This past week my wife recommended that I read a four part interview C.J. Mahaney recently conducted with Dr. Wayne Grudem. I enjoyed the interview and felt it was worthy to be passed along. (Not that my opinion on the matter amounts to much) I have great respect for both men and I admire their humility and honesty – which is evident throughout the course of this interview. 

This is an interivew with Sycloria Williams, who was the mother of the baby who was killed in the Florida abortion clinic.

Remember, the only thing that has to change for this to be completely legal with Obama is for the baby to have a change of location. Just go six inches back up the birth canal and that’s all it takes. If the baby is in a different location then it should be fully legal to kill the child. We shouldn’t use a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage; it would be far more humane to vacuum it’s brains out. That will be fine.

Read the story and tell me how the logic of abortion makes you feel.

From the article:

Seriously, this is the coolest piece of church media I have ever seen! In addition to great videos and resources, I have enjoyed the series thus far. For more information, visit 8witnesses.com.

Anthony Bradley shares his concerns about abstinence pledges:

I have never been a fan of abstinence pledge programs and generally see them as pharisaical and utilitarian when churches adopt them. In general, these programs are designed for teens to get through high school without losing their virginity, as if losing one’s virginity at 16-years-old is morally inferior to losing it at 21-years-old outside of marriage. Deep spirituality, however, should not be confused with participation in extra-biblical church programs. Many parents seem more concerned about their children’s sexuality than their children’s love for Jesus and dependence on the Holy Spirit. If teens are not in love with Jesus, what’s an abstinence program on a Sunday night, with pledge cards, purity rings, workbooks, and an annual conference going to accomplish in the long run?

Over the past 15 years, I’ve worked in too many churches and in too many college ministries all over America to know that an adolescent abstinence pledge, outside of a passionate pursuit of the Triune God, is about as trustworthy in the long-run as pledges to call home every Sunday, to drive under the speed limit, to never abuse alcohol, to never lie, and so on.

Perhaps this why Jesus recommends that men and women seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). What if teens were encouraged to devote their lives to the Kingdom in all areas of life, including their sexuality? Jesus-loving baptized teens, living out the implications of frequent partaking of the Lord’s Supper, carried by the Holy Spirit, is the 2,000-year-old practice that never needed an extra-biblical religious ceremony.

It may be the case that the best way to settle the confusion over the effectiveness of abstinence pledges is to admit that they are well-intentioned but do not produce the intended long-term results and should be terminated.

You can view the article in it’s entirety here.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Originally posted on June, 5, 2008

Is the Trivium, then, a sufficient education for life? Properly taught, I believe that it should be. – Dorothy Sayers (1893-1967)

I first read this presentation my Dorothy Sayers four years ago. To be honest, I understood very little of what she spoke of. Still, I understood her case and could see, all too well, the consequence of departing from the tools of learning. The evidence was painfully obvious in my own life. However, apathy once again got the upper hand and I did little to nothing with the information presented. I am thankful that I took a little initiative and purchase a book entitled “The Trivium” by Sister Miriam Joseph, which I am currently reading. It wasn’t until I studied the life of Saint Augustine that I began to take an understanding of the trivium seriously and put into action the words from Sayers that had stirred me years before.

Since coming to reformed theological conclusions, I have tried to give my very best to study and preparation to future ministry. At times this has been very rewarding, and at other times, very frustrating. It was during a bought with frustration that I was listing through a series on church history and the life of Saint Augustine. In learning about one of the most gifted theologians of antiquity I was struck by what he accomplished even though his conversion came later in life. As the series in church history went on, the same could be said for many other great men. This gave me a certain degree of hope. But I was still faced with what I perceived to be a slow growth process in my study of theology and to compare myself with these men wasn’t the most motivating exercise. It did, however, bring my to question what it was that these men possessed, outside of the work of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines and prayer, that enabled them to make such a great contribution.

I am sure that question could be answered in a variety of ways. However, one thing that came to mind was the education that these men received prior to their conversion, which in turn, brought to my memory the lecture that I had read from Sayers many years before. So, in my pursuit and preparations for a future church plant and pastoral ministry, I have taken up the task of reading what I can in an attempt to grasp the lost tools of learning in the hopes of greater comprehension in my theological training and seminary work.

I would like to commend Sayers’ lecture to you. There is a lot of truth in what Sayers shares and this is becoming increasingly evident as time goes by. One look into our current educational climate should show that, even through the eyes of a pure pragmatist, all is not well. Unfortunately, the state of the evangelical church at large is a mere reflection of the same educational deterioration.

You can read the full lecture which was originally presented at Oxford in 1947. A further search for classical education tools would prove fruitful for anyone inspired by this lecture.

Update: This was originally posted in June of 2008. I have continued to work my way though Joseph’s treatment of the trivium and have continued to glean from the wealth of information presented there in. It is an outstanding work, but not one to be read quickly. This is a book, as well as a subject, that should be read for the purpose of comprehension and application.

My wife recently posted some pictures of her and Caleb’s week of Tot School activities. You can view them over on her blog, entitled, Platform 9 3/4.

Background
I am a 30 year old husband to my beautiful wife, Rachel, and father of two children, Caleb and Lillian (who is soon to arrive). In addition to that, I am a self-professed reformed hobbit. Coming from a small town nestled within a rural area, I have learned to embrace the quiet.

Vocationally, most of my time has been spent within the field of youth ministry. I spent seven years serving in a local nondenominational charismatic congregation until I was asked to resign in the summer of 2007.

Two years prior to my resignation, I went through what I could only describe as a theological identity crisis. Shortly there after, I began to listen to some men who taught faithfully from the scriptures and gave a good Biblical exposition of the text. It just so happened that these were good reformed gentlemen as well. I quickly found myself reading and listening to everything that I could get my hands on that had to deal with reformed theology and reformed perspectives. Over the course of those two years, I went through what I can only surmise as a personal reformation. When it became clear that I was past the point of persuasion, I met with the senior pastor of our church to notify him of my new found theological position. This was the first of a series of meetings and discussions that included myself, another staff member who had also come to Calvinistic conclusions, and the rest of the pastoral team. Shortly there after it was decided that we could not continue in such a working relationship and we were asked to resign immediately.

My family and I now worship together at Midland Evangelical Free Church in Midland, MI. We are both in a season in our life in which we are preparing for God’s future call for our family. I am looking forward to someday serving a local congregation in a pastoral role; while Rachel is excited to stay home and focus on the education of our children.

If you would like to see more of my hobbies and interests, take a look at my profile here. 

A Concise History of Blogging
Originally I started a blog on a whim. I was board one evening and decided to create a blog for myself. I am one who enjoys creative outlets and it seemed like a fitting idea; not to mention that many of those with whom I am acquainted all had blogs. At the time, very little thought was put into what the content of this blog would be.

In the months that ensued my posting was very sporadic. There would be a week of two or three posts per day, and then a month before the next. Finally, towards the latter part of 2008, I stopped posting entirely. One of the reasons for doing so is that I felt I wasn’t qualified to speak to some of the issues that I would post. In many ways I would try and speak beyond my knowledge base and, in doing so, made some blunders in not only my terminology but in the assertions and prescriptions themselves. Coming to realize this was a lesson in humility.