In this mp3 Pastor Scott Golike wants to answer the following questions: 'Have we been misreading Paul's problem with the Judaism of his day, and along with it what he meant by works of the law and justification by faith?' 'Have we been distorting Paul by reading him through the lens of Augustine's fight with Pelagius, and even more so, Luther's fight with Catholicism?' 'Have we, in fact, been misrepresenting the Gospel all this time?' Leading scholars say yes, including N. T. Wright, the most prominent evangelical who thinks so. Is Wright right? Listen to this audio as we look at Scripture together and see if we can get to a an understanding of what this debate is all about.
My friends at Zondervan have recently begun shipping a book titled Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, edited by Dr. Robert Webber. Contributing to the book are five pastors (Karen Ward, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, John Burke, and myself) with varying beliefs on the assigned issues of the Trinity, the atonement, and Scripture. As is common in counterpoint books, we each wrote one chapter, and then briefly responded to the chapters written by the other contributors. We never did meet for the project, but over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting each person in various contexts, so that was helpful in allowing me to understand something of their ministry and theological perspective. Anyone wanting to order the book can do so here. You can also view and download a portion of my chapter that Zondervan has made available here.
Also, beginning on February 6th at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego, each of the contributors will be part of an extended discussion (you can find more information about the conference here. And, Friday June 1- Saturday June 2 we will have the authors in Seattle for an event hosted at Mars Hill Church where we will discuss/dialogue/debate various theological issues that are some of the hot topics among varying streams of the emerging church. The Resurgence will be distributing the sessions for free in case you cannot join us, and also giving the files to the other speakers to distribute as they see fit through their own networks. Sadly, the editor Dr. Robert Webber will not be joining us as his health is not good and I would encourage people to be in prayer for him and his family in this difficult season.
In 2004 Dr. Gerry Breshears, professor at Western Seminary, gave a presentation on the Emerging Church at that time during the Reformission Conference in Seattle, WA. In this audio piece we see Dr. Breshears critique the key players in the Emerging Church Movement up to 2004. The great thing about this mp3 that may be different then some other analysis is that Breshears looks through different writings to expose the theologies that tend to drive this movement. Although the audio is long it is because Brashears is taking questions along with his session. With that said we encourage the liste
I began reading the works of Dr. John Piper as a new Christian in college. I think the first book of his that I read was Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which was very seminal in shaping my understanding of gender roles in the home, church, and culture. A few years back, in conjunction with the release of my first book, The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out, I had the great honor of having Dr. Piper join us for a conference we hosted in Seattle to preach from the Mars Hill pulpit. It was a great joy to have people from my church fill up our room to learn about Jesus. Ever since, Dr. Piper has been something of a rock star to many of our folks. Over the years I have also greatly respected and enjoyed the work of Dr. D. A. Carson, who is one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world today. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Dr. Carson at a recent theological colloquium at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School that included such pastoral theologians as Kent Hughes, Alistair Begg, Bryan Chapell, Ligon Duncan, Phil Ryken and Mark Dever. Needless to say, the group of roughly forty men was the pumped-up, Barry Bonds version of a Bible study. Over the years I have also had the great pleasure of meeting a few times a year with Dr. Tim Keller. He and my friend Dr. Ed Stetzer are the leading missional thinkers in America today, in my opinion. Dr. Keller recently joined us for the Reform and Resurge conference in Seattle (click on the following for the conference audio and video).
The Calvary Chapel movement is one of the most amazing stories in the history of American Christianity. Too often the word revival is thrown around when it is debatable that the Holy Spirit truly showed up in greater intensity than is normally seen. But the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s was indeed a genuine move of God that helped to mark an entire generation. Sadly, out of the countercultural movement of that time came some bizarre cults often based on Eastern mysticism. But there were also some amazing churches and ministries that remained steadfastly devoted to such things as the inerrancy of the Bible, the belief in human sinfulness, the need for Jesus' death and resurrection alone for salvation, and a literal heaven and hell. Under the human leadership of Chuck Smith, the Calvary Chapel movement stands as perhaps the most successful ministry that has remained solid on the essentials of faithful Christianity. As a result they have seen many churches planted and many lives changed through the truth of the Bible and love of God's people. I have a number of dear friends whom I respect very much who are Calvary pastors and I have even attended one of their pastor's conferences for a day just to meet their leaders and learn. I have learned a great deal from their movement about church planting and remaining true to a core of biblical doctrines. Of course, no person, church, or movement is perfect and we could all debate details about the Calvary movement as well as every other Christian group. But what I love about my Calvary brothers and sisters is their devotion to Scripture, expository Bible teaching, focus on Jesus, evangelism, church planting, worship, and loving people. Therefore, when Calvary makes a public statement about something like the Emergent church, it is wise to listen. The following statement was released to 1,400 Calvary pastors and addresses some concerns about the Emergent church. I will not comment on the statement other than to say the concerns are real and shared by many including myself. Also, there is a related story describing how some of this may have also affected Smith's own relationship with his son Chuck Smith Jr., whose church is no longer affiliated with the Calvary Chapel movement according to Publishers Weekly.
