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Pat Robertson is a Fool

By on September 14, 2011 in Culture, Current Events, Marriage

Ok, so Robertson being a fool isn’t anything new. He has had a lot of knucklehead moments over the years and is rarely repentant of them. I would hear of these much more frequently when living in Virginia Beach, where Robertson lives and where Regent University and the 700 Club is based. The seminary I went to is just about a mile or so down the road.

Today’s news of Robertson takes the cake though. A caller called in during some Q&A and asked about divorce in a situation where one partner has Alzheimer’s disease. Robertson said it was ok and that they should not feel guilty about it! Robertson is a fool! The man obviously does not understand marriage nor the whole “for better of worse, richer for poorer” idea of the vows most people take. He simply reinterprets them!

If you want the fuller story on it you can find it at the Christianity Today blog. If I keep writing I’ll certainly say something regrettable.

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. | Proverbs 10:8 ESV

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Youth Groups? | Divided the Movie

By on July 15, 2011 in Culture, Video, Youth Ministry

A friend of mine sent me a link this morning to a new video he thought aligned well with what I am trying to promote through my site…he was right. A young Christian filmmaker just released a video called “Divided the Movie,” which  is about the unbiblical aspects happening in many youth ministries around the country and why young people are leaving the church. Not long ago Ken Ham and Britt Beemer did a study and wrote a book called Already Gone: Why our kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. I read the book and wasn’t as shocked as I should have been after reading it. This documentary seems like a follow up to that book (notice I said “seems,” not “is”). There are some  positives to the documentary and there are some weaknesses. Let me share with you first what I think are the positive takeaways from the documentary:

  1. There were many things identified as to why kids are leaving the church, most of which were identified in Ham and Beemer’s book, but need more promotion.
  2. The focus of ministry should be drawn away from program oriented youth group, back to the mandate of the family, specifically fathers.
  3. Strong focus is placed upon there being no Scriptural mandate that a church have a youth group or a youth ministry.
  4. Strong focus is placed upon the mandate of the family to train up their children. Parents simply need to lead their children and disciple them.

Now here are some of the weaknesses:

  1. Rock music is labeled as worldly, dogmatically. (It is pretty obvious the main guy of the movie is from a pretty conservative upbringing)
  2. It appears, though is probably not what was desired, that non-christians are rock concert going, believes the earth is old, or believes in evolution. Now I am by every means a young earth guy, but to present these stereotypes as people not being Christians is dishonest.
  3. Frequently the Bible is spoken of and frequently in terms of how youth ministry is not biblical and how the family aspect of ministry is (all positive by the way), but rarely is actual Scripture used or quoted. It could have been more powerful with the actual reading of the Word.

So the obvious question about youth ministry is then, “what about the unchurched kid?” Who is going to reach him if there is no youth group or youth ministry. To answer this question we have to go back and answer the fundamental question of why the church exists? Fundamentally I believe the church exists to equip the saints (believers). The church exists to equip it’s people for evangelism, missions, family living, discipleship, etc. So who will reach the unchurched kid? We all can! When you meet unchurched kids you take them in and teach them and treat them as one of your own.

There certainly is plenty more that could be said and I’ll leave that for another time or for things to come up in the comments. If you are interested I would encourage you to check out the video from their site. The video is free to watch until September.

HT: Byron Aynes

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Concealed Carry Comes to Wisconsin…Finally!

By on July 11, 2011 in Culture, Video

And now a personal rant…

Well it has finally happened—the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has signed into law that citizens of the state of Wisconsin can conceal a weapon provided they are issued a permit to do so. This has been a long time coming for the state of Wisconsin since it was only one of two states that did not have a law allowing it (Illinois as the other) and one many of our legislators have been working on for 16 years.

When I moved here from Pennsylvania not carrying a handgun was something I had to adjust to. In Pennsylvania I carried it on my hip everywhere. Many people might ask why that is necessary…well the reasons are numerous.

  1. The constitution of the United States guarantees me this right based upon the second amendment.
  2. Self-defense…It is a God given right to be able to defend yourself and your family (for more on this see Uncle Ted at the end of this post).
  3. Piece of mind…because you just never know what sort of situation you will find yourself in.

A lot of people, whom I would say are uninformed, typically have some rebuttal along the lines of how many more guns are going to be on the street and how it will only drive crime rates up. In an editorial of the Green Bay Press Gazette they summarized this mentality well by saying:

The criminal is always going to have the gun; they’re never going to get a permit for it…But law abiding citizens now have the opportunity to legally get a permit and will be able to protect themselves in a situation that may arise (in a way) that they haven’t been able to do in the past.

As of right now there are still plenty of unknowns; where can you not carry, how does one get a permit, to what extent is training required, etc. A few things we do know; (1) Wisconsin is going to be a “shall issue” state, meaning that if the person applying is not a felon or mentally incapacitated then the state must issue a permit and (2) the law officially goes into effect on November 1 (happy birthday to me). I’ll be heading to an NRA meeting toward the end of the month to learn more about how the new law is going to go into effect.

The new law is not perfect, most aren’t. Ideally there would be no permit required. Vermont, as liberal as that state is, is to my knowledge the only state that doesn’t require permits to carry a concealed weapon. For more on the mentality of the second amendment and permits I leave you with a video from Uncle Ted.

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Creation Museum First Impressions

By on July 1, 2011 in Creation, Culture, Education

This past week while at the IFCA International annual conference I was privileged to visit the Creation Museum for a day with my wife and the other IFCA conference participants. This was my first trip to the museum, which I have heard so much about, so I was very excited to see what God was doing through this place.

If you are not familiar with the Creation Museum you should be! The museum is an arm of Answers In Genesis, founded and led by Ken Ham. It was opened in 2007 and has since seen over 1.3 million people walk through it’s doors. The museum itself is located in Petersburg, KY just outside of Cincinnati, OH. The Creation Museum website describes itself as:

The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings.

Since I am teaching “Theology of Creation” this fall I knew a visit to the museum would be helpful. The museum itself presents a walk through history starting with a presentation of a biblical worldview. The main walk through part of the museum is tied around the seven C’s of History (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation). The first four C’s are the heart of the museum and the walk through culminates with what I think was the best part of the museum in the “Last Adam Theater.” In this theater a video presentation is shown that describe and explain the last three C’s; Christ, cross, and consummation. The presentation is a clear and compelling display of the gospel.

Some of the other highlights for the trip included:

  • Lunch with Terry Mortenson, one of the AIG researchers and speakers. I was able to talk to him some about my class and also my dissertation ideas.
  • The Stargazer’s Planetarium was pretty cool. They showed a 22 minute video that represented the giant size of the universe. It was very well done and extremely interesting.
  • Michelle and I walked around their beautiful gardens and trails. They have a wonderful location in northern Kentucky.
  • We also visited the petting zoo and fed both a zonkey and a zorse.

If you have not been to the museum yet you need to make it a priority. I am thankful I did and I look forward to a time when I can return. If you do visit the museum tell them I sent you…they will probably look at you funny.

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Kevin Bauder on the Christian School

By on June 24, 2011 in Culture, Education

Kevin Bauder nails the assessment of the Christian school in his most recent edition of “In the Nick of Time.” Any parent or person interested in education should read this carefully and understand it well. I think Dr. Bauder has done very well to serve us with this precise article.

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Is it Rude to Not Have a Facebook Page?

By on June 1, 2011 in Culture, Technology

My wife and I were traveling back from the airport recently and the topic of friends without Facebook pages came up. I made the proposition that to not have a Facebook page in this day and age is pretty rude. I had this thought and made this statement without more than a moment of actually processing the thought…so then I started to process the question, “is it rude to not have a Facebook page?”

I am sure those that don’t do Facebook have a bunch of good reasons to not participate. At the top of that list is usually the idea that they prefer face-to-face, voice-to-voice interaction that is more meaningful than what social media can provide. That is all well intentioned, but I would propose that it rarely happens. We live in a time and culture where we are driven by social media. Social media is both a blessing and a curse and is a big part of this world, but I would propose that there are a lot of redeeming qualities about it as well.

How many of us have friends scattered all throughout the country and maybe even the world? Even this week I have a friend who is moving his family to Cambodia. It is not as if we will have any meaningful face-to-face interaction and it’s quite unlikely we will have much voice-to-voice interaction. Facebook, or any kind of social media in general, is a great way to keep in touch and stay informed of what is going on in people’s lives.

So what do you think? Is it rude to not have a Facebook page? Unfortunately this question is falling on the ears of those that have them because most of you found this post through Facebook. But for those of you who didn’t and don’t have a Facebook page, why don’t you?

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20/20 Special on Independant Fundamental Baptist Churches

By on April 7, 2011 in Culture, News

Many of you will be tuning in on Friday night to catch the 20/20 special that is about Independent, Fundamental, Baptist churches (IFB). Some people believe the environments created in these churches foster abuse, which has led to a few people championing and soap-boxing the issue. It is a sad state of affairs when other Christians start caricaturing other Christians based upon the media—which is unfortunately what will happen from a piece of journalism that  is going to air on Friday.

Here is the deal…as Christians most of us know we are hypocrites. We say one thing then act, do, or say another thing which contradicts the first thing we said. Many times this results, if not most times, in sin. When one looks at reality though, it is clear and obvious that we all, Christians and non-Christians alike, are plagued by the sin of hypocrisy. I think one of the chief differences is that Christians know they struggle with this sin while the world has no clue.

When journalistic pieces like the one on Friday air I am always overly pessimistic that Christians are going to be painted in a bad light and the name of Christ will be hindered. Nine times out of ten this is the case with the media’s involvement with Christians. It is sad. Case and point is looking at Fred Phelps and his cronies at Westboro Baptist Church. If you are unfamiliar with them count yourself to be privileged. These guys are a bunch of knuckleheads who scar the name of Christ and do it publicly. Of course they don’t think they do, but when they are in the media it is always negative…rightfully so. They draw attention to themselves to promote a message that is anti-Christian but they do it under the banner of Christian and Baptist. Every time I see these guys in the news I just hope and pray that other people that know me who are not Christians, but know I am, do not associate me with this group. They hurt the name of Christ.

So on Friday I fully anticipate IFB churches to be painted in a negative context. Which for some churches they might deserve, however, it will not help the name of Christ but will harm it. I am not a member of an IFB church but I do work at a school that has a large constituency of students from IFB churches. Undoubtedly churches are going to make mistakes, but my anticipation with this Friday night episode is that all IFB churches are going to be shown to be bad. That is sort of like having a bad experience at a Spartan brand store and writing off all other Spartan brand stores without realizing they are independently owned and operated. That is what the “I” in IFB is all about, independent. These churches are independent from denominations and function under their own autonomy. So please don’t judge a group by the scars of a few.

As Christians we are in a battle. Paul likened our battle to war. The problem with winning this war is summarized well by what Les Ollila, the chancellor of Northland International University has said,

We are in a war and the enemy is coming at us over the hill—the problem is that all the soldiers are fighting amongst themselves in the barracks.

I pray that God gets the glory from Friday night. Humanly speaking it is hard to figure out how that can happen, but one thing I know: “Trust in the Lord with your whole heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

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Al Mohler on the Emerging Church

By on April 2, 2011 in Culture, Ecclesiology

I think Al Mohler’s comments about the emerging church are dead on. I came across this today as I am working to prepare some lectures for next week on the emerging church. This is a topic I have been studying on and off now for about 7 or 8 years. You can see some videos that relate to the emerging church over at my Vimeo site.


When it comes to issues such as the exclusivity of the gospel, the identity of Jesus Christ as both fully human and fully divine, the authoritative character of Scripture as written revelation, and the clear teachings of Scripture concerning issues such as homosexuality, this [Emergent Liberal] movement simply refuses to answer the questions.

The entire article this is from can be found here.

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March Madness and the Man Card

By on March 15, 2011 in Announcement, Culture

So here it is March Madness and everyone is getting ready to fill out their brackets. My friend Paul asked yesterday via Twitter:

Just to be clear: enter as many ncaa bracket contests as you want, but you should only have ONE bracket. Agree?

He ended that post with the hashtag of #integrity. I thought about that for a moment and realized that you should only have one bracket…but what if there was an iPad on the line and you could enter three times? You see, on campus this year the Campus Store is sponsoring a bracket tournament where the winner wins an iPad2. Now there is a legitimate reason to enter multiple brackets since they allow you three entries. I asked Paul if that passed the integrity test to which he replied:

Disagree. #pragmatism, #confidence, #standforsomething, #mancardatrisk

So with my man card at risk I decided to stick with the road of integrity. I will enter many bracket contests this year but I am going to use the same bracket for all of them. So do yourself, your soul, and your man card a favor and stick to one bracket.

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Email—A Curse or a Blessing?

By on March 10, 2011 in Culture, Technology

Email is one of those mediums of communication we use every day. Tim Challies has some provoking thoughts on the matter. It also reminds me of a post I read on email not all that long ago that spoke of email etiquette. I learned a lot from the email etiquette post. That is why I’m no longer sending an email that simply says “thanks” anymore.

I am sure I don’t get nearly the amount of email most people get, but I know that yesterday I received around 100 messages and sent about 60. One way I use email and my inbox is to treat my inbox as a to-do list. So if there are 15 items in the inbox then I probably have at least 15 things that I need to give attention to at one point or another during the day or week.

One of the things Tim said should be the obvious to so many of us:

Today we receive mail in our inboxes instead of our mailboxes. They take a few seconds in transit instead of a few days or a few weeks. They consume no resources other than the few seconds it takes to type them out. With a click of a button we can send that same email to hundreds of other people, making each person believe that we have sent it only to him. This is the new paradigm: quantity over quality, immediacy over thoughtfulness, amusement over significance.

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