Evangelism ← Pajama Pages

Older Brother Syndrome

Oct

2009

This weekend, I heard an incredible sermon on the Prodigal Son. This sermon further strengthened my belief that God’s Word is living, because despite the fact that I’ve heard this story a thousand times, I saw it in a new way. I want to specifically look at one small section of the story. I don’t think I’m ...

Who’s playing this game?

Sep

2009

Oftentimes when NewSpring marks important spiritual moments like salvations and baptisms, its members and ministers celebrate publicly by announcing that they’re running up the score against the devil, as Noble did recently and Cooper did last night. Three questions: If someone dies without being saved by Christ, who has scored? Does it mean that God lost, ...

What would Steve Jobs do?

Sep

2009

If you regularly read the blogs of the likes of Perry Noble, Steven Furtick or Tony Morgan, you’ll find that they’re more likely to cite the works of leading marketers than they are theologians. One of their distinctive as leaders is their intentional integration of marketing techniques with an evangelistic message. Some examples: Tony Morgan ...

Twitterable wisdom

Aug

2009

This gem from a Downing comment: There is nothing MORE churchy than having a Jesus sticker on your car and thinking that makes a difference. Anyone want to RT that? There is a serious point here, actually. Think about the two men on the road to Emmaus. They were looking right at Jesus and didn’t ...

Sproul on seekers

Aug

2009

This clip is the subject of some discussion in the Nice Perspective post. R.C. Sproul explains what’s wrong with the seeker sensitive movement. The first 3:20 is the best, but it’s all worth a look. Share this:

Introducing the Turnstile Church

Jun

2009

(This post is a followup to this one about the purpose of church.) A few months ago while watching Brad Cooper’s effing Bible video, I saw the basic difference between the way he and I approach church. To set the scene, Cooper is welcoming his congregation to a newly built (bamf) facility on the NewSpring campus. ...

Who is church for?

Jun

2009

If you were to boil my disagreements with Perry Noble and NewSpring down to a single issue, it would be over the answer to this question. Here, in order, is how I would answer the question. God. As God began to reveal himself to his people, one of his early steps was to create a ...

Theology, actualized to the nth degree slaphappy and cacographic

Apr

2009

A few years ago I had a student writer who thought she could jazz up her writing by rewriting her plain language with the help of a thesaurus. Her prose ended up being utterly ridiculous and unreadable, or as her thesaurus might have written, her tongue came to a halt actualized to the nth degree ...

How is that working out for you?

Apr

2009

Although I reject the premise that we can draw people to Christ by changing their opinion of the church, let’s look at what a culturally contrite approach has wrought in the church. It entertains error. It advocates assault. It sexually stimulates. It castigates Christians. It secularizes the sanctuary. It fouls with f-words. It lessens learning. ...

If not fame, then what?

Mar

2009

I’ve argued against overusing the phrase To make Jesus famous. What, then, could we replace it with? How about To make Jesus known? It describes evangelism and discipleship equally well. Fame is too heavily biased towards presenting Jesus to the unsaved and leaves the family of faith in the cold. By emphasizing knowledge, we acknowledge ...