Thank You Note to the History Channel

I am fascinated by the documentaries about church and biblical history that have been running on the History Channel.  Now, don’t be too critical of me for enjoying these shows.  I understand that they are entertainment, full of inaccuracies and biases, but I’m addicted.  In fact, there are four or five episodes that recorded to my DVR today.  It’s after 1AM and I’m still awake watching a fascinating “Cities of the Underworld” about the churches in Ethiopia. 

What is it about these shows that make them so interesting?  I know that I’m not the only one watching or they wouldn’t be putting the money into producing these shows.  I can’t speak for everyone else, but I think I’ve pinpointed the source of my fascination.  They give me a sense of connection with the historical church and the Christian communities of other peoples and cultures.  This is something that has been lacking in the worship in the churches with which I’ve been involved.  If one were to judge by my experiences, they would think that Christianity started with Jesus, stopped with Paul and true worship and practice was lost until sometime around the 1950s and has been going downhill since women started wearing pants and listening to Elvis. Of course, this isn’t the case, but many of the kids coming up in our churches now wouldn’t know it because we’ve failed to educate them. 

Thank you History Channel for reminding me of my own passion for history and for inspiring me continue to incorporate historical context into my preaching and teaching.

Technorati Tags: History, Culture, Worship, Christian Community

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I don’t watch a lot of television. Not that there isn’t anything on that I’d like to see, I just don’t have the opportunity to watch a lot. I spend more time in front of the computer screen than the television. I take in a lot of news, mostly online so that I can pick and choose what’s relevant to me. Occasionally, I’ll watch the local news if there’s a story on that I want to see. So, unless something is making big headlines, I may miss out on it.

Something has caught my eye recently, not on the television, but in public, and I’ve been wondering how I missed it. I’ve seen several folks reading the same book, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. After seeing a third or fourth person walking around with this book tucked in a pocket book or under an arm, it makes you take notice and raises your curiosity a little. I knew nothing about Tolle or his books and I wondered what could be drawing people to him. It wasn’t until encountering some online media concerning the connection between Tolle and Oprah Winfrey that I began to dig for a little more information about why I keep seeing and hearing his name.

I don’t watch Oprah. I never have and probably never will. Even if you don’t personally tune into her show, there’s no question about her influence on American culture. She has a very powerful platform from which to speak and a large segment of our population listens. In January, 2008, Winfrey announced Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth as her book club selection, which undoubtedly helped catapult the book to the top of the NY Times’ bestseller list. This book, subtitled “awakening the purpose in your life” is a modern repackaging of buddhist teaching peppered with christian language to make it more palatable to an audience with a judeo-christian background. Winfrey and Tolle also developed ten online classes, complete with workbooks, newsletters, transcripts, webcasts and podcasts. Winfrey describes Tolle’s book as “one of the most important subjects… presented by one of the most important books of our time.”With Winfrey’s media powerhouse behind him, Tolle has an audience of millions at which to pitch his views. Tolle’s isn’t the first new age media to be catapulted into the limelight by Winfrey. In 2007, it was hard to escape her promotion of “The Secret” another new thought, self-realization vehicle. This is one of the reasons I don’t watch Oprah, but what about the millions who do? Who are they? Who is buying into this new age spirituality? They are regular folk. They are teaching our children. They are sitting in your church pews every Sunday.

For the American church, this means a great deal. We have a serious problem if Oprah Winfrey can equate God, life, conciousness, and universal energy as one and the same and people who call themselves Christians swallow this garbage. I have neither the space nor inclination to identify and address all of the aspects of New Age thought that are being pitched to us on a daily basis, nor do I believe that other ministries need to spend much time dissecting and attacking popular culture and thought. The problem for the church isn’t a lack of people attacking errant teaching. The problem is that there is a lack of clear and concise teaching of Christian doctrine. Those who call themselves Christians do not know what they believe or why because they have been taught a watered-down version of Christianity that looks no different from the latest self-help books. Tolle and others of his strain hold such power over our people because they are, as Scripture describes:

…children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive
(Eph 4:14 KJV)

and

they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
(2Ti 4:3-4 KJV)

They know nothing of the righteousness of God or the depravity of man. They are not taught the consequences of sin or the reality of Hell. They are taught “love thy neighbor” divorced from an understanding of love defined by the sacrificial death and hope found in Jesus Christ. We suffer from weak leadership that has lost faith in the sufficiency of Scripture. Our churches are in desperate need for a return to the advice that Paul gave to Timothy as he prepared to lead the church. Paul says:

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
(1Ti 4:13-16 KJV)

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
(2Ti 4:2 KJV)

No fancy programs. No gimmicks. No new plans or formulas for growth. Paul emphasizes the importance of faithfulness in teaching and applying sound doctrine. He urges us to belief in the sufficiency of Scripture and conformation of our churches and lives to the teaching of God’s Word.

Here are some resources worth considering:

Here We Stand!: A Call from Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern ReformationBy P & R Publishing The church in sixteenth-century Europe needed a reformation. Martin Luther precipitated what we call the Reformation with his famous declaration, “Here I stand!” Is the evangelical church of today equally in need of a reformation? Yes, proclaim eight evangelical leaders: David Wells, James Montgomery Boice, Michael Horton, Sinclair Ferguson, R. Albert Mohler, Gene Edward Veith, W. Robert Godfrey, and Ervin Duggan. “Because of our love of Christ, his gospel, and his church,” they affirm in a document called the Cambridge Declaration, “we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism.” Evangelicals “have abandoned the truths of the Bible and the historic theology of the church, which expresses those truths,” writes coeditor Boice. “We are trying to do the work of God by means of the world’s “theology,” wisdom, methods, and agenda instead.” Here We Stand! calls churches to return to the authority of the Bible and to apply it faithfully in their worship, ministry, policies, life, and evangelism.

The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the GospelBy Mark Dever & Paul Alexander / Crossway Books & Bibles Pastors Mark Dever and Paul Alexander provide a model of a biblical church in this resource for pastors, elders, and others interested in the vitality of their church. This highly practical book proposes an attitude of complete reliance on and submission to the Gospel in building a healthy church.

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Expanded EditionBy Mark Dever / Crossway Books & Bibles Some churches are thriving, while others are barely surviving. What distinguishes a healthy community from one that’s ailing? In this expanded edition of his classic study, Dever identifies nine marks that set a vigorous, biblical congregation apart, including expository preaching, biblical theology, concern for discipleship and growth, biblical church leadership, and more. 287 pages, softcover from Crossway.

Technorati Tags: Eckhart Tolle, New Age, Christian, Doctrine, Scripture