Deaconesses

I just saw where Ligon Duncan and Tim Keller both have articles in By Faith magazine (a publication of the Presbyterian Church in America) on the issue of deaconesses. This is a significant debate in the PCA. Keller's paper does a good job of clarifying his position on non-ordained deaconnesses and its historical roots, showing that it is not cowering to feminism or an abandonment of complementarianism (as some have claimed). I think there has been a lot of misunderstanding of his position. Duncan's paper does a good job of outlining why the PCA's position on this issue should remain the same.

While we are on the topic, Phil Ryken also has a paper on the issue. It is included in his paper on Qualifications for Deacons. I don't think anyone would accuse Ryken (or his predecessor, Jim Boice) of being a feminist and I am pretty sure the feminist would not claim him. The church I pastor, Village Seven Presbyterian Church, used to have deaconesses in the early days and I am certain none of the founders of Village Seven were feminists. Somewhere along the line, Village Seven renamed their deaconesses to Sisters in Serving.

I am not pushing for deaconesses. The papers above are the only things I have read on the topic. So, I remain undecided, which leaves me with my default position of remaining the same. However, I am pushing for a reasonable debate on the issue. At the last General Assembly of the PCA, I was bothered by three things:

1) The debate by some on both sides seemed to focus on the role of women in our society rather than on the real issue, which is, what does the Bible say. We should not follow the culture either on the left or the right. Rather, we should always seek to be in submission to Scripture.

2) There are some who seem to be looking for ways to circumvent the PCA or their presbytery's stance on this issue. In doing this, they are showing a complete disregard for the authority of their presbyteries and the denomination, and thereby abandoning their vow of submission to the brethren in the Lord. All PCA ministers and elders have taken vows to submit to one another. If we only submit when we agree, then we aren't really submitting. It makes our vows meaningless.

3) On the other side, there are those who refuse even to debate the issue, claiming that, even to debate it, is to give in to feminism. Even though they know the issue is divisive, even though they know there are godly men who hold a different position, they are refusing even to discuss the biblical merits of the topic. I think this is injurious to the peace and purity of the church.

All this to say, I am thankful to have these thoughtful articles by Dr. Keller and Dr. Duncan. In my mind, this is the type of debate that we should be having. I only wish it had official status at the General Assembly level.

Summer is Over - What I Actually Read

The calendar may say that it is still summer, but school starts here tomorrow. So, in reality, summer is over. The kids are not the only ones going back to school. I will be joining them. Only this time, I will be a teacher. Because I had nothing else to do, I volunteered to teach the Senior Bible class at our school, Evangelical Christian Academy. I will teach them hermeneutics, beginning with the Redemptive Historical Approach to Scripture. I also will cover some of my other favorite themes like sanctification, biblical world and life view, and presuppositional apologetics. Should be fun (at least for me).

At the beginning of the summer, I posted what I intended to read during the summer. However, I must confess that I got a bit derailed in my reading. Here is what I actually read:

• The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross: Insights from an Arab Christian by Nabeel Jabbour (NavPress). Very informative and helpful. I have had the added blessing of meeting with Nabeel regularly to discuss this book. I knew very little about Islam when I started, but feel much better equipped to discuss my faith with a Muslim now.
• A Quest for More by Paul Tripp. Here is a sample quote: "I may be grateful for the gospel, but what really excites me is the hope that my relationship with God will give me what I really want.." Ouch!
• The Ascent of a Leader, by Thrall, McNicol, and McElrath. Good, not great, but good.
• Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll. The main reason I read this was because I have heard a lot about the author but never read him or listened to his sermons. Very orthodox and very relevant.
• Communion with the Triune God by John Owen. However, I must confess that I did skip some parts and I need to go back and reread this one. Like a lot of John Owen, great stuff to say, but not the easiest reading for me.
• I also listened to a few MP3 lectures on my IPod (I love my IPod), including: David Calhoun of Covenant Theological Seminary on the Early Church Fathers, several lectures by Mark Dalbey on worship, D. A. Carson's 3-part series on the New Perspective on Paul, D. A. Carson's series on the Emergent Church and postmodernism, Marc Driscoll on Creation, and, of course, a few sermons by Tim Keller. BTW, you can download lectures for free from Covenant. Also, through ITunes, you can get a number of free lectures from Reformed Theological Seminary. Great resources.

Besides the above, I did a little reading on Ecclesiastes and Genesis for my upcoming sermon series. I hope to post a little study guide for each of these books on the Village Seven website fairly soon. I also rewrote my Leadership Training (Officer Training) course.

I had planned to read Going Public with Your Faith by Peel and Larrimore and The Insiders by Petersen and Shamy. However, once I decided to teach at ECA, my reading fell by the wayside.

What's next on my reading list? Well, I still want to get to the two books above. However, a few books have moved ahead of them, including:

• Samson and the Pirate Monks by Nate Larkin. Word on the street is that this is a good book for men serious about growth.
• Minority Report by Carl Trueman. I have a lot about Dr. Trueman and his teaching at Westminster, but have never read him. Looking forward to it.
• In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson. I alway enjoy Ferguson. His clarity reminds me of Packer.
• Who Stole My Church? by Gordon McDonald
• Reason for God and The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.

Some Great Quotes

A friend turned me on to a blog by Justin Taylor called Between Two Worlds. He posted part of an interview with J. I. Packer on worship. I thought it was very insightful.

"We have separated the ages, very much to the loss of each age. In the New Testament, the Christian church is an all-age community, and in real life the experience of the family to look no further should convince us that the interaction of the ages is enriching. The principle is that generations should be mixed up in the church for the glory of God. That doesn't mean we shouldn't disciple groups of people of the same age or the same sex separately from time to time. That's a good thing to do. But for the most part, the right thing is the mixed community in which everybody is making the effort to understand and empathize with all the other people in the other age groups. Make the effort is the key phrase here. Older people tend not to make the effort to understand younger people, and younger people are actually encouraged not to make the effort to understand older people. That's a loss of a crucial Christian value in my judgment. If worship styles are so fixed that what's being offered fits the expectations, the hopes, even the prejudices, of any one of these groups as opposed to the others, I don't believe the worship style glorifies God, and some change, some reformation, some adjustment, and some enlargement of spiritual vision is really called for."

I read another great quote on preaching from the quotable Howard Hendricks . He says:

"It is not too difficult to be biblical if you don't care about being relevant; it is not difficult to be relevant if you don't care about being biblical. But if you want to be both biblical and relevant in your teaching, it is a very difficult task indeed."

Food and Sports

A few random thoughts on food and sports.

• While visiting friends in Orlando, I learned that the Krispy Kreme near our church closed. There are some that claim that my leaving Orlando was the cause of the closing. However, I don't think I ate that many doughnuts.


• I returned to Colorado Springs and discovered that Panera raised the price on a Cinnamon Crunch bagel from 99 cents to $1.25. For those slow at math, that is a whopping 25% increase. For me, this is significant because every day I don't have a breakfast appointment, I go to Panera at about 7 or 7:30 am for coffee and a Cinnamon Crunch bagel.


• Also, when I left for vacation, we had two sports radio stations. When I returned, I discovered both had gone out of business.


• A couple of years ago on my old blog, I wrote that Roger Federer (tennis) and Tiger Woods (golf) were probably the best athletes of our generation. Both seemed virtually untouchable. Well, it appears that these Supermen have found their Kriptonite. Tiger is out for the season (after winning the US Open with a torn ACL and a broken leg!) and Federer has lost the last to majors to Nadal.


• I played golf a couple of weeks ago for the first time since moving here. I discovered that the high altitude does nothing to improve one's game.

Worship Series

I am beginning a mini-series on worship this Sunday. Because the series is short and there is so much to say, I hope to post several thoughts and links on the topic here.



Using Hymns in a Postmodern World

Few, if any people in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) have put as much thought into worship, at least worship music, as Kevin Twit. Here are a number of articles by Kevin and others.



To hear some hymns recasts with modern tunes, go to http://www.igracemusic.com/ and click on any of the five album covers.



By the way, some people don't like it when we "change" the tunes to old hymns. While there is something comforting about the familiar, there are good reasons for this. First of all, if you look through the hymnal, you will notice that most of the tunes were not written at the same time as the text. So, in most cases, there is no "original" tune. Secondly, if you go the back of the hymnal, you will notice that there is a Metrical Index. That index is there so that you will know which tunes can be sung to which texts. There is a long standing tradition of NOT singing hymns hymns to the "traditional" tune. Thirdly, sometimes the tunes we think of as being the "original" just don't fit. I realize that there are some people who love the Scottish Psalter, but it seems that the Scots had a knack for taking glorious psalms and putting them to depressing, unsingable tunes. Fourthly, musical tunes are cultural expressions. Even a cursory glance of music history (and even church music history) will show that the musical style of the church has always been changing. After all, even in the most traditional churches Protestant churches, we sing with the use of hymnals, organs, and pianos, which were not even invented at the time of the early church. The early church didn't even use harmonies. Fifthly, some great hymns with great texts are being lost because they are attached to unsingable tunes or tunes that don't connect with modern and post-modern people. Sixthly, a new tune can make you see familiar words in a new light.

More to come later.

Inviting all Florida Friends

Florida friends, we will be in Orlando this weekend. Our dear friends, the Wheatleys, have secured their clubhouse for a little informal get together. So, we will be at the Cypress Springs Clubhouse from 2-5 PM on Sunday. Hope to see many of you there. Of course, we will be at UPC for worship that morning, which will feel really, really strange, but we are looking forward to it.

Summer Reading

Because of moving and starting a new job, I have done very little reading this past year, other than sermon preparation. However, I plan to get caught up this summer. Here are some of the books I am reading, or plan to read.

The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross: Insights from an Arab Christian by Nabeel Jabbour (NavPress). I am about two-thirds of the way through this book. It is very insightful and challenging. In addition, Nabeel is a member of V7PC. He graciously comes by my office about once a month to explain to me the Muslim worldview. The book will challenge your thinking about Muslims. Even more, I hope it will provoke us to view Muslims through love and the cross rather than merely through fear and the news media.

Communion with the Triune God, by John Owen, edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor (Crossway). I am nearing the halfway point of this book. I must confess that I really struggle to read Owen. Most of the time, I would rather read someone who has read Owen than read him myself. However, Kapic and Taylor have done a wonderful job of making this book more accessible. Kapic's introduction and Taylor's outline help keep you on track. I am reading this one very slowly, but there are many gems in it as Owen helps the reader to contemplate the beauty and majesty of the Trinity.

Also, I plan to read a couple of books recommended to me by friends on the topic of evangelism; Going Public with Your Faith by Peel and Larrimore and The Insiders by Petersen and Shamy.

Others in my book bag for the summer are A Quest for More by Paul Tripp, The Ascent of a Leader, by Thrall, McNicol, and McElrath, and, hopefully some sort of non-fiction book for fun that captures my eye at Barnes and Noble.