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A lot of people ask "why" we do Film & Theology and "how" we approach it, and I hope to address the basic questions - and objections - in this 10-part instructional series. It's my hope that it won't just lead to edification and personal transformation, but ultimately replication leading to more glorification of the God we love and live for.

For more on film & theology, engaging culture and redefining entertainment, go to cinemagogue.com.

"101" establishes the basic premise essential to this engagement: that the one true God of the Universe is not only the ultimate Storyteller, but Protagonist in the greatest story that encompasses all our lives. This explains our image-bearing impulse to be storytellers whether we acknowledge him or not.

Doctrine Book

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe is available now. Read a free chapter and find out more.

People Don't Trust the Church Anymore

Organized religion's trust levels are only a few percentage points higher than that of our politicians—and that is a grave problem for the church. The majority of Americans, over three quarters of them, view organized religion with the same suspicion they do politicians, who are often associated with incredible self-interest and pettiness.

People View the Church as a Dead Organization

This low view of organized religion has not led to an outbreak of atheism. Spiritual things are still a hot topic in many people's lives and still have incredible influence over how people live their lives. Many people will say things like, "I'm spiritual, but not religious," or, "I can have a relationship with God, but I don't need to belong to a church." These statements are indicative of the wider attitude towards church: the church as an organism and organization is no longer seen as a credible source to know God or find life. Instead, the church looks like a horse and carriage in a world of automobiles—tolerated, but not the best way to get around.

How to Build Trust: Humility and Sacrifice

That is why establishing trust is so important. Trust is the bedrock of all quality relationships, so if the church needs a restoration of its relationships, it will need to renew trust with others. At the core of all churches is relationship—relationship to one another, relationship to the leadership, and relationship to the organization. When trust within the church is broken, just as in all relationships, the whole edifice crashes. The church has a moral imperative, then, to not just retreat into an enclave and perpetuate a community where trust is already established, but to do the hard work of restoring trust with individuals and communities.

But sadly this is often not the case. To the outside world the church seems to be full of hypocrites, money-hungry leaders, and hateful people. This is also the experience of many Christians who now walk with a spiritual or emotional limp because the church broke their trust. Many Christians have experienced the fallout of leaders who covered their sin because their church or vision was more important than their individual righteousness or morality.

Some churches have been captured by false teaching that leave people wounded and starving for the one true God. Many have seen church people preach one thing and then turn around and do another, leaving them wondering, "Can the church really be a place where we can practice what we preach?" and "Can this really be a place that has treasure for the outside world?"

The Blueprint for Trust: Stop Pretending

The blueprint for building trust is simple. It does not involve any new thinking or teaching, but actually rediscovering something very old: the gospel.

The gospel message has two embedded characteristics that are vital for trust: humility and sacrifice. Trust is never built on perfection, but on the ability to own up to our mistakes and flaws. We also see this with church membership: the church is one of the only organizations in the world where the absolute requirement for membership is failure. You have to own up to your bankruptcy before God.

We must stop pretending that we have performed for God—that is the only way to build trust.

Scandalous

In Scandalous, world-renowned theologian D.A. Carson unpacks the meaning of the most scandalous event in history: the death and resurrection of Jesus. Get the book.

It's not often that we create something that we think every man needs to watch. This video is one of those you must see. We made it to announce the new book, Church Planter, and we think every reader of the Resurgence should read it ASAP.

Watch the video:

Darrin Patrick, vice president of the Acts 29 network and a veteran church planter himself is one of the most qualified men on the planet to write this book. It is written for Church Planters, but will challenge any man (really any person) to follow Christ with everything he's got.

This book is a call for God's men to rise to their calling to be the men God's called them to be, with the Word God has called them to preach, on the mission God has called them to. Seriously... Get a group of guys together and read this book.

What to do now?

Share this video with friends on facebook, twitter, and email.

Buy Church Planter on Amazon.

Come to the A29 bootcamp in Seattle where Darrin Patrick and others will teach the ideas of Church Planter.

The Theology of the Body: Click | View Series

Your Gender Matters

As embodied creatures, human beings are either male or female (Gen. 1:26-27); indeed, gender is a fundamental reality of human existence. God does not create a generic human being and then add on gender; rather, he creates a human being either as a male person or as a female person. Human genderedness means that a man is conscious of and knows himself as a man, he relates to other human beings as a man, and as a man he relates to God.

Similarly, it means that a woman is conscious of and knows herself as a woman, she relates to other human beings as a woman, and as a woman she relates to God. Try as I might, even urged on by my wife, I cannot see life from her—a woman’s—perspective! Human beings are perspectivally gendered—as designed by God.

Accordingly, men and women should be thankful for the gender with which God created them, and any sense of superiority or inferiority because they are male or female is wrong and dangerous. Gender differences should be celebrated, and men and women should learn to enjoy personal, pure relationships with the other gender (1 Tim. 5:1-2).

Sexuality and Marriage

An important aspect of gender, and hence of human embodiment, is sexuality. Indeed, God created human beings as both male and female so that they could fulfill the mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). This universal command means that the majority of people will be married, and the biblical portrait is that marriage is between a man and a woman who commit themselves to living in a monogamous relationship. Sexual intercourse is to be enjoyed within the bounds of this covenantal framework and is designed for several purposes, including pleasure, procreation, a guard against immorality, and unity.

Tragically, the fall into sin wreaks havoc with human sexuality, and Scripture presents instructions intended to help people overcome temptation and failure in this area. For example, Paul denounces sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:12-12), urging Christians to flee from it. Elsewhere (1 Thess. 4:3-8) he commands married people to engage in sexual activity in a God-honoring and spouse-respecting manner while avoiding immorality. The close relationships that Christians enjoy with one another should never be allowed to cross the lines of proper morality so that members defraud one another by taking that which does not belong to them.

Sexuality and Singleness

Paul also addresses the reality of singleness (1 Cor. 7:7-9). This state, like that of marriage, is a gift of God (v. 7). Paul’s preference is that people remain single (v. 8), for celibacy offers many advantages (1 Cor. 7:25-40), including avoidance of troubles and anxieties, and promotion of “undivided devotion to the Lord” (v. 35). The advantages of singleness are many, yet only those to whom this gift is given should remain single (v. 9). Those with the gift of celibacy are not asexual beings who lack sexual desire, but they are able to control those urges by channeling them in God-honoring ways. Lacking such self-control, people should pursue getting married so they are not overwhelmed by sexual desire and thus fall into immorality.

We are certainly aware of the many troubles Christians and the church encounter in this area: rampant sexual immorality, adultery, homosexuality, sexual abuse, pornography, prostitution, and other problems. Cognizant of these many challenges, we should never lose sight of the fact that human sexuality and sexual intercourse between married couples are wonderful gifts from God for his embodied creatures, gifts that should be celebrated and enjoyed.

To be continued.

2010 Seattle Bootcamp

The biggest church planting event we've ever done. September 29-30 in Seattle. Church Planter: A29 National Bootcamp.

Justification by X: Click | View Series

Church Math

As kids, I bet most of us reading this post probably hated math—all the subtracting, borrowing, and dividing. These are all words that make pastors nervous. No wonder teachers called them "problems."

But as we aged and began ministry, something miraculous happened and we suddenly fell in love with numbers. In fact, we learned the whole new subject called "church math," like baptisms, budgets, and Sunday service attendance. The number of things to count became almost endless and almost fun—that is, as long as the numbers were up. But if the numbers went down, especially the Sunday attendance number, our spirits would often go down with them. And that is a problem indeed.

Our Relationship With Attendance

I am not against counting things when it comes to church. The old adage which says, "We count people because people count" may be trite, but it is true. We should count the things that we keep track of. But all of us will readily admit that there is something suspicious going on with our relationship with the attendance figure. I believe it is because, at times, we look to it to justify ourselves and our ministries.

The equations on the chalkboard of our heart usually go something like this:

Lots of people = Visible success in ministry = I am happy

Fewer people = Failure in ministry = I am depressed

Anybody else think that math is a little fuzzy?

Here are a few tips to help us clear things up.

1. Define yourself by what Jesus did on the cross, not what you do on Sunday.

Though we all know this is true, we often struggle to believe it when it counts. To see change happen, we must do what it takes to write this gospel truth on our hearts, so that it is ready when we need it most. As we grow in our ability to use the gospel in daily life, we will be better equipped to fight the enemy's lies.

2. Be careful with counting.

As I said before, I'm not telling you not to keep track of things. I’m simply saying that we recognize attendance records can be like handguns—helpful in some situations and dangerous in others. Ask yourself questions like, “Why am I watching the attendance so closely? For Jesus or for me?” Remember, our worth as followers of Jesus and as pastors is not wrapped up in how many people attend our services, but in the gospel.

3. Be careful with how you define success.

Though our “bigger is better” mentality may tempt us to think otherwise, a big crowd doesn’t necessarily signify a faithful ministry. In fact, as we study the Scriptures we see a number of “successful” preachers who weren’t always surrounded by huge crowds—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and at times, even Jesus. While we can take heart in this fact, we must also guard ourselves from going too far in the other direction as well. Pastoring a small church doesn’t necessarily make us more faithful, just as pastoring a large church doesn’t make us unfaithful.

4. Be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Nearly every pastor I know struggles with this issue. Will you join me in serving your fellow strugglers and not let “So what are you guys running these days?” be the first question you ask your pastor friends the next time you talk to them? Ask about their soul, their family, or how they are engaging their community. As we do, I think we will do the kingdom a great service.

Our justification is in the gospel, not how many people attend our services. What are you looking to for your justification today?

Missional Ecclesiology

Re:Train professor Gregg Allison explains the missional church in his blog series on Missional Ecclesiology.

Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the video.

In this short interview clip, Pastor Mark asks bestselling author Randy Alcorn what people should read if they've never read any of his books and want an introduction to his writings.

Here are the books he mentioned:

Nonfiction:

• The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance (Randy's favorite)
• Heaven (Pastor Mark calls it "the standard on the subject")
• If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil
• Money, Possessions, and Eternity

Fiction:

• Safely Home
• Deception

For Children:

• Heaven for Kids

See all the parts of this interview posted so far.

ESV Study Bible

The ESV Study Bible is our Bible of choice. To show how good the notes are, we’ve posted some free study notes on the Trinity. Read them here.