Mark Moore's Blog

Day 1

Today is day number one of our 90 day Bible reading challenge. I cannot promise that I will post something every day over the next 90 days, but I will try and be semi-consistent.

We had a great response in our church from people who wanted to take the 90 day challenge. We will meet for the first time next Tuesday evening to discuss the reading for the first week. Basically in the first week we will read Genesis and Exodus. For those of you who are not a part of our church, who are interested in doing the reading, here is a link to the Bible reading schedule that we are using. Feel free to post comments on the blog as to your progress. I hope that some of you who are pastors might even be challenged to create similar challenges in your own communities. I can't promise how it will end, but I can tell you that it has begun with a lot of excitement from our people.

Today's reading was Genesis 1-16. In a matter of 30 minutes I had been from creation to fall to flood to call of Abram to covenant with Abram to birth of Ishmael. Just like that we're underway.

Happy reading.

Technorati Tags: bible

90 Day Challenge

Late last year, I decided that I was going to do something about my physical health. Having grown up playing sports and spending four years in the Marine Corps, I was always in very good shape. After the Marine Corps I started school and full-time ministry (two phrases that are not synonymous with being in good shape). It didn’t take long for me to enjoy the leisurely life of coffee, books, deserts, eating with people, eating with people again, eating with people some more -- mainly late in the evening. Before I knew it I was no longer in good shape. The funny thing is that I didn’t believe it. When you’ve always been in good shape, you don’t want to believe that you are no longer in good shape. The prospect of a diet made me hungry. The thought of exercise made me tired. This is how the rut begins. It is a terrible cycle. The cycle of “maybe tomorrow.” I had a standard line, “I think I’m going to start running on Monday.” Monday always seemed like a good day to me. Unless it was Monday. The good thing about Monday was that it came and went fast. When I missed the window of opportunity I was left with my excuses and my ability to repeat my favorite phrase, “Next Monday. Nothing is going to stop me this time.” After a while, you find yourself shifting from days to seasons. “When summer is over, I’ve got to get in shape.” Then comes whatever comes next in your life and suddenly it’s, “After the first of the year...” The point is that it never happens. I have a four year old son who always asks, “What are we doing tomorrow?” Then, when he wakes up the next day, he asks, “Is it tomorrow yet?” Isn’t it funny how tomorrow never comes?!

Tomorrow, which happened to be a Monday, came on February 4th of this year. I woke up early ready to tackle P90X, an extreme 90 day fitness program. The week before I took the physical fitness test that you are supposed to take before you begin the program. The test exists because the program is, as the X in the title indicates, extreme. Passing the test ensures that you do not die during the program. I nearly died during the fitness test, literally throwing up when I was done. I felt this was a good sign that I should begin the program (although the guidelines for the program said otherwise).

It’s now nearing the end of June and I am not in good shape -- I’m in great shape. Other than while I was in boot camp, this may be the best shape I’ve ever been in. Now, let me get to the point. I went from bad shape, very bad shape, to best shape in next to no time at all. It truly is amazing to consider the human body’s ability to respond to proper diet and exercise. That phrase, “proper diet and exercise,” is such a familiar and often repeated phrase that it almost loses its meaning on us. Can something that sounds so simple and so basic really make that big of a difference? Yes, absolutely, because it is the way God has designed us.

I’m convinced that our spiritual lives are no different.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

To the same degree that we hear diet and exercise are the key to physical fitness, we also hear that prayer and Bible reading are the key to spiritual fitness. It’s pretty simple -- talk to God and listen to God. Could it really be that it’s that easy? I believe so. I also believe that just as a 90 day diet and exercise program can make drastic changes in your physical life that the same can be said for a 90 day “spiritual” diet and exercise program.

P90X stands for Power 90 Extreme. In other words, 90 days of extreme training. I’m proposing B90X -- yes, I freely admit how cheesy that is (I’m not really calling it that either). This is 90 days of extreme commitment to the Bible. My desire to change my physical condition meant about one hour a day of exercise. The desire to change your spiritual condition is going to require about one hour a day as well.

Here’s how it works (this applies to those in my church, however you could formulate a similar plan in your own community that you are a part of)...

Beginning July 1st, those who commit to the program will begin reading the Bible. We will provide you with a chart that tells you exactly what to read on what day. Each week, those who are committed to the program will meet one evening for coffee to discuss their reading for the week (imagine that, Christians sitting around talking about God’s Word--seems so simple, could it really make that big of a difference?). This will last for 90 days, or 13 weeks. This means that over the course of 13 weeks you will meet 13 times with other believers to discuss the Bible reading that you are all doing together. The reading should take you about 45-60 minutes a day depending on how fast you read. By the end of September you will have read the entire Bible cover to cover. Imagine that!

How many of you set out each year with a goal to read the Bible during the year and quit by the third week of January (or in the middle of Leviticus)? You’re like I was, “Next Monday...after the summer...next year...” Tomorrow never comes. Years go by and you haven’t read the Bible, you’re not growing as a Christian, your prayer life is terrible, and you stay in that rut.

Here’s your challenge. Commit with me. Commit to 90 days of reading the whole Bible. Carve out an hour of your day. You’ll even be done with the whole program by the time your favorite shows are returning to TV this fall. It won’t be easy, but it will be good. There won’t be any before and after photos, but I can promise you that you will shave inches of spiritually complacent fat off your waist and gain spiritual strength in the context of a gospel believing community striving for the same goal.

Up for the challenge?

If you are in our church, you will get all the details you need through your missional community. If you are not in our church, but would like to commit to the challenge, feel free to begin with us on July 1 and leave comments on the blog letting others know what you’re doing, how your doing, etc. One thing I do recommend is finding someone else to do it with you. It will provide you accountability and help you to grow a lot more by discussing what you’re reading with other Christians.

Technorati Tags: bible

Relaxation of Vacation

I just returned from a great vacation with my family. It was a very relaxing trip, although we were on the go quite a bit. I think what made it so relaxing was that I was "unplugged". I was not online -- no internet, no email, no cell phone or text messaging with the outside world -- just me and my family. It is amazing how the world continues on without you. The same terrible stories are on the news when you get home; the same problems exist; the same work awaits you as always; the same King still reigns. I think often times we don't "unplug" out of fear that something will happen without our knowing (thinking in the back of the mind that it is necessary for us to know what happens as if we have an impact on the world greater than the reality of our finiteness).

On my trip I read a couple of good books. Having just read The Kite Runner, I was eager to read Khaled Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. It proved in its own way to be just as good as his previous book, this time telling the amazing story of the lives of two women in Afghanistan over several decades. Like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns left me with much to think about regarding the condition of the world and the suffering of people in places that most of us give no thought to whatsoever. I highly recommend it!

The other book I read was an interesting story, a true story, about a group of men crossing the Pacific Ocean on a balsa raft. Thor Heyerdahl tells the amazing story of his journey on the open seas in his book Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft. This book was given to me by a good friend who said, "This will serve as good beach reading." That it was. I read the book on a couple of trips to the beach and needless to say I was glad that the Pacific Ocean merely served as the backdrop to my kids building sandcastles rather than my being on it in a tiny raft for months on end. If you are interested in men with wild theories who set out to prove the impossible by doing the stupid, you will enjoy Heyerdahl's account.

There's no mistaking now that I'm back home as it is nearly one hundred degrees outside and I'm once again plugged in to a world of problems and a number of people and things demanding my attention. One thing that doesn't change, whether at home or on vacation, is the same King still reigns.

Technorati Tags: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, Kon-Tiki, The Kite Runner, Thor Heyerdahl

The Kite Runner

This year I have read more fiction than normal (when I completed my first fiction book this year it was one more than I read last year). At the beginning of this year I decided that I was going to begin reading a lot of fiction. That it was going to become part of my normal diet of reading. I read an enormous amount, but my diet of reading is more comparable to a fad diet where you completely cut out major food groups (i.e. the Atkins diet--no carbs, my reading diet--no fiction). Several things made me start to think about the deficiencies in my reading diet. First, I realized that my interaction with authors is typically very black and white, logical, and to most people boring. The books I read contain mainly propositions, but not stories. I "understand" concepts, but sometimes don't "feel" them. I'll get to this later. Second, I realized that stories are an important part of our world. Stories shape our world and have the power to make it beautiful or ugly. Poor stories have been the real power behind the awful and powerful armies throughout history. Good stories have led to hope, redemption, and freedom. My fiction-deficient diet leads me to sometimes be a story-deficient preacher. Finally, as I was buying some books on Amazon one day I realized that the books I typically buy and read are listed way, way, way, down the line in Amazon sales rankings (typically ranging from #9,000 to 60,000+). In other words, I'm typically reading and thinking about stuff that no one else is reading and thinking about, with the exception of other theologically-driven pastors and church planters like myself. These reasons, and a few more, led me to decide I would add fiction into my reading diet.

In step with my personality, not one to wade into the water, I jumped head first into a thousand page novel called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It was an excellent read and just what I needed to capture my attention and help me plunge into my new commitment to reading good stories. Since that time, I've read several other books that were good in their own sense, but none of them were like Khaled Hosseini's bestselling book The Kite Runner. It stands alone.

I read the first couple of chapters a month or two ago. I was very busy at the time and couldn't see myself getting into it and so I put it down until two days ago. Starting over from the beginning I found myself free from distraction and desirous to find out why everyone made such a big deal about this book. Once I started I could not stop reading. Once I finished I could not stop crying.

My tears were tears for humanity. My tears were tears for a broken world. As I cried, I prayed, "Lord, how long will you be? How long before you will restore your creation and make all things new?" Above I said that the books I read typically help me to "understand" concepts, but often times I don't "feel" them. The Kite Runner left me feeling. I just finished preaching a series in my church in which we looked at many different themes related to new creation. For several weeks I thought about whether or not I really long for new creation, whether I really long for the return of Jesus. You see it is very easy as an American to not spend too much time thinking about new creation. After all, compared to the rest of the world we live in what seems a garden paradise. Sitting in our air conditioned homes with our cold water, hot coffee, reclining chairs, ceiling fans, dead bolts, dvd players, soft beds, clean clothes, refrigerators, microwaves, etc., etc., we have little left to desire. For most of us, daily suffering is not a reality. The thought of a new creation is typically a nice thought for me, but it does not burn deep inside of me as it should. It does not call out tears and prayers before the One who will restore.

I hate, HATE, knowing what happens in a movie or in a book. I will therefore not spoil it for you. But to give you a little background, Amazon says:

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

This book not only made me think about, but also feel, forgiveness, shame, grace, deceit, truth, guilt, redemption, love, hope, peace, violence, abuse, desire, joy, kindness, unconditional, courage, cowardice, loyalty, sadness, honesty, frailty, power, powerlessness; I guess to summarize, it made me feel human. Not American, not even Christian, just human. In my own life, I have never even remotely experienced anything like the characters of this book, however I share the experience of humanity. I am a long way removed from the lives of those who live in Afghanistan. Even further removed from the fictitious characters of this book. I am not, however, far removed from humanity. I, like those living in Kabul, am one who has been created in the image of God. I share with them, and the rest of humanity, the capacity to love, hope, and forgive. Furthermore, as a Christian I am commanded to love, hope, and forgive. I often times fail miserably at these commands. But I am comforted in the fact that there is one who succeeded where I fail. Jesus' life and death is the story that makes sense of the other stories.

If it were not for the story of Jesus, I would have finished reading The Kite Runner and then sat in my living room weeping over the despair of the world and the sad condition of man. I would have looked at my children and felt so helpless, so hopeless. I would have grieved that I had been born into this world in which there is so much pain and suffering. I'm sure that many people finished reading this book and did just that. Because of Jesus, I wept differently. I wept in prayer. I wept as I prayed for the despair of the world and the sad condition of man. I wept as I prayed for my children...with such hope. I am not grieved that I was born into this world of pain and suffering. I grieve over the pain and suffering, but I know there is one who was more grieved than me. One whose grief led him to sweat drops of blood. One whose grief led him to take the pain and suffering of the world upon himself. One who's once occupied, but now empty tomb declares that pain and suffering do not get the last word. Death is swallowed up in life. Evil is overcome by good. Because of him, because of Jesus, I prayed as I wept.

There is hope for a broken world. Not in tanks and bombs, but in love and forgiveness. There is hope in a story. A story that is called good news.

As I finished reading one magnificent story I wept. As I considered another breathtaking story I prayed. I recommend them both.

Technorati Tags: Khaled Hosseini, new creation, The Kite Runner

Biblical Theology - A Good Place to Start

I have had several discussions this week, with various people, about the nature of biblical theology. In light of those discussions, I thought I'd let you know that I recommend Graeme Goldsworthy's book "According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible" as a great introduction to biblical theology. If you are unsure about the differences between biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, etc., then I definitely recommend this book. For those of you who are interested, here is a quote from Goldsworthy to perhaps whet your appetite.

Theology is not just knowing about God, but knowing him. To know him we need to be restored to friendship with him. In other words, we do biblical theology as Christians, not as neutral observers. Through the preaching of the gospel we have been brought to faith in jesus Christ. Christ conquers our rebellious hearts and minds so that we worship him as Lord. Our only knowledge of Christ comes through Scriptures, and they give a united testimony to him. Christ is proclaimed as the one who reveals God to us; he is the Word of God. The Bible is the book about Christ that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. God has ensured that the Bible gives an infallible testimony to Christ. Biblical theology thus centers on Jesus Christ as the revealer and savior. To understand the Bible, we begin at the point where we first came to know God. We begin with Jesus Christ and we see every part of the Bible in relationship to him and his saving work. This is as true of the Old Testament as it is of the New.

Technorati Tags: biblical theology, graeme goldsworthy, theology

Early Church Growth

This Sunday, I begin a new series in my church preaching through the book of Acts. I am very excited about this series and cannot wait to get started. One of the main reasons for this is that I really feel my church is in a transitional stage as we move from being a church plant to a church planting church. We planted our first church (sent people out of ours) two weeks ago and I am prayerful that we will plant at least two more in the next year. Our prayer is that God would use us to plant at least 100 churches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, as well as be involved in many other church plants internationally. For this reason alone, Acts is a good place for our church to camp out for a while.

With that said, much of my thinking lately has been related to the earliest Christian communities and the expansion of the church up until the time of Christendom. I recently posted on this in "How did the early church grow?" I will admit, I am a self-confessed junkie when it comes to reading books and commentaries related to what I am currently thinking about, experiencing, and preaching (see a partial list here). This afternoon I spent some time reading some books that I had not previously read on Acts. One of the books, Acts by James Montgomery Boice, struck a chord in the preface.

"When I first began to study and preach on Acts nearly ten years ago I was struck by a number of things. One was the rapid, amazing growth of the early church. Humanly speaking, it had nothing going for it. It had no money, no proven leaders, no technological tools for propagating the gospel. And it faced enormous obstacles. It was utterly new. It taught truths that were incredible to the unregenerate world. It was the subject of the most intense hatreds and persecutions. Yet, as Luke records its growth in this document (Acts), it spread from Jerusalem, which was an obscure corner of the world, to Rome, the world's capital, all within the lifetime of the first generation of believers."

Later in the book, Boice writes:

"Historians have asked how this first generation of Christians, who for the most part were unlearned men and women, could have propagated the gospel so rapidly. Adolf Harnack, a German church historian of the nineteenth century, knew how. He said, 'We cannot hesitate to believe that the great mission of Christianity was in reality accomplished by means of informal missionaries.' That was the secret. Every Christian--not just a formal order of missionaries supplied by the Christians at home--considered it his or her obligation bear witness."

The more you study the early church and the way it grew, the more it is impossible to excuse the way so few of today's church members participate in the mission of the gospel. The church was never intended to be an institution that provides religious goods and services to Christians. The church was, and is still, the people through who Jesus continues to bring about redemption to the world. It is perfectly clear from studying the New Testament and studying the current state of the church that we have over professionalized the church at the expense of stifling growth. Ouch! That is hard to read for me, a professional minister of the gospel. But, it is true. We may not have stifled the growth of our churches, but we have in many ways stifled the growth of our people. The bigger the church the more professional things must be, and that means less and less involvement for the unlearned and unprofessional. Honestly, it leaves you wondering whether or not many of the leaders of the early church would even have a place of leadership in many of our modern churches.

Oh well, at this point I'm beginning to preach and it is still Friday evening. My wife just walked into my study and told me dinner is ready. The food she has cooked smells great and I cannot wait to eat, so I'm out of here.

Technorati Tags: early church, missional church, acts

Reading, Watching, and Thinking

I thought I would take a brief moment and ramble about some random things going on in my life. I guess what made me decide to do this was an announcement slide in church this past Sunday. As I was checking out the slides on the screen, one flashed up pointing everyone to my blog and said something to the effect of, "Check out Mark's blog to see what he is reading, watching, and thinking about." So, here is my attempt to make the slide look true and me to look like a real blogger.

Reading
This coming Sunday I am starting a new series in the book of Acts, so my reading is somewhat heavily weighted in that area. Below are some books that I have either recently read or am currently reading. The list is not in any particular order, just as I look around my desk and see them lying there. It is also not exhaustive, though I'm sure to many it appears exhausting.

"The Acts of the Apostles : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary" (Ben Witherington III)


"The Message of Acts: The Spirit, the Church, and the World (Bible Speaks Today)" (John R. W. Stott)

"The Book of the Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament)" (Frederick Fyvie Bruce)


"The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption" (Dennis E. Johnson)


"Authentic Christianity (Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Studies in the Book of Acts, V. 1.)" (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)


"Acts of the Apostles an Introduction and Commenta (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)" (I.Howard Marshall)


"Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, Revised Edition" (Robert J. Banks)


"Going to Church in the First Century" (Robert Banks)


"Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity" (Martin Hengel)


"The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force ...." (Rodney Stark)

Watching
Often times on Mondays, a day off for me, I will watch a movie while my kids are at school and my wife is at the gym. Yes, it really is as terrible as it sounds; I sit in my robe and drink a pot of coffee watching a movie while my wife works out. Yesterday I watched The Last King of Scotland, which was excellent. In previous weeks I have watched Blood Diamond, The Office (Seasons 1 & 2), and Broken Trail. At the theater, I recently saw Shooter, 300, and Disturbia.

As for television, I am a self-confessed 24 fanatic. This has caused me great distress because with each week I grow more and more disappointed with this season and hope that I am not witnessing the demise of one of my favorite shows. This could also be due to the fact that some new shows have stepped in and captured my attention this year. My favorite is Friday Night Lights. This show is centered around a small town Texas high school football team, but is not really about football. It is about life. Week in and week out, this show tackles some of the most pressing issues in our culture and does so with clarity and boldness (such issues have included: racism, adultery and divorce, teenage sexuality, rape, steroid use, domestic violence, etc.). The show received critical acclaim, but it lagged far behind in the ratings. I can only hope that it comes back for another season as it far surpasses the joke that is American Idol. Friday Night Lights is over for the season; if you did not catch it, I highly recommend you grab it on iTunes or on DVD when it is released.

Thinking
What have I been thinking about? Wow! Where to begin? I've been thinking about all of the books above and then some. I've been thinking about how happy I am to go to a movie with my wife each week so that I can quit thinking about what I am reading. I've been thinking about church planting--a lot! I've been consumed with thinking about how to plant at least 100 churches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, as well as helping guys plant churches in Europe.

I've also been thinking about shaving. I know it sounds random, but I never knew that there was such a major interest in "wet shaving." Don't believe me? Just type in wet shaving on google and watch what pops up. You will be amazed! Well, ok, maybe not amazed at wet shaving itself, but at least amazed that there is so much interest in it. I'm sure you want to know why I was searching wet shaving on google. Well the truth is I was searching ingrown hairs on google. One thing led to another and before you know it I was sucked into a subcultural maze of men devoted to the lost art of wet shaving. Within a couple of articles you discover all about DE safety razors, the importance of pre-shave prep, glycerin based creams, and above all...the badger hair brush. There is even an entire collection of YouTube videos on wet shaving. Maybe I'll shave more frequently now.

Well, I'm sure that is far more information than you ever really wanted to know about me and what I have been reading, watching, and thinking about. Needless to say, I felt like a real blogger when I typed all of that. Blessings.

Technorati Tags: books, friday night lights, wet shaving

Steve Timmis & Total Church

While I was in the UK last week, I had breakfast with Steve Timmis of The Crowded House. From their website, "The Crowded House is a network of missionary congregations in Sheffield with a commitment to church planting. Most of our churches meet in homes. We want to offer a place of belonging. We are committed to: mission through community - we believe that the life of the Christian family is a powerful apologetic for the gospel; community in mission - we want to be congregations focused on the gospel and church planting."

I really enjoyed my time with Steve and the conversation we shared was very stimulating and thought provoking. I will be with him again next week in Seattle and am looking forward to continuing our conversation. Steve has written a new book, with Tim Chester, entitled Total Church. The book is published by IVP and is due out in the Spring of 2007. Below is an introduction to the book as it appears on Tim Chester's blog. From this introduction it's not hard to tell why I said that my time spent with Steve was stimulating and thought provoking. Here you go:

Two key principles should shape church life: gospel and community. 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. 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. (more)

Technorati Tags: books, church planting, emerging church, gospel, missional church, tim chester, steve timmis

What will I read this year?

Most pastors I know have something in common--they all love to read. While getting their people to read may be like pulling teeth, the same could be said about prying pastors away from their studies filled with books. Personally, I love my study. I love just being in it. There is a tranquil state that I find myself in when I am surrounded by bookshelves and dust. At the same time, it can be a bit overwhelming these days deciding what to read. There is by no means a shortage of books that promise you everything you could ever imagine. If you want to grow your church there are ample amounts of books that tell you what to do. If you want to raise good kids...lots of books. Have a better marriage...lots of books. Have your best life now...many more that don't go by that particular title. So how do I, a busy husband, father, pastor, and church planter, decide what to read?

This year the answer is a little bit different than in the past. I have spent some considerable time praying and considering what the Lord wants to do in my life this year. Two years ago, I spent a considerable amount of time studying the kingdom of God. I was convinced from reading the gospels that the central teaching of Jesus was the kingdom of God. It appeared on every page. This led me to invest a year studying the issue. Of course this meant delving into the world of an Anglican bishop named Tom. It seems impossible to do any serious thinking about the New Testament these days without dealing with N.T. Wright. So, I read just about every thing that he wrote. I found in studying the kingdom that most of the writing on this topic existed in circles that I did not typically run (that would be what some would call "liberal"). Reading outside of the larger Reformed community did not bother me; instead I found it a very rich and rewarding experience.

Last year my focus was spent on studying the gospel. This was largely due to the influence of a Presbyterian named Tim. I found in the writing and preaching of Tim Keller an understanding of the gospel that was what I had been trying to put together, but was too dumb on my own to be able to express. I had become convinced from my study of the kingdom that there was more to the gospel then simply "Jesus died for your sins so that you can go to heaven when you die." However, at the same time I was also convinced that there was far more to the gospel then simply a call to live righteously under the reign of Jesus the king. Keller helped me put the pieces together. He, along with John Frame, helped me to understand multiperspectivalism. I was finally able to fit together the doctrinal, personal, and corporate aspects of the gospel in a way that did justice to all.

So, what about this year. This year is going to be very interesting for me for two primary reasons. First, I am going to read less books this year than I have in previous years. Second, I am going to read primarily from one source--the Puritans. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is an issue of personal holiness and devotion to God. It is so easy in the fast moving stream of life to get caught up in doing and not simply being. By this I mean being a pastor over simply being a child of God. Throughout my years of ministry, just about every year without fail I have known someone who has fallen into some sort of sin that has disqualified him from the ministry. The devastating effects of sin in the lives of ministry leaders renders God's church powerless year after year. I find that past success in the realm of holiness is no guarantee of future triumph. I also find that so much of what is written today on this topic seems just as powerless as the church devastated by sin. This is not the case when I read the Puritans.

In the Puritans I find something unordinary. When you dust off the pages of a volume of Owen, Bunyan, or Baxter, you find a call to holiness that drips gospel. I have heard so many people claim that the Puritans were stodgy old legalists. Not so! They were men who had a passion for the glory of God and understood that in his glory man would be satisfied and whole. They realized that this were true only through the person and work of Jesus. Anything less than an attempt to live holy through the sanctifying power of the gospel was a wasted attempt that would yield no results. It is this unordinary call to holiness that I desire. It is this unordinary understanding of the application of the gospel in my life that I long for. If that is the case, then I must go to an unordinary well to quench this thirst.

This year is a year dedicated to the Puritans. I plan to read them slowly and reflectively, as they demand. This means that I am not in a hurry to blow through volumes as when tackling other issues. Books on strategies and theories are a dime a dozen these days. Books on cultivating true gospel-centered holiness are rare these days and therefore demand our time and attention.

Sinclair Ferguson said, "To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking, 'Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?'" As I read from these great works, I hope to be able to share with you some of the insight that I am able to gain from these giants of gospel spirituality.

Technorati Tags: gospel, sanctification, tim keller, puritans

Formative Reading...Again

I am reposting something that I wrote in July 2006. In light of my sermon yesterday on gospel-centered devotions, I thought this post may now make more sense to some.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don”t know why he ran off and left her?  I mean he read the Bible all the time?”

I have heard this one too many times. Or, as a pastor, I have counseled with people who “know a lot” about the Bible while at the same time show very little Christian spirituality. Recently I read a statistic that 70% of pastors said the only time they spend studying the Bible is when they are preparing their sermons. And we wonder why 50% of the guys who “know a lot” about the Bible, pastors, will have their marriages end in divorce.

One of the biggest problems in the Church today is not that we don’t read the Bible, but that we don’t know how to read the Bible in such a way that the Bible reads us. I am referring to the difference in formative reading vs. informative reading.  Informative reading is the way that most people read the Scriptures today. Including, and probably even more so, most pastors. They read the Bible in the way that they read the newspaper or a copy of Time magazine, in order to get information. Please do not misunderstand me. Informative reading is very important and even furthermore, it should lead to formative reading. But for most, informative reading becomes an end in itself. We read the text, fill our heads with information, and then move on to the day’s events, happy that we know more about the Bible.

Formative reading is reading the Scriptures in such a way that rather than informing us, giving us information, the Scriptures are actually forming us, or shaping and changing us. This is a practice that is not taught in most seminaries. This means that it is probably not practiced in most pastors’ lives and therefore not taught in most churches. Pastors attend seminary and they learn how to rightly interpret the text utilizing the historical-critical method so that they can preach in such a way that tells there people “what the text means.” As an expository preacher, I am a firm believer in telling our people “what the text means,” but yet at the same time I don’t want them to go home simply having been informed. I want them to go home having been formed by the preaching of the text by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In order to read formatively, we must set out with a different purpose in mind. We are not reading to see what happened when Jesus was baptized, but why Jesus was baptized and how his baptism changes me. This means that we must read much slower and in a much more meditative fashion. One of the best practices for doing so is lectio divina, an ancient practice used throughout church history in order to read the Scriptures in a much more contemplative and prayerful way. Traditional lectio divina is structured around four stages. Lectio–a reverential reading of the text in order to listen to the voice of God.  Meditatio–meditating on the word in such a way that God’s word begins to impact and change us.  Oratio–prayer that we would be changed by the word that we have meditated on.  Contemplatio–a wordless, resting in the presence of God.

It is impossible in this space to go into detail about lectio divina as a practice of formative reading. However, there have been many great books written on the subject througout the history of the church. I recommend two books by Peter Toon and I recommend that you read them in the following order: Meditating as a Christian and The Art of Meditating on Scripture. Both of these books are excellent introductions and will introduce you to the great works written throughout the history of the church. I pray that througout the halls of church history you will discover another way of reading the text. One that not only informs you, but forms you.