Entries from March 2006 ↓

The United Church of Christ is at it again.

Unsatisfied to rest upon the “Bouncer” ad that garnered so much attention a little over a year ago, they’ve returned with a new ad designed to highlight that church’s “inclusiveness”. The commercial is set in a church. One by one, certain parishioners are ejected, fighter-jet style, from their pews: a black woman, a gay couple, a man of Middle Eastern descent, and a man with a walker. This admittedly humorous sequence is then followed by these words: “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we.” Of course, the implication is that some churches . . . those mean, nasty, theologically conservative churches . . . will shut you our unless you’re a) white, b) male, c) heterosexual, and d) able-bodied. To accompany the ad, the church has created a new site called RejectionHurts.com as a place for those who have felt like church outcasts to share their stories. Like the “Bouncer” ad of late 2004, the new one has been rejected for air by the Big Four over-the-air networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox), though it will air on some cable networks.

Now, allow me to tip my hand. Anyone who knows me well and/or has had theological conversations with me knows that very little gets under my skin worse than liberal “Christian” theology, of which the UCC (as a whole . . . there are exceptions) is a stalwart. I believe that liberal theology undermines the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ in a myriad of ways, including . . .
- replacing talk of personal sin and responsibility with that of only corporate or national sin and responsibility
- replacing the need for personal belief, repentance, and sanctification with the need for acts of “social justice”
- treating Scripture as if it can be invalidated by some “new thing” that God is supposedly saying
- treating the words of Jesus as if they are more “God’s Word” than the rest of Scripture (thereby accepting His words as the only authoritative ones in the Bible)
- calling evil “good” and good “evil”, as warned against in Isaiah 5.

I truly abhor liberal theology and believe that those who preach it are not only marching slowly towards Hell themselves, but leading hundreds of thousands along that same path. I pray that those who espouse it will repent and return to Him that they claim as their Lord. That said, I think that the UCC’s marketing gurus are brilliant with these advertising campaigns that they know (and likely hope) will be rejected by network TV. The controversy generates free repeated airings for the ad on news broadcasts who report on the story, gets people to visit their website, and subsequently, their churches. Brilliant, I say! I might consider myself an accessory for linking and even talking about this issue (though I’m not “reporting” objectively like CNN would . . . I’m voicing opposition).

Back to the ad’s content . . . I find it dishonest, in that (like last year’s ad) it implicitly attacks other church groups as somehow less “open” or “inclusive”. Sure, the official word from the church is that “[i]t does not mean to suggest that other churches reject people and that we have not”, the connotation is just that, and that’s what people who see the ad will pick up. While there are certainly tragic incidents where churches or denominations sinfully shutter their doors or consciously fail to minister to certain types of people (see the RejectionHurts site for some examples), those cases are fewer and farther between than the ad would like to imply. When it comes down to it, it seems, what the UCC really wants people to know that they strive to include everyone, regardless of their race, gender, class, or biblically condemned lifestyle, in the “full life and participation” of their church. This not only means that they want people of all stripes to come and hear their message, but that they’ll ordain women as pastors* and unabashedly invite unrepentant sinners to partake in church membership, the Lord’s Supper, and ordained leadership. If this is what “inclusion” looks like, I’ll have no part in that. Give me a church that DOES invite sinners and the disenfranchised in the doors and that invites them to be loved, forgiven, and changed by Christ . . . not one that coddles sin and refutes clear Biblical teaching.

So how about the ad’s tagline, which I’ve chosen as the title for this entry: “God doesn’t reject people” . . . I beg to differ. The Bible is replete with God’s rejection of certain people and certain people groups for a number of reasons. The bottom line today is this: He rejects those who reject Him. Turning toward and embracing one’s sin without repentance is a rejection of Christ, and the fact that an apostate church tells you otherwise means very little.

*By the way, so no one freaks out on me and calls me a misogynist or a sexist or whatnot . . . I do not find women to be inferior to men in any way. Quite the opposite, actually. Still, I am a complementarian when it comes to gender, and that includes church life. I believe that scripture limits the church office of pastor/elder to qualified men, according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. I honestly would like to believe otherwise at times, but the witness of scripture and the Church will not allow me to. I’ve heard some arguments from the other side, but none of them have yet been academically, scripturally, or historically compelling enough.

(HT: WesleyDaily and Chuck Currie)

tags: United Church of Christ, UCC, StillSpeaking, media, liberal theology, liberal Christianity

Today marks two years of marriage for Amy and me. The experiment is working!

Also, hooray for naked statues of Britney Spears (this is a link . . . click “read on” to read it).

Yesterday, Amy and I (along with about ten other folks) were formally received as members of Grace Central. It feels good to finally belong again.

I also witnessed an infant (well . . . toddler) baptism for the first time, and undoubtedly, not the last. I dunno. I’ve much to learn.

Just finished The Radical Reformission yesterday and I’d like to share a couple of things that hit home as I read.

On sectarianism (fundamentalism) . . .

To let go of culture is fundamentalist sectarianism. Sectarianism is the huddling up of God’s people to enjoy eachother and Jesus without caring about anyone who is lost and dying outside of Christ. To justify themselves, sectarians will often quote 1 Thessalonians 5:22 from the King James Version, which poorly translates this verse to say that we are to avoid every appearance of evil, when the text actually says that we should avoid every kind of evil, which is a different matter altogether. Sectarianism inevitably leads to irrelevance and is unfaithful to Jesus’ prayer that we not leave this sick and dying world that does not know him.

While sectarians may cling to the gospel for their personal piety, they hide their light undera bushel. And so the story of Jesus stays at home with my family, with my church, and with my Christian friends because for us salvation is a place to end and not a place to begin. Eventually, sectarians become so dated and removed from people in the world that their churches are little more than museums dedicated to the past, with dumb reader boards outside that sound like silly telegraphs from an alien planet.

Conversely, on syncretism (theological liberalism) . . .

To let go of the gospel is liberal syncretism, which also leads to irrelevance. How? By rarely, if ever, speaking of sin and repentance in personal and not just institutional and systemic terms. Syncretism simply baptizes unscriptural beliefs in the name of limp-wristed relevance, social progress, being nice, and making a good nonjudgmental impression. Syncretism inevitably dissolves into a universalism in which God loves everyone, and will forgive everyone’s sins and take everyone to heaven because he simply lacks the courage to judge anyone. Eventually, syncretists become less distinctively Christian in favor of an inoffensive spiritual mush. Visiting syncretistic churches is like entering a mutual admiration society in which people pat eachother on the back for having a social conscience and nod in agreement through sermons that sound like sappy greeting cards strung together to make us feel like we just got a divine backrub while doing aromatherapy, drinking herbal tea, and listening to taped sounds of running water.

City on a Hill - Philip Graham Ryken (ecclesiology)
The Radical Reformission - Mark Driscoll (missiology)
Grasping God’s Word - J. Scott Duvall & J. Daniel Hays (hermeneutics)
Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar - William D. Mounce (languages)
A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith - Robert L. Reymond (systematic theology)

Yet to read: a lot of other stuff.

Just in case anyone’s wondered why I haven’t been blogging much lately . . . there are the books, and then there’s the fact that nothing original or postworthy has come to me as of late. I’m still around, though.

http://www.iwjo.com/

Kyrie eleison.

1) The podcast is back up after weeks of technical hiccups. This week’s sermon, “There Is No ‘Plan B’” is excellent.

2) Grace Central is hosting a film discussion forum on the films of M. Night Shayamalan on March 18. If you’re in the area, you should come. (Rollins, I’m looking at you.)

(I’ve wanted to post about this since it was first mentioned as a possibility a few months ago, but I’m glad I’ve waited. Since the announcement at church has been made and the cat is now officially out of the bag, though . . .)

My days as a corporate IT monkey are coming to a close and are giving way to a new life in urban church planting. As of early this summer, I will be Director of Ministry for Grace Central Presbyterian Church (where my family and I will soon be members). My buddy Joe Haack, who’s currently doing a great job in that position, will be leaving for Covenant Seminary in the summer, and I’m stepping in. You might be wondering what a “Director of Ministry” is, exactly. Well, take an Assistant Pastor . . . but one without ordination and in need of training and discipleship (at least in my case), and there you have it (or something close). My overarching responsibility will be to take care of the church’s day-to-day ministry operations, so that Greg will be free to be a pastor (rather than just a preacher, or just a church administrator, etc) throughout the week. I’ll be planning the weekly liturgy (ie: selecting songs, confessions, calls to worship, etc), overseeing different areas of ministry and making sure we have the right people and resources to do them, taking direct responsibility for some ministries (eventually), and helping to cast and re-cast the church “vision”. There will (obviously) be training involved, and that training might include a seminary-level program called LAMP (Leadership and Ministry Preparation).

So, how exactly does a guy with a degree in computer networking and no seminary (or even Bible college) training end up on the pastoral staff of a Presbyterian church? Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I thought I might have sensed a call to ministry or one form or another. That was after God had rekindled my faith in during my senior year of high school, and without a crystal clear “call”, I was . . . err . . . strongly encouraged by my family to pursue an education and career that would keep the bills paid. (For the record, I’m now quite thankful that their encouragement worked.) The internal ministry call was chalked up to “youthful zeal”, and I had soon immersed myself in the IT education and career that I had chosen.

Fast-forward to a couple of months ago. I decided to finally, after months of putting it off, go to a small group meeting at Greg’s house. My time working at Ashland would soon be coming to an end, so I asked my brothers and sisters there to remember to pray for my then-upcoming job hunt. After we were done and people were socializing, Greg and I got to talking about vocations and such. Eventually the question was asked: “if you had the choice of any job, what would it be?” (I didn’t really have an answer then, but if posed again, I’d probably say “seminary professor”.) To my surprise, the next question was “don’t put any stock in this just yet, but have you ever given any thought to working at a church?” I felt as if the Lord was renewing the long-dormant call he’d given some ten years ago. Some good and edifying conversations followed in the next few weeks about gospel centrality, urban ministry, our vision as a church in this city, and my giftings and calling. A few outside candidates were considered . . . seminary grads who are no doubt more academically prepared than I . . . but I received the call last Wednesday with a job offer, and I promptly accepted. It goes against the conventional wisdom of American evanglicalism that says a church finds leaders by taking résumés from seminary grads who (usually) have no existing connection with your church, giving one a job, and then expecting him to assimilate to your church’s culture as he does his job. This will be something of a grand experiment in “indigenous ministry” . . . identifying potential leaders from within the congregation and training them from service. Grace Central values indigenous ministry, and my hiring is one way we’re living that out.

The announcement was made at church last night. When Greg said “. . . and we’ve hired a guy named Rae Whitlock” after talking about Joe’s upcoming departure, the reaction from some of the folks in the pews was priceless. It can be best summed up as “confused silence, then surprise or shock, then smiles and glances.” Guess they were expecting to hear a name they didn’t already know.

“Excited” might barely begin to describe my anticipation of this new chapter in my life. Keep me in prayer.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/13733

A real post will come soon, promise. Things have been a little hectic lately, however. Amy (my wife) has been down and out with a sinus infection, an inability to sleep at night (which sucks for me too), and a general case of the “blahs”. A lot of my time in the last few weeks has been spent trying to be a good hubby, taking care of her and Zoë (and the house), and job hunting. Speaking of which, I got an exciting new job, but I won’t be starting until late spring/early summer (so I’m still job hunting for something in the meantime). More about that later.

Anyone catch the latest reformed blogosphere drama? Reformed baptists vs. The Mighty Caner brothers? Fun stuff!