Review: CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS by David Garrison

It's difficult to see why this isn't a textbook for LBTS. After all, it has nothing bad to say about Americam mega churches, and speaks approvingly of both Rick Warren and American structures overseas.

On closer reading, though, Garrison has so many good things to say about native missionaries, house churches, and indigenous Church Planting Movements that any compliments paid toAmerican churches seem backhanded. Maybe that's why it isn't a textbook.

The first half of the book provides an in-depth look at representative CPMs in Asia, Africa, and South America, before moving on to post-Christian Europe and  North America and telling about CPMs there. The second  half defines a CPM and tells readers how one might start in their own communities.

Throughout, the book is rooted in Scripture. Many of the modern movements are compared to the remarkable spread of the Church in the book of Acts.

a question for Pentecostals

Let me make it clear from the beginning that I'm not attacking anyone's experience. While I'm a Southern Baptist by choice and conviction, and have been ordained as a deacon and pastor in a Southern Baptist church, I'm not a cessationist; neither the Bible nor personal experience tells me that the "sign gifts" have stopped.

The question I have is this: why does your Bible have the same books as mine?

Hearing directly from God makes you a textbook prophet. If you look through your Bible, you'll notice that it was largely written by prophets. If God is speaking to you, you have a responsibility to the rest of us to let us know what he's saying. It seems odd that the Holy Spirit, the same one who inspired Scripture, has been speaking in thousands of congregations for over a hundred years without saying anything infallible and in need of being added to the Bible.

I'm not trying to fence in the Holy Spirit, but I am trying to respect the fences he put up.

Why I like the ESV

A while back I needed a pocket-size Bible in a translation that I hadn't read before. At the time, I was reading through the Bible about every six months, alternating between more literal and more colloquial versions. I'd seen good things about the ESV, but I have to confess that the main reasons I got it were the cover, which was blue and had a Celtic cross on it, and the price, which was $10 off.

I never read another translation. What the English Standard Version does so well is blend modern language with the style of the King James Bible I grew up with. Some people don't care for that sort  of old-fashioned style, but I do. The facts that it's been well-supported and is owned by a publisher that makes it free on every conceivable electronic platform doesn't hurt, either.

A few rules #004

I thought of a few more.

16. Stupid is always funny.

17. Do your have-tos before your want-tos.

18. A gun is always loaded.

19. There's no point worrying until there's a reason to worry,

20. Everything is a rumor until the Captain says it.

21. There's no point worrying about things you can't change.

22. You get to choose your actions, but not the consequences.

I don't think there are any more, except, "My wife's smarter than me," and she doesn't even believe it.

The danger of Christian masochism

I like things that, as I put it, "kick me in the head".i enjoy being told I need to do better. I'm a fan of Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, and Derek Webb. I like to be convicted.

But when that conviction isn't turned into action, it's just an excuse to be prideful. What good is knowing how lazy I am if it doesn't make me less lazy? What good is being told that I'm complacent if it just means that I can look down on anyone more complacent?

There's a danger in liking to get kicked in the head. One can start to like it for its own sake. That's not a good reason to like anything.

Poor understanding

Let's face it: some things in the Bible are hard to understand. Women should wear a head covering "because of the angels"? I've asked, and no one seems to understand that one.

Evangelicals love to pull verses out of context and apply them to ourselves as promises from God. If you think you're immune, ask yourself what John 3.17 says, or what Philippians 4.12 is about. The vast majority of people in churches don't know. If you're going to continue doing it -- and I certainly can't stop you --- then at least know that you have a lot of company in the cults.

Mormonism, for example, has built several important doctrines from a single verse in 1Corinthians that speaks of baptism for the dead. That practice is never mentioned again in Scripture, and is certainly nowhere commanded or recommended. Yet it is a vital part of Temple Mormonism, and is seen as acceptable by many professing Christians.

Knowing a verse is good. There's such a thing, though, as knowing just enough to be dangerous.

What convinced you?

If you're not a Christian, you probably pride yourself on your intelligence, strength, and refusal to believe anything that can't be proven. All I would ask is this: what convinced you?

I want to be right, so if you have information I don't, please share.

If you believe in some form of naturalistic evolution, what convinced you?

If you believe the earth is four billion years old, what convinced you?

If you believe that all matter and energy was compressed into an infinitely hot, small, and dense point, what convinced you?

There are a lot of questions I could ask, but I think the most important is this:

What convinced you?

Happy New Year!

Today was the first day of 2014, which is good, because to be honest 2013 kind of sucked.

The bad news is that you're probably the same person you were yesterday.

We like to make a big deal out of January 1. I'm not saying we shouldn't, just that we should realize how arbitrary it is.

Were you a believer in Christ yesterday? Then you're one today. Were you not? Then unless something happened overnight -- which I sincerely hope was the case -- then you're not now. I don't say this to praise or condemn anyone, just to state a bald fact, which no amount of calendar manipulation will change.