The Salty Peanut Gallery

The day we got back from camp, we had just enough time to run home, wash some cloths, pack the car, get a few hours sleep and head out around 5:00 the next morning for our Disney, Florida summer vacation. It was certainly helpful that there are three licensed drivers in the family. Fifteen hours in a minivan fighting traffic all the way down I-95 would have been a pretty daunting task otherwise.

This was pretty much a once in a life time deal thanks in part to the economic stimulus package from good ol’ Uncle Sam. I guess you could say that we were doing our part to stimulate the economy. It was also a blessing to have friends who own a membership with Resort Condominiums International (RCI) that were able to help us get a really great deal at an Orlando resort right next door to Walt Disney World.

In retrospect there are a couple of things I should point out. First of all if you’re planning a trip with teenager’s it’s probably not a good idea to go immediately after a week of youth camp, at least not if they’re like my guys who have a fond affection for sleeping in their own beds. The other thing is that the middle of the summer is not the optimal time to take a Disney vacation, since this is overwhelmingly one of the most crowded times of the year. But life is very rarely optimal. Some things you just have to deal with. That said, if you’re ever planning a trip to Disney I strongly recommend Bob Sehlinger’s “The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World”. It is by far the best travel guide for negotiating your way through the congested Orlando theme parks without losing your ever loving mind. Don’t leave home without it!

Here is my top ten list of favorite attractions on our Florida vacation:

#10 Big Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom – a western-themed roller coaster

#9 Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom – a space ship roller coaster in the dark

#8 Dueling Dragons: Fire at Universal’s Islands of Adventure – a high tech duel suspension coaster; Fire has a slight zero G hump in the middle

#7 Dueling Dragons: Ice at Universal’s Islands of Adventure – the mirror to Fire; Ice seems a little faster

#6 Tower of Terror at Disney Hollywood Studios – a “Twilight Zone” themed indoor thrill ride

#5 Incredible Hulk at Universal’s Islands of Adventure – an accelerated launch coaster

#4 The Amazing adventures of Spider-Man at Universal’s Islands of Adventure – an indoor adventure simulator ride

#3 Cirque du Soleil’s “La Nouba” at Downtown Disney – an imaginative theatrical, acrobatic circus

#2 Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach – only the coolest beach T-shirts on the planet (I got three)!

And my number 1 favorite attraction on our Florida vacation…

The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney Hollywood Studios – a Rock and Roll themed coaster featuring Aerosmith

I have very fond memories of summer camp when I was in high school. Team competitions, swimming, new friends, afternoon activities, awesome counselors, daily sessions, fun games, and life-changing decisions for Christ. I also love how when you’re at youth camp you’re able to just get away from it all. No TV, no internet, no iPod, no Xbox, no modern technology, none of the distractions of contemporary culture. For one week you have teenagers’ undivided attention.

For the past three years our youth group has been teaming up with another local area church to host a week of camp. I lead the worship. We’ve been using a church owned camp facility located out in the middle of nowhere a couple of hours from where we live. It’s nothing special really. The dining hall and chapel are both open air. None of the dorms are air-conditioned. There’s no swimming pool, just a small lake with a dock. But man is it peaceful. I can’t begin to describe what comes over me whenever I drive onto that campus.

The theme for the week was “Reality Reload” using reality TV as the backdrop for helping kids realize that God is real and alive! The intent was to give them a better understanding of what living in “the real world” is really about. We learned about real life issues such as overcoming fear, running the race, understanding family, true love, and what it means to be molded into Christ’s image. What an awesome opportunity for God to impact the lives of young skulls full of mush. Overall I think we did a good job of accomplishing what we set out to do. Heaven only knows the eternal impact it will have. Our prayer is that the kids will take back something of what went on during the week that will forever change their relationship with the Lord.

I’m leaving this afternoon to take a group of teenagers to youth camp. I won’t have internet access for a week. I’ll try and post something when I get back.

This is funny stuff!

Single Verse Conferences Spreading Like Wildfire
from Tominthebox News Network

United Church of Christ (UCC) - The Romans 1:27 Misinterpretation - “Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

Contemporary church leaders crack me up. “Authenticity!” that’s the ticket. If we want to be true followers of Christ we’ve got to jettison the trappings of traditionalism. We must abandon the time honored traditions of the church in exchange for a whole new set of traditions. We must purge our conversations of such old fashioned terminology as “evangelism, service, and fellowship” and replace it with all new authentic terminology like “missional, intentional, and community”. God wants us to be “real” you know.

Unfortunately the authenticity of our Christianity is all too often measured by our degree of unconventionalism. But here’s the thing. At what point does all this nonconformity become conformity? Isn’t it conceivable that hip and trendy is just another form of religious ritual? And in the end does it really bring us any closer to God?

In John chapter 4 the woman at the well got into a discussion with Jesus over worship styles. “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,” she said, “and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. The hour is coming, and is now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”

Notice the emphasis. Jesus didn’t say “the true worshipers will worship the Father in style and form”. He said “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” True worship is not dependent on trends, fads or culture.

I’m not saying there isn’t any room for cultural relevance. Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). It’s okay to reach across cultural barriers in order to share the gospel. But let’s not kid ourselves. Real, authentic Christianity is not determined by cultural relevance, but rather it is a reflection of the heart.

Dan Phillips raises an interesting issue in his Pyromaniacs post. Dan writes:

…every human endeavor has ways to measure success right now (or shortly), and has an identifiable and quantifiable goal.

Suppose a pastor preaches his Biblical convictions and people (attenders or even colleagues) turn on him. Has he failed? Or succeeded? How can he know?

Dan makes a great point, one in which, as he says, there are no simple answers. I think too this issue is compounded by the fact that we pastors tend to measure our success against that of the mega church “gurus” that have, as Michael Spencer puts it, “missional street cred”. In so doing we tend to get overly enamored with numbers. But here’s the thing. If numbers are the measure of our success then all we’ve really done is reduce church ministry to marketing strategies. If good marketing is all that is needed to be successful in pastoral ministry than who needs the Holy Spirit? Yes, “every human endeavor has ways to measure success”, but that’s the real issue isn’t it? Successful pastoral ministry isn’t a human endeavor at all is it?

It’s interesting who they let speak at pastor’s conferences these days. Regardless of your denomination, I dare say you won’t find very many pastors of small unheralded congregations being invited as the keynote speaker at their national convention. Only the brightest and the best are afforded that honor, men with real credibility when it comes to being “missional” (We don’t need no manifesto!). So the question is, what qualifies someone as a bona fide expert in evangelism. Michael Spencer has a few suggestions:

There are three kinds of credibility that evangelicals should examine very closely these days. Those are the credibility that comes from your web presence, your conference presence and your ability to get published. These three things do not mean you know what you are doing on the ground, that you have any cred when it comes to building missional community or that anyone should listen to you. They don’t mean you are telling the truth or should even be speaking. They mean you have a platform. That’s it. Beyond that, someone should look deeper.

Having a church is another claim that should be taken with a grain of salt. Some gurus have churches so big, multiplying in so many ways that they could claim to be making converts by the kind of toilet paper they are using in their facilities and it would have cred. Hundreds and thousands of Christians coming to your church so they get to say they go to the “cool” church should give you no cred at all as being missional.

It’s unfortunate how much emphasis we place on human endeavor when it comes to the credibility of a man’s pastoral ministry. Those who demonstrate an identifiable and quantifiable measure of success are deemed credible to tell others how they can be missional. But as Spencer explains:

I really don’t see any value in telling someone else how to be missional with anything other than a lot of humility. It would be arrogant for me to say that the converts are anything other than the work of the Holy Spirit, since nothing we do has any spiritual power apart from God himself.

The apostle Paul wrote. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Galatians 6:14). Last time I checked the work of the Lord is still being done by the Lord. We don’t save souls. We are merely the instruments God chooses to use. That’s it. We’re just along for the ride. The only credibility that anyone might have is in giving testimony to the great things that God has done. How ‘bout a conference speaker that can do that?

Send up a prayer today for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. Yesterday evening a tragic accident took the life of their youngest daughter, 5-year-old Maria, as she was playing in the drive along with some other children. Maria’s teenage brother was driving the family SUV down the long, gravel driveway of their rural home west of Franklin, Tennessee and apparently did not see the girl playing in the area when he struck her with the car. Maria was transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Maria, the youngest of six children, was one of three Chinese girls brought into the family through adoption. Longtime supporters of international adoption, Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, had founded Shaohannah’s Hope, an organization to help families who want to adopt. During his most recent concert tour Chapman was promoting a campaign called “Change for Orphans” in which audience members were encouraged to bring their spare change to the concert to assist a local family with adoption.

John Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association had this to say:

“I don’t know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension. He talks about his kids all the time. That’s his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that’s for sure.”

May the God of all comfort grant the Chapman family His grace and peace in the wake of this tragic loss.

If you’d like to meet Maria and express your condolences:

In Memory of Maria
A special blog set up for you. We invite you to share your condolences here. The Chapman family is so grateful for the incredible outpouring of love and support at this difficult time.

Last Wednesday during a press conference at the National Press Club “An Evangelical Manifesto” was made public for the first time. This was a result of a three-year project by a group of theological scholars and Christian leaders attempting to define the term “Evangelical” in a day when it is most often used to describe a sociopolitical demographic. There goal? “…to draft a document that reclaims the term and the calling for both the culture and community of faith.”

This is a rather interesting concept. Apparently the framers believe that the word itself isn’t bad per se just misunderstood. They readily admit that many “now wonder whether the term any longer serves a useful purpose.” This attempt at reclamation assumes that they at least believe it still does. It’s certainly a lovely sentiment. The question is does it really do what it claims to do? Not everyone thinks so.

Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for James Dobson of Focus on the Family had this to say:

One of the things that disappointed Dr. Dobson was that when the manifesto was initially circulated, no African-American pastors or theologians were on the invite list. His thinking was, “How can this purport to represent the voice of evangelicals when people so vital to who we are as a movement are excluded from involvement?”

Dean Nelson, conservative black pastor and head of the Network of Politically Active Christians also agrees.

African-American Christians have been involved politically for years, and for them to have this type of document without having participation from the minority community really calls into question if [the writers of the Manifesto] are really serious about being progressive, as they say that they are.

Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has misgivings of his own. He believes “this document says far too much on the one hand, and far too little on the other.” Dr. Mohler writes:

The document says a great deal about this confusion, and much of it is helpful and prophetic. I am in total agreement with the argument that Evangelicals “should be defined theologically, and not politically, socially, or culturally.” But when the Manifesto presents a theological definition of Evangelicals, it turns out to be a rather minimal definition.

The Manifesto is brave in calling for an end to “culture warring” that threatens to unravel the society and shut down civil conversation and deliberation. But its bravery does not extend to any specific proposals about how this can be done.

Wheaton English professor, Alan Jacobs, doesn’t consider it to be much of a Manifesto either.

If only it had given us some sense of whom it is speaking to. Once all the self-description is out of the way, it turns out that the heart of the document is a kind of urgent appeal: Please don’t call us fundamentalists or confuse us with them. This strikes me as a regrettable tack, for two reasons. First, it is defensive, and manifestos should never be defensive. Second, it suggests a concern for labels and public perception that is not attractive in Christians.

Joe Carter of the evangelical outpost considers the Manifesto “a worthy effort”, but even he acknowledges the flawed logic behind its writing.

No doubt much of evangelicalism is not evangelical (or even Christian) but that has little to do with the perception people have about the term “evangelical” being used as a synonym with right-wing politics. That blame can indeed be placed squarely on the shoulders of the media. The media considers the term “evangelical” to be political rather than theological because of their own willful ignorance.

And it’s not very likely that will change any time soon despite this particular effort. For all the theological wisdom of its distinguished authors and more than 70 signers and for all their good intentions, this document really doesn’t do what it was intended to do and that is reclaim the term “Evangelical”. One wonders whether or not that is even possible. In the end the Evangelical Manifesto is turning out to be a colossal waste of time.