I found the video below while looking for something unrelated and Tim Keller does a wonderful job of expressing, in a much better way than I, some of the things I’ve been thinking about recently.

I think this sums it up well: “They do not know how to have a conversation, they just simply heap scorn on the other side. That’s what the new atheists do and that’s what a lot of Christians do as well.”

The first week of June my dad, brother, and I headed to Durham, North Carolina for Advance ‘09. Surprisingly we survived the road trip without any major difficulties, although on the way home there were a couple of hours where Brent and I weren’t speaking. Below are some links to the conference audio and some pictures from the event.

Update: Video of all the sessions.

The Empty Theatre

Jesus Band

John Piper at Advance '09

Conference Audio: All the speakers were excellent but if you want some recommendations here they are: My dad recommends Ed Stetzer and Danny Akin, Brent recommends Eric Mason and Mark Driscoll’s second sermon “Ministry Idolatry”.

What Is the Church?
Mark Driscoll

The Resurgence of the Church
Tyler Jones

Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching (Sermon Notes: PDF)
Bryan Chappell

Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched
Matt Chandler

Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom
Ed Stetzer

Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel
J. D. Greear

The Ultimate Shepherd
Eric Mason

Ministry Idolatry
Mark Driscoll

Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1
John Piper

Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith
Danny Akin

Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 2
John Piper

Q & A with Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, and Bryan Chappell

Q & A with John Piper, Mark Driscoll, JD Greear, Eric Mason and Ed Stetzer

WordPress has just implemented the ability to add threading to the comments. What this means is that you can either reply to the post or to an individual commenter. This will make it a little easier to keep the flow of individual conversations straight.. It is currently set it up to allow 4 replies to an individual comment. To reply to an individual comment simply click the “reply” link under that comment.

The following quote is taken from Tim Keller’s new book.

“ This dynamic becomes exceptionally intense when elder brothers pride themselves above all for their right religion. If a group believes God favors them because of their particularly true doctrine, ways of worship, and ethical behavior, their attitude toward those without these things can be hostile. Their self-righteousness hides under the claim that they are only opposing the enemies of God. When you look at the world through those lenses, it becomes easy to justify hate and oppression, all in the name of truth. ”

• Luke 15:11-31 (This is the basis for the book)
• The Prodigal God has audio from Tim Keller that covers the material in the book.

This post is a follow up to “Something is wrong with America… It’s you.” The video for the song referenced below can be found here and the lyrics here.

You may be wondering why keep talking about this obscure song at all? I think the issues brought up by this song bring out strong feelings in many of us. These issues also seem to present themselves frequently in church.

I want to walk through some of those issues. Not because I hate this song with a passion, although I do, but because I think it provides an entertaining spring board to talk about some bigger issues. I’m going to try and keep this as brief as possible, so I’m not going into every detail of every point. I want you to understand that I’m not doing this to be disagreeable, although I usually am, but to address some issues of the Church’s interaction with America that deeply trouble me. Also, as a “man of God” I’m going to be writing from a Christian perspective, making some basic assumptions about Christianity and the truth of the Bible.

Problem #1 – Accuracy
This song draws both direct and indirect comparisons of America to various distasteful things (Sodom and a warzone spring to mind). I would like to you to consider these comparisons for a moment.

America is like Sodom (“like Sodom of old”)
Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Genesis 19:4-5
Has America really sunk to this level? Is this a fair comparison?

Schools, in many cases resembling war zones
From my original post on this subject:

War zones? Really? You don’t see the difference between school sanctioned prayer and individual prayer?

It seems these comparisons go to the extreme for the simple purpose of playing on people’s emotions. I think that many times, in our arguments, we tend to exaggerate the facts to make our point, this causes an immediate loss of credibility. (See Logical Fallacy: Straw Man)

Problem #2 – Ignoring the Gospel
The Apostle Paul tells us that the Gospel is of first importance (1 Cor. 15:3). One of the missteps in this song (and often in the church) is to completely ignore the effects of the Gospel focusing rather on political action.
I want to address, briefly, the issue of culture. Culture is simply the sum of our life, it involves how we look at the world as well as what we do in the world.
Scripture makes it clear that our actions flow out of our heart (one example: Proverbs 4:23). In Scripture, problems that manifest themselves in our actions have their start in the condition of our heart. Simply your heart overflows into action, (see Luke 6:45) which in turn builds culture.
This song presents the idea that we can change culture by simply taking it back from those who have no self control. This is wrong on two levels. First it simply doesn’t work. The way in which Scripture presents change is through a transformed heart. (See Ez. 36:24-28, John 3:5) Legislation can make something legal or illegal but it doesn’t make people change. You can change the laws all you want and people are still going to sin.
Secondly it presents “self control” as the answer to the problem. Just work harder, be a better person. This stands in direct opposition to the Gospel, which says you’re all screwed up and the only way to change is through Jesus. This idea of transformation through self control is the same view the Pharisees adopted. Probably not the greatest plan to side with the guys who killed Jesus.

Problem #3 – Looking to the wrong place for salvation
This is closely related to #2. Those who hold to the view presented in this song seem to believe that if we can fix America everything else will be fine. It is as if we have replaced Jesus with a calf not made of gold but of red, white, and blue. This holds true not just for this song, but also in the church. As a minister, one of my frequent frustrations is that we get very excited about patriotic issues while ignoring Jesus.

Problem #4– It’s all about the blame. (And the blame is in the wrong place)
This song presents several influences for evil in our culture. Public Schools (without God), Television (forcing us to watch bad things) Politicians (who evidently influence children more than parents). The question is, is the blame being placed in the right place? Over two thirds of Americans claim to be Christians. This puts Christians in the majority in our country. If America has gone down the tubes, as this song claims, whose fault is it? It’s much easier to place the blame than to accept responsibility and change the way we, personally, behave.

Problem #5 – The New Testament and Government
I don’t see the attitude portrayed in this song in the New Testament. The Roman Empire was not a moral country.

Homosexuality and male prostitution, for example, were especially characteristic of Greco-Roman society. Plato lauded homosexual love in The Symposium (181B). Nero, emperor at the time Paul wrote this letter, was about to marry the boy Sporus (Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, 6. 28), an incident bizarre only in its formality, since 14 of the first 15 Roman emperors were homosexual or bisexual. The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures

Did Paul react to this moral climate by “taking Rome back” or by preaching the Gospel?

Problem #6 – Logistics
Have you considered the implications if the vision portrayed in this song came to pass? Whose view of God would be taught in Schools? Who gets to decide what brand of theology is taught? Danny wrote about this five years ago and I think it holds up – you can find it here.

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I have more thoughts but I’ve already exceeded the length most of you will read. I’ll end with something my dad put in the comments yesterday that caused me to think about my opinions and how I present them.

To all the interesting comments, I will add mine. I think many of the comments come from our own backgrounds and age groups. My generation has always responded well to a rallying cry about, and what has gone wrong with America. Not that we want to decry how bad America is, but we are saddened at the changes that we perceive have dragged down our culture. We truly would like to see a turn around for the better, as we might define it.
Now as to the proper place to voice the rallying cry, and the tone, and attitude, my generation has not always done so well. Thanks for reminding us that we need to do it in a way that those who disagree will find palatable.

I think it is important to remember that we all have opinions, we are all influenced by our age and background, and most importantly we aren’t always right. That’s why I think it is valuable to discuss these kinds of things, because it helps us see our blind spots. Hopefully we can all humbly agree that there are areas in our system of belief and in the presentation of those beliefs, where we have not done well. We are very good at critiquing others (as evidenced by the thousand words above) but often not very good at critiquing ourselves.

Here’s a clip from tomorrow’s D.L. Hughley Breaks the News (Sat. 10pm est).  I probably should add that it contains some frank sexual discussion.  Thoughts?

If the video gets taken down from YouTube you can find it here.

The following is a short excerpt from a sermon I preached during a series on the Beatitudes. I’ve shortened the excerpt up a little and changed the illustrations.

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“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10

Persecution is something that some Christians speak about often and sometimes with a morbid excitement.  (For Example: Things are really starting to get bad now…)

Are your really being persecuted?

1. Justice is not persecution.

Being punished for doing wrong does not count as persecution.

Take Kent Hovind, a “creation scientist”, who is now doing ten years in a federal prison for tax related offenses. His strategy for evading his taxes included some of the following.

• Declare bankruptcy
• Attempt to revoke his signature (making invalid everything he ever signed)
• The ever popular “God owns it all”
• Renouncing his U.S. Citizenship

The response from some Hovind supporters? “We believe Hovind to be completely innocent of the alleged crime of “tax evasion”, and furthermore believe Hovind’s 10 year sentence to be patently unjust and based upon an effort to silence his ministry.”

• For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (1 Peter 2:20)

2.  A negative response to bad behavior is not persecution

When someone treats you badly because you are an arrogant jerk – that is not persecution.

As an example, consider the Westboro Baptist Church.  When you protest soldiers funerals, with signs saying things like “Thank God for IEDs”, don’t expect a warm reception.  You don’t get to play the persecution card just because you’re an obnoxious arrogant fool.

Many Christians, who behave badly, try and justify their behavior by saying, “But I’m just speaking the truth”.  I think we need to be aware that it is not just what we say that matters, it is also how we say it.

• Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ (Ephesians 4:15)
• always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15)

I have heard Christians, some of them pastors, blame their negative reception on others.  They often say something like “these people just can’t handle the truth”.  My question, is it the truth the problem, or is it you?

3.  Conflict is not persecution.

Persecution has become a very politically charged word.  Often to make an impact (or to make themselves feel more “righteous”), some Christians claim persecution where only disagreement or conflict exists. Many times you find a simple disagreement or difficult conflict labeled as persecution among some Christians.  It is interesting to me that when these people disagree with others it is always “I’m standing up for the truth”, however, when they are disagreed with it is, suddenly, “persecution”.

Posted in Sermon Excerpts ]]> http://ebrandon.net/2009/02/04/help-help-im-being-repressed/feed/ 4 ebrandon11 kent_hovind http://ebrandon.net/2008/10/31/i-like-the-fallout-boys/ http://ebrandon.net/2008/10/31/i-like-the-fallout-boys/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:16:08 +0000 Brandon http://brandonmerrill.wordpress.com/?p=31 ]]>

Here are my Halloween plans.  (Hat tip to almighty god)

Some of the area churches have a hymn sing on the fifth Sunday. The song below was sung by a lady at the last event. Following the song she received an immediate and enthusiastic standing ovation from everyone in the audience (I was the exception.) Here’s the song:

I don’t know where to begin with this.

• “We want America back, from those who have no self control”

What does that even mean? Does that include the buffet at Golden Corral? I mean, none of you can really lay claim to the petite label. I wonder how they would have viewed Jesus… The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7:34)

I think the most horrendous part is the speech in the middle; I’ll just mention one of the first points because I can’t sit through this again.

• The condition of our schools

War zones? Really? You don’t see the difference between school sanctioned prayer and individual prayer? Do you even have children? Has anyone in your home school co-op ever seen a public school?

I’m tired of this “Us versus Them” mentality that so many Christians are sporting these days. People with this mindset are about five minutes away from stockpiling guns and beans and then referring to their places of worship as compounds.

Church signs are a constant source of amusement for me. It seems that many churches believe a cute saying will make their church “culturally relevant”, unfortunately the culture they appeal to is middle aged ladies who already attend church.

Here’s an example from a local church that I’m fairly certain made the baby Jesus cry
• Heavenly Forecast – Jesus will reign

While not great, it’s not as desperate as a church down the road sporting
• Please come back to church

Last week a church in Ohio posted did this. (If you don’t understand, click here) Now this sign debuted to a rough reception and was taken down about 24 hours later.

I think most of the people who saw the sign missed the point. There were those who, ignorant of pop culture, thought that this was a prohibition against kissing girls all together. Others immediately jumped on this as full blown attack against homosexuality, condemning this church and offering ‘open and affirming’ churches as an alternative.

Some Thoughts:
• This sign was not intended to be an in-depth theological treatise
• This sign was not intended to be a angry statement
• This sign was not a sermon
• It is a church sign – intended to draw attention and hopefully cause some discussion, which it accomplished.

While I’m content to keep our service times on our church sign, rather than a pithy statement, I think this pastor gets some points for breaking out of the traditional 1 cross + 3 nails = 4given type church sign and trying to actively engage the culture he lives in.

Linkage