My angle, and a few nice words

Posted: March 10th, 2009 | Author: | Tags: | 3 Comments »

A few of the defenses of Newspring have pointed me to the sermon and the fruit of the series, which is fine, but not really my point. My professional expertise is communication and media, a topic that I try to view as much as possible through a biblical lens. What I’m looking at is primarily the style and methodology of the message, which are important because they color the content of the message.

Brad’s sermon was solid; I have no objections to it. My objection is to the setting that it was delivered in. I rejoice for the fruit that Newspring is seeing, but I worry that your harvesting methods will spoil some of it unnecessarily.

I’m a methodology guy, and I think that God is a methodology God. (An issue I’ll address in an upcoming post.)

Speaking as a media guy, I am in awe of the level of production work that Newspring regularly puts out. The quality of the work is top-notch, and it has been my privilege to have several AU communication majors intern at the church. In fact, I regularly recommend Newspring as an internship destination for students who are serious about integrating media and ministry. Last time I visited Newspring’s Anderson campus, the staff was generous with their time and showed me the video production suite. It was sweet.

I am repeatedly impressed by the zeal for Jesus and for ministry of the many Newspringers I encounter every day.

While focusing on the positive, I want to give props to Brad Cooper who has impressed me over the last few days with his willingness to defend and explain himself, when he probably didn’t really have to. He has been kind to me personally as well, so I want give a shout out to him here.

Yes, we have important disagreements, and I’ll probably continue to express some of them here. Newspring is an important part of a new and significant direction in the Christian church. Much of the territory it is covering is worth talking and thinking about. At the end of the day, though, we are all coworkers serving the same great God.

From my perspective, that’s what this is all about.

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3 Comments on “My angle, and a few nice words”

  1. 1 Simeon said on March 11th, 2009:

    No comments (till now). So much for people preferring when you ‘play nicely’ :)

  2. 2 Sara Grumbles said on March 11th, 2009:

    My thoughts exactly.

  3. 3 Sara Grumbles said on March 11th, 2009:

    Actually, a few more thoughts. This post proves that James Duncan is not simply anti-Newspring/anti-megachurch/anti-contemporary church. By saying that Brad’s sermon was solid, he put to rest the claim that he disagrees with the message of Newspring church. Therefore, the claims that he is fine with “hearts being desecrated, while a building is kept reverent”/or that he is “like a Pharisee” can cease. If James Duncan and Newspring church agree substantively, then the disagreement is still a question of whether the ends justify the means. Which by the way, no one commenting on this blog has been able to make a case that the ends do justify the means. That is where the argument lies.