A Quest for More: Chapter Three

Part Four of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter Three: A Total Disaster

BIG IDEA:

"As his child, when you get up in the morning you awake to a huge kingdom. It courses back through history and extends to before the foundations of the world were set in place. It extends forward in time to endless eternity. It encompasses every location known and unknown, every situation of every kind, every person and every created thing. The goal of this kingdom is the complete restoration of every last thing that was damaged by the fall. You must no longer live for yourself. Grace has led you through the door to something more and better. Grace calls you to shape your living to the contours of this amazing work of restoration." (page 45).

BASIC OUTLINE:

• The Fall ruined everything: "What happened in the garden is truly the central catastrophe of human history. It is almost impossible to overstate the hugeness of its significance Here is how big this disaster was (and is) When Adam and Eve fell, the entire cosmos fell with them!" (page 38)
  

• God's original design was gloriously transcendent and cruciform: "People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another..." and "People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give into worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator" (pp. 38-39).
  

• The present result of the fall is not submission to God and service to others, but the pursuit of self-rule and self-service: "The quest for autonomy will always crush transcendence...Since that horrible moment in the garden, every human being has tended to confuse autonomy with transcendence. The inertia of sin is always away from the Creator and toward ourselves. And let it be known that this is not only the struggle of the unbeliever; it is the struggle of the believer as well. As long as sin still dwells in our hearts, autonomy will war with transcendence" (page 42).
  

• "Because of this there are two things that I must always keep in view: [#1] The ongoing tendency to treat my life as if it were no bigger than my life...Most of us have learned how to celebrate our inclusion in God's great and glorious work, while functionally caring for little that does not directly address us. In doing this we have Christianized our autonomy....even though we are trying to live inside of God's boundaries, we have still manufactured a life where self is at the center." and #2 "We must keep in mind that the fall was a total disaster...it is only when you remember how big the effects of sin are that you will live the way God calls you to live. Here is the logic of living in light of the purposes of God: if sin's devastation is as wide as creation, then the scope of redemption must be just as big. Therefore, we are called to live with the total restoration of creation in view" (pp. 43-44).
  

SOME FAVORITE (and convicting!) QUOTES:

"We get so excited about the personal benefits of redemption that we lost sight of redemption that we lose sight of redemption's greater goal. Yes, the personal benefits of redemption are an amazing thing, worthy of eternal celebration. But redemption's agenda is not to make our kingdoms successful, but to welcome us to a much bigger, much better kingdom" (page 46).

"Many of you...have settled into a self-focused enjoyment of the good life. You are enjoying what grace has done to your marriage, your partnering, your friendships, and your work life. It has been all too easy for you to miss the point that you were rescued from what was very bad--not just to be part of something good, but amazingly, to be part of something very great." (page 46).

Tim Keller's "Prodigal God"

My friend Tullian Tchividjian asked Tim Keller to explain the title of his new book The Prodigal God. Tullian received this response from Tim:

The word ‘prodigal’ does not appear in the Greek text. It is an English word that has become attached to the parable of the two lost sons in Luke 15. But it is a good, suggestive word that helps us understand the parable’s teaching.

The word ‘prodigal’ is an English word that means recklessly extravagant, spending to the point of poverty, of ‘being in want’ (Luke 15:14.) The dictionaries tell us that the word can be understood in a more negative or a more positive sense. The more positive meaning is to be lavishly and sacrificially abundant in giving. The more negative sense, is to be wasteful and irresponsible in one’s spending. The negative sense obviously applies to the actions of the younger brother in the Luke 15 parable of the two sons. But is there any sense in which God can be called ‘Prodigal’?

Read the rest of Keller's response here.

[HT: On Earth As It Is In Heaven]

Logos Bible Software

I just added a link on my blog list to the Logos Bible Software Blog.

I've been using this Bible study software for years and have greatly benefited from the Camp Logos training seminar (Levels I and II). This is a powerful study tool that is accessible to the person in the pew, provides artillery for the preacher in the pulpit, and has enough academic muscle for the professor behind the podium.

If you haven't tried it, click on the logo below for a free demonstration:

Bible Overview Resources

I've been teaching a class on a survey of the Bible and have found a few resources that have helped me more effectively communicate the "big picture" of God's Story in the Old and New Testaments.

First, a DVD-ROM called The Bible Overview: How to Understand the Bible as a Whole has excellent PowerPoint presentations that walk you through the major events of both testaments using clear, easy-to-grasp symbols and labels. I appreciate the kingdom-centered approach to the drama of redemption that unfolds in the Bible. Click here to see a sample screenshot of the Complete Picture. The DVD-ROM includes PowerPoint presentations, handouts, leader's guide, and even a PDF version of cards that can be printed, cut out, and used to reproduce the Complete Picture chart on a wall or white board. They've also included picture files that will enable you to make your own PowerPoint slides, so that you can adapt this material to your teaching situation.

This curriculum also includes a PowerPoint presentation on how to read the Bible using what they call the COMA Method. COMA is short hand for the four steps of good Bible study: Context, Observation, Meaning, and Application. I appreciate the emphasis on understanding a passage of Scripture in the Context of the larger story of God's redemptive plan.

This is one of the best tools I've seen for helping people of all ages get a grip on God's overarching Story. Amazingly, this curriculum only costs $25.00.


Second, I would highly recommend Robert Vaughan's God's Big Picture, a short book that follows the kingdom of God theme from cover to cover of the Bible. Vaughan concisely defines the Kingdom of God as "God's People in God's Place under God's rule and blessing," and then traces these themes throughout the Bible.

This book fits perfectly with The Bible Overview curriculum that I mentioned above. I was able to use Vaughan's alliterated divisions of the Story by putting them under the major headings of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration and laying them over the Complete Picture chart as follows:

CREATION

• The Pattern of the Kingdom (Creation story)
  

FALL

• The Perished Kingdom (The Fall and Babel)
  

REDEMPTION

• The Promised Kingdom (The Covenant with Abraham)
  
• The Partial Kingdom (The Law and Kings)
  
• The Prophesied Kingdom (The Prophets)
  
• The Present Kingdom (Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus)
  

RESTORATION

• The Proclaimed Kingdom (Pentecost and the Church)
  
• The Perfected Kingdom (Return of Christ; New Heavens and Earth)

Third, if you want to dig a little deeper into this "drama of redemption" I must recommend Dr. Michael D. Williams' Far As the Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption. Here's a taste:

“In its most basic structure, the Bible follows this dramatic pattern. It has an introduction, a dramatic problem that arises, a resolution to the problem, and a summing up or conclusion. We might refer to these four elements within the biblical storyline as creation, fall, redemption, and consummation…The creation-fall-redemption-consummation storyline is the central theme of Scripture, and it forms the Bible’s overarching literary structure" (page xi).

Fourth, I've found the PowerPoint presentations of Rose Publishing to be useful for helping folks visualize biblical content and Bible lands. Each PowerPoint CD-ROM also includes PDF files with well-produced handouts for students. I've also used their Ten Foot Bible Timeline chart on our classroom wall in conjunction with The Bible Overview cards I mentioned above.

A Quest for More: Chapter Two

Part Three of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter Two: More or Less?

BIG IDEA:

"We are all capable of fighting for what has little value while forgetting things of transcendent value...It is so hard for us to make the truly important things functionally important to us...When I opt for a me-centered 'more,' what I actually get is always much, much less" (pp. 26-28).

BASIC OUTLINE:

• The tendency "to talk about more, but to settle for less" is common to all humans.

• We have inherited this less-is-more attraction from Adam and Eve, who were looking for more ("you will be like God") when they settled for less ("she took of its fruit and ate...and he ate").

• Our enemy has continued to use this less-is-more tactic throughout biblical history...even tried it on Jesus.

• Our only hope is the good news that God in Christ has come to redeem us from our obsession with smaller kingdoms and to recreate us into people who "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).

SOME FAVORITE (and convicting!) QUOTES:

"A man will forget that, as a father, he has been welcomed to the transcendent glory of being part of God's work of forming human souls. Instead he will buy into the replacement glory of career success. More and more, his life will be eaten up and defined by his work. Less and less will his sense of purpose have to do with the formative community that only he can offer his children. Sadly, his children cease to be one of the joyful focuses of his living and become an obligation in an already-too-busy schedule. Less and less do his children know him, respect him, trust him, or feel his love" (page 29).

"The struggle I am describing very often takes place inside the borders of good theology and regular participation in the scheduled programs of the church. It is possible, and maybe even quite regular, to participate in these things and still be settling, in the little moments of my daily existence, for much, much less than the transcendence for which you were created. Things as mundane as wardrobe, menu, schedule, workload, location, traffic, weather, being right, getting affirmed, money, housing, employment, gardens, family rooms, sex, leisure, who's in the bathroom first, who did what with my newspaper, who ate the last of the cereal, etc.--all of all which are important in some way--rise to a spiritually dangerous level of importance in the heat of the moment. These are the moments we live in every day. The normal day is a 24-hour collection of little moments. Day after day, week after week, and year after year, these little moments set the character of a person's life.

When little things become the big thing for which I consistently fight, I have forsaken transcendence for the temporary shadow glories of creation" (pp. 30-31).

A Quest for More: Chapter One

Part Two of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter One: A Quest for More

BIG IDEA:

"There is woven inside each of us a desire for something more--a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-to-day existence" (page 14).

BRIEF OUTLINE:

"You were hardwired by your Creator for a glory orientation...We were simply made for glory, but not just the shadow glories of the created world. We were made for the one glory that is transcendent--the glory of God. When you grasp this, your life begins to make a difference" (pp. 18-19).

"Let's consider the glory-focus of Genesis 1 and 2. There are four transcendent glories that were created to be the life-shaping focus of every human being. The first is the glory for which every human being is to live, and the following three are glories that flow from the first" (page 19).

• "God glory...our lives were designed to be shaped more by our attachment to the Creator than by the creation. We were made to experience, to be part of, to be consumed by, and to live in pursuit of the one glory that is truly glorious--the glory of God" (page 19).

• "Stewardship glory...[Adam and Eve] were constructed to do more than take care of themselves; they were called to care for the wide variety of amazing things God had purposefully crafted to be reflectors of his glory...it was a call for Adam and Eve to never shrink the size of their care to care for themselves" (page 20).

• "Community glory...God makes Adam and Eve and immediately calls them to the transcendent glory of a world-reaching, generation-spanning, and history-encompassing community. This commitment to community was meant to be a major shaping focus of their day-to-day living" (page 21).

• "Truth glory...Immediately upon creating Adam and Eve, God did something that he had not done with anything else he made. He spoke to them...God's words contained knowledge of him, the meaning and purpose of life, a moral structure for living, the nature of human identity, a fundamental human job description, a call to human community, and a call to divine worship...Every thought was meant to be shaped by the truth glory that he would patiently and progressively impart to them" (pp. 21-22).

SOME FAVORITE QUOTES:

"I am afraid there are many people of faith who attend church each week, give regularly to God's work, know their Bible pretty well, and don't live overtly evil lives; but they have settled for 'below and less' when they were created for 'above and more.'

The mistake they have made is that they have shrunk their Christianity to the size of their own lives. They have taken God's grace and wisdom as an invitation to a better marriage, a better relationship with their children, a better extended family life, better success at work, etc. And there is a way that God's grace does invite me to all of these things. But here is the point of this little book: God invites you to so much more!" (pp. 17-18)

"It is about living for a greater kingdom than the kingdom of my life, my family, and my job. And where do I live for this greater kingdom? In my life, my family, and my job!" (page 23)

Book Study: A Quest for More

Our church is reading A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp together this summer. Over the coming weeks, I'll post some quotes from and thoughts about the book, so stay tuned. [One way to stay tuned is to subscribe to The Cruciform Life by email. See the right hand side bar of this page.]

Dr. Tripp has made a brief but intriguing video introduction to the book that would be worth your time to watch. You can also read the first chapter for free here.

Here are some comments about the book from Dr. Tripp's website:

Is Christ the center of your life?

Is He really your source, your motive, your goal, and your hope?

Is it possible that your Christianity may, in fact, exclude Christ?

“There really is no place for Christ in many people’s Christianity. Their faith is not actually in Christ; it is in Christianity and their own ability to live it out.”

Paul David Tripp expertly traverses the deepest recesses of the human heart and compassionately invites fellow Christian travelers to journey with him into God’s bigger kingdom. The author promises readers that they will be encouraged, excited, and motivated by hope as they learn how to set aside their “little kingdom” attachments which can expertly masquerade within the church as Christian activism, legalism, emotionalism, formalism, creedalism, and externalism; in favor of God’s expansive and soul-freeing eternal quest.

Tripp demonstrates through sound biblical principles how humanity is made by God to transcend far beyond the mere physical realm and is likewise created to be “glory junkies”—those whose visionary lives are governed by God’s grand purposes rather than existing only within their narrow self-interested confines. Writes the author, “It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence, because you were created to be an ‘above and more’ being. You were made to be transcendent.” Tripp then shows Christians how to “transcend” through daily, moment-by-moment, practical methodology that transforms individuals into the image of Christ.

Book Review: The Jesus Way

The Jesus Way: A Conversation On The Ways That Jesus Is The Way
By Eugene H. Peterson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2007)

In his introduction to The Jesus Way (which in my estimation is worth the price of the book) Eugene Peterson contrasts what he calls the “way of Jesus” with the way of American culture and the way of the American church:

The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular, local.

The ways employed in our North American culture are conspicuously impersonal: programs, organizations, techniques, general guidelines, information detached from place…We cannot use impersonal means to do or say a personal thing—and the gospel is personal or it is nothing…

When it comes to persons, these ways of the world are terribly destructive. They are highly effective in getting ahead in a God-indifferent world, but not in the community of Jesus, not in the kingdom of God…the North American church at present is conspicuous for replacing the Jesus way with the American way (pp. 1-5).

Peterson argues that the American church is enamored with the truth of Jesus but ignores the method by which Jesus embodied that truth. But relational, word-made-flesh, life-on-life discipleship does not sell well in a culture that is steeped in mass production. We have found ways to efficiently mass produce almost everything, why not mass produce disciples? Peterson argues that we have come to exchange the way of Jesus for the way of industry:

If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever. We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?...There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus…this is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more…the cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, ‘deny yourself’ congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church (page 6).

The Jesus Way is the third in a series of Peterson’s “conversation” books published by Eerdmans and starts off stomping some of our ecclesiastical toes in the introduction and first chapter before settling into six chapters of what amounts to an Old Testament Bible study. These chapters are rich, albeit long, and are meant to show us that the way of Jesus falls in line with and further illumines the way that God has expected His people to walk throughout history. The final three chapters of the book contrast the way of Jesus with the ways and means of some of His contemporaries. Peterson insightfully explores the answers to three questions:

• Why didn’t Jesus adopt the Donald-Trump-like, bigger-is-better way of Herod or the intense, moral-purist, preserve-God’s-tradition way of the Pharisees?
• Why didn’t Jesus follow the affluent-religious-professional way of Caiaphas or the radical, anti-corrupt-religion ways of the Essenes?
• Why didn’t Jesus buy into the charismatic-celebrity, play-both-sides way of Josephus or the might-makes-right way of the Zealots?

Jesus rejected or just plain ignored all of the popular leadership styles of His day and walked a different path, a path of suffering submission to God that only finds its way in us through the life and language of prayer.

A couple of other thoughts that struck me as I read The Jesus Way:

• I love the rich, colorful way that Peterson writes, but sometimes I think he could be more efficient with his words. Sometimes the middle and latter chapters seemed to drag on. (See, I’m a product of my culture, aren’t I?) In all those words, though, were many nuggets of pure gold wisdom.
• Speaking of nuggets, some of the best thoughts about prayer I’ve read as of late are in the last three chapters of this book.
• This is a nit-picky point, but it caught my attention. After a rather long, but interesting discussion contrasting the non-violent way of Jesus to the violent ways of the Zealots, I was surprised that Peterson never addressed passages like Matthew 11:12 where Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.”
• After beginning with a rant against the programmatic and impersonal American church, the book surprised me with an interesting thought toward the end. Peterson, who sometimes sounds overly sympathetic to those who want to throw off the ritual and regulation of church, said that “without the protection of ritual and doctrine and authority, Christian spirituality is vulnerable to reduction and desecration.” Comparing the organization of the church to the dead bark of a tree and the organism (people and life) of the church to the tree’s inner life, Peterson wisely points out that “while the bark both hides and protects the cambium, it does not create it. The bark is dead. And neither do religious institutions create life….” (page 232).

All in all I commend Peterson’s latest “conversation” to you. Again, if you get the book for no other reason but to read the introduction (and I would add the first chapter), then picking up a copy of The Jesus Way is the way to go.

Getting Teens to "Do Hard Things"

I can't wait to read a new book that releases this week. Do Hard Things is written by teenagers for teenagers. Authors/brothers, Brett and Alex Harris comment on the book in the first of a five-part interview on The Point:

"We’re calling our peers to rethink the teen years and rebel against the low expectations society has for young people. The book is really the outgrowth of our conviction that God is doing something huge in our generation. We believe there is so much for to the teen years and to life, and it starts with understanding the way God has created us to grow and thrive: by doing hard things."

[HT: The Point blog]

Pray for Your Wife

Last summer I came across a little book called How To Pray for Your Wife: A 31-Day Guide and it has become an important part of my daily prayer life. Mark A. Weathers, a Presbyterian pastor, translated his love for biblical Hebrew into this practical prayer guide for his wife based on Proverbs 31. I have found that praying through this guide for my wife each month changes the way I look at her, think of her, talk to her, and talk about her in front of the children and others.

The following sample from the book is especially timely in light of new research that reveals that having a husband creates more housework for women, while having a wife creates less housework for men (HT: the evangelical outpost):

Day 7: Service

Proverbs 31:14 "She is like trade ships; she brings her food from a great distance."

Explanation

What a great analogy to describe the excellent woman! In this verse she is compared to a fleet of merchant ships that have sailed a great distance to bring back supplies.In today's culture we could use the analogy of supply plane, a fleet of eighteen-wheelers, or even a freight train--all of which travel far and wide to carry supplies.

The woman is undaunted in her service of providing for her family. Whether the children are sick or the husband is at work, the woman goes to great lengths to bring them "her bread" (the literal translation). She delights to serve her family.

Regardless of the time or culture, the role of a servant has never been a popular title. Servants have dirty jobs. Servants get no rest. Yet this is how Christ Jesus continually referred to himself: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ranson for many" (Mark 10:45). The whole drama of Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection is a picture of God traveling a great distance to give us heavenly bread. The role of a servant, therefore, is a Christlike occupation. As a woman serves, she has the great opportunity to reflect the Savior.

Suggested Prayer

1. Lord, as my wife serves the family and me, enable her to see that it is a service rendered for you. Let her service be a sweet offering of praise to you.
2. Father, I know that I am not exempt from serving. On the contrary, as the head of this house it is my responsibility to set the example of service. Help me also to serve joyfully so as to reflect you.
3. As I see my wife "travel" to serve me, let me never take it for granted. Remind me to praise her for her selfless service.

[The book then gives the reader space to write his own prayers for his wife as well as a place to record answers to specific prayers.]

Some of my [Jimmy] suggested uses for the book:

1. You might try it yourself for a month first. Don't tell your
wife that you're doing this. See if she notices how your consistent prayer for her changes the way you love, serve, and honor her.

2. Get a small of group of men to commit together to using the prayer guide for a month. Get together weekly, once in the middle or at the end of the month to discuss what God has done in your heart and your relationship with your wife during the process.

3. Use this book to help disicple a younger man or newlywed in the ways of supporting his wife in prayer. (Pastors: require your pre-marital counselees to use this book during the counseling period before the wedding. Perhaps these soon-to-be-husbands will develop a pattern of persistent prayer for their new brides that will continue after the knot has been tied.)

Cross Shaped Quotes

Thanks to Jared over at The Gospel-Driven Church for pointing out Of First Importance, a blog that catalogs great gospel-centered quotes from past to present. Here's a sample:

Christianity In A Sentence
“The essence of the Christian religion consists in this, that the creation of the Father, devastated by sin, is restored in the death of the Son of God, and recreated by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God.”
- Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol 1

Culture Matters

Today's "Breakpoint Commentary" by Chuck Colson features my friend T. M. Moore's recently published Culture Matters: A Call for Consensus on Christian Cultural Engagement.

Colson on the back cover of the book: "This is far and away the best and most important of T. M. Moore's many excellent books. As one of the premier Christian thinkers today, Moore presents a magnificent case for Christian cultural engagement. Well worth reading."

Life Verses

Catherine Claire, one of the bloggers at The Point, offers this look at the new One Year Life Verse Devotional, a book that explores the favorite "life verses" of today's Christian leaders. I've written about my life verses in another post on this blog, but I'm wondering what yours might be and how God has used it to shape you over the years. Leave your comments here.

Redeeming Pop Culture 5 :: My Concluding Thoughts

Pop Goes the Wizard
For me, reading this book was like watching Dorothy's dog, Toto, pull the curtain to reveal that the Wizard of Oz was just a little man turning knobs and throwing levers. Many Christians are cowering in fear before the smoke, fire, and thundering intimidation of today's pop culture, while the world, the flesh, and the devil are urging us to pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain. Redeeming Pop Culture fearlessly pulls back the curtain and shows us that there’s nothing to fear. Better yet, we can reach out to and redeem pop culture with the confidence that God is our Father and this is our Father's world. In this postmodern era we're definitely "not in Kansas anymore", but the Author is still big enough to use even pop culture to help us and our students find our way Home.

Redeeming Pop Culture 4 :: It Will Require Discipline

Jimmy: What will a “kingdom approach” to popular culture look like in our postmodern society?

TM: It will look like Christians growing in grace, taking seriously their calling to follow Christ in every area of their lives, talking with one another about what in the world is going on around us, working to understand the times in which we live, as these are expressed in pop culture (among other things), enjoying and creating pop culture forms that are pleasing to God and can advance His Kingdom, and using pop culture as a vehicle with which to initiate dialog with the people around us.

Jimmy: Sounds like a lot of work.

TM: Yes, but then the Christian life is a lot of work (Phil 2:12, 13). We can’t choose not to work hard at being Christians. There is a yoke to wear and a burden to bear. We can choose to work hard and smart, however, rather than in a way that has no purpose or bearing on our citizenship in the Kingdom.

Jimmy: What do you mean by “redeeming pop culture”? How do we do that?

TM: Pop culture is a gift of God (Ps. 68:18), but much of it is currently in the hands of the enemy. We need to “liberate” pop culture so that it can join us in the service of the King and His Kingdom. We need to pray about pop culture and those who create it. We should become more intelligently and spiritually involved with pop culture. We should encourage those Christians who are trying to create pop culture forms of real beauty, goodness, and truth. And we should enjoy pop culture in a way that helps us realize more of the fullness of Kingdom life as we journey together to our everlasting home.

Jimmy: Why should youth workers, parents, and students think so hard about pop culture?


TM: Because pop culture is, above all cultural involvement, the culture of young people. It will either overwhelm them and “kudzuize” their entire lives, or we will teach them to enter the arena of pop culture as conquerors and liberators for Christ, ready and able to reconstruct the fastest-growing segment of our culture in a way that reflects the honor, glory, goodness, beauty, and truth of King Jesus.



To be continued...

Redeeming Pop Culture 3 :: Critique and Taste

Jimmy: Part of our approach to pop culture, it seems to me, would be to exercise some critical judgment on the various forms we might choose to enjoy. First, is it OK for Christians to enjoy pop culture?

TM: It is always OK for Christians to take joy, delight, and pleasure in anything God does.

Jimmy: But not all pop culture does that.

TM: Certainly not.

Jimmy: So we need to make judgments. In making those judgments, what standards should we use, and teach parents and students to use?

TM: Scripture speaks in terms of such ideas as beauty, goodness, and truth. The idea of beauty relates to the aesthetic value of something, the ability an artist demonstrates in combining forms, using the various elements of genre, and so forth in ways that reflect the beauty of God and His creation. The idea of goodness relates to the end for which something is created. Can we discern in a pop culture form any kind of end that might, for example, be pleasing to God and beneficial to people? Finally, the notion of truth gets at consistency with the teaching of God’s Word. If we can teach people to discern beauty, identify goodness, and ferret out truth, we’ll be helping to equip them to deal with pop culture effectively.

Jimmy: Can you give us an example?

TM: Let’s take the “Matrix” series of films. These are beautifully made movies, albeit somewhat dark (reminiscent of the film noir productions). I prefer the first move to the others, but that’s usually the case with sequels. They make a good use of characters, dialog (at least in places), plot, and imaginative shooting and settings. Their purpose seems to be to cast doubt on the idea that this material world in which we live is the last word in reality. There must be something more, something beyond this “matrix” of getting and spending (our temporal/material existence) that is determinative of everything else. I would describe that as a good purpose, to get people to think about this as a real possibility. Truth? To some extent the “Matrix” movies touch on issues of truth – good vs. evil, the existence of God, the reality of prophecy, the limits of technology, and so forth. These issues are broached, but not considered very systematically. There’s plenty of room for people discussing such issues to inject their own thoughts and ideas.

Jimmy: All of us have our own “tastes” or personal preferences when it comes to consuming pop culture. I have different tastes than some of the students I work with. Am I wrong to say that some of what tastes good to them is distasteful to me?

TM: No, not at all. The key is to be able to understand both our own tastes and those of others, and to regard one another with deference and respect in talking about our tastes. Taste should be regarded as a kind of spiritual discipline, according to Frank Burch Brown. That is, we can raise the bar of our tastes, broaden our ability to understand and appreciate many different kinds of cultural forms, but we need to work at it. We should look to our Christian past to see what represented good taste in the areas of beauty, goodness, and truth among believers in previous generations. We should also let Scripture guide us, as it teaches us how to direct and develop our affections, for example (Scripture does not, for example, glorify violence the way pop culture does – we should nurture our affections accordingly). And we should look to Christians who are involved in pop culture – as well as to developments in pop culture generally – in order to discern what “new things” God might be doing by His Spirit in that realm.





To be continued...

Redeeming Pop Culture 2 :: A Kingdom Approach

Jimmy: Why do so many people seem to be concerned about pop culture?

TM: Probably because they perceive pop culture as subversive of traditional values and a serious outlook on life. While I wouldn’t agree with that assessment – at least not entirely – I think there is some truth to it. However, since as Christians we can’t avoid pop culture, we need to be able to deal with it in a manner consistent with our Biblical worldview.

Jimmy: Should a Christian approach to popular culture differ from the way other people approach it?

TM: Yes, very much so. I would say that our approach to pop culture should be similar to our approach to everything else in life: a Kingdom approach that is consistent with our Kingdom calling as followers of Christ.

Jimmy: Before we talk about that, explain what you mean by our “kingdom calling”.

TM: Instead of thinking about our discipleship in purely individualistic terms – what the Gospel does for me, for instance – Christians need to realize we are called to the experience and advancement of the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom is a unique sphere of existence, with a destiny, character, and daily outworking that are determined by God’s glorious plan for His creatures.

Jimmy: How should this kingdom calling inform our approach to pop culture as youth workers and parents?

TM: Well, if, as the Scriptures teach, the Kingdom of God is unfolding around us, exerting violence, as Jesus put it (Mt. 11.12) against the existing domains, whatever they may be, then we should expect that Kingdom to have transforming effects on everything in its path. We are the citizens of that Kingdom, and we bear it violently against the powers and principalities – spiritual and human – that we encounter around us. We should therefore expect that our Kingdom experience will transform all we touch according to the glorious plan and purposes of God. But unless we learn to think like Kingdom people, live like Kingdom people, and pursue the Kingdom as our first priority in every area of our lives – including our involvement with pop culture – then we will never realize the full and abundant life Christ has promised us, nor will we turn the world upside-down for Him.

To be continued...

Redeeming Pop Culture :: A Youth Pastor's Interview

When I was on staff at Cedar Springs EPC, I worked under T. M. Moore, author of Redeeming Pop Culture. Over the next few days I'll post parts of my interview with him about the book.

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When your boss writes a book, it's always in your best interest to read it...especially when your boss writes a book on a topic that directly affects your ministry to students and their parents. So, I recently sat down with T.M. Moore, Pastor of Teaching Ministries at our church, and asked him some questions about his latest book, Redeeming Pop Culture: A Kingdom Approach (P & R Publishers, 2003, 157 pages).

As a youth pastor, I've been greatly helped by this theologically practical look at how Christians can engage, and even enjoy, our postmodern popular culture. Yes, I said enjoy. I have to admit that when I first heard about this book I was apprehensive due to how we Christians typically approach pop culture: we are cynical about it, dismiss it, disregard it, or boycott it. Christians seem to enrage the producers of pop culture more than we engage them. So, I was pleasantly surprised to read that Christians could not only engage pop culture, but also could actually enjoy it and employ it for the sake of the gospel! But that is not to say that the book suggests that Christians never critique pop culture. In fact, there is a chapter entitled "Judging Popular Culture" in which we are taught how to examine pop culture through a biblical understanding of beauty, goodness, and truth.

Kudzu, Culture, and the Kingdom
Listen in as I ask T.M. a few questions about his book:

Jimmy: T.M., you begin your book by comparing pop culture to kudzu. First, for our non-southern readers, tell us what kudzu is. Then tell us why you think it makes a great metaphor for pop culture.

T.M.: Well, kudzu, as you know, Jimmy, is a rather tenacious vine which was imported to the south in the hope that, since it grows so quickly, it might prove useful as cattle food. It did not, however, although it is used for erosion control and even some landscaping. Unchecked, however, it grows over everything – trees, whole copses, telephone poles and wires, even homes – so that the shape of those things is recognizable still, but all you can see is kudzu.

Jimmy: Let’s ask the obvious question right up front, so we’re all on the same page: What is Pop Culture?

TM: Pop culture is a form of American and world culture which cuts across all other types of culture and features a variety of forms, all of which are designed to deliver an entertainment of one kind or another. Pop culture forms include TV, film, music, various types of literature (romance novels, magazines, and so forth), and even sports. Its principle characteristics are its ubiquity, diversity, short-term longevity, dedication to entertainment, and concern for a healthy bottom line.

To be continued...

Books on Engaging Culture

Our friend Tullian Tchividjian has a great list of recommended books on engaging culture from a Christian perspective. I would also add Culture Matters and Redeeming Pop Culture by T. M. Moore.

unChristian

There's a new book out, and I don't have it...yet. It's called unChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters, by Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, sponsored by the Fermi Project. But I have checked out the website and have started listening to the podcast interviews. The interviews are short (10-12 minutes each) and are making me think hard about how I represent Christ to those who don't know Him. They're worth a listen.