Friday Musings

Still Glad You Left?
Curtis Stinson and Will Blalock should have stayed at ISU for another year. They should have come back and learned from a coach who really is going to coach instead of letting them run the team. But the allure of the NBA and the big bucks was too great. And where did it get them? Last pick in the draft for Blalock. Not even drafted for Stinson. Which isn't a huge surprise to me. Curtis' three-point shot is about as pretty as me pitching horse-shoes. He's a guy who can put his head down, go to the hoop, and make something happen. In college, anyways. That mentality won't get you far in the NBA. Blalock may stick, and it was fun watching his smooth ball-handling the past few years. The biggest hurdle for him is becoming a guy who is consistent, night-in and night-out, and who doesn't get taken out of his game when his shot isn't falling. So long boys--your time at ISU had some highlights, but ultimately will be remembered as a disappointment because of what could have been.




I Can't Help Myself
After Tristan broke the news to me that he was writing again, I told him he was going to have to earn his way back onto Friday Musings. "You can't just take 3 months off without a single post and expect people to jump back on the wagon again." Well, I stand corrected. If you write a post about softball like this, I can make an exception.

Lance Armstrong to Ride Ragbrai?
I wouldn't have believed it if wasn't on official site. Thanks to Keith Murphy for the heads up. He won't be doing the whole ride, but still. Pretty crazy. Said Lance: "My Julys are free now."

Genesis 23

Today I spoke at Countryside, and the audio is available here.

I am always looking to improve, so feedback is welcome.

Friday Musings

It's a bird…it's a plane…it's another movie!
Those of you who know me well (as in family), know that I was a bit of a Superman nut as a little kid. The 1978 movie is one of the first that I can remember watching (on TV--not in the theaters). I loved it all--the flying, the laser vision, the rescuing, and the great music which I ran around humming, with a blanket-as-a-cape tucked into my t-shirt. Unfortunately, there are embarassing home movies to prove all this. I was a little overboard, but I was also 5 years old.

After the first couple movies, the franchise quickly went downhill. Thankfully I don't have any memories of films III and IV. I grew up and moved on. So when I heard they were coming out with a new Superman franchise, the skeptic in me quickly decided it wouldn't be any good. There's only one Christopher Reeve.

However I have discovered a couple pieces of info which have perked the interest of my inner child. Firstly, this movie is supposed to follow the original two films, and so it isn't trying to recreate everything from scratch (even though the scenery has been updated for the 21st century). From that standpoint, it sounds like both a tribute to the classic films and a continuation of the story. More importantly, it is getting very good reviews so far. So I have to admit: I'm excited to see it. But I promise to stay away from the capes this time.

How to find this blog from Google
It is interesting to discover the different ways people stumble upon this blog via Google. Here are few recent ones:

What are the goliaths in your life, sermon
The #2 result. Somehow, I don't think this guy found what he was looking for.

tristan guthrie
Page 3. It would be higher if he left more comments here.

steve deace des moines
#1 result. Steve: if you are reading this, leave me a comment. And good job on the new radio show as well.

"keith murphy" des moines
Page 1. Right below Keith's new blog.

Pretty cool, although I'm pretty sure that I haven't written much yet that is worthy of finding. Give me time.

The Valle Drive-In

One change that comes with parenthood? Going to the movies.

It wasn't that long ago when taking my wife out for dinner and a movie wasn't a big deal. It's not like we went to a new release every week--after all, theaters are pricey these days. But there's a place down the road where you can get popcorn, pop, and admission for $5 (for older releases) that we enjoyed. I'd say we saw maybe one movie a month in our pre-parent days.

That all changes when you have a baby, and we hadn't been out for a movie date once since our little one was born three months ago. Until last night that is. Somehow, we got to thinking about drive-ins, and our fond memories of them growing up. There used to be one in Ames (long since closed), where mom and dad took us kids a few times to lie in the back of a sweltering station wagon, wear pajamas, and eat candy we brought along. Lauren used to go to one in Cedar Falls that is also now closed.


Somewhere, we heard about a drive-in still open near Newton, and on a whim, we loaded up the car and headed out, baby in tow. She fell asleep on the way over and didn't wake up until we were home, so that was nice. We had a great time.

So if you have kids (or not), live near Newton, and want to do something out of the ordinary, check out the Valle Drive-In. It was about a 30 minute drive from Des Moines. $7 for adults, free for kids. Pack your own pop, snacks, and pillows. Usually they have a double-feature--check out the link above for listings. Click here for the Google map.

The Prodigal Returns

This is for my friend Tristan, who after many years of eating from the troughs of the PC wasteland, is about to purchase a Mac:

To borrow from a more well-known story: "Bring quickly the best robe (the festive robe of honor) and put it on him; and give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. And bring out that wheat-fattened calf and kill it; and let us revel and feast and be happy and make merry!"

So Long, Chris Love

It is always a shock and surprise when you hear of some young athlete dying suddenly in the prime of life. Former ISU quarterback Chris Love died of cancer earlier this week at the age of 24. As Brent Blum wrote on CycloneNation:

Love never received much attention. He didn’t put up gaudy numbers. All he did was go out and get his work done, day-after-day. He was by all accounts a fantastic teammate and a great man. In all families, you need your bread-winners and stage-grabbers. But just as important you need someone in the shadows working hard to keep the family thriving. To keep it together. And that’s what Cris was. A leading part of the Cardinal and Gold family. Forever a Cyclone.

My heart goes out to Chris' family. Deaths like this remind me that life is so very short. And at the end of it all, it is not the rewards and accolades of this brief life that matter.

Only one life, 'twill soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.

Preaching Christ Alone (pt. 3)

Problem #3 with sermons today? According to the article Preaching Christ Alone it is Carelessness: "Unfortunately, too much of the preaching we come across these days does not even have the merit of attempting a faithful exposition of the Scriptures, as these preceding methods do."

Horton quotes John Calvin on the Roman Catholic messages of his day:

"Nay, what one sermon was there from which old wives might not carry off more whimsies than they could devise at their own fireside in a month? For as sermons were usually then divided, the first half was devoted to those misty questions of the schools which might astonish the rude populace, while the second contained sweet stories and amusing speculations by which the hearers might be kept awake. Only a few expressions were thrown in from the Word of God, that by their majesty they might procure credit for these frivolities." [emphasis added]

Calvin is describing a message where the substance doesn't come from the Bible. Rather, the Bible is a kind of encyclopedia of verses that may be turned to when it matches up with what the preacher has already decided to say.

This isn't always an obviously bad approach. Why? Because the message may still be true and beneficial. People may learn. People may grow. But it's a bad idea--like riding a motorcycle without a helmet. It may be fine most of the time, but proves fatal the rest of the time. If I get in the habit of finding verses that line up with what I want to say, then I will never ask what God wants to say. As Horton says: "Good communicators can get away with the lack of content by their witty, anecdotal style, but they are still unfaithful as ministers of the Word, even if they help people and keep folks coming back for more."

Reformission Rev. Review

I recently read Mark Driscoll's new book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. It is the story of how Mars Hill Church grew from a dozen people meeting in Mark's house to a gathering of thousands in Seattle--one of the least-churched cities in the nation.

It is an easy, engaging, page-turning read that is hard to set down. Mark is very honest about the challenges and pitfalls his church has faced at each stage of growth. His passion for reaching the lost is evident. You may not agree with all that he has to say, but you will be challenged. More than anything else, this story strikes a blow against the complacent attitude toward soul-winning that is so easy to slide into.

In essence, what Mark wants to see is churches becoming more missional. In times past, the term "missions" brought to mind going to foreign lands to reach people from non-Western, non-churched cultures. Yet there is a growing realization that the majority of Americans have had little or no exposure to the gospel and we need to start looking at our own neighborhoods like a missionary would. This means taking the message of the gospel and presenting it in terms understood by those who have never heard it before.

Mark has a "Martin Luther" type of candor that has brought both friends and critics. Regardless, he is an enthusiastic character who loves Jesus and wants to see others come to know Him. If you are interested, check out Driscoll's Resurgence website for articles and resources from such assorted folks as John Piper, Ed Stetzer, Josh Harris, and Charles Spurgeon.

Preaching Christ Alone (pt. 2)

The second deficiency that Michael Horton finds in today's preaching is what he calls Verse-By-Verse Exposition:

I remember the pastor going through even rather brief books like Jude over a period of several months and there we would be, pen and paper in hand as though we were in a classroom, following his outline--either printed in the bulletin or on an overhead projector. Words would be taken apart like an auto mechanic taking apart an engine, conducting an extensive study on the root of that word in the Greek language.

His description of such preaching leaves out most of the specifics, but I think I know what he is referring to. It tends to be very specific, very detailed, and very focused on the particulars of each word. Much time is spent delving into clauses, explaining the original meanings of words, and the various interpretations for each verse.

This is something I have to be careful about. My two years of Bible college gave me lots of knowledge (including Greek), but the problem with knowledge is that it puffs up. It can also make you look down your nose at common, everyweek preaching because it isn't as intellectual as those heady college-level classes. Looking back, I can remember during my first few years out of Emmaus wishing that more sermons were as engaging as a Dr. MacLeod lecture on Romans. Over time, however, I have come to realize that there is a difference between classroom instruction and preaching. This should be obvious, but it's not. The goal of classroom instruction is learning. Learning is a commendable goal (and I am very appreciative of my Bible college years), but learning doesn't necessarily lead to a changed life. What I found out in my post-college years was that even though I wasn't being engaged by the rigors of academic Bible study God was still teaching me much through the school of real life. And through the struggles and experience of time, much of the coursework that had been mere head-knowledge before was made real to my heart.

Horton identifies four short-comings of the verse-by-verse approach:

(1) A focus on root-words can be misleading because it ignores how a word was actually used in the ancient languages.

(2) We can miss the forest for the trees. This would be like using a microscope to examine only the smile of Mona Lisa instead of stepping back and admiring the whole painting.

(3) We can forget that the Bible contains different genres in its many books. Poetry, proverbs, history, lectures, personal letters, etc. We shouldn't try to diagram a verse from the Psalms the same way we do in Romans.

(4) There is a tendency to "remove the congregation from Scripture". In striving to investigate each word so thoroughly people can get the impression that Bible study is far too complex and deep for the ordinary reader to undertake. And if we don't struggle to relate the passage to the "here-and-now" of life, we can be left with cold mental agreement but no change of the heart.

I'm wondering if this commits the opposite error of the moralistic sermon. If the moralistic message sacrifices knowledge for practicality then perhaps the verse-by-verse message sacrifices practicality for knowledge? I suspect that the real issue for both these approaches is that both knowledge and practicality (in and of themselves) are lacking.

What do you think?

Friday Musings

Murphy's Law
I have always been a fan of WHO TV-13 sports reporter Keith Murphy. He is a smart guy who usually has interesting things to say about the Iowa sports scene. If I read a blog more than a couple times, it is time to add it to the links. Murphy's Law is a shotgun, stream-of-consciousness read, but he has good things to say. Today he had a couple quick bits on Dan McCarney and Greg McDermott:

Athlon Sports names Dan McCarney one of the five most UNDERrated college football coaches. Something for Mac's critics to think about. Remember, before McCarney, no bowl games in memory and no wins over Iowa. Since McCarney, five bowls in six years, 6 wins over Iowa in 8 years. ISU needs to finish games, and not get so conservative, but Mac's in no danger. Shouldn't be either.

If you're a Cyclone fan concerned about Greg McDermott's ability to pull big recruits, worry about something else. Craig Brackins is just the beginning. McDermott will succeed at ISU.

I guess I agree on both counts, but Mac has got to start winning close games. It absolutely KILLS me to remember last year, when we lost 3 OVERTIME games and another close one to Baylor.

Modern Reformation Magazine
In addition to the article I'm currently posting on (Christ Centered Preaching), there are lots of interesting topics at this site. Interesting, thought-provoking articles are always appreciated, so I will have to spend more time there looking around.

Preaching Christ Alone (pt. 1)

I recently stumbled across the website for Modern Reformation Magazine. It bills itself as "a bi-monthly magazine dealing with theology, apologetics and cultural issues." Michael Horton is the Editor-in-Chief, and is also a professor at Westminster Seminary in California.

In an article titled Preaching Christ Alone Horton identifies what he sees as four chief problems with much of contemporary preaching. Since this is a subject I am thinking about right now, I'm going to interact with these in a four-post series. Michael identifies the first trap that sermons often fall into as Moralism:

Whenever the story of David and Goliath is used to motivate you to think about the "Goliaths" in your life and the "Seven Stones of Victory" used to defeat them, you have been the victim of moralistic preaching. The same is true whenever the primary intention of the sermon is to give you a Bible hero to emulate or a villain to teach a lesson, like "crime doesn't pay," or, "sin doesn't really make you happy." Reading or hearing the Bible in this way turns the Scriptures into a sort of Aesop's Fables or Grimm's Fairy Tales, where the story exists for the purpose of teaching a lesson to the wise and the story ends with, "and they lived happily ever after."

I can easily think of lots of sermons I've heard like this. I can also think of plenty of times when I have done this. This past school-year I had the dubious distinction of being the "AWANA Pastor". That meant I did a 15-minute talk for the kids at the end of the night. It's easy to moralize with kids. So the story about the lame man that was lowered through a roof to see Jesus became a lesson on "don't let anything stop you from coming to God" instead of "Jesus is willing to heal and forgive sin no matter how we come to Him." Joseph's time in an Egyptian prison was an example to "be patient in hard times" instead of "God was teaching Joseph patience through hard times."

I think the temptation to moralize comes from the desire to be practical. People want messages to be easy. The common refrain is: "Just tell me what I need to do." And so we come up with sermons focusing on practical things like reading the Bible, praying more, and being involved at church. The problem is that when you tell someone what to do you are setting up LAW instead of GRACE. The law is the very definition of practicality. It also has no power to really change us. Following Jesus isn't neatly summarized by any sort of three-step process. Rather, it is faith from first to last.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I'm preparing to speak soon on Genesis 23--the story of Abraham buying a small piece of land to bury his wife. Anything in the Old Testament is especially easy to moralize on. The temptation is to treat Abraham as the hero of the story and hold him up as an example to be emulated. This is easy to do because there is much to admire about Abraham. He followed God from his homeland to be a stranger and a pilgrim. He believed God in spite of many obstacles. He is our "father of faith". But if I let my message be "we need to have faith like Abraham" I have slipped into moralizing (even if I'm talking about faith!). Abraham's story isn't remarkable because of his faith, but because of God's calling. As Horton writes:

But in the biblical view, the biblical characters are not examples of their victory, but of God's! The life of David is not a testimony to David's faithfulness, surely, but to God's and for us to read any part of that story as though we could attain the Gospel (righteousness) by the law (obedience) is the age-old error of Cain, the Pharisees, the Galatian Judaizers, the Pelagians, Semi-Pelagians, Arminians, and Higher Life proponents.

The key question is: "Who is the hero of the story?"

If the hero of the story is a person, a principle, or a proverb then I will be moralizing. The True Hero of every story in the Bible is Jesus. He is the culmination of all that God has done in bringing lost people to salvation. Good examples don't have the power to change lives--only Jesus does.

What? Friday Musings!

Dwindling Visits
I just received my weekly email summary of visits to this website, and the results clearly show a declining readership. Which is to be expected, as I have posted little in the way of interesting content or even "Friday Musings". As Steve Deace would say, this blog is "mediocrity at its finest".
Speaking of Steve Deace...
The news was released this week that afternoon sports radio personality Steve Deace will be leaving KXNO for greener pastures at big brother WHO. Steve is an interesting guy to listen to, because he often strays from typical sports radio topics into more weightier subjects like religion and politics. He isn't afraid to voice his opinion and is very public with his faith. As Keith Murphy said: "Steve Deace always had a lot more on his mind than sports. Some listeners didn't like that, but the guess is here they're going to miss Deace on KXNO. He's headed over to WHO radio to provide a long overdue conservative voice (kidding). Best of luck to Steve in his new gig. He's earned it."

Genesis 23
Due to the busyness of my wife's pregnancy, my daughter's birth, and weddings galore, it has been a while since I preached. But I am signed up for June 25th at Countryside and looking forward to the opportunity. I may (or may not) post some of my thoughts leading up to this, but I will post a link to the audio afterwards. I am also using the occassion to ask myself the question: "what are the big-ticket elements of a message that brings glory to God and encouragement/exhortation to the audience?"