Alex Crain asked Collin Hansen and me some questions about Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism:
How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith
Jack Hyles, “The Invitation Time,” chapter 27 in The Hyles Church Manual (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord, 1968), 279–82 (numbering added; this chapter reprints most of ch. 7 in Hyles’s Let’s Build an Evangelistic Church):
After observing for nearly twenty-two years the preaching of hundreds of preachers across America, I have come to the conclusion that many of us need intensive help in the conducting of a public invitation. Many wonderful gospel messages can be rendered ineffective by a weak invitation.
On the other hand, many average preachers can be rewarded greatly with the use of an effective, pungent, public invitation. Though in many places a public invitation is seldom used and even considered out of date, it is still true that the greatest soul-winning churches utilize an effective, spiritual, Spirit-filled, powerful invitation as their greatest means of evangelism. May we look at a few practical pointers concerning the invitation.
1. Starting the Invitation
- Do not reveal the closing of the sermon. When the sermon reaches a high point or a climax, then would be a good time to close abruptly. Even if the sermon is not completed, sometimes God may lead one to close prematurely in order to start the invitation from a high spiritual plane. This also prevents the unsaved from “digging in,” so to speak, before the invitation is given. [Read more…] about How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith
Interracial Marriage: Oppose, Tolerate, or Celebrate?
I’ve been a member of churches that oppose interracial marriage. I have friends who have received counsel in those churches from pastors—pastors who refuse to perform an interracial wedding—to break off an interracial dating relationship primarily because of a person’s ethnicity.
I vividly recall when Bob Jones University dropped their ban against interracial dating in 2000 and apologized in 2008.
Nor do I forget the first time I taught an MDiv course at an extension site of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2007 composed entirely of black students—all older than I. When the dean introduced me to the class, he mentioned that I earned an MA and PhD from Bob Jones University. Then he walked out of the classroom. The stares felt like glares, and I don’t blame them. I had to dig myself out of a big hole (which, by God’s grace, I think I finally escaped).
So at least for me based on my limited experience, this issue is still fresh.
In John Piper’s new book, his chapter on interracial (or better: inter-ethnic*) marriage argues “from Scripture and experience that interracial marriage is not only permitted by God but is a positive good in our day. It is not just to be tolerated, but celebrated” (p. 203):
John Piper. Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 
*See Piper’s appendix 1 for why the term ethnicity is better than race (pp. 234–40).
The book is even more interesting to me since Piper grew up across the street from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.
Watch him talk about it in this gripping 17-minute documentary:
Piper tells his story in chapter 1, and a big part of it is interracial marriage (pp. 35–37):
The perceived wrongness of interracial marriage had been for me one of the unshakeable reasons why segregation was right. (p. 35)
Here’s the outline of chapter 15 (“Interracial Marriage,” pp. 203–15, numbering added) with some excerpts: [Read more…] about Interracial Marriage: Oppose, Tolerate, or Celebrate?
Reading the Bible without Chapter and Verse Numbers
[I]t is important to remember that the Reformers did not break the epistles down into verses in the way that we do (verses were not invented until about 1550, after Luther’s death!) and were struck by the force of their overall argument more than perhaps we tend to be. To appreciate them it is useful to read the epistles straight through, without paying too much attention to the internal divisions, and feel the impact.
- Review of Christopher R. Smith, The Beauty Behind the Mask: Rediscovering the Books of the Bible. Themelios 34 (2009): 109–10.
- Review of The Books of the Bible. Themelios 34 (2009): 108–9.
- Review of The Story: Read the Bible as One Seamless Story from Beginning to End. Themelios 34 (2009): 106–7.
Mediums
Chapter 8 of this book is entitled “Mediums”:
John Dyer. From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011. [endorsements]
“The message is the content we transmit from our minds to our audience, while everything that surrounds those words can be considered a medium.” Mediums may include “an email, a handwritten note, a phone call, a Facebook wall post, or any other tool we use to communicate” (p. 117).
Dyer makes three arguments about mediums (pp. 117–31):
- “Mediums communicate meaning.” This is evident “in the way we use various communication mediums: formality, difficulty, and speed.”
- “Mediums create culture (and cultural divides).”
- “Mediums shape thinking.” Two examples: printing press and photography.
Related: Among other things, John Dyer maintains the extraordinarily useful “Best Commentaries” site.
Intelligent Design
Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove: IVP, 2011), 329:
ID [intelligent design] should take its rightful place in the overall circle of evidence. Standing alone, it cannot provide a full apologetic for Christianity. Rather, ID provides strong evidence against the reigning naturalism in the realm of biology, as well as some support for theism as an overarching worldview.
That’s how Groothuis concludes his chapter “Evidence for Intelligent Design” (pp. 297–329).
Equipping Counselors
This book releases today:
Robert W. Kellemen. Equipping Counselors for Your Church: The 4E Ministry Training Strategy. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2011.
It’s endorsed by Paul Tripp, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Ed Welch, and several others.
Kellemen’s 4 E’s:
- Envisioning God’s Ministry
- Enlisting God’s Ministers for Ministry
- Equipping Godly Ministers for Ministry
- Empowering/Employing Godly Ministers for Ministry
More info (including a video and endorsements) here.
The Barber Who Wanted to Pray
Our three-year-old daughter enjoyed this new book after it arrived in the mail yesterday:
R. C. Sproul. The Barber Who Wanted to Pray. Paintings by T. Lively Fluharty. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 33 pp.
It’s about Martin Luther teaching his barber, Master Peter, a simple way to pray.
You can read the whole book online here (“Preview the Book”).
Related: See Carl Trueman, “A Lesson from Peter the Barber,” Themelios 34 (2009): 3–5. Trueman’s article ends with this footnote (numbering added):
Martin Luther’s treatise on prayer can be found in the following works:
- Martin Luther, “To Peter Beskendorf,” in Luther: Letters of Spiritual Council (ed. and trans. Theodore G. Tappert; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1955), 124–30;
- idem, “A Simple Way to Pray,” in Luther’s Works (ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann; trans. Carl J. Schindler; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 43:187–209;
- idem, “Luther the Confessional Theologian: A Practical Way to Pray (1535),” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (ed. William R. Russell and Timothy F. Lull; 2nd ed.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 12–17.