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.

via Book Review: Multi-Site Churches – 9Marks.

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

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.)

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.

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.

It’s no secret to those who know me, but I love to read. As a Christian, I enjoy reading “Christian living” and theology, and I was challenged by a question on the humor site Stuff Christians Like, in one of Jon’s more serious posts.

At the end of that post, he asked the questions:

• What are you reading?
• And what is God showing you through it?

Answering the first question is easy, but admittedly, I often neglect thinking through the second question enough. Not that God is not showing me plenty through my reading, but I often don’t bother to think through it thoroughly and reflect up on it.

So, with that in mind, right now I’m reading…

• The Sinfulness of Sin, by Ralph Venning. Through this Puritan Paperback from Banner of Truth, I’m getting a very deep serious sense of God’s absolute and total hatred of sin. While “God hates sin” is a basic foundational idea of Christianity, I think we don’t reflect enough on just how repulsive our sin is to Him. This is important not just as an idea, but because it makes the cross of Jesus Christ that much more powerful – that God poured out His holy wrath upon His Son for our sake, that Christ took on that repulsive sin, and that for that, those who believe shall never suffer for it.
• Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, by Donald S. Whitney. Here God is showing me how to be closer to Him through His Word, through prayer, and through other spiritual disciplines and attitudes.
• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, by J. I. Packer. I’ve been very convicted of my failure to evangelize lost friends, relatives, and strangers. God continues to convict and through Packer’s classic, I’m getting a very solid, biblical view of evangelism, and what is important (and what’s not) when sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m also gaining confidence to proclaim Christ.

Albert Mohler quotes from J. Gresham Machen and a modern-day counterpart, Howard P. Kainz, on the rivalry between Christianity and Secularism:

Kainz concedes that some will resist his designation of secularism as a religion. “Religion in the most common and usual sense connotes dedication to a supreme being or beings,” he acknowledges. Nevertheless, “especially in the last few centuries, ‘religion’ has taken on the additional connotations of dedication to abstract principles or ideals rather than a personal being,” he insists. Kainz dates the rise of this secular religion to the French Enlightenment and its idolatrous worship of Reason…

Similarly, Kainz argues that modern secular liberalism includes its own dogmas. Among these are the beliefs “that mankind must overcome religious superstition by means of Reason; that empirical science can and will eventually answer all the questions about the world and human values that were formerly referred to traditional religion or theology; and that the human race, by constantly invalidating and disregarding hampering traditions, can and will achieve perfectibility.”

Read more at Albert Mohler’s Blog: Two Rival Religions?.

Everybody involved wanted to invoke God’s name, as you’re supposed to do when remembering a loved one, but it was clear that most of them invoked a god made in their own image. Even those who spoke of Jesus or who prayed to Jesus did so without any clear reference to the Jesus of the Bible. They spoke of a Jesus who accepts all and even (or perhaps especially) those who had rejected him. Never did Michael Jackson give any evidence of putting his faith in Jesus Christ, yet those who watched were assured, time and again, that he was now safe in the presence of the Lord, waiting there for the rest of us to arrive. Words and phrases invoked God and used the Christian lexicon but without any reference to the gospel, the true gospel, the gospel that saves. Lost men declared to other lost men untruths about the god they wish for, not the God who is.

via Idolatry New and Old :: culture, idolatry :: A Reformed, Christian Blog.

Seems to me that the “official” policy of Reuters on the topic of abortion is a trifle slanted:

abortion

Unless quoting someone, refer to aborted foetuses rather than unborn babies. Describe those campaigning for a woman’s right to have an abortion as abortion rights campaigners and those campaigning against abortion rights as anti-abortion campaigners. Terms such as pro-choice, pro-life and pro-abortion are open to dispute and should be avoided.

via A – Handbook of Journalism. (Emphasis added.)

So… “pro-abortion” is open to dispute, but “anti-abortion” is encouraged? And “rights” is not “open to dispute”?

Al Mohler takes a bold but needed stand today:

We should be very concerned about certain trends in contemporary evangelicalism that threaten [the integrity of the Gospel witness of evangelicals]. The first is an ominous confusion about the Gospel itself. The heart of the Gospel is the objective truth that Christ died for sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ–alone. The cardinal doctrine of justification by faith is, as Martin Luther warned, “the article by which the church stands or falls.”

via Evangelicalism’s Terminal Generation?. Read the whole thing. Seriously.