convinced, in an obscurantist sort of way of course (being the ultimate obscurantist), of the necessity of having one loaf of bread and one cup during the Lord’s Supper. If you will tolerate yet another reference to the sixteenth century Anabaptists, in 1541 Peter Riedemann wrote that the one loaf is formed by the grinding and mingling of many grains of wheat, and the wine exists only because many individual grapes have been crushed. “Thus, the meal … is a sign of the community of the body, in that each and every member declares himself to be of the one mind, heart and spirit of Christ.” The point is that, in the Lord’s Supper, individualism is given up for unity. Forgive me, but — isn’t that powerful?
Interestingly, churches often put emphases on the “Supper” that we can’t find in Scripture. For instance, can you find anything in Scripture that says it’s important for the bread in the Supper to be unleavened? What about only have “ordained” (whatever that means) people serve the “elements”?
No… but Scripture does say something about the one bread and one cup and the focus on unity, fellowship, and community.
Blogging Year in Review 2009
I have been blogging for almost four years (my fourth blogiversary will be in March 2010). I still enjoy it, primarily because of the interaction that this blog brings into my life – both from readers and from people I know IRL (in real life).
These are the most read posts that I published in 2009:
- A Megachurch in Jerusalem? (September 2009)
- Sermon Central (June 2009)
- The Church in the New Testament (September 2009)
- A huge problem with ‘house church’ (July 2009)
- Jesus was not a very good evangelist (July 2009)
- In Theory (August 2009)
- What makes a meal the Lord’s Supper? (January 2009)
- Recognizing Elders (July 2009)
- 1 Corinthians 14:26ff – normal or particular? (July 2009)
- The Third Greatest Commandment (January 2009)
You may wonder, as I did at first, why 8 out of the top 10 most read blog posts were published in the second half of the 2009. Well, in the Summer, I began to publish links to my blog posts in Facebook. Facebook quickly became my number one referrer.
There are also a few older posts that continue to get alot of traffic primarily driven by search engines:
- How Does God Communicate? (March 2007)
- Ephesians 4:11 and the Five-Fold Ministry (April 2007)
- Obey and Submit? Hebrews 13:17 (July 2007)
- Ruling or Leading? (July 2007)
- What about honor of elders/pastors? (October 2007)
It looks like 2007 was a very good year for me. Actually, during that time, I wrote several posts about leadership, elders, and pastors. Leadership posts also attract alot of readers.
Anyway, once again, I greatly enjoy blogging, mainly because of you, my readers. So, thank you for reading and commenting! And, have a great New Year!
Bad Influence?
So, my friend Jason at “Fight the Good Fight” has posted an “End of Year Recap.” I wonder if I (and a few other miscreants) have been bad influences on Jason. He writes:
This summer’s internship with Mike had several influences. First of all, it solidified the fact that I love working with youth, teaching them, building relationships, showing them how to live. Second of all, it solidified the thought that was circling in the back of my mind that vocational ministry is not what God was “calling†me to. It’s been made pretty clear to me over the past year, through the scriptures that God does not call individuals to “ministryâ€, but rather everyone to ministry if they are a Christian. Elders/Pastors are a necessary part of the church body, yes, they oversee and teach, but they are not the head of the church. It seems that experience has shown me this past summer that vocational ministry (paid ministry) is the cause of many of the things wrong with the way the church functions today. It pervades the way people think, regardless of if it is scriptural or not. It influences the body’s idea of ministry to the point of creating the idea that ministry is for those in vocational ministry. Not only that, but the idea of hiring out that position to someone who you have no relationship with is definitely not the way scripture presents it. If we hold the standard of watching our deacons live to make sure they are qualified, why do we not hold that same standard for pastor/elders? How can we as a church, entrust the oversight of our body to a man we don’t even know. There is no way that a “search committee†could effectively analyze a pastor and the way he lives with a few interview questions. Ultimately, God has shown me that I need to be a “tent makerâ€, if you want to put it that way. Support my family in the best way I can and do ministry (what God calls every Christian to do, disciple, spread the gospel, etc…) and utilize whatever spiritual gift I have within the body to encourage them, whether it be teaching, playing guitar, whatever.
I hope that we can continue to influence young men like this.
Faces, Scenes, and Life
Guy from “The M Blog” has given us a glimpse inside simple churches in Guayaquil, Ecuador in a post called “No Hay Paredes: Las caras, escenas y vida de las iglesias en Casa en Guayaquil.” Church life doesn’t get much more beautiful than that!