Book Review: Multi-Site Churches – 9Marks
Bobby Jamieson at 9Marks reviews Scott McConnell’s book Multi-Site Churches: Guidance for the Movement’s Next Generation:
Me reviewing this book is like a PETA employee reviewing a hunting manual.
Let me explain. I don’t think churches should be multi-site. I think that the New Testament church’s example, the meaning and use of the word ekklesia, and the nature of congregational authority all indicate that a church is by definition, and therefore should only be, a single assembly that meets in one place. Strictly speaking, I don’t think that multi-site churches even exist. I think that each site or campus or venue is by definition a separate church, at least if we use the word “church” the way the New Testament does.
Pajamas Media » Does Obama Resemble Lincoln or Lincoln’s Adversaries?
Both slavery and abortion ultimately reduce to competing claims over unalienable rights. No one can justly take the liberty or life of another if that other qualifies for the rights with which all of humanity is endowed. Thus, debates over slavery eventually became — as debates over abortion eventually become — debates over the humanity of the slave or the fetus. If the slave or the fetus are among those beings who, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” then their unalienable rights to life in the case of abortion and liberty in the case of slavery must be secured. If they are not, then a slave-master may be said to have a right to property in a slave, and a pregnant woman may be said to have a right to liberty in the form of abortion.
via Pajamas Media » Does Obama Resemble Lincoln or Lincoln’s Adversaries?.
HT: JT
John Newton on Why There Are No Perfect Pastors
On his birthday, let John Newton (author of “Amazing Grace”) tell us why there aren’t any perfect pastors.
In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could [create] a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of ______, the knowledge of ______, the zeal of ______, and the pastoral meekness, tenderness, and piety of ______. Then, putting them all together into one man, I say to myself, “This would be a perfect minister.”
Now there is One, who, if he chose to, could actually do this; but he never did it. He has seen fit to do otherwise, and to divide these gifts to every man severally as he will. (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 107.)
(That’s the whole post from Why There Are No Perfect Pastors :: Desiring God.)
Humility, Accountability, and Risk-Taking
Joel Virgo at the Resurgence blog wrote an entry on masculinity, and one line in particular has really resonated with me about accountability (and applies to women as well as men):
If you have fostered an environment that causes men to confuse their approval ratings by more “mature” men with an accurate measure of godliness, then good luck seeing them take a single risk for the kingdom.
Read the whole thing at Men: Bucking the Trend, Part 5 | TheResurgence.
Update: Tim Challies also covered very similar ground here, previously.
Ryle on Training Children in the Knowledge of the Bible
JC Ryle on Children and the Bible:
See that they read it all. You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You need not fancy that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand. Children understand far more of the Bible than we are apt to suppose.
via Ryle on Training Children in the Knowledge of the Bible — Cal.vini.st.
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