You know you're in a PCA church when four kids show up to your 1st grade Sunday School class and two of them are named Knox and J. Calvin (Yes, the J stands for John).
=====
Another sure sign that you're in a PCA church is when 3 of those same four kids are home-schooled.
=====
I don't have a musical bone in my body, so I was absolutely amazed when Amanda pointed out that Esther was playing the piano with just a chord sheet and no "real" music. Of course, Ann never seems to have any music when she plays the violin, either. Incredible. Simply incredible.
=====
Another benefit of sitting closer to the front than we usually do was that I was able to notice that the Jesus on the wall at the front of the church looks an awful lot like Kirk Douglas.
=====
This probably makes me an evil and wicked person, but I'm learning that the younger kids are, the less I like them.
Did you know that first graders barely know how to read? Yeah, me neither. I'll take a room full of hormone-drenched high schoolers wrestling with the sovereignty of God and the free will of man over a bunch of illiterate first graders any day.
=====
All Creatures of Our God and King is one fine hymn.
And all ye men of tender heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise God, and on Him cast your care,
O praise Him, O praise Him,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
That St. Francis of Assisi sure knew how to write 'em. 1225 A.D. was a banner year for hymns, if you ask me.
Following the Derek Webb interview podcast I mentioned the other day, the folks over at the 9marks blog are concerned that Derek "is stating the gospel differently than Reformed theologians have been stating it for a long time. Is this a 'different gospel'?"
The following is what Derek said in response to the question, "What is the Gospel?"
What a great question. I guess I’d probably…my instinct is to say that it's Jesus coming, living, dying, and being resurrected and his inaugurating the already and the not yet of all things being restored to himself…and that happening by way of himself…the being made right of all things…that process both beginning and being a reality in the lives and hearts of believers and yet a day coming when it will be more fully realized. But the good news, the gospel, the speaking of the good news, I would say is the news of his kingdom coming the inaugurating of his kingdom coming…that’s my instinct.
The gist of the comments on the post, and two follow up articles (1, 2) is that Derek's answer here is critically deficient in that it does not directly address the issues of sin, repentance, penal substitution, and so on. Some have even labeled Derek's remarks as being–gasp–emergent. I've already weighed in a couple of times, but I feel like this is an interesting enough question to explore it a little further over here.
First of all, the gospel that Derek is defining here is categorically different than what most people mean by "the gospel" in most churches today. We have come to understand the gospel as something transactional where God does something for us, we do something for him, and then we "get saved." The whole deal is understood from a "What's in it for me?" perspective. When we talk about sharing the gospel, what we often mean is taking someone down the Romans Road1 or explaining The Four Spiritual Laws to them, and then asking them if they want to accept Jesus into their heart. The whole deal is man-centered from start to finish.
Now, I don't mean to say that we should completely discard this understanding of the gospel. Continue reading this post »
RSS 2.0
