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I have a confession.  The other day I actually watched almost a full episode of King of the Hill.  While I do find the show moderately funny, this is way out of the norm for me.  Typically, if it does not involve ESPN I am not interested in the TV, but this show caught my attention.

As you may know, Hank works at Strickland Propane and is passionate about his job of selling propane and propane accessories.  After seeing an ice cream store that appeared to be a fun place to work, Hank’s boss, Buck, decides to make a few changes to the store in an effort to make it a “fun” place to work and for people to shop.  In order to do this he forces his workers to wear costumes to work, have sleepovers in the office, use stupid selling jingles, ring a bell and sing a song when some buys a tank of propane, and sell the propane in three sizes: Like it, Love it, Blow Your Hair Back It’s So Big.   In this episode, Hank’s job is to somehow convince his co-workers that their boss has gone mad and that people have forgotten why they work at Strickland Propane in the first place.  For Hank, it’s not about the extra stuff, but the propane. 

As I read and write, I often feel like Hank Hill in this episode.  If I could only have the hours of my life back that I have wasted learning stupid church sells tactics.  We have missed the point.  Somehow in the process of “doing church” we have missed God and we have taught other people to do the same. 

As the summer comes to a close and the school year begins I want to suggest that maybe the church needs to go back to school. 

I am weird, but I miss it.  This week many young men and women will get the opportunity to go back to school and I won’t.  The year marks the second year since I was five that I will not be in school and I don’t like it.  Now granted, I did not like school in middle and high school, but when I finally got to the point that I actually cared, school became a lot of fun.  I loved learning, loved reading, and loved challenging myself. 

And this passion carried over to the church.  As a young man beginning to walk with the Lord I found myself consumed with learning all I could about my newfound faith in Jesus. However, it was quickly apparent that this was not the case for everyone.  People did not seem to desire to know God.  They showed up for Sunday School, survived church, and enjoyed the week, only to repeat the process again the following week.  They did not know their Bibles, much less how to apply them to their lives.   And to make it worse, many of these people I observed had been Christians for 30-40 years.  I have to agree with Alan Bloom when he says “As the respect for the Sacred - the latest fad - has soared, real religion and knowledge of the Bible have diminished to the vanishing point.” (The Closing of the American Mind, p. 56)

Now most people would not admit it, but they are more than satisfied with some various emotional experiences and a pervasive lack of knowledge of God.  However, when you look at Scripture, this is foreign to the Biblical discussions of what it means to love God.  In fact everywhere you look, Scripture connects love for God with obedience to his commands.

• “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15)
• “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).

And these statements are not hidden in Scripture.  The need for the church to love God with their minds is even found in the two “great” statements in Scripture: the great commandment and the great commission.

The Great commandment states that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).  Did you see it?  You are to love him with your heart and soul, but also with your mind and strength. Clearly, loving God is not just a heart thing, but a head thing as well.

And the second “great” is the Great Commission in which Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19).  Now this verse is a little more difficult to see the point I am trying to make.  We are told to go, make disciples, and baptize them, and then what?  We are to teach them to do everything that God commanded us to do.”  While this passage is often cited as providing the foundation of the mission of the church, many churches fail to work towards the accomplishment of the task of teaching people to do everything that Jesus commanded, a failure Dallas Willard calls the “great omission from the great commission.”[1]  Os Guinness, in his marvelous work Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, points to a condition he calls anti-intellectualism in the church, which he describes as “a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind.”[2]  Unfortunately many Christians and churches fail to love God well with their minds and do not associate learning with the love of God. 

Charles Malik, speaking at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, poignantly says: “I must be frank with you: the greatest danger besetting American Evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism.  The mind, as to its greatest and deepest reaches, is not cared for enough.”[3]  Granted, knowledge of God is not an end in and of itself.  But knowledge of God leads to proper worship of God, which helps to fight against gospel substitutes. 

So over the next few days (or weeks or months) I am going to ponder some of the reasons for the overwhelming lack of knowledge of God in our world and in our churches.  If you have some suggestions, I would love to hear them.

[2] Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to do About It (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 1994), 9.

[3] Quoted in Guinness, Fat Minds, 11.

TSHusker at Doctrine Matters has put together a reading list for children and youth - categorized by age.  Be careful not to allow yourself to read this through a modern lens that tries to dumb-down everthing we do in the church to make it friendly to “seekers”.  You might be shocked at what your 5th grader can read and understand.  Their work here is outstanding.

http://doctrinematters.blogspot.com/2008/07/essential-reading-curriculum-church.html 

Edwards: “Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”

 Introduction[1]

For most of us, there is a vast wilderness between “wanting to” and “getting it done”.  The question is how do you structure your life so that you don’t kills yourself, and yet get stuff done.

 Theological Affirmations about Time

1.      There is a direct connection between godliness and discipline.

1 Timothy 4:7 – “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, of while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.  The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.  For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:7

Notice the point:  Discipline lead to godliness; therefore a lack of discipline leads to ungodliness.  In order to pursue godliness a person must develop a disciplined life. 

2.      While physical discipline is beneficial, discipline in your walk with Jesus must take precedence.

 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?  So run that you may obtain it.  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.”  1 Cor. 9:24-27

3.      Time is short; therefore, precious.

“You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14

4.      You are accountable for how you invest your time.

Romans 14:12 – “so then, each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”

5.      A disciplined life is attainable.

Never complain about having too much to do (see Jesus and Paul)

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Mark 1:35

6.      Discipline is a mental activity before it becomes a physical activity.

“Set you minds on things above.” Col. 3:2

Without the conscious, active, disciplined setting of the direction of our thoughts, they will be unproductive at best, evil at worst.  As Os Guinness says, “we often have fit bodies and fat minds.”

            7.      Effective time use requires effort and focus.

“If the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one succeed.” 

Ecc. 10:10

8.      The nature of this world fights against the disciplined use of time.

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:15-16

9.      Time can be redeemed.

Eph. 5:16 – “redeem the time”

10.   Discipline is not an end, in and of itself, but it is a means to the end of glorifying God in all things.

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Reading List

Compiled by Matt A. Rogers

Anthropology[1]

*                             “Feminine Appeal” by Carolyn Mahaney

**                           “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” by John Piper and Wayne Gruedem

**                           “Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth” by Wayne Gruedem

**                           “50 Critical Questions about Manhood and Womanhood” by Piper and Gruedem

**                           “Created in God’s Image” by Anthony Hoekema

Apologetics

*                             “The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel

*                             “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel

**                           “Reasonable Faith” by William Lane Craig

**                           “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis

**                           “Darwin on Trial” by Phillip Johnson

***                        “The Defense of the Faith” by Cornelius Van Til

Comparative Religions

**                           “Jesus Among Other Gods” by Ravi Zacharias

Culture Critiques

*                             “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman

**                           “The Courage to be Protestant” by David Wells

**                           “God in the Wasteland” by David Wells

**                           “Above All Earthly Powers” by David Wells

**                           “No Place for Truth” by David Wells

**                           “Culture Wars: The Struggle to Dive America” by James Davison Hunter

**                           “The Wages of Spin” by Carl R. Trueman

**                           “Minority Report” by Carl R. Trueman 

**                           “Christ and Culture Revisited” by DA Carson

***                        “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Niebuhr

***                        “Christianity in Culture” by Charles H. Kraft

***                        “The Gagging of God” by DA Carson

***                        “The Fourth Turning” by William Struass and Neil Howe

***                        “The City of God” by Saint Augustine

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The words are so familiar: 

“Jesus Loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so..”