Happy Birthday Elvis!

I know I'm a day late, but shouldn't Elvis' birthday be a national holiday? Just musing.

Fairview Staff

We are blessed with a great staff at Fairview! Here is the group at our recent Christmas party. There are a couple of folks not here, but by and large this is it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Patton Family!

Christmas @ Biltmore

Lesa and I spend a day at the Biltmore in Ashville just before Christmas. We'd never been, and it was beautiful. One of the highlights of our Christmas season! Not a bad looking couple don't you think.

The Media and Jesus

Darrell Bock has insight on how Christians should respond to the next "blockbuster" book, movie, or whatever.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/december/22.40.html

In my own classes in NT and the church I pastor, I am attempting to cover some of these issues. I think it is more than necessary; it is essential.

Which "Emergent?"

You have heard of the Emerging Church. Which of the following "emergents" are you?

• The Mergent Church--when two or more struggling congregations decide to get together and struggle in a larger setting.
• The So-urgent Church--when the congregation is in a really big hurrty to finish the worship service because kickoff is at noon.
• The Re-emergent Church--when an Emerging Church congregation decides it is not emerged enough, so they get new, more comfortable couches for worship and replace their previous praise music with something more trendy.
• The Submergent Church--when a congregation tries all the latest trends and their people keep leaving to attend the popular mega-church down the street.
• The Unmergent Church--when a congregation splits and becomes two churches.
• The Dis-emergent Church--when a congregation gets tired of sitting on couces and drinking Starbucks and decides to go back to the boring old worship services they grew up with.

[Michael Duduit, Preaching].

The Preacher's Pledge

I ran across this in the recent Preaching.

I PLEDGE TO MAKE THE BIBLE

My primary resource in sermon preparation and preaching.

I may use other resources such as commentaries and websites
to enhance, not replace, my personal interaction with Scripture.

As I study I will strive to accurately understand and honestly
apply God's Word, allowing Him to uniquely proclaim His truth
in a relevant way through me.

May we all take this pledge!!

Wikipedia

Mark Goodacre has a recent blog entry on Wikipedia...

http://ntgateway.com/weblog/2007/12/students-should-use-wikipedia-says-its.html

Just as Goodacre, I have encouraged my students to not allow Wikipedia to be their primary source, but I think it is o.k. to use it secondarily. Students should always check Wikipedia against other sources. In other words, it is always 'Researcher Beware.'

Gospel of Judas

A recent blog by Al Mohler called my attention to an article recently written by Greg Tomlin of BP. In it, a Rice University professor has declared that the Gospel of Judas does not declare Judas a hero but a demon. You can read the article for youself.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=26763

As usual, you should always be skeptical of "new findings" that will "shake" Christianity's foundations. National Geographic, as all the others, excelled in hyperbole but was short on reality.

[By the way Greg did his Ph.D. work at Southwestern at the same time I did; I appreciate the work he does with BP. He is an excellent journalist.]

Calvinist Pastors in the SBC

Here is an interesting story in BP about the number of SBC pastors who espouse Calvinism.

http://www.baptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=26914

Ehrman, Metzger, and the Historical Jesus

Dan Wallace has an interesting take on remarks made by Bart Ehrman at this week's SBL meeting in San Diego. For those ineterested in the historical Jesus, this is well worth the time.

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2007/11/19/the-historical-metzger/

Good One

I read this in a sermon lately: "Some church members are B.P.O.--Burial Purposes Only!

[Frank Harrington, "It's Decision Time]

Small Churches

I really appreciate recent blog entries by Rodney Decker and Dave Black on the importance of supporting small churches. Both are members of smaller congregations. I currently do not pastor a small church; our congregation runs between 500 and 600 on Sunday mornings, but for over 20 years I served smaller congregations.

My wife grew up in a small church; her youth group was her and one other for the most part. She does not feel badly that she missed out on VBS every year, nor does she feel slighted about not going to camps and attending the youth events kids in the larger churches take for granted. She fondly remembers growing up in a church where everyone knew and cared for everyone else.

It is getting harder for the smaller church to "compete" with the churches that have the programs and all the bells and whistles. Sometimes smaller churches have a bit of an inferiority complex because they can't offer what the other churches do. Smaller churches, however, have what larger churches primarily do not--intimacy. Everyone knows when you're there and when you're not. You don't have to wonder about names on the prayer list you don't know. You don't have to wonder whose going to minister to you when life is difficult--the church will--all of them.

I'll never forget that when my son was born, everyone and I mean everyone came to our home and celebrated our first child with us. That doesn't happen in larger churches.

I celebrate the small church. My prayer is that in a day when many believers think bigger is better, they'll consider that often that is not the case. Perhaps they need to join or remain in that church with 100 or less. It may not have all the bells and whistles, but when did that matter to God?

Worship

In preparing for a message about worship I came across this quote from Franklin Segler. He writes, "A church can remain alive only as it continually comes to God in worship" [Christian Worship, 73]. Our mission is to make disciples, but our life is worship.

Bad PowerPoint

Got this from the DBO blog. Anyway, I hate PowerPoint; I do think it hurts learning and interaction. Yet, I use it every week in class. Am I a hypocrite? Probably!

Height of Goliath

I preached last Sunday on 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. During my study, I read articles in the recent Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society that deal with the height of Goliath. The NKJV states that Goliath's height was 'six cubits and a span.' Traditionally, it is thought that Goliath was well over eight feet tall, perhaps well over nine feet tall.

In the December 2005 edition of JETS, J. Daniel Hays argued that Goliath was only about 6'9" tall. He based his argument on a Dead Sea Scroll text, major early LXX texts, the fact that Goliath is never called a giant in the narrative [he is called a 'champion'], and the fact that the overall thrust of the narrative is the comparison between Saul and David. Hays argues that Saul should have been the one to fight Goliath; they were close to the same size.

Clyde Billington responds to Hays [and Hays responds to Billington] in this edition of the journal. He believes the MT reading is original, and Goliath was over 8 feet tall. Billington spends much of his article dealing with the Anakim giants of the Bible and in Egyptian texts, which Billington believe essentially agree.

This is a pretty good scholarly "smack-down," and a very interesting discussion. I suggest that you get hold of the article and make up your own mind. You might also want to track down Hays' original article to get his full argument. He makes a pretty convincing case, but I wonder if David's courage against Saul's fear is the only reason for the longest war narrative in the "David story." Would Saul have feared Goliath if they were essentially the same size? Perhaps, but I wonder?

Halo 3

I'm constantly amazed at how we attempt to use worldly means to get people in church. Halo 3 is being used by some youth ministers to attract young men.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?th&emc=th

Does anyone see any contradictions here?

Mission Statement & Core Values

It has been popular for several years now for churches to come up with mission/vision and core value statements. I believe both can be helpful to define a church. I officially unveiled our new statements yesterday.

Missions statements should be short and to the point. Ours is: "The purpose of Fairview Baptist Church is to make disciples." When you get right down to it, this is the reason churches are in business. Our core values undergird the mission statement and call attention to how we'll carry it out. First, we value Scripture. Obviously everything a church does must be based upon the truths of God's Word. Second, we value celebrative worship. The word "celebrative" is used to remind us that we are to love God with everything that's in us. Third, we value relational evangelism and discipleship. "Relational" is important because both evangelism and discipleship are best done through building relationships.

Our church's purpose then is to make disciples. We do that through building relationships with lost people and an effort to win them to Christ, assimilating those won into small-groups to learn about Christ and His will, continually celebrating the goodness and grace of God through worship, and building a foundation under all of us that is Scripture based.

A strong church can be built on these principles!

Great Story

Here is a great story about a young man accepting Christ. I especially like it because this happened in our neck-of-the woods. Lyman is just down the road from us and the music director quoted served for years at Fairview.

http://www.baptistcourier.com/1978.article

Alocohol Survey

I was pleased by poll results on a survey taken concerning the consumption of alcohol. See the results in the following story.

http://www.bpnews.org/bpnews.asp?id=26564

If I could destroy the alcohol business I would do so today. I've seen too many lives and families destroyed by it.