Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Should Pastors Get PhDs?

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John Piper answers that question in three and a half minutes (transcript | audio | video):

My initial response yesterday after reading and watching Piper’s answer was this:

I think I understand where Piper is coming from here, but it seems to me like he devalues his PhD without sufficient warrant. Did the PhD not help him hone his ability to think and communicate clearly and carefully?

I just read Dane Ortlund’s response to Piper’s answer. It’s excellent. (Dane just completed a PhD in New Testament at Wheaton under Doug Moo.)

Update: Just for the record, I certainly don’t think that all pastors should get PhDs. (But that’s not the point of this post. I am questioning whether we should devalue them so much.)

A False Dilemma

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I received the below comment a few minutes ago—on my thirtieth birthday—in response to my post three days ago entitled “Dissertation Defended.” It’s a good example of a false dilemma, also called a false disjunction or the fallacy of the excluded middle.

Unfortunately two Ph.D.s can hardly be said to serve God’s kingdom. Just think of the gospel ministry by-passed because of such esoteric work. I hope you’ll have more opportunity now to minister and evangelize while the night has not come and there’s still time to work for the Lord of the harvest.

Gospel Meditations for Women

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By Jenni Naselli

Andy recently gave me Gospel Meditations for Women by Chris Anderson and Joe Tyrpak. I’m enjoying and being edified by it. It’s not fluffy.

The thirty-two-page booklet is broken into thirty-one days of specific Scripture-readings with a corresponding gospel-meditation. It applies the gospel, for example, to relationships (“The Gospel Crushes Relational Conflict”) and trials (“Jesus’ Crucifixion and My Trials”). The topics range from theology (e.g., sanctification, inspiration, Christ’s substitutionary death) to specific applications for women (e.g., modesty, singleness, romance, motherhood, older women mentors). I especially appreciate the little nuggets of application at the bottom of each page, which sum up the meditations. This morning I read, “Let the Gospel affect your relationships.” Very good. I need this.

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Internet Pornography: The God of Truth and the Lies of Porn

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Mike Salvati, the youth pastor at my church, addressed the men at our church last Saturday morning on “The God of Truth and the Lies of Porn.” This 68-minute MP3 begins with a man’s testimony followed by Mike’s talk.

Mike presented “seven biblical truths to keep you from being lied to, from clicking and sinning against your great, holy God!” Here’s the outline:

1. Intimacy (sexual intimacy in particular) is God’s good gift (Gen 2:24-25; Prov 5:15-23; Heb 13:4).

  • How has pornography distorted your understanding of God’s good gift of sexual intimacy?
  • What is one way you can cultivate relational intimacy with your wife?
  • When was the last time you thanked God for your wife?

2. Porneia is in you (Mark 7:20-23; James 1:14-15).

Subject Index for Carson and Woodbridge’s Letters Along the Way

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Many thanks to Matthew Hoskinson for serving us by preparing a two-page subject index to this book:

D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge. Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life. Wheaton: Crossway, 1993.

More info:

Take a moment to scan the subject index, and don’t be surprised if it makes you want to read the book.

No Greater Love

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Tonight Jenni and I watched No Greater Love. We expected it to be another semi-cheesy Christian film, but it’s actually well done. It’s a surprisingly gripping story. Jenni almost never cries when watching movies, but this was different.

I learned about it in mid-January when I received this update from The Master’s Seminary. Jay Underwood, one of their graduates, co-stars in the film.

More info:

Update: Justin Taylor recommends No Greater Love.

Update: Justin Taylor <a href=”http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/03/16/no-greater-love-dvd/” target=”_blank”><strong>recomends</strong></a> <em>No Greater Love</em>.

John MacArthur on How to Serve Christians Who Are Needlessly Restrictive

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At the 2007 Shepherds’ Conference, John MacArthur answered this question in a Q&A session:

How would you approach a congregation trapped in years of legalistic tradition?

The Shepherds’ Fellowship granted me permission to upload an MP3 of MacArthur’s 5-minute-and-20-second answer.

Here’s a summary. (It’s not a transcript, but it’s close. The headings are mine.)

1. Love them by not needlessly offending them.

  • Advice. “I would not attack legalism. I would not preach on Christian liberty. I would not assault their consciences either by flaunting liberty on a personal level.”
  • Scriptural principle. “I think there is a very important principle that comes at the end of 1 Corinthians 10 . . . . Do you offend the non-believer, or do you offend your weaker brother? The answer in that text is you offend the non-believer, and the message that the non-believer gets is that you love one another. . . . You defer always to the weaker brother.”
  • Definition of legalism. “In many cases when you’re talking about legalism, you’re not talking really about works-salvation. You’re talking, I assume, about an approach to the Christian life that is needlessly restrictive and narrow and artificially constructed around certain behaviors that aren’t even biblical issues.” [Read more…] about John MacArthur on How to Serve Christians Who Are Needlessly Restrictive