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Interesting video from Francis Chan about Hell…he makes some good observations. It will be interesting to see how it plays out although, as he points out, there is quite a lot a stake. AND, we are dealing with a God who is in his being perfect holiness, justice, goodness and truth. Thoughts?
I grew up in a very theologically rich tradition. I attended a college that had a different tradition and because of that began to see that there was also some theological pride in me. There was the assumption that since what I had learned growing up was deep and rich and true that everyone else was wrong. The problem here was me…me and my pride. Josh Harris‘ new book, Dug Down Deep, coins the phrase “humble orthodoxy” because as he points out, the problem isn’t orthodoxy. The problem is our pride and the way we share the truth we’ve been given. Here is a little snippet of his book that he’s made available for free that speaks to this. Enjoy.
Dug Down Deep Chapt. 11-Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris ">
Do you send out tweets into the the twitterverse and wonder if anyone ever sees them? Well, I wondered that and thought that I would include them here so that you could see them for yourself. Here is the best of our tweets from the UB Worship Summit 2010!
eccsam FW:Closing with communion at #ubworship http://twitpic.com/1lenmc 1 day ago from Twitpic
eccdan Finished #ubworship Summit with a time of Holy Communion and shared blessings. Beautiful! 1 day ago from Echofonjauthen Another great meal tonight our last night here #ubworship 1 day ago from txt
eccsam White/black thats united in christ! http://twitpic.com/1lbqqs 3:31 PM May 5th via Twitpic
eccsam Touring Sound Minds studio @ #ubworship http://twitpic.com/1lbcde 2:30 PM May 5th via Twitpic
eccdan Excellent summit! at #ubworship Great discussions and challenges 1 day ago from Echofon
eccsam Touring Sound Minds studio @ #ubworship http://twitpic.com/1lbcde 1 day ago from Twitpic
eccsam #ubworship summit 2010 crew http://twitpic.com/1lb30p 1 day ago from Twitpic
eccsam Just had a man from Hollyhills UB bring package. We prayed/layed hands for his ministry at this resort! 12:16 PM May 5th via txt
eccdan What is my 3′ wall that keeps me from going further with the gifts God has given me? Remember the Impala #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan The arts help us to explore who God is. He gave us these artistic gifts within us to proclaim His Reconciliation!! #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan The arts in the church – All the arts explore expound express God’s boundless love. Music dance spoken word painting sculpting. #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan We need drama! passion! in our worship #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan My gifts express God’s love in and upon me. #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan We are God’s Beloved! This should pour out of me thru my artistic gifts. #ubworship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan Efrem Smith @ #ubworship 1 John 3. The wonder of beloved worship 1 day ago from Echofon
eccdan Looking forward to Efrem @ #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
Chriskuntz RT @jauthen: Great dinner tonight at Bubba Gump’s with a great group of friends #ubworship 2 days ago from web
eccsam @ Johnny Rockets and dancing #ubworship http://twitpic.com/1l0a47 2 days ago from TwitPic
eccsam We laughed, we cried at #ubworship it was beautiful :-> 2 days ago from txt
eccdan Jesus EAGERLY desires to eat the Passover meal with us! #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan #ubworship the body in unity sharing Communion is our barbque 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan In reference to sacrifice in worship – “We’ve lost the Bar-B-Q in worship!!” Dr Phil B. #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
Chriskuntz Loving the tweets, guys. Praying for a inspiring time for you #ubworship 2 days ago from web
eccdan “Does God get good verbs in our worship?!” – Dr. Phil B. #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan “Theology teaches us that Jesus is better than music” Music didn’t die for my sins – Jesus did! Christ gives me REAL hope #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan #ubworship being moved emotionally by music is different than being stirred by God’s Spirit and changed thru His Word. “Truth outlasts Tunes! 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan #ubworship. God reveals himself Thru words not music 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan Good theology books. #ubworship Learn from others! Knowledge of the Holy- Tozer 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan Book “The Courage to be Protestant” David Wells #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
eccdan What complicates life is not theology – it’s ignorance of theology”. – Kauflin #ubworship 2 days ago from Echofon
eccsam Finally starting keynote w/ kauflin after dvd problems #ubworship 2 days ago from txt
eccdan #ubworship Bob Kauflin. Why theology matters – it’s RELEVANT! We need to have good theology as Christian musicians 2 days ago from Echofon
ubicpastormatt #ubworship Loving the summit!!! Great Devo on God’s glory. Let your glory fill the earth! 2 days ago from Twitterrific
eccdan #ubworship Morning devo on God’s glory from Isaiah. “May the whole earth be filled!” 3 days ago from Echofon
eccdan Breakfast at iHop. @ #ubworship It’s gotta be an American tradition 3 days ago from Echofon
eccsam @Northland worshipping w/ #ubworship http://twitpic.com/1krozi 3 days ago from TwitPic
Hope that gives you a glimpse into the Worship Summit and what amazing things God did in and through us. I know I came back with a real sense of being UNITED IN CHRIST and inspired to continue the ministry here as apart of the larger body. Glory to God.
Here is a new book for my reading list. It’s by Russell D. Moore and is a nine chapter call for a better theological understanding of adoption that shoud impact all believers. As one reviewer wrote,
It might be easy to write off a book like this one, assuming that it only has relevance to families who are actually considering adopting a child. But Moore’s ambition goes beyond asking young families to adopt orphaned children. “In this book I want to call us all to consider how encouraging adoption–whether we adopt or whether we help others adopt–can help us peer into the ancient mystery of our faith in Christ and can help us restore the fracturing unity and the atrophied mission of our congregation.” As Moore explains, “The gospel of Jesus Christ means our families and churches ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans close to home and around the world.” It is the gospel that calls us to adopt but it is also the gospel that teaches us how to understand adoption. In fact, “as we become more adoption-friendly, we’ll be better able to understand the gospel.” And so this book is for anyone and everyone.
I’m doing quite a bit of thinking about this and coming to the same conclusion. The gospel of Jesus does call us to live out our faith and adoption not only does that as true spirituality (a shout out to the book of James there), but also provides a physical example of how God, the Father has adopted us. Thoughts?
UPDATE: We just started this book with our adoption LIFEgroup and it’s a wonderful and challenging read. I was talking with someone today from our group and they were really grappling with some new thoughts, but also finding themselves affirmed in both adopting and being adopted by God. I can’t recemmend this book enough. If you decide to read it, it will be life-changing.
I was excited to see this on your blog/reading list. It is on mine as well, but since I work for the publisher I guess that’s just assumed I’d read it anyway (which isn’t always true). But I do look forward to this one, and from what I know with the author and such, it definitely goes beyond just families interested in adoption.
Keep us posted on what you think!
Will do. While our family has grown through adoption, I’m also interested to read about the larger picture of God’s plan for adoption to bring us into his family.
I’ve realized that over the last few weeks we’ve been focusing on the public side of worship. That’s where most of us connect and it’s a great Godly thing to come together in public worship, but there is another side too. That is the other side of worship…the part we don’t talk about as much and the part that doesn’t have pictures to illustrate it. It’s the private worship life that feeds your public leading of worship.
God is a personal God who wants to have a relationship with us individually. David wrote tons of songs to sing publicly, but this was all shaped by his time alone with the sheep as a shepherds in the fields. Because personal worshippers worship more regularly, they are able to engage more fully with God and contribute more to our corporate worship times!
Personal worshippers take Sunday morning worship home with them and bring their private worship back the next Sunday. Sunday morning enhances their private worship and their private worship enhances the Sunday morning service! Can you imagine a Sunday service filled with people who have been worshipping God all week through prayer, singing, meditation and godly living? It would be so much easier for everyone to engage with God…in fact, we probably wouldn’t need a worship leader!
God is the one who calls us to worship because worship only comes out of a relationship with Him. Our first act of worship is accepting Him into our hearts and lives. He reveals and we respond. So how can we do more to engage with God if he initiates? Rory Noland, in his book “The Worshipping Artist”, gives us three ideas…
1. Make yourself increasingly present to God. God is always present and with us…the question is how present are we to God?
2. Set aside time regularly for private worship. I’ve realized that I need to sing to God one-on-one outside of rehearsals and Sunday morning.
3. Offer yourself completely to God. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” -Col 3:17
So this week, ask yourself: which one of the 3 suggestions can best help you grow as a private worshipper?
___________ Make yourself increasingly present to God.
___________ Set aside time regularly for private worship.
___________ Offer yourself completely to God.
*adapted from The Worshipping Artist by Rory Noland
worship360 and 
Tim Hallman 3:01 PM on May 25, 2011 Permalink |
I appreciate the tone of Chan. In writing up rebuttals to Rob Bell’s book, it’s refreshing to have civility and candor. However, I thought his message in the video was kinda weak: to use the jar of clay/potter metaphor undermines his own argument for knowing something about hell. And his suggestion that God’s justice may be above our own – well this can cut against Chan’s own sense of what the Bible teaches about God’s justice. So it will be interesting to see what Chan actually writes.
worship360 9:50 PM on May 25, 2011 Permalink |
Tim!
Hope you’re well. It’s been too long since our last coffee-induced chat, eh?
I also appreciate the tone Chan injects into this conversation.
My understanding from the video was that he is attempting to lay out a literal understanding of hell based on scriptural texts apart from interpretation. I realize that is rather difficult to do since we all bring our own background to the text, but I think it’s a good attempt at check and balance.
As far as his suggestion that God’s justice is above our own…I would contend that is actual and not just suggestion. God’s justice is above our own. Now the way we understand that may differ, but Chan’s examples are those in which God’s justice is bloody and harsh. Not what our culture and even myself would label as “justice”, but it is. God in himself is perfect holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
All that to say, YES, it will be very interesting to see what he writes! Thanks for the note!