Travis Johnson

Do you follow Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Brian McClaren, Doug Pagitt, or Jesus?

If Scripture is true and Jesus is who He says He is, I follow Him.  If Scripture is not true, then Jesus cannot be who He says He is and I will not follow Him.  Case closed.  There is no need to discuss social justice, cause, or being missional under the banner of the Church if the One who loves the Church is a fraud.

Just some thoughts in light of some of the discussions I've dragged myself into (or hae been dragged into) recently here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The Sunday Wrap-up is coming.  But, first, I give you my latest soap opera: 

I think that with this post and any ensuing comments, I'm done with the Mark Driscoll , Brian McClaren, Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt Convergent Conference blogstorm on my blog (even though my site meter is broken from excessive traffic).  My comments are being picked up and discussed by Bob Hyatt, Duncan McFadzean, Amy Welborn Dubruiel, Emerging Grace, and a few others.  I welcome that.  But, I don't know what else there is to add.

Ultimately, you just need to listen to the podcast for yourself.  My final commentary (that final piece of opinioneering to add) is that if you deny the core components of the Gospel, you deny the Gospel of Jesus and you should expect to be called out. Maybe I'm too much of a simpleton and don't question the integrity of the Scriptures enough to satisfy liberal theologians (who have largely been overgeneralized as wearing pajamas and living in your mother's basement...do we all laugh at that?!) but, I don't think that's totally the case.  Actually, I have a brain, a decent IQ, a few accomplishments, and some decent failures to draw from.  I do believe the Scriptures are authoritative for our lives.  If I didn't I'd go do something else with my time and stop wasting it on an impotent, lying, cheating, and manipulating god (little "g").  Get a freakin' life.

Augustine said "If you believe what you like in the Gospels, it is not the Gospel that you believe but yourself."  He recognized even then that a lot of "the conversation" was nothing more than a load of self-satisfying babble. 

I would say that denying the virgin birth,a pretty core component to the Gospel is a big deal.  Seeing someone rejecting it or saying that the virgin birth is unnecessary is cause enough for me to agree with Mark Driscoll's direct and timely comments.  Some of the comments on other blogs slam Mark for not following Matthew 18 for confronting a brother.  I have a couple thoughts there. 

First, I ask how is it that someone who denies Scripture as authoritative has the intestinal fortitude (or blatant hypocrisy) to inject a Biblical model for confrontation when they are denying that very Gospel as authoritative when it comes to claims that Jesus was born of a virgin and other pet liberal theologies?

Secondly, how is it they say Matthew 18 applies?  I see no one sinning against Mark.  I see sin against the Gospel of Jesus, a twisting of the truths of the Church of Jesus Christ, and a marginalizing of God-breathed Scriptures.  I would rather direct you to Titus 1:10-14:

We should be gentle with those who are victims of false teaching and denounce strongly those who freely teach doctrines that disassemble the Gospel principles.  Some of you need to be yanked up by your goatees and lovingly shaken.

Regardless of how good a minister communicates or how likable he is, how can we do nothing other than denounce that person or people as a false teacher(s)?  I see no other way if we are truly a Gospel-centered people regardless of what/who we like or dislike or what camp we come from.

I thank God for the good that is taking place at the hands of Scripturally unfaithful people.  But,  we are not in the business of solely doing good works and gathering like-minded people together.  We do good works as an outflow of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.  Getting the Gospel right in the essentials is key to the eternal value of our good works. 

It has been a while since I read a good fiction.  I've read Silas Marner before.  It was in the ship library and I couldn't pass it up.  "George Eliot" shares some super insightful words, as applicable today as ever before. Consider these excerpts:

Technorati Tags: George Eliot - Silas Marner - quotes - emerging church

In "Breaking the Missional Code", Ed Stetzer points out the growing diversity of American communities where we are challenged by Christ to make disciples.  In looking at the above passage, we see that in the Greek, the phrase "all nations" is panta te ethnê.

Since nation-states are a modern development, the meaning of this passage is actually people groups.  We should understand that to also mean population segments and cultural environments.  That may not be rocket science but, it is a fresh challenge to exegete our communities, pray over our harvest, and reinvent ourselves much like Terry Hull points out in a discussion about contextualization and the Emergent Church that Hudson Taylor did as "he wore Chinese clothes to relate to the Chinese people."

John Hendryx at Reformation Theology shows that the result of contextualized ministry to the specific panta te ethnê near Hudson Taylor's Inland Chinese Mission, was that the seeds planted by Taylor have turned into estimates of up to 90 million Chinese Christians in what is undoubtedly the greatest revival event in one of the most inhospitable environments to Christianity on the planet.

The new challenge is not to contextualize for nations and population segments.  The challenge is reaching cultural environments.  For instance, within our fellowship at Life Pointe, you will find close to two dozen nationalities with room to continue to look more like our community in the future.  Within those nationalities are multiple sub-cultures, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation Americans, age differences, and socio-economic diversity.  The new challenge is creating environments and establishing relationships that speak love and a singular Gospel across multiple contexts.

I do not think it is possible to meet all expectations or satisfy all stylistic wants.  But, in our budding community, there is a great desire for authentic expression of Christ across cultural borders.  The style has to be love, connection, beauty, honesty, doctrinal integrity, and hospitality.

Technoratis Tags: missiology - Ed Stetzer - Breaking the Missional Code - emerging church - Hudson Taylor - Great Commission

Below is a great peek into what appears to be a fantastic conference, especially for churches and pastors in the population centers of unchurched America.  I could listen to Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll all day.  I actually read Driscoll's "Confessions of A Reformation Rev" faster than any other book I've read.  It was honest to say the least.  Check out these must wach videos:

Mark Driscoll on Style in Ministry.
Tim Keller on the Character of a Missional Church.
David Wells on Emergent vs. Traditional and Seeker Church.
John Piper on the Nature of Postmodernism.

The rest of the videos promoting the Above All Earthly Powers Conference.