Pastor Scott's Thoughts

Simply Christian

I really enjoyed teaching a Sunday morning class this summer over the N.T. Wright book Simply Christian (#17). This is a nice introduction to the heart of Christian faith written by somebody who has quickly made my fave five living Christian scholar/authors.

There are a few places in the book where I think Wright assumes some knowledge that "Joe on the street" would not have, but for people who have entered into a relationship with Christ and are working there way into the life of the church, this is a good if not great starting place.

I think this is my favorite quote from the book:

So what is Christianity about, then?

Christianity is about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this - the finding, the saving, the giving of new life - in Jesus. He has done it. With Jesus, God's rescue operation has been put into effect once and for all. A great door has swung open in the cosmos which can never again be shut. It's the door to the prison where we've been kept chained up. We are offered freedom: freedom to experience God's rescue for ourselves, to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access. In particular, we are all invited - summoned, actually - to discover, through following Jesus, that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as in heaven. In listening to Jesus, we discover whose voice it is that has echoed around the hearts and minds of the human race all along.

Thanks, Dr. Wright. To that I say, "Amen! And where do I sign up?"

Preaching Against the Powers

I finished a couple of books early in the month (#15-16 for those keeping track like Ryan my lit teaching friend) for a course I taught at Point Loma on preaching. I love both of these books a great deal and try to allow my preaching to be shaped by their ideas - although I admit it is a challenge.

Both books have to do with the way preaching confronts "the powers" of the age. The first book, Charles L. Campbell, The Word Before the Powers (WJK), argues that a lot of preaching only things of two entities existing: God (as revealed in the Bible) and the listener. Rarely, argues Campbell do preachers also consider the cultural forces (the principalities and powers) that shape the worldview and spirituality of the congregation.

Campbell's book is essentially agreeing that our struggle as believers is not just against flesh and blood but principalities and powers. Those powers, however, are not disembodied spiritual beings but the ethos or spiritual essence of the cultures of which the church is a part. Most of our "powers" today have "ism" on the end: materialism, nationalism, racism, sensualism, etc.

Preaching against the powers is hard because 1) most people don't want to hear about them 2) most of the powers are so subtle that we rarely see them and so they have to be pointed out 3) they are almost impossible to be free from because they are so deeply engrained into us and 4) its very difficult to come up with the prophetic imagination it takes to help people visualize the world differently.

That's where the second book, Mervyn A. Warren, King Came Preaching: The Pulpit Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (IVP), is so helpful. What King did so well was 1) see the spiritual dimension to the principalities and powers that dominated his time 2) narrate those realities using great exegesis and articulation of scripture 3) prophetically and passionately call the principalities and powers to repentance while 4) embodying the gospel (rather than the methods of the powers) to accomplish both the repentance and the transformation of the powers holding the culture captive.

Unfortunately, he fulfilled his prophetic task so well, his life ended in a similar way to most of the prophets. I pray for God to raise up a generation of preachers who take their prophetic task seriously and learn to do it well and learn to do it with the Spirit of Christ. (And I pray that God will allow me to be among their number).

Shameless Self-Promotion

This has been a cool week for me. Caleb started High School today (where has the time gone). And the Baker Books Catalogue came out this week and my first book is listed in it.

I was showing off the ad for the book during staff meeting and one of my smarty-pants pastors said, "How long until I can buy a copy on the $4 discount table?" Everyone around the table laughed. (It's all fun and games until someone loses their job :)).

When I got back to the office and found the book listed on Baker's Website and then a friend sent me the link to Amazon.com where it is listed also. I immediately started laughing because although the book doesn't come out until February 09 with a retail price of $16.99, you can already buy the book for $13.59 on their website or for $11.55 on Amazon. The book doesn't come out for six more months and I'm already heading for the discount table!! So much for paying for Caleb's college tuition...

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Spirits-Message-Revelations/dp/0801031710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219212417&sr=1-1

Baker link: http://www.bakerbooks.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&nm=&type=PubCom&mod=PubComProductCatalog&mid=BF1316AF9E334B7BA1C33CB61CF48A4E&tier=3&id=83E14B8EBD114B179DF6306789D209E8&tier=3&id=83E14B8EBD114B179DF6306789D209E8