Alex Forrest

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Moral Therapeutic Deism

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What is the dominant worldview in our culture?

Group of young people have meditationIf you were to survey those in academia – i.e. college professors and their ilk – you would likely conclude that the dominant worldview is Naturalism or one of its offspring, like Existentialism or Postmodernism. These views tend to have in common that the matter of the universe is all there is – the universe exists as a closed system. There is no God.

But on a popular level, it seems such a worldview has not taken hold (yet).

I believe the dominant worldview in our culture is called “Moral Therapeutic Deism.” 

We need to pay attention to this. So let’s dive in. [Read more…]

Preachers: Here are 5 Ways You can Help Us Remember your Sermon

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To all the preaching pastors out there:

I know what you do is hard because I’ve done it before. I’ve studied and been trained in preaching, and have had the opportunity to do it here and there, though I must quickly point out that I’ve never shouldered the burden of preaching weekly.

But I know enough to know it’s hard work. You literally pour your heart and soul into your study and preparation each week. You wrestle with the text – its meaning, its context, its implications and applications. You feel the weight of the responsibility to bring God’s Word to God’s people as they gather to worship. I share your high view of preaching.

Like I said, I’ve done it before. But now I’m the church member who is listening and benefitting from your labor. I have a job, some kids, a busy life. And there’s a sad truth that we need to discuss.

That sermon that you wrestled with, that kept you up at night, that you pour so much of yourself into… well… most of us will forget most (if not all) of it by tomorrow. And that really, really stinks. I hate that I’ll forget it (especially when you hit that proverbial home run). I don’t want to forget it.

So I’m writing you with one simple request: Help us remember it. 

I’ll do my part by taking notes, so I can try to hang on to at least some of the message. But I’m asking you do take a part in helping me remember.

How can you do that? That’s a good question worth pondering at some length. The answer(s) will depend on your context — each church and community will be a bit different. With that disclaimer…

Here are five suggestions to help us remember:

1. Let me hear it again if I want to. Hopefully your sermons are recorded and made available somehow to those that missed them or want to hear them again. You can burn them to CDs or you can set them up as a podcast where they can be easily downloaded. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve probably got a young person in the church who can help.

2. Give me a summary. I suggest setting up a blog on the church website where you (or someone on your staff) can post a sermon summary each week. The level of detail is up to you – but at least highlight the key points. I would love for you to build on this further…

3. Help me re-visit your material. As I said above, I try to take notes, but I miss some things. (I’m punching my notes out on a phone for crying out loud!) Use that blog to help me out. Post the “money” quotes from your message. If you had a really helpful quote from some writer, use that in the blog (with proper attribution, obviously). The same could be set for a chart or diagram. As a general rule of thumb, if something makes it onto the screen while you preach, it should make it onto a blog. After all, we know somebody typed it out already and organized it – now it’s just a matter of uploading it onto the blog!

4. Give me some direction to explore in depth. Are there certain articles or books that would help me go deeper? Sure there are! Why not list a few of these resources so I can check them out? Provide suggestions for further reading or study.

5. Give me some discussion points. Help me initiate a discussion with my friends or family by providing some starter questions. Many small groups would benefit from having 3-5 questions that they could use to discuss the sermon. Ideally at least some of these questions would drive us in the direction of making application of this message (and this passage of Scripture) to our lives. Ask questions that begin with “how” or “why.”

I think that last point could be significant. As you’re neck deep in the text and in your preparation, spend a few extra minutes considering these kinds of questions and then make them available to us. The conversations that could result might really help the message get worked out in the community and get us thinking and talking about how we could apply it to our lives. And isn’t that one of your chief goals in this whole enterprise?

I have deep respect and gratitude for the work you do. That’s why I’m so keen for your labor to bear fruit and make an impact.

Related: A Basic Social Media Strategy for a Church

Getting (Only Half) the Gospel Right

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Sometimes the “Cross-Centered Life” can become a sin-centered life.

“Hi, I’m Alex, and I’m the chief of sinners.”

I’ve been in small group meetings where that would probably have been a fitting way to do introductions. Unfortunately, I’ve led meetings like that too! You know, where the purpose of the group meeting seems to simply ferret out sin, so we can theoretically confess it and move on. Then do it all again next time.  But a small group meeting doesn’t have to sound like an AA meeting, does it?

Now, it is certainly appropriate and necessary to confess our sins to each other. But what I’m talking about goes beyond that into the kind of naval gazing sin hunt that can eventually bog down the soul. I mean, seriously, doesn’t that get depressing after a while?

ThiCross - Grunge looks is what happens when we get just half of the Gospel. You know, my sins were put on Christ.

Sometimes an evangelist might really try to drive home the point by saying that my sins nailed him to the cross. And there is truth in that for sure. We must come to the grips with the depths of our sin if we’re to repent and if we’re to fully appreciate the riches of grace.

And this emphasis on “I’m the worst of sinners” is ultimately meant to magnify grace.

I am a great sinner, and my sins separated me from holy God. But God, because of his rich mercy, sent his Son to bear His wrath for my sin. (Eph 2:4 ) And so, indeed, my sins were put upon Him that God’s justice might be satisfied AND I might be forgiven (Romans 3:24-25).

The fancy theological term that we’ve just defined is “propitiation.” It’s a wonderful truth and a word worth knowing!

This is the Gospel… but not the whole Gospel.

And, too often, this is where our understanding of the Gospel and appropriation of the Gospel often ends.

You see, the Gospel is a great exchange, and we’ve just defined one part of it. But both parts are important, and when we focus exclusively on one half, we do so to our detriment.

The exchange looks like this:

(1) My sin was put on Christ. (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:6)

(2) His righteousness was put on me.  (Romans 3:21-22?)

If you stop and think about this, it doesn’t take long before you see the freedom that this brings. If all we ever focus on is sin, sin, sin, we can’t help but become overly burdened  by it. Look, it’s healthy to think about our sin and the grace of Christ — it brings a perspective that many people in our self-esteem culture need.

But if we just stay there without also dwelling on the second half of the exchange, we’ll be stunted and maybe even defeated. After all, sin is heavy, and constantly reminding ourselves of our sin can weigh us down unnecessarily.

The Other Side of the Gospel

The other side of the great exchange, though, shows us exactly what that amazing grace has provided for us: the righteousness of the perfect Son of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our sin was replaced with the exact opposite. The language of the New Testament pictures a garment that is put on us. We are covered in his righteousness. (See Paul’s description in Philippians 3:8-9). It is credited to our account.

The theological term to get to know here is “imputation.” It’s a marvelous, life-giving doctrine. (Romans 5:1-2)

So the doctrine of propitiation looks backward to see what became of our sin and the doctrine of imputation describes our present and our future. It helps us look forward and begins to help us flesh out what it means to live in Christ. We don’t have to focus on our sin all the time because we’ve been set free from it. While we must remember who we are and what we’ve been saved from, we must be equally mindful of the gift we’ve been given.

Our lives are no longer defined by sin — they’re defined by the righteousness of Christ. That is what is most fundamentally true of us. We’ve been transformed by the Gospel (2 Cor. 5:17).

The Tension in Between

Of course we live in the tension of having been made righteous in Christ (that is our legal standing, if you will), but not yet completely free from sin. We still sin, and we must deal with it through repentance and confession. (1 John 1:9) So we are still great sinners. But our hope is that our sin has ultimately been dealt with (propitiation) and that we have been declared righteous in Christ (imputation) – a verdict whose fruit we will see in full in eternity.

That’s the tension in which we live – what many theologians call the “already/not yet” of the Gospel. It requires that we understand both sides of this great Gospel exchange – sin for righteousness, propitiation and imputation.

A healthy view of the Gospel and of ourselves embraces both.

Newbigin via Keller on the the Church and politics

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I read this tonight and found it quite interesting:

“Those who call for a Christian assault on the worlds of politcis and economics often make it clear… that the aim of the attack is to seize the levers of power and take control. We have seen many such successful revolutions, and we know that in most cases what has happened is simply that the oppressor and the oppressed have exchanged roles… The throne is unshaken, on there is a different person occupying it. How is the throne itself to be shaken?… Only by the power of the gospel itself, announced in word and embodied in deed… The victory of the Church over the demonic power which was embodied in the Roman imperial system was not won by seizing the levers of power: it was won when the victims knelt down in the Colosseum and prayed in the name of Jesus for the Emperor.” 

— Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, as quoted by Tim Keller, Gospel in Life, 200. 

These are thought provoking comments that bear on a number of issues regarding the church in culture, including American politics, the concept of “culture war” and how to engage in divisive moral issues like abortion and gay marriage, and all sorts of other things.

The primary role of the Church is not to endorse, campaign, and elect the right candidates with the right views. These things are not unimportant, but I think many in the Church overemphasize them. Frankly I’m not sure that churches should endorse candidates.

I do believe that churches can certainly speak to moral issues – abortion comes to mind first – in a prophetic way. But speaking in a prophetic way is, it seems to me by definition, to speak of them biblically. And I think it’s hard to speak in a biblically consistent and helpful manner in the kind of cynical, ad hominem manner and tone that is so common in (post)modern politics.

The role of the church (and the role of individual Christians) is primarily to serve as a beacon of the gospel message. And sometimes our dalliances in politics (and the allure of the power, money, and influence that go with it) causes us to be distracted and to throw up roadblocks to the message. The gospel itself is a stumbling block, so we ought to strive not to create additional stumbling blocks for people.

I don’t claim to have the answers here because these are sometimes muddy waters. But it’s worth considering. What do you think?

Am I Called? Advice for Young Men Considering Vocational Ministry

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“Am I called?”amIcalled

It’s a question that has vexed many a young man — including me — over the years. But I think I can answer that question for you right now:

Yes. 

That was easy.

What do we mean when we ask a question like that? Presumably this: Am I called to give my life to vocational ministry of some sort? I say for every believer the answer to that question is yes.

Every vocation (that is, every job or career) is to be a Christian vocation – pursued for the glory of God, fitting within a fully-orbed worldview, and as living as light in a dark world. These aren’t just platitudes — it’s the calling of every Christian.

What I can’t answer, of course, is what that looks like in your life. But I feel certain that every believer is called to be engaged in the ministry of the Gospel — growing in Christ, proclaiming Him, serving the Church, counseling and encouraging those who struggle, gently confronting sin, and that sort of thing.

Photo credit

As to the question of — “Am I called to full-time vocational/paid leadership in a church?” — I’d suggest that maybe it’s a little hard for a young man in his teens or twenties to really answer that question.

Can God call such people? Sure. But I wonder if there’s a better way to look at this whole concept.

My suggestion to young men asking this question is to go to school and major in something other than Bible. Pursue a profession or trade of some sort, start a career, and begin to build a life. Be involved in the leadership of your church where there’s a need and an interest. Serve humbly and well. Pursue mentors and read a lot.

Over time, if God is calling you into the full-time-ministry role, He’ll make that known — to you and to others. When the time is right, you can make that leap. But don’t assume the time will be right when you’re 22 or 32 or whatever. That’s not necessarily up to you. (I mean, after all, the term “elder” is not often applied to man in his 20s, right? It can be… but perhaps not as much as we think).

So I suggest that much of the hand-wringing and naval-gazing about this is overdone. We should also consider the role selfish ambition can play in this wrestling — or the faulty worldview that believes in the silly sacred/secular dichotomy (the pastor/laity nonsense). Or this idea that to really live out a Christian vocation in the world, you have to do it for a living.

There’s more to say but for now let’s leave it here:

Yes you’re called — but don’t get too bogged down in the details right now. The Caller will make everything clear at the right time, so just relax and live your life.

Kindles Aren’t for Small Group

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I like my Kindle Touch and have enjoyed reading with it. In many ways it’s easier to read than a physical book due to the wonders of e-ink, it’s obviously much more portable, and books are accessible via phone and computer. So I’m a very content Kindle user. But, one thing I’ve learned the hard way, is that the Kindle is not a great tool for leading (or probably for participating) in a small group book discussion.

Now, I could certainly be missing something because I remain a Kindle novice. But the biggest hindrance I’ve found is that, at least in some books (like the one we’re reading!), you can’t see page numbers. Instead, you get something called location numbers. That’s fine when you’re reading a book, but problematic when discussing it. “What do you think of what he said on page… ummm… location 2138?”

A second problem, also quite problematic, is that not every book published on the Kindle includes endnotes and appendices. And, in many cases, study questions are found in an appendix!

The bottom line is that the Kindle is fantastic for personal reading, but is not a great tool for small group discussion. By the way, this is my first act as an Amazon Affiliate… If you want to check out the Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display, do it here!

A Basic Guide to Effectively Using Social Media in the Church

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SocialMediaAndTheChurchA church can effectively utilize social media in its mission.

Is this true? If a church wants to use social media to be hip, then don’t bother. It will probably come off lame. Social media is not just another popular fad to chase.

What I have in view with the concept though is not another way to bow to the idol of “relevance,” but a biblically informed strategy for utilizing technology to aid in the church’s mission and goals.

Where are your people?

If you were to poll the people in your church, I’d bet a significant portion of them are engaged at some moderate to heavy level with social media, predominantly Facebook and Twitter. I bet a bunch of the gals are active on Pinterest too. And a growing number of people are probably into podcasting.

In other words, that’s where many of your people are spending some time during the week, and that’s an obvious place to connect with them at some level.

This is already happening in your church organically. For example, in a time of medical crisis, Facebook can become a very useful way for relevant information to get out to others who can pray for or serve a family in need. Or on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, see how it works when someone has a baby.

What’s the goal?

I have in view a particular strategy that seeks to generally draw people deeper into the life of the church, which ought to have the deeper goal of drawing them deeper into the Gospel (which is to say, a life marked by a deepening engagement with, affection for, and application of the Gospel). How is that accomplished?

Components of a church social media strategy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Consider others: Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+
  • A blog on your website
  • Podcast and/or YouTube

One way you can use your Facebook and Twitter feeds is to summarize/tease and link to new content in a central blog (this doesn’t have to be fancy – a basic Blogger or WordPress site would do).

The blog serves several purposes. It alerts readers to what’s going on in the church (in the old days we called this “announcements”). Perhaps you might think of it as online bulletin, if you will, without the 10% discount at Golden Corral.

But you can do a lot more with it. For example, you could tell stories of how God is moving in the ministries of the church or in mission projects. You could post photos from events and mission trips. You could answer common theological questions. Be creative.

The blog can also become a place to remind, reinforce, and send people deeper into the content of the Sunday sermon, the principle teaching mechanism of the church. Here you might post a short summary of the message with a link to video or audio if available.

You might post links to articles or books cited as well as material for further study (and why not tag it to an Amazon affiliate account so people can support the church while getting helpful resources?). I’d also suggest some application questions that would stir people to think about how to apply the message and fuel good discussions in homes and small groups.

If we could visualize this strategy, it looks like this:

Social Media –> Blog –> The life of the church –> The Gospel.

There’s room in this strategy for a podcast (for sermons, stories, interviews, mission trip reports, etc.) and a YouTube channel as well, but that’s a topic for another time. I’d be interested in hearing any feedback or related ideas.

How does your church use social media? How do you wish it would?

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