Wednesday Worship Music

Mike Leake

On Wednesday’s I will feature a few of Amazon’s $5 albums from the Christian genre.  They aren’t necessarily “praise and worship” music but they represent Christ nonetheless.

Lecrae’s newest CD: Rehab is a steal at only 5 bucks:

Jeremy Camp is always solid.  His latest offering We Cry Out: The Worship Project is certainly worth 5 dollars.

If you haven’t picked up Tedashii’s CD: Identity Crisis you need to.

I’ve never liked Casting Crowns as much as most people.  Nothing against them, just a little to “popular” for my taste.  But I still may pick this one up since it’s only 5 dollars:  Until The Whole World Hears

As much as I love LeCrae and Tedashii this John Mark McMillen CD: The Medicine may be my favorite. 

Pastor Porn

Mike Leake

This is from a 2009 interview that Garrett Wishall conducted with Tim Keller.  The question is narrowed to “20-something pastors” because it appeared in Towers, which is Southern Seminary’s newspaper.  But what Keller says here applies to pastors and church leaders of any age.

Q: What safeguards should 20-something pastors have in place to avoid the idolatry of ministry fame and the attitude of big numbers equals success?

Tim Keller: If you know it is a danger, that is a very important start. Additionally, when you find yourself unusually discouraged because things aren’t growing or people aren’t listening to you — you have to catch yourself. You have to realize ‘This is an inordinate amount of discouragement, which reveals the idolatry of justification by ministry.’ Meaning, you say you believe in justification by grace, but you feel like and are acting like you believe in justification by ministry. You have to recognize you are making something of an idol out of ministry. When you do experience inordinate discouragement because things aren’t going well, you need to say, ‘It’s okay to be discouraged but not to be this discouraged. This is discouragement that leads to idolatry,’ and you repent.

Additionally, idols create a fantasy world. You may think that you are just thinking about ministry strategy, but it could be you’re fantasizing about success. So be careful about doing too much daydreaming about success, what you would like to see happen. Because it’s really a kind of pornography. You’re actually thinking about a beautiful church and people acclaiming you: be careful about fantasizing too much about ministry success and dreaming about it and thinking about what it’s going to look like.

—–

Did you catch that Keller said dreaming of ministerial success is a type of pornography?  Perhaps there is some connection here with the fact that a horribly ridiculous amount of pastors also have pornography addictions.  But I think all of us may struggle with this type…dreaming of success and committing ministry idolatry. 

Evidence.  I came across this post because I’m discouraged today.  I’m discouraged because I feel as if I am working my tail off to write better, to write more, and expand my writing ministry.  It’s not happening. 

Ill be honest and say that I’m a little discouraged with other ministry stuff today too.  I feel almost unnecessary.  I’m just being honest.  And as I began to feel the weight of discouragement I remembered something I read at a prior date (I think from CJ Mahaney) about the relationship between discouragement and idolatry.  So, I did a Google search and came across this article. 

Yep.  I have idol problems and I need Jesus.  May my passion be to further His kingdom instead of my own.  Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to destroy my idolatrous heart that only rips me off with mock success.

The GCR. A Car Without Fuel?

Mike Leake

The 2010 messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention voted on moving towards a Great Commission Resurgence.  I happily voted for the GCR because I am passionate about seeing the gospel spread to the nations.  (Although, I am certain that my passion should/could increase all the more). 

As excited as I am to see a Great Commission Resurgence I wonder if maybe we should call it something else—or perhaps change it’s emphasis.  Biblically, I see something else motivating Paul’s mission—and honestly something that undergirds Jesus’ Great Commission. 

I am beginning to study Romans (and am anxiously awaiting my first day of class with Dr. Schreiner to go through this letter).  Today, I began by studying the first 7 verses.  Notice verse 5:

[5] through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, (Romans 1:5 ESV)

Paul is saying that he has gracious received his apostleship (in other words his salvation and calling to ministry were by grace).  The purpose of this gift—or the purpose of Paul’s ministry—is to bring about the obedience of faith.  This is either saying the obedience that springs from faith or the obedience that is faith.  Either way, notice the purpose; “for the sake of his name among all the nations”.  What is the motivation for missions?  That Jesus may be praised. 

To this end Dr. Schreiner quotes John Stott:

“the highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God, verse 18), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ.”

So perhaps what we need prior to a Great Commission Resurgence is a Great Commandment Resurgence.  If worship (passionate love for God) is the fuel of missions, a Great Commission Resurgence without a prior Great Commandment  Resurgence will be like a souped-up car that doesn’t have any fuel.  It looks nice, it has potential, and might win the acclaim of on-lookers but it won’t get you to the grocery store. 

As I look at many of the great missionaries of the past, and even those today (like David Platt) what inspires them is a deep love for Christ and an abiding belief that Jesus deserves the praise of the nations.  The missionary heart lives these sentiments of John Piper:

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!” who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Ps 104:34, 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship. 

(Piper, Let the Nations be Glad)

So while we are encouraging our churches to be actively involved in mission we had better be equally intentional about providing them fuel. 

Quick Review of Histories and Fallacies by Carl Trueman

Mike Leake

Carl Trueman is a professor of historical theology and church history at Westminster Theological Seminary.  He blogs at Reformation21 and is always an interesting read.  Because of my prior knowledge of Trueman and my passion for history I was excited to read his book on Histories and Fallacies. 

In December I was given the opportunity to either review this book or Jim Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment.  I chose Hamilton’s book but a week later decided to purchase Trueman’s book.  I am glad that I did. 

This book is actually pretty difficult to review.  It’s difficult because you can actually learn a good deal of diverse things such as Holocaust denial, Marxism, and the “racism” of Martin Luther.  Trueman takes various areas of historical research and discusses them while teaching the reader how to do history. 

In the first chapter he discusses Holocaust denial and various ways that historians deny history.  In the second chapter Trueman explores the grand scheme of Marxism and shows how Grand Schemes can lead to fallacious thinking and bad history.  In the third chapter the reader is exposed to the pitfalls of anachronism.  Various historical questions are explored such as “was Calvin and Calvinist?”  and “was Martin Luther a Jew-hating racist”.  Trueman shows how such questions are off-the-mark historically.  The final chapter is a conglomeration of some of the most typical fallacies in historical research.

Obviously this book is not for everyone.  That is partially why I am only giving it a quick review.  Even though the writing is often hilarious and witty, if you don’t give much of a care about “doing history” then you will be bored out of your gourd.  But for those of us that are history nerds, and especially those of us that are charged with writing history/biographies, then this book is phenomenal. 

So, if you like history buy this book (only 12.84).  If you don’t like history keep the name Carl Trueman in mind and perhaps pick up some of us other offerings. 

Rating 4 out of 5 stars

If you want a sampling of this book check out Trueman on the Fallacy of America as a Christian Nation.