Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Popular Evangelical Scholarship in the Public Square

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Craig L. Blomberg, “New Testament Studies in North America,” in Understanding the Times: New Testament Studies in the 21st Century; Essays in Honor of D. A. Carson at the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (ed. Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 281–82 (bullet points added):

Fortunately North American evangelical scholarship on all of these issues is likewise flourishing; if only it could become as well known in the public square as some of the more avant-garde work just noted!

  • Craig Evans , Darrell Bock, and Ben Witherington, in particular, have published widely and also sought out the necessary media attention to spread their views to those who don’t read (or at least who don’t read their works).
  • Bock’s debunking of the Da Vinci Code fiction about Christian origins has sold more than all of his other books put together .
  • Dan Wallace and several coauthors have repeatedly set Ehrman’s textual criticism and other claims in their proper, larger contexts,
  • while Paul Eddy and Greg Boyd, Rob Bowman and Ed Komoszewski , Wayne House, Mark Roberts , and the immensely successful popularizer Lee Strobel have all offered important, accessible rebuttals to the misinformation widely circulating on the formation of the canon, the reliability of the Gospels, and the nature of Jesus.
  • I have continued to pursue my interests in several of these areas as well .

Practicing Affirmation

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Earlier this month I read a book that I desperately needed:

Sam Crabtree. Practicing Affirmation: God-Centered Praise of Those Who Are Not God. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011.

And I already need to read it again.

Sam Crabtree is executive pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, and John Piper, that church’s pastor for preaching and vision, writes the foreword.

Here’s an interview with the author (audio):

https://vimeo.com/51221224

And here are some excerpts from the book:

[T]he praising of people does not necessarily preclude the praising of God, if the people are commended ultimately for his glory. God is glorified in us when we affirm the work he has done and is doing in others. (p. 12)

Good affirmations are God-centered, pointing to the image of God in a person. (p. 18)

Proportionality matters when it comes to affirmation, for affirmation can be choked out by criticism, correction, or mere indifference and neglect. (p. 44)

It takes many affirmations to overcome the impact of a criticism, because criticisms are heavier and sting more. (p. 48)

Corrections tend to cancel affirmations, and the closer the proximity to correction, the more crippled the affirmation. (p. 64)

I can be so quick to point out the negative while taking the positive for granted, assuming people around me will behave the way I think they should and forgetting that I might have a role to play in encouraging them to behave in certain ways. (p. 74)

Not only commend people to their faces (or in letters), but commend them behind their backs, whether or not the report ever gets back to them. (p. 109)

Related: Bob Kaulflin on receiving compliments

Update: I named this book one of the top three of 2011.

Just Preach the Point of the Text

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Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People (IX Marks; Chicago: Moody, 2010), 105–7, 112:

“We don’t think your preaching will build this church. So we have decided not to nominate you as our next pastor.” That is what the elders of a church said to me toward the end of a three-month interim pastorate.

It was a Sunday. We had just finished the church’s evening service, which I had led. My wife had gone home. And the four elders and I were now sitting in the living room of the elder chairman. My wife and I had prayed that, God willing, the interim pastorate would turn into a full-time pastorate. Apparently, that was not going to happen.

What was wrong with my preaching? That was the obvious question. The four brothers focused their answer almost entirely on one thing: my faithfulness to the biblical text. They put it like this: “Your preaching has been fine from the standpoint of saying true things, and much of what you’re saying comes out of the text you’re preaching. The problem is, your sermons tend to be 20 to 30 degrees off the main point of the text.” [Read more…] about Just Preach the Point of the Text

Thriving at College

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When I read this practical book a few weeks ago, I thought, “This is the perfect high school graduation gift. And it would also benefit college students, parents, professors, and pastors.”

Alex Chediak. Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2011.

Westminster Books is running a sale that ends on April 5:

  • $7.50 for the first copy (50% off)
  • $9.00 for each subsequent copy (40% off)

About forty people have endorsed it, including Randy Alcorn, David Dockery, Rick Holland, Al Mohler, Chris Morgan, Leland Ryken, Sam Storms, and Bruce Ware.

Chediak, associate professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University, is the author of With One Voice: Singleness, Dating, and Marriage to the Glory of God and editor of Five Paths to the Love of Your Life. [Read more…] about Thriving at College

Making the Transition to Elder Governance

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This book just came out this month, and it looks like one that will serve some churches well:

Daniel Evans and Joseph Godwin Jr. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition. Eugene, OR: Resource, 2011. xvii + 120 pp.

Description:

When the leadership of Patterson Park Church looked for a book explaining the process of transitioning from a board-run church to an elder-led form of church government, a structure they had come to believe was more in line with Scripture, they found none. God honored their efforts and two of their elders decided a book still needed to be written. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition examines church government from a biblical and historical context and tells the story of Patterson Park’s transition. The authors are hopeful that God will use their experience to help others considering such a transition.

Table of contents: [Read more…] about Making the Transition to Elder Governance

Heart > Mind

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John Piper, Taste and See: 140 Meditations (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2005), 28:

One profound biblical insight we need to know is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to think that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our heart, and then our mind bends reality to justify the desires and fears.

More Bible Memory Resources

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Two weeks ago I recommended Bible memory resources for young children, especially texts set to music.

I’ve updated that post in three ways:

  1. I added Songs for Saplings: 123 under heading 3. That CD just came out this month.
  2. I added heading 5: “Hide the Word (Mark Altrogge, Forever Grateful Music).” Altrogge, senior pastor of a Sovereign Grace Church in Pennsylvania, has set 182 Scripture passages to 9.1 hours of music. The genre is similar to Sovereign Grace Music, which has published several of Altrogge’s songs.
  3. I added heading 6: “Hidden in My Heart: A Lullaby Journey through Scripture (Jay and Trina Stocker, BreakAway Music).” Mellow.

I now have 20.8 hours of Scripture set to music. Grace.

Fear of Change

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Why do so few churches have a plurality of elders?

Benjamin L. Merkle suggests three reasons in 40 Questions about Elders and Deacons (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2008), 188–91:

  1. Lack of Qualified Men
  2. Lack of Biblical Knowledge
  3. Fear of Change

Some of his shrewd observations about fear of change apply to more than changing a church’s polity (pp. 189–90, numbering added):

Fear is a motivating factor in the lives of many people, and fear of change often is what holds back a church from adopting and implementing plural eldership.

[Pastors fear change.]

  1. Pastors fear that the congregation will reject their ideas.
  2. They fear that the church will split if they try to change the constitution or bylaws in regard to church government.
  3. They fear that their efforts will fail and the church will be worse off than before.
  4. They fear having to do the hard work of educating the congregation about eldership.
  5. Other pastors fear that they might lose some of their power and authority in the church. Newton agrees: “At the root of much opposition to plural eldership are pastors who fear the loss of their authority in the church.”

Those in the congregation are also fearful.

  1. They fear that things might not be as comfortable as they are now. [Read more…] about Fear of Change