In a few weeks www.ateamblog.com will take you to an entirely different place. We're packing up our bags and moving on to a bigger and better site. The sequel to The A-Team will go live May 18th. Until then, you can follow our progress on Twitter.

Things have been a bit quite here of late. One of the reasons for that is that I've been editing another book. We're finally to the point where I make the details public, so here it is!

God and Governing: Reflections on Ethics, Virtue and Statesmanship

Abortion. Poverty. Pornography. More than thirty years ago religious conservatives and liberals began fighting these and other problems head on. These past few decades have seen the popularity of groups such as the Moral Majority and The Christian Coalition that support numerous religious politicians and  make even more promises. After all the potential for success, why is it that these social problems persist? How is it that evangelicals have been so ineffective at changing the political and social landscape of the United States in a positive way?

Based on a conference put together by Trinity Law School, God and Governing brings together theologians, politicians, law professors and cultural critics in order to examine some of the root causes of evangelical political failure over the past thirty years.

Contents:

Foreword: Charles Colson

Introduction: Roger N. Overton

Chapter One: Why Being Good is So Political by David F. Wells

Chapter Two: The Travails of Evangelical Politics by Paul Marshall

Chapter Three: The Golden Triangle of Freedom by Os Guinness

Chapter Four Lessons on Fleeing Temptation by Patrick Nolan

Chapter Five: The Future of Virtue and Statesmanship in Pagan America by Vishal Mangalwadi

Chapter Six: The Failure of Evangelical Political Involvement by Dallas Willard

Chapter Seven: Practical Ways Forward by Donald McConnell

Chapter Eight: A Trinitarian Model for Political Duty by Stephen Kennedy

God and Governing will be published by Wipf and Stock under their Pickwick Publications imprint as part of their Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Look for it around the end of 2009.

I don't Twitter (or is it tweet?).  But I can't claim total purity, since I have facebook, myspace, and I blog.  Still, I've been purposefully avoiding the Tweet scene because it seemed to me to represent the worst of the other three.  No genuine conversation or community whatsoever, just an endless flow of (mostly trivial) information. 

I may rethink this position.  Not only did Abraham Piper point out that a narcissist is a narcissist regardless of where he is or how he spreads his narcissism (i.e. the powers of Twitter can be used for both good and evil, it all depends on the person), but the boys at Middlebrow (the podcast of Scriptorium Daily) have brought up a point worth considering:  If Christians are called to witness to the world and bring the gospel to the marketplace, and our marketplace is Twitter, isn't that exactly where we should go? 

It certainly is.  Christians who avoid new technologies and cultural trends altogether are not paying attention to the book of Acts.  Meeting unbelievers where they are and speaking their language is essential to evangelism.  But there's a danger lurking.  I would not be the least bit surprised to hear someone advocating "Twitter church" pretty soon.  This would be nothing new, of course.  Evangelicals have been advocating a move away from traditional church structures to private religion for years.  The point is that God knows what he's doing, and it's not up to us to decide to change the rules of the game. 

Dr. Reynolds has noted that Christianity is a religion of a book, not a movie.  This means that, however good it is that we are becoming more and more video literate as a culture, we can't allow our normal literacy to decline, because God isn't likely to send us an inspired DVD any time soon.  As a Christian, being video literate is important for witnessing to a video culture, but we can't allow ourselves to lose the ability to read and interpret a written text.  If we do, we will lose our only direct tie to the foundation of Christianity itself, the Word of God.

Likewise, Tweeting is not preaching.  In the Old Testament, the Word of God was delivered to messengers called Prophets, who personally and incarnationally brought that Word to the people.  In the Apostolic age, the Word was made flesh and the gospel of that Word was delivered by the Apostles through preaching.  It is in hearing the preached Word that God has promised to meet his people, to create and increase faith, and to seal believers with the Holy Spirit.  This simply can't happen on Twitter.

Just as we need to become more video literatre while not losing our ability to read and understand written texts, we must be careful not to let our increased Twitteracy diminish our ability to engange in genuine communication with real people in real community.  The more we retreat into Twitter and other online communites, the less at home we will feel in true, physical communities (such as church).  The body of Christ, like the Son of God Himself, is incarnational. 

Here are the prayers for Easter Sunday!

From the Lutheran Book of Prayer:

O almighty and eternal God, who through the death of Your Son has destroyed sin and death, and by His rising to life again restored innocence and everlasting life, that being delivered from the power of the devil, I might live under You in Your kingdom, grant that I may be forever comforted by true faith in the resurrection of Your dear Son.  Do not let the thought of death fill my heart with terror, but give me the blessed assurance that, just as You raised Christ from the dead, I will not remain in the grave but will rise again at the end of days.  And when, by Your grace, I have finished my course, let Christ's resurrection be for me a sure pledge that an inheritance that does not fade is reserved for me in heaven.  While I live, guide me with Your holy counsel, and while I die, give me the crown of life, that with all the holy angels and the elect I may praise and glorify You, world without end, Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer:

O God, who for our redemption didst give thine only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of our enemy:  Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through the same thy Son Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen.

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Here are the prayers for Holy Saturday.

From the Lutheran Book of Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I am silenced at the gave of Your Son, who knew no sin, yet was made sin for us.  You permitted Him to die, exchanging His innocence for our guilt.  In love He came to save us, but He was rejected by hate.  He taught us obedience, but men rebelled against Him.I confess that a great mystery confronts me at this tomb of sin and death.  He was buried behind the great seal of my sin and my death.  By faith I know also that He who dies is also the one who unlocked the great secret of Your love.  His tomb is my tomb.  He carried with Him to the grave my sin and my death, that He might break their hold on me.Trusting in the Lord's promise that He would rise again on the third day, I come not to mourn Him but to confess the sin that He would leave burried.  Have mercy on me, O God!  Have mercy on me.  Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer:

O God, Creator of heaven and earth:  Grant that, as the crucified body of Thy dear  Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Longing for the third day!

Here are two traditional prayers for Good Friday.  Apologies for waiting until Saturday morning to put them up!  There will be prayers for Saturday and Easter Sunday as well.

From the Lutheran Book of Prayer:

O Christ, Lamb of God, slain for the sin of the whole world, with penitent heart I come to your cross, pleading for mercy and forgiveness.  My sins - and they are many - have added to the burden of Your suffering and have nailed You to the accursed tree.  For me You tasted the agony of the utter darkness that I might not perish, but have everlasting life.  Have mercy upon me.O Christ, Lamb of God, embrace me with Your love, and forgive me all my sins.  Your death brings healing to my soul, peace to my mind, cleansing to my heart.  If You would mark iniquity, I could not come, for my hands are unclean, my lips are sullied, and my heart is blackened by sin.  But beholding You bleeding, despised, forsaken, dying, pierced, I come to be cleansed and forgiven.O Christ, Lamb of God, grant that I may hate sin and wickedness more and more as I behold You in Your great agony.  My grateful heart today finds hope in Your words, comfort in Your promises, and salvation in Your finished work on the cross, by which You have overcome sin, Satan, and death.O Lord, have mercy.  O Christ, have mercy.  O Lord, hear my prayer.  Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, on God, world without end.  Amen.

World without end, Amen!

A friend of mine recently asked if I think church attendance is necessary for Christians. Below is my response. I’m sure more could be said, but this isn’t meant to be a theological treatise.

 

I think the Christian life can be looked at in two inter-related ways: 1) Glorifying and enjoying God 2) Becoming more like God. One of the primary ways we glorify and enjoy God is by becoming more like Him (sanctification) and in order to become more like Him we must seek His glory and enjoy His goodness and beauty.

 

Within the context of these aims, the fellowship of the body of Christ is a necessity. It is not just commanded, but also explained in Hebrews 10- “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” The whole passage is about our assurance of faith, and encouragement between the saints is seen as a vital part of that. Elsewhere we see that church provides for the use of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12, 1 Pet 4:10), accountability (1 Peter 5, Hebrews 13:17), and general love between believers (John 10:34, 17:20-21). These commands are meant to be followed within the body of Christ, and are typically neglected by those who cut themselves off.

 

There’s no such thing in the Bible as a “Lone Christian.” The letters in the New Testament are either to whole churches, or to leaders about churches. The expectation is that Christians will be meeting together regularly, and thus there is no instruction for those who do not.

 

I don’t think God has a checklist wherein He marks every Sunday we fail to attend. His concern, I believe, is about our heart in the matter. Why is it some have broken fellowship with others He has redeemed? The only explanation for someone who regularly excludes themselves from the gathering of the saints is sin- be it pride, selfishness, or whatever. Ironically, those are heart issues that are often confronted when people live in genuine community with other believers.

 

Dallas Willard makes a related point in the forthcoming book God & Governing, “People sometimes ask me why, since I’m such a “profound thinker,” I’m still involved in church. I sometimes reply, “Well, the Bible says you’re supposed to love your enemies and you’ll find a few there.” I mean to be humorous, of course, but I sensed some recognition out there as I say that. Actually, however, that’s what the church is. It’s a place where you can get really mad at people and not run off and leave them. It’s a place where anger and contempt can be unlearned. It’s a place to learn the deep things of a fellowship in Christ that lovingly endures disagreement, anger and injury. “Churchmanship” in that sense is important. It’s vital. It’s in God’s plan and nothing is going to take the place of it. The church is intended to be a school of love.”

The bottom line is that if we’re genuinely seeking after God and seeking to become more like Him, we will desire to be in community with His people, even when it’s difficult. If we lack that desire, then it’s likely that we are no longer seeking after God.

Allen Yeh, a Professor at Biola Univeristy and tutor in the Torrey Honors Institute, has written an article in which he argues that missions is the central theme of Christianity.  The Bible, he says, is a means to an end, and that end is missions.

He offers many reasons for his choice of missions, such as the fact that all of the Apostles were missionaries, Jesus' lasts words on Earth were a call to missions, there is a whole book (Acts) devoted to chronicling missionary activites (and on top of that, most of Paul's letters are written in a missionary context), etc. 

Now, I agree with nearly everything that Dr. Yeh says.  Missions is an extremely important biblical theme, and it's one that can tend to be denegrated among academic theologian types (like myself).  At one point, Yeh comments, "The center of gravity of Christianity has shifted away from the Western world, and most of the Christians in this world are now in Asia, Africa, and Latin America."  This is no small matter.  Christianity is incurably multi-cultural and this is a direct result of its missional nature.  But is "missions" in and of itself really the "central theme" of Christianity?  If the Bible is a means to missions, might we ask if missions isn't a means to something else?

Yeh does stop to mention a few other candidates:

scholars have proposed various possibilities for what might be the main theme of the Bible. Some people say it’s the Kingdom of God. Some say it’s God’s sovereignty. Others say it’s God’s love. Still others say it’s worship (one of the most famous proponents of the last is John Piper, as he says in his book Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t”). Other possibilities include: the two Greatest Commandments (love God and love neighbor); the Great Commission (there are actually five Great Commissions, one in each Gospel and one in Acts); the Covenant; the Promise; and the glory of God. While I think all of these are valid, again I would argue that it is only mission that adequately encompasses all of these.

Later on, referring back to the reference to John Piper above, Yeh says:

Now it is here that I beleive Dr. Yeh falls into a common error that has plauged evangelicalism for a long time.  He places the proclaimation of the gospel exclusively in the realm of missions.  It is easy to see, then, why missions itself would become the central theme of the Bible.  A few paragraphs later, he says, "In most Protestant churches, the central part of the worship service is the sermon. The original function of the sermon was evangelism, as seen in the Greek word kerygma which means “proclamation” (of the Good News)."  Again, proclaimation of the good news is used here as a synonym for evangelism.  But this not how the Biblical authors treated the gospel.  Paul, in his letter to the Romans, begins (in chapter 1, verse 8) by thanking God for the church in Rome, because their "faith is proclaimed in all the world."  They are Christians (and apparently Christians of amazing faith) not pagans in need of evangelism.  And what does Paul go on to do?  In verse 15 he says, "So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."  The first thing Paul does is proclaim the good news, to those who are already Christians.  This is how the gospel is treated in Scripture.  It is not a one-time bit of useful information that, once responded to, is no longer necessary.  It is the heart and soul of all Christian teaching and worship.  This is something that the Reformers recognized, which is why the sermon did become so central to Protestant Christianity.  Thus it would probably be better to view Missions and the local church worship service as two seperate but equal "pillars" that are the foundation of Christianity.  Both are important, both are commanded by Christ, and both are acts of worship that encompass all the myriad themes found in the Bible.  Theologians may have a tendency to forget about the unreached (except as an abstract theological concept in their systems), but missiologists can also have a tendency to forget about the reached! 

I also think Piper's comment is worth returning to, because I think Yeh may have misunderstood it.  When Piper says, "Missions exists because worship doesn’t", I doubt that he's trying to say that worship per se is the central theme of Christianity.  Once again, worship is a means to an end, and that end is to glorify God.  It seems to me that missionary activity is also a means to an end.  It is a means to bringing people to Christ, allowing them to come into his presence and worship Him, and ultimately spend eternity with him.  And as Yeh pointed out, missions can itself be an act of worship, which would in turn be an act of glorifying God.  Thus missions is not only an act of glorifying God in itself, but a means to the end of furthering God's glory throughout the world.  This is probably what Piper is getting at, and it seems to me to be the best understanding of the true central theme of Christianity.  Yeh is right to stress how important missions is, but we must always remember WHY it is so imporant (for the glory of God).  

This year's Ligonier National Conference, The Holiness of God, is being webcast live.  It will continue until tonight and pick up again early tomorrow morning.  Click here to watch!