So it came to be known yesterday that I was going to see the new movie Mamma Mia last night. Well I did. And let me tell you men looking in--take your wife to see the movie!

I've seen the live musical here in St. Louis several times and really enjoyed it each time. So I was not sure how I would like a movie version. It was really good.

I won't spoil it for you but do know that the actors all do their own singing, and of course the music is typically great! Is Abba music ever bad? And this from the biggest Cash, Waylon and Hank, Jr. fans around. I have always liked Abba.

So listen up you OTHER meatheads. Put down your hunting magazine and stop daydreaming about that huge buck. Take your wife to see Mamma Mia. You and she won't be disappointed.

Now listen to what I say. God has predestined all He wills into salvation, including those in infancy. That salvation is by his sovereign choice through grace alone. Though all infants deserve eternal judgment because of their guilt and corruption, their sins were paid for by the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross in which He bore the wrath of God, not only for all who could believe, but for all who could not believe. I really do believe that only those who understand true reformed theology can grasp the redemption of little ones, which fits so beautifully because it’s all of sovereignty and it’s all of grace.

MacArthur deals with this subject theologically as well as pastorally. Dear reader, I hope that if you have experienced such a loss that you might find great comfort from our great God through these words.

You can read the original post here.

Memorial Day will be a holiday from work and likely include a cook-out and some fun activities. One person who will not be around this Memorial Day is Corporal James Marshall of Monroeville, Al, my home town. Corporal Marshall died in 1968 in Saigon, South Vietnam.

At 02:45, a 19-man Viet-Cong team attacked the US Embassy in Saigon. It was the beginning of the Tet Offensive. Corporal Marshall was killed in action, defending our embassy. He was 21 years old.

I was 10 years old at the time and knew Corporal Marshall and his family. I still think of him now and then and in DC a few years ago, I found his name on the Vietnam Memorial.

I am grateful for the sacrifices of men like Corporal James Marshall. I live free because of him and many others like him.

From the virtual wall:

James Conrad Marshall,Corporal

]]> http://reformationfaith.wordpress.com/?p=376 Sun, 25 May 2008 18:45:11 +0000 Les Prouty http://reformationfaithtoday.com/2008/05/25/quote-on-the-gospel-and-social-concern/ Both in India and in my travels around Western countries, I constantly uncovered a preoccupation with so-called “ministry” activities operated by Christian workers, financed by church monies, but with little else to distinguish them as Christian. . . . Social concern is a natural fruit of the Gospel. But to put it first is to put the cart before the horse; and from experience, we have seen it fail in India for more than 200 years. Yet while I realized the intrinsic nature of the Gospel involved [in] caring for the poor, I knew the priority was giving them the Gospel. Meeting their needs was a means to share the love of Christ so they would be saved for eternity.

- K.P. Yohannan

From Defending/Contending blog

]]> http://reformationfaith.wordpress.com/?p=375 Sat, 24 May 2008 11:15:52 +0000 Les Prouty http://reformationfaithtoday.com/2008/05/24/sabbath-and-women/  

Can someone help me out?  I've got two questions I need some help with.

1. Can someone provide chapter and verse, i.e. an explicit command that we observe the sabbath on the first day of the week instead of the seventh? And I know that we have example in the New Testament, so also can someone provide the command that the church continue that "example" in perpetuity?

2. Women. Can someone provide chapter and verse where the church is commanded to allow women participate in communion? An example of such?

Please leave answers in the comment section.

9 Marks and 9 Marks Blog are fantastic sites by some reformed Baptist brothers: theology, ecclesiology, etc.

The Cornwall Alliance presents a solidly Biblical approach to environmental issues.

Radical Womanhood is a must see for you women folk. Don't miss The Theologian. Fantastic! And last, but not least is Stand To Reason.

Don’t let the culture set low expectations for what you may accomplish for Christ. Listen to the way God and Jeremiah argue about Jeremiah’s call when he was young.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.” (Jeremiah 1:6-7)

Be careful young people that you don’t postpone the burden and the blessing of fruitfulness in your life because you use the excuse, “I am only a youth.” God said to Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go.” There are some younger than you that you can lead, and there are some older than you that you can serve. But do not say, “I am only a youth,” as though the only thing you are good for is watching videos and playing games, as though there is no ministry for you to do.

By John Piper from a sermon Let No One Despise You For Your Youth.

Middle school teacher must "remove a Bible that has been sitting on the corner of his desk for 21 years." Here.

Public university employee writes an op-ed piece explaining her view on homosexuality, saying"I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are "civil rights victims." She also said, "Daily, Jesus Christ is radically transforming the lives of both straight and gay folks and bringing them into a life of wholeness: spiritually, psychologically, physically and even economically." She got fired! Here.

So, should this bother us? Oh, let's be nice.

Christopher Cowan over at the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood also saw it and has some thoughts on Susan's warrior role in the movie version.

Readers may recall that in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, though Father Christmas gave Susan and Lucy Pevensie weapons, he did not intend for them to use them in battle, for "battles are ugly when women fight." In the film version, this is altered to "battles are ugly affairs." Thus, the question of women in combat is neatly avoided.

Not so in Prince Caspian. Unlike the book, the film clearly depicts Susan as a warrior, actively engaging in physical combat alongside her brothers. When asked about this deviation from Lewis's story, director Andrew Adamson "doesn't equivocate," says Megan Basham in World. Adamson responds,

When the issue of Susan not participating in the fight for Narnia was introduced in the first film, I rejected it then. I was like, ‘Well if she's just gonna make sandwiches then give her a plate and a knife.' It's something that I don't agree with so I wasn't going to make a movie like that.

On whether or not this change is a disservice to Lewis's work, Adamson continues, "You have to remember, these books were written in a different time and place by somebody who I think evolved in his views over the years." Adamson justified this to Lewis's stepson and film co-producer Douglas Gresham by arguing, "I think C. S. Lewis evolved after meeting [Gresham's] mother, and that's why you start to see stronger female characters in his later books."

You can read part 1 of his comments on the subject here. What do you think? Is Cowan making too much of this re-write of Susan's role?

Man are the Bayly brothers right! What has become of us? Here is David Bayly's concluding paragraph:

Here's a hint for the ignorant: when food and water are all that's needed to maintain life, withdrawing them is no different than placing a plastic bag over a quadriplegic's head. Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, a majority of PCA elders within Heritage Presbytery can't see this. God help us when the state demands that we perform homosexual marriages and the personal cost to PCA elders of biblical fidelity is far higher than in the Lauren Richardson case. Pusillanimity is a terminal condition which respects no borders.

Shame on us. Read the post and about Lauren here. And, pray that God would protect this young woman's life.

There are several posts on this blog on the subject here and here for example. My views are no secret. The offices of elder and deacon are reserved for men. That is the current and historic position of the PCA. I agree with the Central Georgia Presbytery that we don't need a committee to tell us what we already know.

But actually I think the committee would not uphold the biblical and the position of our church standards. And, I believe that the appointment of the study committee and their conclusions may be THE issue which finally fractures the PCA.

Rev. David Cassidy seems to think so too. Check out his two posts Fault Lines and the Approaching Ecclesiastical Earthquake part 1 and part 2.

If you want to read up on it all, check out the Bayly Brothers post. Also take a look at Gage Browning's post.

Last you might want to look at Wayside Church's site centralizing many sources. Last, pray that our fathers and brothers at GA stick with the biblical position on this issue and not head us down a slippery slope to cultural relevance and ecclesiastical irrelevance.

D.A. Carson on what he calls Red Letter Christians,

A particularly virulent form of this approach is hidden behind what Tony Campolo now approvingly calls “red letter Christians.” These red letter Christians, he says, hold the same theological commitments as do other evangelicals, but they take the words of Jesus especially seriously (they devote themselves to the “red letters” of some foolishly printed Bibles) and end up being more concerned than are other Christians for the poor, the hungry, and those at war. Oh, rubbish: this is merely one more futile exercise in trying to find a “canon within the canon” to bless my preferred brand of theology. That’s the first of two serious mistakes commonly practiced by these red letter Christians. The other is worse: their actual grasp of what the red letter words of Jesus are actually saying in context far too frequently leaves a great deal to be desired; more particularly, to read the words of Jesus and emphasize them apart from the narrative framework of each of the canonical gospels, in which the plot-line takes the reader to Jesus’ redeeming death and resurrection, not only has the result of down-playing Jesus’ death and resurrection, but regularly fails to see how the red-letter words of Jesus point to and unpack the significance of his impending crosswork. In other words, it is not only Paul who says that Jesus’ cross and resurrection constitute matters “of first importance” (1 Cor 15:3), and not only Paul who was resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:1–5), but the shape of the narrative in each canonical gospel says the same thing. In each case the narrative rushes toward the cross and resurrection; the cross and resurrection are the climax. So to interpret the narrative, including the red-letter words of Jesus, apart from the climax to which they are rushing, is necessarily a distortion of the canonical gospels themselves.

Some of the gospel passion accounts make this particularly clear. In Matthew, for example, Jesus is repeatedly mocked as “the king of the Jews” (27:27–31, 37, 42). But Matthew knows that his readers have been told from the beginning of his book (even the bits without red letters) that Jesus is the king: the first chapter establishes the point, and tells us that, as the promised Davidic king, he is given the name “YHWH saves” (“Jesus”) because he comes to save his people from their sins. Small wonder for its first three centuries the church meditated often on the irony of Jesus “reigning” from a cross, that barbaric Roman instrument of torture and shame. And it is Matthew who reminds us that, this side of the cross, this side of the resurrection, all authority belongs to Jesus (28:18–20). These constitute parts of the narrative framework without which Jesus’ red-letter words, not least his portrayals of the kingdom, cannot be rightly understood.

Is Carson right? I think so...

Do Hard Things is a must read if you have children, especially if you have those we refer to as teens living in your home. I read it last week and now am getting ready to take my three sons through it (as soon as school is out). It is an outstanding book and one I hope that each parent and "teen" will read and heed.

Alex and Brett Harris are twin 19 year olds who at 16 founded The Rebelution, a web site challenging "low expectations" for teens. Check it out.

Below, I will put an excerpt from the book and part of Tim Challies' review. I will not attempt a review as Challies has done a very able one. Youth pastors--get this book and read it! There is much in it that you need to help you challenge those in your pastoral care.

Challies writes about the book

Do Hard Things is a book for teens—and a distinctly differentkind of book for teens. “Check online or walk through your local bookstore. You’ll find plenty of books written by fortysomethings who, like, totally understand what it’s like being a teenager. You’ll find a lot of cheap, throwaway books for teens, because young people today aren’t supposed to care about books, or to see any reason to keep them around. And you’ll find a wide selection of books where you never have to read anything twice—because the message is dumbed down. Like, just for you.” But this book is a challenging book, and one written by teens and for teens. It is written by Brett and Alex Harris, whose greatest claim to fame (other than being the younger brothers of Joshua Harris) is being the minds behind The Rebelution—one of the internet’s most popular sites for teens and now a series of conferences. This book continues the message they’ve been communicating in every other forum.

That message is simple but far too often overlooked in society today: rebel against low expectations. They cast a vision of a better way of doing the teen years in which so many teens have been “conditioned to believe what is false, to stop when things feel hard, and to miss out on God’s incredible purpose for [the] teen years.” They look at five kinds of hard—five different kinds of hard things that can challenge the expectations of those around them: things that are outside of your comfort zone, things that are beyond what is expected or required, things that are too big to accomplish alone, things that don’t earn an immediate pay off and things that challenge the cultural norm. They describe each of these through stories and examples drawn primarily from their lives and from the lives of other “rebelutionaries” who have shared their stories with the authors.

Read his full review here.

Below is an excerpt from the book. But don't stop here. Get the book! Here.

A Different Kind of Teen Book

Most people don't expect you to understand what we're going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don't expect you to care. And even if you care, they don't expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don't expect it to last.

Well, we do.

This is a different kind of teen book. Check online or walk through your local bookstore. You'll find plenty of books written by fortysomethings who, like, totally understand what it's like being a teenager. You'll find a lot of cheap, throwaway books for teens, because young people today aren't supposed to care much about books, or see any reason to keep them around. And you'll find a wide selection of books where you never have to read anything twice--because it's been dumbed down. Like, just for you.

What you're holding in your hands right now is a challenging, hardcover book for teens by two teens who believe our generation is ready for a change. Ready for something that doesn't promise a whole new life if you'll just buy the right pair of jeans or use the right kind of deodorant. We believe our generation is ready to rethink what teens are capable of doing and becoming. And we've noticed that once wrong ideas are debunked and cleared away, our generation is quick to choose a better way, even if it's also more difficult.

We're nineteen-year-old twin brothers, born and raised in Oregon, taught at home by our parents, and striving to follow Christ as best we can. We've made more than our share of mistakes. And although we don't think "average teenagers" exist, there is nothing all that extraordinary about us personally.

Still, we've had some extraordinary experiences. At age sixteen we interned at the Supreme Court of Alabama. At seventeen, we served as grassroots directors for four statewide political campaigns. At eighteen, we authored the most popular Christian teen blog on the web. We've been able to speak to thousands of teens and their parents at conferences in the United States and internationally, and to reach millions online. But if our teen years have been different than most, it's not because we are somehow better than other teens, but because we've been motivated by a simple but very big idea. It's an idea you're going to encounter for yourself in the pages ahead.

We've seen this idea transform "average" teenagers into world-changers able to accomplish incredible things. And they started by simply being willing to break the mold of what society thinks teens are capable of.

So even though the story starts with us, this book is really not about us, and we would never want it to be. It's about something God is doing in the hearts and minds of our generation. It's about an idea. It's about rebelling against low expectations. It's about a movement that is changing the attitudes and actions of teens around the world. And we want you to be part of it.

This book invites you to explore some radical questions:

• Is it possible that even though teens today have more freedom than any other generation in history, we're actually missing out on some of the best years of our lives?
• Is it possible that what our culture says about the purpose and potential of the teen years is a lie, and that we are its victims?
• Is it possible that our teen years give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for huge accomplishments--as individuals and as a generation?
• And finally, what would our lives look like if we set out on a different path entirely--a path that required more effort but promised a lot more reward?

We describe that alternative path with three simple words: "do hard things."

If you're like most people, your first reaction to the phrase "do hard things" runs along the lines of, "Hard? Uh, oh. Guys, I just remembered that I'm supposed to be somewhere else. Like, right now."

We understand this reaction. It reminds us of a story we like to tell about a group of monks.

On the outskirts of a small town in Germany is the imaginary abbey of Dundelhoff. This small stone monastery is home to a particularly strict sect of Dundress Monks who have each vowed to live a life of continual self-denial and discomfort.

Instead of wearing comfy t-shirts and well-worn jeans like most people, these monks wear either itchy shirts made from goat hair or chain mail worn directly over bare skin. Instead of a soft mattress, pillows, and warm blankets, they sleep on the cold stone floors of the abbey. You might have read somewhere that monks are fabulous cooks? Well, not these monks. They eat colorless, tasteless sludge--once a day. They drink only lukewarm water.

We could go on, but you get the picture. No matter what decision they face, Dundress Monks will always choose the more difficult option, the one that provides the least physical comfort, holds the least appeal, offers the least fun. Why? Because they believe that the more miserable they are, the holier they are; and the holier they are, the happier God is.

So these miserable monks must be poster boys for "do hard things." Right?

Wrong!

We're not plotting to make your life miserable. We're not recommending that you do any and every difficult thing. For example, we're not telling you to rob a bank, jump off a cliff, climb Half Dome with your bare hands, or stand on your head for 24 hours straight. We're not telling you to do pointless hard things just because they are hard. And if you're a Christian, we're certainly not telling you that if you work harder or make yourself uncomfortable on purpose, God will love you more. He will never--could never--love you any more than He does right now.

So that's what we're not doing. What we are doing is challenging you to grab hold of a more exciting option for your teen years than the one portrayed as normal in society today. This option has somehow gotten lost in our culture, and most people don't even know it. In the pages ahead, you're going to meet young people just like you who have rediscovered this better way--a way to reach higher, dream bigger, grow stronger, love and honor God, live with more joy--and quit wasting their lives.

In Do Hard Things, we not only say there is a better way to do the teen years, we show you how we and thousands of other teens are doing it right now, and how you can as well.

 

[Excerpt taken from Do Hard Things]

But, I now have to admit that I have figured it out, or at least others have. This article in the Daily Illini says,

Intrepid LiveJournal user Kynn and the blog Unfogged have explored the darkest, most Christian corners of the Internet and discovered a terrible truth: Barack Obama is the Antichrist. According to various Web sites with UFO clip art in their background, the Antichrist is charismatic, politically gifted and from a foreign land, all of which sort of describe our junior senator.

Of course that runs counter to many claims that Obama is actually messianic. But don't quit on me yet. Look at his name:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

Did you count the number of letters?

Barack: 6, Hussein: 7, Obama: 5

675. I know. That is not 666. But add them up. 6+7+5=18, or 3x6 or 666! You see he could not have names with 6 letters each. That would be too easy, too perfect--three 6s. No, no. He has the first one with 6, and to show it is "complete" in correctness the second name has 7 then it is home free from there. The third name has 5 because he assumed office as a US Senator in January '05--Five! It all fits.

Now that is all figured out, when will the tribulation start?

In part three, Rev. Lucas preaches a sermon titled Preaching To Pagans-Truth Applied. Here is a short excerpt.

God is not inviting people to consider His claims;

He commands us to submit to Him. Notice that

Jesus did not ‘invite’ the Twelve disciples to follow

Him; He commanded them “Follow Me”, and

they obeyed immediately. This is how the Bible

presents the call to Christian discipleship. It is the

sovereign God who takes the initiative in seeking

to establish a relationship between God and man.

If anyone is not a Christian after hearing God’s

command, it is not due to unbelief but to disobedience.

Click here for the rest of the sermon.

There are people who use a blog as a public diary to think aloud. But a Christian should not be airing his doubts in public, and thereby planting seeds of doubt in other minds.

If I began to doubt the doctrines of grace, I wouldn’t advertise that state of mind at [XYZ Blog]. Rather, I would withdraw from blogging, and run my doubts by a few trusted friends in private. If I have no idea where I’m going, I have no right to take anyone with me.

1.  Study Jesus & The Gospel. Read and study one of the Gospels this summer. Read your Bible!!!!

·      Get into Jesus’ Life, check out Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and spend you summer studying the life of our Savior.

“Are you really telling me to read my Bible!!!? That is so basic!!”  YES!!!! I am telling you to ready your Bible.  It is basic..but so many people neglect it and many other basic spiritual disciplines.  Being offended is generally a warrant to truth. Check your heart and read your Bible.  

2. Have breakfast everyday….

·      Don’t waste your mornings.  Get up before 9.

·      Pray, write in a journal, meditate on the book you are studying. 

·      Pray for other people…pray for theleaders in your life, your family, Pastor(s) others.

·      Get up and expect to meet with God.

3. Read a Good Book this Summer. 

·      Prov. 1:3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity;  Prov. 1:5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel

Proverbs is loaded with verses about learning!!!!  Spend some time learning from some wise and godly men, who have written some great books to help us understand what the Bible is saying.

Here are a few books…

God is the Gospel or Dangerous Duty of Delight or Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper.  All 3 of these books by John Piper have really shaped my mind and stirred my love for Christ.  If you are going to pick one of these I suggest, God is the Gospel. 

Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer -  This book is without a doubt a classic.  And is one of my all time favorites on looking at the Character and Nature of God. A must read. 

Attributes of God by A.W. Pink -  This has been a great book that has helped me dive into the depths of who are amazing God is. 

Humility by C.J. Mahaney. If you want to feel convicted about pride and hope to change..enjoy this one!! Really is a great book. 

Valley of Vision - a collection of Puritan prayers.  These will bless your soul as you read these short prayers brimming with love for Christ. 

This is a book that will stir your affections for Christ and lead you to a better understanding of Christ and His word that you could love him more.

I might add John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life and Do Hard Things by the Harris twins Alex and Brett.

4.  Get Discpled or get a Disciple..

·      Get someone to teach you how to be like Jesus..(make sure they are like Jesus, and someone you just like to be with).  They don’t have to be older in years (that’s a bonus!), but they need to be more mature than you are in the things of Christ. 

·      Maybe its time for you to stop absorbing info and start teaching everything you know to someone else. Find someone that you can train in godliness (on the flip side…you will need to train yourself also).

·      Get in a small group. Begin to be accountable to other people in your life to stir one another for christ (Hebrews 10:24-25), bear each others burdens (Galatians 6:1-2), and confess your sin (James 5:16, 1 John 1:9). 

5. Share the Gospel with someone…

·      Great way to not waste your summer!!!  Invite other people to come to Jesus.

·      1 Peter 2:9 says that we have been made Christians to “ so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” , when you go on vacation, be aware of your surroundings and God leading you to share..

·      Pray for Awareness and boldness not opportunities. Praying for opportunities is like praying for there to be oxygen….oxygen is there and so are opportunities!!! What you need to pray for boldness and awareness. 

Really want to be refreshed, share the Gospel and see the Spirit save a Soul…that will change you. 

·    If it’s not too late, go on a mission trip. 

6. War with your sin.

·     Read Romans 6 and 8.  Actually begin to attack a sin that you are battling (Hebrews 12).

·      Kill your sin…Take radical measures to murder your sin and get rid of it.  Don’t let this summer be like all of the others, confront and war with your sin.  Pray for the Spirit’s power to confront it.

7.  Serve in your Church or Go to Church!!!

·      don’t be a leech….while you are home.

·      Figure out how you can serve the people in your church and help out your leaders…volunteer with copies, or cleaning, or babysitting for pastors or whatever.  Determine how you can help. (Psalm 100:2)

Or Maybe it is time that you actually start going to a church if you call yourself a Christian. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

8. Tithe..if you have a job already, or if you are getting a summer job. 

·      Give some of your money, to either your church, or another Christian, or a ministry you like..Make sure whatever ministry or aid work you give to is about making Jesus known, not just meeting temporal needs. Give to one that does both. 

·     Remember that your money doesn’t end with you.  God didn’t give you money so you could buy trinkets and toys this summer.  He gave us money, so that we could show that we treasure Christ, that God is our God and that money is not. (2 Cor. 9:7, Matt. 6:21)

9.  Pray for other people.  

Just pray.  Spend some time thinking about other people and praying for them.  When we begin to see that we are not the center of the universe, but Christ is, our lives begin to find the rhythm that they were meant to have.  A great way to move from being selfish is to pray for other people.  Great way to start is by asking people how you can pray for them.  

Philippians 2: 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;  4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 

I am a Reformed Baptist. One of my objections to infant baptism is that the new covenant cannot be broken (Jer 31:31-34), and thus that the sign should only be applied to believers. Why do Presbyterians argue that the new covenant can be broken, especially in light of Jeremiah 31:31-34?

Click here to read Kent's answer. Remember, we here at Reformation Faith Today love our Baptist brethren. In fact, one of us is Baptistic (Randy) and the other two are former Baptists (Les and Rob). But hey, these make for good friendly interaction, though most of what I have to say about I have already said.

In IPCs May 4 newsletter, Rev. Johnson wrote an article titled A Modest Proposal. In the article he writes about the "new worship" that has swept through most of evangelicalism and wishes for a return to traditional Reformed worship. His modest proposal is for the practitioners of the "new worship" to have a new denomination. Read on to see the full article. I must confess that I am very sympathetic to his dilemma. Maybe he is right. What do you think of his proposal? 

A MODEST PROPOSAL

When I was in college our Bible study pastor would occasionally bring along a colleague whom we today would call a “worship leader.” He was talented with a guitar. He would play softly and lead us from one song to another over a period of 15 to 20 minutes.

“Oh how he loves you and me.

(repeat)

He gave His life, what more could He give?

Oh how he loves me.

(repeat twice)

Oh how he loves you and me.”

This and other slow paced songs would be sung, without interruption aside from verbal encouragement from the song leader, in order to set the mood for the retreat, or Bible study, or prayer meeting, as the case might have been. I can remember being quite emotionally moved by the experience, and wanting the same for others. I took the memory of it with me to theological college in England, even buying a guitar in Bristol with the aspiration of being able to bring about the same effect on others that our worship leader had had upon us. I also took recordings of Maranatha Music choruses with me to England, and then to my internship in Scotland, even as I practiced strumming the guitar, hoping I might be the agent through which this new worship might be experienced in spiritually dead Britain.

Six months of the Prayer Book, a month of Sundays interning in Scotland, and a quarter attending a Reformed Baptist church in Bristol, dissuaded me. Exposure to the deeper things of God in the Anglican liturgy, in the Scottish Metrical Psalms, and in the free prayers of the pastor of the Buckingham Baptist church moved me spiritually to a new level and a new understanding. It also led me to reinterpret my previous experience as emotionally self-centered and self-indulgent. I rejected the music-driven emotionalism of college in favor of the word-driven passion of traditional Reformed worship.

Apparently I have walked the road less traveled. Over the past 30 years we have witnessed the triumph of the new worship. Charismatic in its origins and often combined with a contemporary praise band comprised of electric guitars, drums, tambourines and other assorted non-traditional instruments, the new worship is well-nigh universal among evangelical Christians. Its dominance is clear from California to Wheaton to the megachurches all over the South and Southwest. With some variation, congregations are being led by praise bands and worship leaders, not organists and ministers. Typically the worship leaders are very young. Apparently they have to be. With the exception of aging Boomers, only the young are able to keep up-to-date with the music. Their leadership is often painfully immature. High-energy music is usually followed by soft “love songs to Jesus,” as one commentator has called the genre. Congregations sing as the leaders do: standing, eyes closed, hands uplifted, more moaning than singing. Periodically there are words of encouragement: “Yes, Jesus; we love you Lord; we praise you Father; we lift you on high;” etc. The singing stops when the emotional mood is right or time runs out. Then the worship leader prays a spontaneous, exceptionally familiar and uncomfortably earnest prayer of the “just really” variety: “Lord, we just really want to praise you God, Father; you are everything to us Jesus; we, love you Lord; and we just really want to meet with you, Lord, Father, praise you Jesus. Amen.”

This is what evangelical worship has come to. Gone is the traditional hymnody. Gone is the Scripture reading. Gone is the rich biblical praying of the pastor. Long gone is the metrical psalmody. Expository preaching is on its way out too. What’s left? A new way of worship. A new way of relating to God. I know of no precedent for this in the last 2000 years of church history, lest it be the Gregorian chants of medieval monks with their extended repetition and mantra-like hypnotic state. It has invaded all the denominations and is ubiquitious in youth gatherings. Participants may come dressed in flip-flops and shorts, lattés in one hand, snacks in the other. The new worship mood is informal, comfortable, and casual.

It does not seem to occur to anyone that they ought to dress more respectfully, or that they ought to leave their food and drink at the door, or that romantic love songs are not suitable for expressing our love for Christ, or that rock and roll is not conducive of divine reverence. No, the new format has become a new orthodoxy, beyond question or challenge. The fundamentalists who would have been offended by guitars and cut-offs were long ago silenced. The new worship has triumphed.

Years ago Emily and I went with the Parrishes to see the movie, “The Apostle.” Robert Duvall, you may recall, plays a Pentecostal preacher who, shall we say, had lots of problems. As we walked out I remember thinking, “I no longer recognize my country (William Jefferson Clinton had just been elected) or my religion.”

Maybe its time to give the new worshipers a new denomination. In former times denominations were formed over worship issues. Anglicans wanted strict adherence to the Prayer Book, the Presbyterians and Congregationalists didn’t. Let’s create a new denomination for the new worship. As it is right now, one never knows what one will get when one walks into a Baptist or Presbyterian or Lutheran church. One may get the traditional service. That would be nice. But one just as likely won’t. I’ve gotten to the point where the first thing I do is look up front to see what the church is set up to do. If multiple mics are standing, the tell-tale signs of a worship team, I head for the exit.

Many of us don’t want to worship in the fashion of the new worship. We don’t think it is best, and we don’t like it. We fled the new worship for refuge in traditional Protestantism. Now the new worshipers are invading and increasingly controlling our new home. As they do so they are even accusing the traditionalists of being emotionally repressed and quenching the Spirit. Whatever are we to do? Can we put them all in their own denomination and let them worship happily together while traditional Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Anglicans worship as they always have? It’s a modest proposal, but, alas, unlikely. Meanwhile, I no longer recognize my country, or my religion.

—Terry Johnson

Well today they found out. Then Helen and I met them for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Very appropriate because the doc said that Leslie needed to gain a little more weight.

As we all know, "children are a heritage from the Lord..." For us Presbyterians we also love the Lord's covenant promise, "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

To all my Baptist brethren, this is where I know I lost you, but just bear with us here.

Anyway, so Lord willing Leslie and Matt will have the blessing and joy of bring home a

a little boy!