From Piper and MacArthur

I was listening to a couple of things this weekend that kind of worked themselves together in my mind.

The first is from John Piper at the recent Wheaton Symposium with Mark Noll and Nathan Hatch on the hollowing out of confidence in the Bible:

Many pastors seem to be animated not by what they see in the Bible, but by what they see somewhere else and then they hook it in the Bible.

The second is from John MacArthur from his message and the follow-up panel discussion at T4G in 2006 on forty years of ministry. I don't have a quote, but the essence of it was about preaching the word faithfully, with the emphasis there on "the word," rather than the culture around us.

I wonder if too many Christians, even well-meaning, are motivated and driven by what we see around us in the world rather than by what we see in the Word.

Perhaps the motivation for ministry should not be the broken and hurting lives around us in a fallen world, but rather the glory of God as seen in the Scriptures.

Before you accuse me of a false dichotomy (unless you already have), I understand that it has to be both. But I fear in this "missional" world, too many start with the culture and work backwards to Scripture.

Side note: The symposium was fair; the questions at the end were terrible.