Introduction to Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

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I have benefitted tremendously from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, from the depth and richness of the writings and the broadcasts of several of the members.  So I thought I would post this introductory video for anyone who may not be familiar with this network.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is a cross denominational organization in which members from several Christian traditions come together united by their common commitment to the the gospel.  These guys (and ladies) genuinely reflect Paul’s words: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”  (Romans 1.16)

Each of the members also comes from a tradition that has a recorded summary of their faith, expressed in various confessions of faith. These doctrinal statements vary on some secondary points, but each offers a wonderfully unique perspective on the gospel, and on the Christian faith.

The goal of the Alliance is to work toward a Second Reformation, or rather to work for a continued reformation of the church; to constantly see Christ’s Church more and more conformed to God’s revelation in the Scripture. 

Check out these Alliance links:

Total Church

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

I have recently been listening to Tim Chester and Steve Timmis speak about Total Church. I appreciate their emphasis that two key principles should shape church life: gospel and community.

As Tim Chester writes:

Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community.

Wondering about what I would consider an important, really an essential, third spoke, Mission, Chester elaborates:

Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel and the context is consistently the Christian community. What we do is always defined by the gospel and the context is always our belonging in the church. Our identity as Christians is defined by the gospel and the community.

Timmis and Chester suggest “Being gospel-centered actually involves two things”  So really we have three principles at work.  Christian practice must be:

1.Gospel-centered

  • gospel-centered in the sense of being Word-centered
  • gospel-centered in the sense of being mission-centered (or what I would call being gospel-driven)

2. Community-centered (or what I would call a gospel-formed community)

Here’s how it fleshes out. Contrasting the common polemic nature within much of Christianity, Chester says:

In practice conservative evangelicals often place a proper emphasis on the gospel or on the word. Meanwhile others, like those who belong to the so-called emerging church, may emphasize the importance of community. The emerging church is a loose movement of people who are exploring new forms of church. Each group suspects the others are weak where they are strong. Conservatives worry that the emerging church is soft on truth, too influenced by postmodernism. The emerging church accuses traditional churches of being too institutional, too program-oriented, often loveless and sometimes harsh.

So let us nail our colors to the mast. We agree with the conservatives that the emerging church is too often soft on truth. But we do not think the answer is to be suspicious of community. Indeed we think that often conservatives do not ‘do truth’ well because they neglect community. Because people are not sharing their lives, truth is not applied and lived out.

We also agree with the emerging church movement that often conservative evangelicals are bad at community. The emerging church is a broad category and an ‘emerging’ one at that with no agreed theology or methodology. It means generalizations about emerging church are far from straight-forward. But many within the movement seem to downplay the central importance of objective, divinely-revealed, absolute truth. This may not be a hard conviction, but it is a trajectory. Others argue that more visual media (images, symbols, alternative worship) should compliment or replace an emphasis on the word. We do not think this is the answer. Indeed we think emerging church can sometimes be bad at community because it neglects the truth. It is not governed by truth as it should be, so its community is too whimsical or too indulgent. It is often me and my mates talking about God – church for the Friends generation – middle-class twenty and thirty-somethings church. Only the truth of the gospel reaches across barriers of age, race and class.

If this all sounds a little too radical, to me it sounds a lot like what Francis Schaeffer trumpeted a generation ago.  Check out Schaeffer’s Two Contents, Two Realities.  What Chester and Timmis advocate seems to be two of the principles Schaeffer emphasized: Sound Doctrine and the Beauty of Human Relationships.  Listen to what they say:

We often meet people reacting against an experience of conservative churches which has been institutional, inauthentic and rigidly programmed. For them the emerging church appears to be the only other option. We also meet people within more traditional churches who recognise the need for change, but fear the relativism they see in the emerging church. For them existing models seem to be the only option. We believe there is an alternative.

We want to argue that we need to be enthusiastic about truth and mission and we need to be enthusiastic about relationships and community.

And finally Timmis & Chester offer a warning notice:

[WARNING:] Rigorously applying these principles has the potential to lead to some fundamental and thoroughgoing changes in the way we do church. The theology that matters is not the theology we profess, but the theology we practice.

As John Stott says:

“…our static, inflexible, self-centered structures are ‘heretical structures’ because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church. If our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world it is a heretical structure.”

A Prayer for Septmber 11

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In anticipation of the tenth anniversary of 9-11 attacks today, which will be recognized in our church this morning, and which will no doubt be remembered in many, many other congregations across the USA, I have been benefitting from the insights and prayers of many all week.  I have particularly found the following prayer/litany by Mike Cosper from Sojourn Community Church in Louisville KY to be be rich and faithful.

May God bless you as you reflect upon, and maybe even offer up, this prayer.

***

Lord as we gather,
celebrating your glory and goodness,
we acknowledge the shadow of today’s anniversary.

Together, we remember September 11, 2001.
We mourn for the lives lost in New York City,
Washington D. C., and on Flight 93.

We lament death’s reign,
the visible and invisible forces of evil,
the principalities and powers of this dark world,
and the evil that lurks in the hearts of all men . . . including our own.

With the Psalmist, we cry:

“How long, Oh Lord?
How long will your enemies scoff?
How long will you withhold your justice
from a world that is desparate to see it?”

We lament a world at war, and we ask you for peace

In Afghanistan
in Iraq
in Libya
in Israel and Palestine
in Egypt and Syria, and all of the nations of the earth that long for freedom from oppression.

We ask for protection over our loved ones and families who serve overseas,
we pray for the fatherless and the widow,
for the poor and oppressed.

We lift up our global leaders
that by your grace they might lead with wisdom and justice
and work for peace.

And we acknowledge that all such hopes and longings point us to one who will soon return and bring an everlasting peace and justice.

Together we proclaim:

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!    (Psalm 146:2-10)

Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

Bashing the Bride

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

This video cracks me up… and it also makes me a little sad.  It is sad because this critic is all too familiar – not just to me, but probably to most church leaders. In our consumer culture, where some people have little more allegiance to their covenant community than they do to Wal Mart, K-Mart, or Target, it is all too easy to complain and then cut-and-run.

Jesus calls the Church his “Bride”. Joshua Harris calls such nit-pickers “Church Daters”.

What are the Marks of  Church Dater?  In his excellent little book, Stop Dating the Church, Harris identifies three:

  • Me-centered
  • Independent
  • Critical

Harris goes on to write:

Church-daters don’t realize that what they assume is working for personal gain is actually resulting in serious loss – for themselves and for others.

The plain fact is, when we resist passion and commitment in our relationship with the church, everyone gets cheated out of God’s Best:

  • You cheat yourself.
  • You cheat a church community.
  • You cheat your world.

And Harris suggests something about a lack of commitment to the local church:

Wouldn’t that be like telling your new bride that while your love is true, you have other priorities? Your heart of course is all hers, but as for the rest of you … well, you’ll be in and out.

But Harris also offers this encouragement:

When a person stops “dating” the church they’re not just adding another item to their “to do” list.  …Instead they’re finally getting started on experiencing all the other blessings Jesus promised.

Harris is right, on all accounts.

I have no doubt that criticisms often leveled against the Church – the churches I have served, and all others – are probably aimed toward at least a kornal of truth.  Churches have problems. Churches are filled with people, all of whom have problems. There is an old saying:

This church would be a wonderful place… IF it wasn’t filled with all these people!

So finding things to bash is not difficult.  No question the local church has warts and scars that make her at times less than attractive.   But she is the Bride of Christ.  So it might be helpful for us all to remember how precious the Bride is to Our Lord. He is aware of the present realities – the ugliness. But he has also promised to make her beautiful.  As John Stott reminded us about the Bride of Christ:

On earth she is often in rags and tatters, stained and ugly, despised and persecuted. But one day she will be seen for what she is, nothing less than the bride of Christ, ‘free from spots, wrinkles, or any other disfigurement’, holy and without blemish, beautiful and glorious. It is this constructive end that Christ has been working and is continuing to work. The bride does not make herself presentable; it is the bridgegroom who labours to beautify her in order to present her to himself.

Your Will Be Done in My Life

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This prayer from Thomas a Kempis has really touched me where I am today:

O Lord, blessed be your name forever, for it is your will that this temptation and trouble come to me. I cannot escape it, but must run to you so that you can help me and turn it to my good.  Lord, I am now being afflicted, and my heart is troubled by my present suffering and not at peace.

And now, Dear Father, what shall I say? I am caught in the middle of trouble,  “Save me from this hour”.  Yet I come to this hour so you may might be glorified when I am deeply humbled and delivered by you.   Therefore, may it please you, Lord, to deliver me, for what can a poor wretch like I am do, or where can I go, without you?

Give me patience, O Lord, even now in this emergency. Help me, my God, and I will not be afraid of how much I may be afflicted.

~ From Imitation of Christ III.29

Deconstructing the Twin Enemies of the Gospel

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Perhaps the two of the most effective enemies of the gospel within the Church in North America are the twins: Moralism and Legalism. While there are other enemies at work, such as Relativism and Licentiousness, these are far more obvious in their opposition to the gospel.  Moralism and Legalism, however, are so potent, especially among conservatives, because they stealthily fly under the radar.  In fact, they are such subversives that they are often embraced as if they are part of the gospel, or at least partners with it.

Here is something Tim Keller offers to combat these sneaky, deadly foes:

Some claim that to constantly be striking a ‘note of grace, grace, grace’ in our sermons is not helpful in our culture today.

The objection goes like this: “Surely Phariseeism and moralism is not a problem in our culture today. Rather, our problem is license and antinomianism. People lack a sense of right or wrong. It is ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’ to talk about grace all the time to postmodern people.”

But I don’t believe that’s the case. Unless you point to the ‘good news’ of grace, people won’t even be able to bear the ‘bad news’ of God’s judgment. Also, unless you critique moralism, many irreligious people won’t know the difference between moralism and what you’re offering.

The way to get antinomians to move away from lawlessness is to distinguish the gospel from legalism. Why? Because modern and post-modern people have been rejecting Christianity for years thinking that it was indistinguishable from moralism. Non-Christians will always automatically hear gospel presentations as appeals to become moral and religious, unless in your preaching you use the good news of grace to deconstruct legalism. Only if you show them there’s a difference–that what they really rejected wasn’t real Christianity at all–will they even begin to consider Christianity.

Top 10 College Fight Songs

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

With college football getting into full swing today i thought I would help set the tone. This video is a list of the Top 10 College Football Fight Songs.  It is not my list, but it is fun anyway.  Still I thinmk they got a few.

The top 3 should be:

  1. Tennessee – Rocky Top (#4 in the video)
  2. Notre Dame – Notre Dame Victory March (#1 in video)
  3. Michigan – Hail to the Victors (Not the fight song in the video)

And Honorable Mention goes to:

Feel free to offer your top fight song or list in the comment section.

Screwtape Meets the “Me Church” Generation

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Among C.S. Lewis‘ masterful works is the Screwtape Letters.  For those unfamiliar with this book, Screwtape is a fictional senior devil mentoring his nephew, Wormwood, a junior devil, in undermining his “patients” new found spiritual journey.  When reading Screwtape Letters it is important to remind yourself that everything is presented from a backward perspective – from a perspective a devil might have.  In these letters God is the “Enemy”.

Here is what Screwtape says about Churchgoing:

Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that “suits” him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches. The reasons are obvious. In the first place the parochial organization [neighborhood church] should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy desires. The congregational principle, on the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction. In the second place, the search for a “suitable” church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil.”

I suspect Screwtape would be very pleased with the whole “Me Church” culture – both those individuals who embrace it and the churches that promote it.

If you are curious about the Screwtape Letters, they are available online:

Mission @ the Heart of God

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

There are the five parts of the Bible:

  • The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God, calling one family in order to bless all the families of the earth.
  • The Christ of the Gospels is a missionary Christ; he sent the church out to witness.
  • The Spirit of the Acts is a missionary Spirit; he drove the church out from Jerusalem to Rome.
  • The Church of the epistles is a missionary Church, a worldwide community with a worldwide vocation.
  • The end of the Revelation is a missionary End, a countless throng from every nation.

So I think we have to say the religion of the Bible is a missionary religion. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable.

Mission cannot be regarded as a regrettable lapse from tolerance or decency. Mission cannot be regarded as the hobby of a few fanatical eccentrics in the church. Mission lies at the heart of God and therefore at the very heart of the church. A church without mission is no longer a church. It is contradicting an essential part of its identity. The church is mission.

~ John R. W. Stott, from Authentic Christianity

Tongue-in-Check

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

Let me share a story about an old mountain minister and a young boy in the congregation.

During the children’s message this old pastor was trying to convey the sovereignty of God to his young parishioners – and to the listening ears of the rest of the congregation.  As he began his summation one precocious lad tried to chime in: “Preacher…”  The sage old minister looked at the boy, but continued with his conclusion.

Again the boy, begging for acknowledgement, said: “Preacher…”

After a third interruption the preacher finally responded: “Yes, Lad?”

The boy offered: “Preacher, I know one thang God cain’t do.”

The minister gently corrected: “No. There is nothing God cannot do.”  But the boy insisted: “But, Preacher, I know one thang God cain’t do.”

Finally relenting, the preacher inquired: “OK. Why don’t you tell us what you think God can’t do.”  The boy confidently expressed his observation: “God cain’t make your mouth no bigger without moving your ears back!”

Ah! A big mouth – the bane of many a preacher. But my ministerial colleagues and I are not the sole sufferers of this malady.  Many who sit in the pews each week also exhibit a tendency to run at the mouth. And so do many who never darken a church doorway.  It is a common affliction.

The great 14th Century theologian-Reformer, John Wycliffe – most renowned for being the first to translate the Bible into English – recognized the power of the tongue:

“The tongue breaks bone, although the tongue itself has none.”

Similarly, James, the brother of the Lord Jesus wrote:

“Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3.5-8)

I suspect more carnage has been caused by the destructive power of loose and lying tongues than by any war.  The spark of a little gossip fans into flame, the fire spreads, resulting in inestimable damage.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Proverbs 12.8 tells us:

“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Do you see that?  With a simple conscious adjustment of the employment of our tongues we can be transformed from destroyers to restorers.

What great news! At least it would be, except, according to James, “no man can tame the tongue”.  What could he possibly mean?

James is revealing that mere will-power cannot lead to the radical change we need. No doubt a conscious effort will generate some behavioral improvement. But our condition is more chronic than most imagine. Jesus tells us the root of our problem is spiritual not muscular. (Mark 7.21-23)  It’s like trying to domesticate a wolf – eventually the true nature will re-emerge.  In fact, James says though man may tame wild animals, the tongue will still not be tamed. Not by our own effort, anyway.  The true nature eventually resurfaces.

No need to despair.  The power for transformation is found in Jesus.  When we embrace Jesus, as he is offered in the gospel, everything changes.  Our minds and hearts are renewed, so we begin to think and desire differently.  And out of renewed hearts come redeeming words.  As the psalmist discovered:

“The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.” (Psalm 37.30)

***

NOTE: This post first appeared as an article for a column in the Bristol Herald Courier.