Around the Horn

At first, here’s a Newsweek article on “The Fight for Black Men.” It came to my attention via Ed Stetzer and it is a great read, worth your time and thought. While you might not like the point of the article, and for reasons having nothing to do with racism, it seems true that many people in our society are living life behind the proverbial 8-ball, and “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” just isn’t going to cut it. It may well be systemic in nature.

At second, here’s a free book from Westminster by Iain Daguid entitled Is Jesus in the Old Testament? It’s a popular topic and this is one contribution. I have not finished this short book, but I highlight it as one contribution. I have found a number of things so far to take issue with, and perhaps I will do that publicly some time.

At third, a rather disturbing yet not unexpected article (highlighted by Religious Affections) about how the producers of a movie on Superman are directly appealing to churches to promote this movie. It is truly shameful that movie producers think there are people in the church who will advertise their movie for free. Dear Pastor, if you are going to do something stupid like promote a movie, at least charge the prevailing advertising rates and take a vacation to Hawaii. While you are there, get someone to actually preach the gospel to your church from the sufficient Scripture and take some time to work on your resume, because you should not be a pastor if you do this kind of stuff.

Last is an article by a rabbi about the necessity of religion in society. He laments the dumbing down of atheism in our culture, but acknowledge that no society can maintain civil decency apart from religion. Is he right? Of course he is right. The problem is his solution: it is only partly tethered to reality. The general notion of God can be enough to spur a society on to basic respect and human decency, but it can never provide an firm foundation for life either now or in the hereafter. Let us as Christians be wary of general notions of God as the foundation of human society. While it is true that these are better than atheism, which is ultimately unsustainable and intellectually incoherent, it will never provide what is necessary for the life God created us to live.

Man Up, Boys

A Father’s Day Guest Post by my Wife (It’s a little personal but I like it. So forgive me. I didn’t write it. … And remember, if you are going to be a man don’t blame someone else for stuff.)

Who is teaching our boys of today to be the men of tomorrow?

Social media is splattered with pithy statements of “Just because you are a male it doesn’t make you a man.”

My heart is heavy as I look around our community and realize there are an astronomical number of homes with out a dad these days and so many little ones never know who their “real “ daddy is. Of course, many times when there is a dad present in the home he is often an absentee member of the family for a myriad of reasons…Fatherhood by proxy. There is quite a difference between donorship and ownership; isn’t there?

My heart especially aches for the precious little ones that never experienced the strength and comfort of their daddy’s hand folding around theirs because their mother made a choice. Created in His image and just discarded like common waste. It gives a new and heartsick meaning to one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Oh, what precious precious treasures. Yet, there is a certain comfort knowing that God promised when your father and mother forsake you, the Lord will take you up.

Some fathers, whether in life or death, are promoted to a convoluted form of sainthood. Sometimes because they are missed and memories fade (at least the bad ones) and there is an insatiable need to hold on to the hope that they are in a better place whether they are or not. Sometimes they want what they never had or maybe don’t want to lose what good they did have. Nevertheless, many fathers near Father’s Day achieve merit second only to Superman.

What about my Daddy, you ask? When he passed away there was one word that was reoccurring: Faithful. I know now that was the word he planned on ringing into eternity. Oh, he had a cause for which to be faithful. Faithful to what or to whom? His friends? His work? His church? His child? His wife? The one and only God? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and above all YES! He wasn’t perfect and he never claimed to be. He rested, he functioned, he thrived in the knowledge that he was a poor undeserving sinner snatched up in his Father’s grasp of grace. He taught me what my Heavenly Father looks like—His essence, attributes and character. He opened his heart wide to a little girl that needed the comfort and protection of a home; he provided himself as the example of unconditional love and the longevity and permanency of adoption. That proved useful as I began to appreciate my relationship with God as one of His children. He taught me the power and the patience of prayer. He taught me who my husband would be years before I ever met him … Ironic how they are similar in so many ways. Father’s Day is a celebration but not because of who they are but because of who they are in Christ and what He has done!

As I am writing, my “little man” of 7 years is next door doing yard work for our 80 something-year-old neighbor lady. He wasn’t asked. He wasn’t told. He just offered to help because…well, just because…just because he has witnessed his Daddy countless times help, fix, serve, and honor others without expecting seeking, or even wanting anything in return. I guess you could say, being a man is becoming a family tradition.

We are raising our boys to be husbands one day and ultimately fathers, if God so chooses. And someone out there is undoubtedly raising a little boy that one day will marry our little girl. (A thought that my husband might not want to process yet).

So, please teach your little fella to love God and serve Him with everything that he has; teach him to love his wife as Christ loved the church.

Teach him to be a MAN…a man after God’s own heart! Because we are teaching her to wait for that man.

Around the Horn

At first, Michael Horton writes on pastoral task of study and preaching. He warns against farming out one of the primary tasks of preaching, the task of study. Perhaps there’s a fine line between paying someone directly to do research (“Here’s $X; give me a paper on this passage”) and paying someone indirectly (pulling a commentary off the shelf). But as pastors, we need to guard ourselves against the tendency towards shortcuts by preaching other people’s study.

At second, Phil Campbell at Matthias Media has a good piece on the preaching task here. It is well worth your time. A great many of us regular preaching pastors could stand to be tighter and more focused in our preaching. While you might not resort to manuscripting as Phil does, the thoughts he shares will help towards the much needed goal of clarity in preaching.

At third, a dissertation by Jason Allen comparing the “The Christ-Centered Homiletics of Edmund Clowney and Sidney Greidanus in Contrast with the Human Author-Centered Hermeneutics of Walter Kaiser.” It should prove to be a good read. Related to this is a blog article about the dissertation, which I post mostly for the lengthy comment section showing how people interact about the topic. I think what is highlighted there is a major issue—the difference between typology and allegory. While Greidanus and Clowney disavow allegory, I am not yet convinced that their method does not actually lead one in that direction. But I shall read this dissertation with interest. (When’s the last time you heard that line?)

Last, and well worth making it to the end, Thabiti Anyabwile posts about pastoral wisdom in a great little piece called Everything I Know About Pastoral Ministry I Learned Riding with Pastors. Which reminds me of this: The best wisdom and guidance for just about anything in life does not come from long expositions of ideas, but from short conversations with people who have “been there and done that.”

Baseball and PEDs

The news of a new scandal, or at least recently discovered scandal, concerning performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball is making its way through the news today. Up to twenty players are involved, some of them actually decent players rather than scrubs trying to make it or old guys trying to hang on.

It’s a travesty that it’s come to this. Baseball records are now like photography. I don’t trust it. Too many ways to photoshop … or juice.

If it were just a modern problem, it wouldn’t matter. But it’s a historical problem. When we compare, say Barry Bonds, to Babe Ruth, it is an issue. Ruth’s PEDs consisted of beer and hotdogs. And he looked like it. It is simply unfair to history to compare Babe Ruth’s statistics to Barry Bonds.

To solve the drug problem, or to at least make a dent in it, MLB needs to hit players where it matters … in the pocketbook.

So in the interest of changing the world and making it a better place, here is my solution to the drug problem:

For the first offense, any player caught using drugs (based on a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt) has an automatic one year suspension, and a mandatory and non-appealable fine, consisting of all baseball related income (contracts, endorsements, etc) over and above the league minimum (currently $490,000) for the next five years. To this fine is added all baseball related income above the league minimum salary for the previous five years. This means that the first offense for a drug violation receives a one year suspension and forfeiture of all baseball related income above the league minimum for ten years (five in the past and five in the future).

So for example, Alex Rodruiguez is slated to make $28,000,000 this year on his contract. Under this plan, he would make $490,000 for the next five years, which means his fine is $27,510,000 this year, in addition to all endorsements, plus the same for the next five years. Plus the same for the previous five years. If A-Rod knew that was the consequence, would he have thought twice before using PEDs? I bet he would have. No performance boost it worth over $100,000,000.

For the second offense, a lifetime ban is mandatory, including the immediate canceling of any contracts. This also includes a ban from the Hall of Fame, from any and all participation in any baseball related functions connected with Major League Baseball, including minor league assignments.

Draconian? Sure. But it sends the right message: Baseball won’t tolerate PEDs, and it will hurt if you get caught.

Now, this won’t bother the hangers on or those marginal player looking for an edge to make it. They are willing to take the chance that they won’t get caught. And if they do, they aren’t losing anything they wouldn’t have had anyway.

But it will tell the world, and the fans, that drugs will not be a part of the game.

Will it happen? Of course not, because the MLBPA (the player’s union) doesn’t want to solve the problem. They never have. And MLB doesn’t have the courage or the leverage to solve it.

But a guy can dream, can’t he?

Help!!

I am in the final stages of my Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (for which my mom and dad will be inordinately proud and my wife will be extremely grateful should I actually finish; my children won’t actually care, which is refreshing and helpful).

As part of the final project, I am conducting research into the preaching planning practices of primary preaching pastors. (The research does not include the predisposition towards or use of alliteration).

Throughout the course of the summer, I am seeking responses to a thirty-two question survey designed to gather information about how pastors plan their preaching. It should take less than a half-hour of your time.

This survey is completely voluntary and anonymous (unless you wish to contact me privately).

There will be no means to track your personal responses to the questions, and your responses will not be used individually unless you make individual comments at various parts of the survey.

They will be compiled into a full report which will be made available here at the conclusion of the project.

So if you are the pastor who carries the bulk of the preaching responsibilities at your church, please consider taking this survey.

In addition, if you have friends or acquaintances who qualify for this survey, please feel free to pass the survey link on to them. I would like to get as many responses as possible from a wide spectrum of pastors.

Thanks for your help. Please let me know if you have any questions.

And feel free to link to this post or repost this link for others to see. You can use the following code if you are willing to link to it from your blog or website.

<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/preaching_planning_survey">Click here to take survey</a>

Thanks for your help with this survey.

Click here to take survey