BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Men are the minority in Evangelical churches in Africa...

When did you last hear a church commended for her "manliness?" When did you last hear a missionary talk about the absence of men in Evangelical churches in Africa? Have you ever heard how a Christian "spearman" in Africa keeps the oodles of children in his church in order, or how he deals with the bones in his meat?

The author of the post, James Brinkerhoff, is the nephew of Scott Brinkerhoff. You and your church would do well to remove some of your missionaries who have long since turned away from Biblical doctrine and practice, and fill the holes that your due diligence opens up in your missions budget with Scott and James.

And what about the absence of men in African Evangelical churches? It may be the same reason men are absent or docile in American churches. Pastors run churches through the hard work of compliant women...

Evangelicalism has betrayed the Word of God; let the dead bury the dead...

Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

But Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:21, 22)

Recently, a brother has been faulting me for writing that InterVarsity ought no longer to receive support from our missions giving--whether personal or congregational--and we ought to stop patronizing InterVarsity Press.

As he sees it, such recommendations display a number of spiritual defects in me including especially arrogance and overgeneralization. He points out that InterVarsity has many good chapters that have not yet evangelized for the sodomite perversion in the Name of Jesus and many staff workers who are still the old style of Evangelical Bible-believing Christian. As he sees it, I'm wrong to call for the end of InterVarsity and InterVarsity Press when there's still so much good being done by individuals on their payroll. So here's a short response that goes beyond the shorter responses I've made to him already.

InterVarsity has an illustrious past that includes both my father-in-law and my father holding key positions at the top of the organization. And even after leaving InterVarsity back in the early sixties, Dad sat on the board until around 1982. Then he resigned because he could no longer support the direction the organization was taking. That was thirty years ago and across those intervening years InterVarsity has gotten much worse. In what ways?

InterVarsity Press has been allowed to publish many heterodox and heretical books. Principally, InterVarsity Press has become a consistent advocate of the feminist heresy. It's not simply a matter of an occasional work here and there that pussyfoots around the boundaries on this issue, but rather a clear commitment to opposing God's Order of Creation. I've been party to several private e-mail exchanges between IVP's publisher and pastors and elders expressing concern over this rebellion deeply lodged in IVP's list for decades now, and the publisher has been dismissive of those concerns and the church officers expressing them.

This is no surprise since his parent organization, InterVarsity, has for decades been a proponent of the feminist heresy. IVP is simply a reflection of InterVarsity in this matter. Starting with my friend, Tom Dunkerton, back in the eighties, InterVarsity's presidents have been committed to rebellion against the Word of God's command that woman not teach and exercise authority over man...

Joint Reformation Sunday service in Lynden, WA...

After Lord's Day morning worship at Westminster PCA down in Vancouver, WA, Mary Lee and I will drive up to the US/Canada border for the 6 PM Annual Joint Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Reformation Sunday Worship Service hosted this year by First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden, Washington. I'll preach at the Reformation Sunday service, then speak on...

Heritage Conference in Vancouver, WA, this weekend...

Mary Lee and I are out in the Pacific Northwest for the 2011 Heritage Conference of Westminster PCA in Vancouver, Washington. We're looking forward to the fellowship with the brothers and sisters of Westminster and hope some of you will join us for the weekend.

Our sessions will be Friday evening, Saturday morning and early afternoon, and Lord's Day worship Sunday morning. It's Reformation Sunday this Lord's Day and our titles will be "Reformed Fathers," "Reformed Mothers," "Reformed Children," and "The Church Reformed, Always Reforming."

Here's the info. (TB)

Go for the men and the women will follow...

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men (aner) of Athens...” - Acts 17:22a

Dad gave me a couple pithy exhortations my first year in the pastorate. They weren't original but they carried the weight of his authority and I've passed them on to other pastors. Here are four of them: "Don't use Pardeeville as a stepping stone." "A home-visiting pastor makes a church-going people." "Preach it down; then preach it back up, again." And, "Go for the men and the women will follow."

That last one was deleted from an article on men's ministry I did for Christianity Today's journal, Leadership, back in 1989. Shortly after buying the piece, Leadership's editor left for Focus on the Family. The new editor didn't like the article, so he cut more than half the text and ran it without sending it back to me for approval. Readers won't be surprised Dad's advice "go for the men" didn't make the cut.

Jesus calls twelve men as His Disciples and we're not supposed to notice? Poor Christianity Today. Poor readership. Poor leadership.

I think of Dad's advice all the time. Parachurch organizations and church planters each have their own marketing strategies. Here are a few...

Two questions vs. ten cannons vs. what... (part 1 of 2)

(This is part one of two; here's the second post.)

Anyone who is familiar with Evangelism Explosion's two diagnostic questions...

1. Have you reached the point in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven?
2. If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, "Why should I let you into heaven," how would you answer?

...knows how very effective they can be at revealing a hope of salvation based in good works rather than faith in Jesus.

When D. James Kennedy began Evangelism Explosion in 1962, America's primary Christian influences were mainline Protestantism (whose denominations had reached their numerical peak in the 1950s) and Roman Catholicism. Despite deep sociological differences, these two branches of Christianity were united in teaching a salvation by works: the social gospel in mainline churches; the infused righteousness of Roman Catholicism.

Dr. Kennedy's "Two Questions" provided a powerful tool for addressing the error of both camps.

But Evangelism Explosion (EE) entered the scene at a tipping point in American religious history. For a hundred years America's primary Christian heresy had been the works-based salvation (semi-Pelagianism and Pelagianism) of mainline Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

An exchange over at a blog hosted by First Things...

There's been an exchange concerning Cru/Campus Crusade for Christ International and parachurch organizations over at a blog hosted by First Things. Here's my latest comment. Really, someone should write a book...

Speaking of Campus Crusade for Christ International/Cru...

A blog calling itself "Thinking Christian" with a commendation by Josh McDowell featured prominently doesn't bode well for the state of critical thinking in the church today. Josh has done fine work but he's far from state of the art in the discipline Harry Blamires outlines in his little classic, The Christian Mind (which if you haven't read, you certainly should).

So my hopes weren't high when I started reading the post by blog-owner Tom Gilson titled "Is Campus Crusade Falling Away from Christ?" Gilson works as a "strategic planner" for Campus Crusade for Christ International, so this is an institutional voice speaking, here.

The piece demonstrates the depth of thought and BIblical discernment that, in my observation, has always characterized Cru. Their men seem incapable of receiving substantive criticism or instruction without responding superficially, always telling us their intentions are perfect and God is blessing them with trillions of souls "trusting Jesus."

The superficiality makes sense, though, if you consider that, over the course of years, a man comes to resemble his dog...

From our Water-Finds-Its-Level Department...

Well-known feminist Carolyn Custis James will be in Fort Collins preaching to the women and men of Campus Crusade for Christ International this coming week. The occasion is Cru's National Staff Conference and this is one more indication of the necessity of Christians doing the hard work of removing Cru from their church and individual mission giving.

Egalitarian feminism is another Gospel. Let Ms. magazine and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and nonChristians for Biblical Equality and the National Organization of Women support Custis James, her husband Frank, and Cru. It's wrong for believers to use the tithes and offerings of the People of God to support those who turn the Scripture on its head, making a big show of their respect for God and His Word while promoting rebellion against them. (TB)

Let us return to the Church, our Mother...

But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. - Galatians 4:26

Until believers understand that Scripture teaches the Church is our mother; and that, as Cyprian and Calvin put it, the man who won't have the Church as his mother may not have God as his Father; until then, parachurch religious organizations like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Navigators, and Campus Crusade for Christ International will continue to hold pride of position in college and university communities, devouring the lion's share of mission giving and prayer flowing to those communities from congregations around the country. And this is tragic...

Mass graves being dug in Sudan, but no response from US or UN...

Scott is a missionary to the brand new country of South Sudan. My son-in-law, Ben Crum, with his wife, Michal, and our daughter, Hannah, worked under Scott at an orphanage in South Africa several years ago. Since then, Scott's turned his attention to the Sudanese and I commend him to you for your support. He's a member of a PCA church in Asheville, but serves under the Reformed Presbyterian mission agency.

If you read international news, you know Sudan has been the center of much oppression and state-sanctioned murder for years, now. The slaughter was directed by the Muslims in the north against the animists and Christians who predominate in the south. With the secession of the south and the creation of South Sudan, international human rights organizations hoped to be able to turn their attention elsewhere. Sadly, though, large tensions remain--particularly what will happen with the oil-rich Abyei region which hasn't yet held a required referendum on which nation to join.

Scott just sent an e-mail asking his friends and supporters for help exposing atrocities being committed now a couple hundred miles north of him in Sudan. He attached the report below outlining mass graves being dug...

2011 ClearNote Conference Audio is Available

If you missed the 2011 ClearNote Summer Conference this past weekend, you missed something special. You can still listen to the sermon recordings, though: just click here.

Motherhood as a mission field...

Several of you have forwarded a link to Motherhood as a Mission Field by Femina's Rachel Jankovic. Dear mothers in Israel, do read it.

The Great Comission and the Church...

The ClearNote Fellowship Conference is fast approaching and you do want to come. Last year I had the joy of sitting under these men's preaching and it was God's gift to me--that and worship and great food and loving fellowship surrounding each service through the weekend.

Register now! Here are the speakers and subjects...

"Saving people: THAT'S what the church is all about!"...

Imagine a fortress, absolutely impregnable, provisioned for an eternity. There comes a new commandant. He conceives that it might be a good idea to build bridges over the moats—so as to be able to attack the besiegers.

Charming! He transforms the fortress into a country retreat, and naturally the enemy takes it. So it is with Christianity. They changed the method—and naturally the world conquered. [1]

My wife ran into a friend in the supermarket whose husband works for a large parachurch organization. Their small talk went from this to that, eventually turning to the friend listing for my wife a number of churches she and her husband had attended the past few years. Our friend had nice things to say about each church. Then she brought her list to a conclusion with the chipper exclamation, "Saving people—that’s what church is all about, isn’t it!”

This drew my mind back almost thirty years to an observation my Dad used to make about evangelicals’ single-minded focus on evangelism: “Evangelicals are only interested in getting people saved. And after he's saved, as far as they're concerned he might as well die and go to Heaven because it’s all over.”

Is there a purpose to our lives after we’ve placed our faith in Jesus? Does God have any larger plan for us...

Red and yellow, black and white...

A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. - Psalms 68:5

If Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, what judgment of His wrath must He be preparing in the face of the wholesale slaughter of our little ones? And what does it say about our love for Him that we claim to be His adopted sons, yet are unconcerned for these little ones He loves? Has He not told us He is a Father to the fatherless?

These little ones' blood flows day by day in your own city--just down the block from your church office and almost kitty-corner to the Kroger where you do your grocery shopping. When you're driving your car filled with much-loved children on your way to home school co-op, little babies are being ripped apart inside the brick wall of that building on your left three buildings back from the stop light.

Remember? Your God is a Father to the fatherless.

India's child murders are sex-specific. So many of her little girls have been killed that for every 1,000 boys under age six, there are only 916 girls. Most of them are cut apart while in their mother's womb. Some make it to birth, though, and are starved to death. Little baby girls with toothpicks for arms and everyone knows why...

2011 ClearNote Fellowship Conference: register now!

Let me encourage you to attend our ClearNote Fellowship Conference a month from now, July 8 & 9, 2011. As always, the food, fellowship, and worship will give you joy and strengthen you for your work in Christ. Early registration ends this Monday, June 13th, so register now.

This year our theme will be the Great Commission. We'll not be repeating the usual stuff heard from Evangelicals and Missionals on the subject. Likely few texts of Scripture have been so abused as this one, so we'll work to reform and encourage the Church to obey this key command of our Lord in all its particularity.

Starting Friday, in order here are the preachers and their subjects...

So this hip-hop star walks into our art gallery and he's like...

Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:5, 6)

(NOTE: helpful obscenities ahead) Almost always, an absent father, father-hunger, and hatred define The New Yorker profiles of the purveyors of our Godless culture. Here we have a profile of the hip-hop group, Odd Future, and its best rapper, Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (alias Earl Sweatshirt) who at the time of the song's release was sixteen years old. From The New Yorker's profile, "Earl Sweatshirt begins one track by sneaking some autobiography into...

The small-minded, lockstep intolerance of the Indiana Daily Student...

The Indiana Daily Student promoted SAGE's event "Gender [you know what]" held in celebration of sexual immorality and perversion with two separate articles. Then they refused to publish this protest of that event submitted to them as a letter to the editor.

Such intolerance of diversity is what these young students supported by our tax dollars as they edit the IDS are being taught by their Indiana University School of Journalism professors (shall we make the point once more?) whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars...

InterVarsity's partner, SAGE, holds another pro-sodomy event (part X)...

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? -Amos 3:3

In their recent outreach meeting featuring former staff worker William Campbell promoting sodomy, InterVarsity enlisted the campus organization Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality (SAGE) as a co-sponsor of the event.

This past week SAGE sponsored another event titled "GenderF**k." Billed as "a gender-inclusive drag show with no restrictions on gender presentation, sexual orientation or birth sex," the audience found it all quite delightful. Argenta Peron gushed, “It’s awesome because of the fact it’s not just a drag-show. It expresses a vision of what gender really is.”

We haven't heard if InterVarsity co-sponsored this event, also.

(TB: this is tenth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten] responding to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at an Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

InterVarsity's Evangelistic event promoting sodomy: news not fit to print (part IX)...

(Tim: this is ninth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine] responding to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at an Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

One man wrote a week ago to thank us for our series on InterVarsity's promotion of sodomy in the Name of Jesus Christ, saying he wished he'd known about the commitments of the individuals mentioned some time back when he made a decision to financially support one of the InterVarsity staffers. There are many good things that happen when evil is rebuked, publicly. Sadly, the church is no more tolerant of it today than it ever has been. For instance...

An interesting sidenote to the articles is the refusal of the editor in chief of one of the major Evangelical magazines to publish any news about InterVarsity's failure here at Indiana University. This same publication did stories on the faithfulness of InterVarsity at Tufts University over a decade ago, but now chose not to say a word about IV's betrayal of the Word of God here at Indiana University.

This is a common failure of Evangelicals. Through the years I've noticed this magazine (like many others) saves its prophetic word for unbelievers, the business world, Hollywood, and government, while running puff pieces about Christian organizations. With them, judgment may only begin outside the household of God.

It's similar with preachers...

A prayer for the salvation of all men...

ClearNote Church of Bloomington holds both an evening service on Maundy Thursday and a noon service on Good Friday. Here's one of the prayers from our Good Friday service. Jody Killingsworth compiled it from historic sources and I post it here because I found it struck themes missing from our prayers in worship, and very necessary. I'm guessing this will be true of others, also.

* * *

O MERCIFUL God, You have made all men, and You hate nothing that You have made, nor do you desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live. Have mercy therefore, we pray, on all who reject the Gospel—on Pagans, and Atheists; on Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists; on Arians and Roman Catholics, and on all who, in their pride, like to make much of their own ability.

Knowing, Father, that You resist the proud but give grace to the humble, we ask that You...

Spring housecleaning of Evangelical missions long overdue...

Because hundreds of millions of dollars are given each year to Christian missionaries and missions organizations who are ashamed of and hide--or often, simply oppose--what is commanded in the Word of God, Baylybog works hard to expose those organizations. Churches, missions committees, and individual Christians give money to organizations like InterVarsity with faith these organizations will use the money to advance the Kingdom of God and His Church--not the Kingdom of Satan. But who will tell such godly givers and their churches when InterVarsity is using their money to pay the salaries of staff workers who are betraying God and His holiness?

Back when J. Gresham Machen was working for reform of the Presbyterian church, the battle lines formed around the church's missions. Missionaries and their missions organizations were betraying Jesus Christ in the Name of Jesus Christ while being supported by naive church members and missions committees who were clueless. So Machen joined forces with other godly men to put a stop to it.

The message went out far and wide that Presbyterian missionaries were betraying Jesus Christ and His Word. This infuriated denominational and mission executives...

InterVarsity hedges and obfuscates concerning their IU event promoting sodomy (part VIII)...

(Tim: this is eighth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight] responding to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at an Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011. This post was written by Pastors Tim Bayly, Jacob Mentzel, and Lucas Weeks.)

"The decision to pay Campbell to speak at the event was made by a number of upper-level InterVarsity staff and, following the event, InterVarsity's staff workers who were present had no problem with what Campbell had said."

This Wednesday, April 6, 2011, InterVarsity e-mailed a statement to some of the individuals who had expressed concern over their recent presentation, "Jesus and the End of Homophobia," here at Indiana University. The statement was not published on any public forum.

According to InterVarsity Headquarters, the primary failure of their "Jesus and the End of Homophobia" event is that "some who trust InterVarsity" were led into "confusion" about InterVarsity's "position on the compatibility of ministry leadership and homosexual practice."

So what is InterVarsity's official position on homosexuality?

Who knows? Go to their web site and try to find it. With many others, we've searched and we couldn't find it anywhere. As we said to an InterVarsity vice president this past week, IV has carefully hidden its position behind its firewalls. This is the fear of the world's disapproval and shame of Jesus Christ that led IV into this predicament in the first place...

IV issues statement responding to inquiries concerning IU/InterVarsity event promoting sodomy (part VII)...

(Tim: this is seventh in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven] responding to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at an Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

Below is a statement issued privately by InterVarsity yesterday, April 7th, in response to some who expressed their concern over IV's recent forum at Indiana University titled, "Jesus and the End of Homophobia." An individual who received this statement from IV kindly forwarded it to us and we post it here for the record (downloard a PDF). We will have a post responding to this statement in  the next day or so...

IV hierarchy approved William Campbell's leadership at IU/InterVarsity event promoting sodomy (part VI)...

(Tim: this is sixth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at an Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011. Pic on right.)

This past Monday, April 4, 2011, Jacob Mentzel and Lucas Weeks met with Mark Abdon, InterVarsity's staff worker for their undergraduate chapter here at Indiana University, to state their concern over InterVarsity's promotion of homosexuality at an InterVarsity forum the previous week, and to ask Mr. Abdon and InterVarsity to issue a public correction. As a courtesy to InterVarsity and its staff, prior to this meeting with Mr. Abdon InterVarsity's office of the president had been called and informed this meeting was going to occur later that day.

The following account was written the same day as the meeting and edited for accuracy yesterday (4/5) and today (4/6). It's posted here as one more part of the historical record. 

An Account of Our Meeting With Mark Abdon

by Jacob Mentzel and Lucas Weeks

On Monday, April 4th, we met with Mark Abdon, the undergraduate staff worker for InterVarsity at Indiana University, to discuss IV's recent forum on homosexuality. Mark had an undergraduate woman present with him who plans to go on staff with IV this coming year. It was obvious Mark knew what we wanted to talk about, so we asked him about how the decision was made to have former IV staffer, William Campbell, speak.

Mark told us the majority of the planning for the week's forums belonged to one of his undergraduate students and that the planning began in May of 2010. He made it clear IV's goal from the beginning was to live at peace with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Queer (LGBTQ) community in Bloomington. InterVarsity partnered with Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality (SAGE), a LGBTQ student advocacy group on campus, to sponsor the event. Mark did not mention the involvement of any other student groups. He noted InterVarsity campus groups were being expelled from universities around the country over the issue of homosexuality, and he was very concerned that the Bloomington chapter not face the same fate.

Because of these concerns, InterVarsity had adopted a policy that the event would be viewpoint neutral. It was decided there would be no "theological content" in the forum...

Another campus minister addresses IU/InterVarsity's promotion of sodomy (part V)...

(Tim: this is fifth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at a Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

ClearNote Campus Fellowship is, with IU/InterVarsity, an Evangelical campus ministry working on the campus of Indiana University. CNCF's pastor, Jacob Mentzel, has written a response to InterVarsity's promotion of homosexual sin, along the way making some good suggestions for how InterVarsity should correct the scandal.

IV gags the Bible at IU/InterVarsity event promoting sodomy (part IV)...

(Tim: this is fourth in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at a Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

“The unique Divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible.”                         - InterVarsity’s Doctrinal Basis

Sola Scriptura is a cornerstone of Protestantism. From the beginning, Protestants have objected to the idea that we can know God and what He commands from any source other than His divinely revealed Word. As the Westminster Confession puts it: “The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture” I.10

Of the many things that were wrong with the event “Jesus and the end of Homophobia” hosted by Indiana University’s InterVarsity chapter, the most disturbing was the silencing of God’s Word. As a Protestant, Evangelical organization, InterVarsity is supposed to be committed to the Bible. It is supposed to be committed to the Bible because it is in the Bible that God speaks to us most clearly. If we have a question about Who God is and what He requires of us, the Bible is where Protestants turn for the answer.

But that is not what happened at last week’s event. Last week, InterVarsity sponsored an event where the Bible was not allowed into the discussion. God was not allowed to speak through His Word...

Gay IV speaker affects the posture of a victim at IU/InterVarsity event promoting sodomy (part III)...

(Tim: this is third in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at a Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

Here is the doctoral student's account of the evening. (John Doe) is a member of ClearNote Church of Bloomington. Given the personal nature of the ending of his account, we've decided to reserve his name for non-internet distribution.

The account is accurate, there's a real man who is a gentleman, intelligent, and articulate who wrote it--a man who loves God, the Church of Jesus Christ, and souls tempted to sin. And it's probably helpful for the reader to know (John Doe) is an African American. He understood those souls needed to be warned and, from his love for them and Jesus Christ, he warned them. A second Indiana University student who is a Christian man attended the event with (John Doe) and is able to corroborate the facts given here.

* * *

This week, the Indiana University undergraduate and grad/faculty chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship are sponsoring a series of forums entitled "Jesus and the end of..." The topics to be addressed are:

-Homophobia
-The Immigration War
-Religion
-Environmental Degradation
-Racism

On Monday night, IV presented a forum called "Jesus and the End of Homophobia." For this particular evening, IV partnered with a LGBTQ campus advocacy group called SAGE and Christian Student Fellowship. The speaker was William Campbell, a former InterVarsity staff worker (he left staff last October) at the University of Illinois—Chicago and current member of Chicago's LaSalle Street Church.

There were around seventy-five people in the room, most of them undergraduates. Many of them—as I would later find out—were there for real answers. For example, afterwards I met (Jane Doe), an undergrad studying the sciences. She told me she came because she saw the signs for a biblical discussion of what "Jesus really thought" about these issues. She's been thinking about becoming a Christian for the past several months and was looking for answers.

Campbell began the evening by giving his credentials and a brief overview of his topic. Then he began his talk by answering what he claimed was the "question that (is) on everyone's mind." With a mixture of pride and glee he announced "I'm gay! And yes, I am a Christian." He stated that he believes in Jesus...

Member of IV national leadership team silences Biblical voices at IU/InterVarsity event promoting sodomy (part II)...

(Tim: this is second in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at a Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)

Yesterday, Baylyblog had a post titled "Indiana Chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship promotes sodomy...." Accompanying that post was a link to an article from the Indiana Daily Student reporting on the IV event with an accompanying pic of IV's homosexual advocate and this caption under the pic:

William Campbell, the first speaker of the 'Jesus and the End of...' series, talked about the relationship between religion and the LBGTQ community Monday at Jordan Hall. In the lecture, Campbell drew upon his life experiences and as a homosexual Christian and from working as a staff member of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship progam for college students in Chicago.

Here are the facts...

The need for missions reform...

(Tim) Pastor Doug Wilson wrote comparing the limitations on risk that missionaries are provided through our present missions support system maximizing the number of supporting churches and individuals to that same limitation of risk provided investors through diversified mutual funds. Doug wisely points out that this system leads to diffusion of responsibility, and that's bad for both missions and their sending churches. I'd add it may also be intentional.

Anyhow, I commented under Doug's post and sent the link on to several friends who are missionaries. In response, I received the following comments from a brother who's a thirty-year missionary to an Eastern African country where he's focused on training church officers. My friend's Dad also gave his life to planting churches in that same country, so there's a lot of missions experience behind his response.

My brother, David, and I have often talked about the tragic condition of missions, today. It would take a book, but as one instance, Operation Mobilization has turned its back on the Word of God, intentionally promoting the leadership of women over men. And this promotion of feminism is rife within Evangelical missions agencies. Sadly, the PCA's Mission to the World is moving in this direction, also. It's more obvious in the European fields, but like all viruses, it will spread.

This betrayal of God's Order of Creation by missions is simply one indication of the rejection of Biblical doctrine that is pervasive within the American church, herself, and therefore exported around the world through our American missionaries. We're not talking about nitpickey details, either. It's central doctrines of Scripture like whether churches even matter at all, whether Jesus is the Only Way, whether the Sacraments are too divisive to be administered, and so on. These commitments are being jettisoned after 2,000 years of universal affirmation by the Church.

But getting at these issues is almost impossible given the view held by most believers that missionaries have piety and have made sacrifices that pastors and elders haven't, and therefore are above questions or review, let alone admonition or accountability.

Not only are many, many missionaries bad, doctrinally, but they're also overwhelmingly committed...

And from the sea there blossoms red, life that shall endless be...

(Tim, w/thanks to David W.) Concerning the most recent case of Somali piracy, two of the four murdered were the owners of the yacht, Scott and Jean Adam. The BBC reports: "Friends have described the Adams as adventure-seekers who were also driven by their Christian faith, at times distributing Bibles at ports of call." The BBC reports further that Scott Adams had studied at Fuller Seminary. May every last Bible the Adams gave away produce fruit for the Kingdom of God.

Art ministry today: cool and hip...

(Tim) Whether in the U.S. or Western Europe, Reformed hipsters have fallen in love with art. For communicating the Gospel, preaching is out and art is in--it's the great white hope. Draw the Gospel. Sculpt the Gospel. Paint the Gospel. Use words only if you must.

David Baker is a student here at ClearNote Pastors College who, with his wife Marta and their children, were raising support under the Presbyterian Church in America's Mission to the World when God led them to move to Bloomington and begin training for pastoral ministry. David's a painter and he'd been headed to Dublin, Ireland, where he planned to be a part of an MTW team there, and to focus on the arts community. Recently, David corresponded with another MTW missionary in a Western European country about the arts movement within MTW and the PCA.

* * *

Dear (John Doe),

I should give you a brief background and update on what we are doing. As you may know we were on the path to work in arts ministry in Dublin, Ireland with MTW. We took a 5-year leave-of-absence from MTW for education and because of some other issues that made it clear that the yoking with the Irish church was not a good one. I'm now a pastor in training at ClearNote Pastor's College in Bloomington, Indiana. I continue to make art and I participate in a local gallery. I love using God's gift of artistic talent to His glory. He gives us these gifts.

When we were working on support raising we spent time with various churches around the country and we got to hear and see a lot of what was going on in the the arts ministry movement.

African-American girls talk chips...

(Tim) Among the advantages of growing up in foreign lands surrounded by other foreigners while your mom and dad build the Church is developing an ability to see the world through others' eyes. Check out these African-American girls whose parents build the Church in Ndola, Zambia, and whose sister's marriage provided them an occasion to survey the comfort foods section of an American supermarket.

Advertising Sorcery

(Tim: a series on beliefs about spirit beings in Zambian culture by David Wegener) 

Editors note: Here is a lightly edited version of an advertisement for a Traditional Healer (taken off a tree) in our neighborhood. This doctor knows his clientele and the items he mentions are typical reasons why people come to see him. I'm still not totally sure what #9 means.

Witchdoctors in Zambian Culture

(Tim: a series on beliefs about spirit beings in Zambian culture by David Wegener) 

** Editors Note: Readers in the US may not understand just how prevalent these beliefs are in African culture. Witchdoctors, or "Traditional Healers", are regularly consulted by Africans both inside and outside of the church. In other words, this report from David doesn't represent anything exotic where he lives. Rather, it's "business as usual". **

I’ve been teaching class on Spirit Beings this fall at our theological college. As one of their assignments, I asked the students to interview a witchdoctor and ask him a set of questions. They also interviewed a local pastor and asked him the same set of questions and then they were to evaluate the answers of both from Scripture and write things up in a paper.

Six days old...

(Tim) I don't know where this came from, but it's beautiful. And instructive.

When Christians (like one of my former elders who's a pharmacist) say they have no objection to abortion in the first few days or weeks of life; that there's no life or image of God in the first few days or weeks of the life of man, and thus they're willing to fulfill prescriptions for chemical abortifacients that kill the baby in the first few days or weeks of life; look very closely at this picture. This is the man they approve of murdering, or themselves murder.

Yes, 'murder' is the proper word. Anything less would further obscure the wickedness of our bloodthirsty nation.

Two days ago, Mary Lee was at the birth of another baby of our church who is the product of our congregation's faithful witness outside Planned Parenthood's abortuary here in Bloomington...

The church in Zambia, the church in America...

(Tim) David Wegener teaches and serves as Academic Dean at the Theological College of Central Africa in Ndola, Zambia. David requests prayer for the Zambian church, then explains his request:

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(Please pray) for the evangelical churches in Zambia, that the Holy Spirit would not leave us in our unfaithfulness.

Reflections on the Church in Zambia: I’ve been reading Old Evangelicalism by Iain Murray. His contention is that we’re wrong in how we’re preaching the gospel today and I see the evidence all around us in our Bible-believing churches in Zambia. Nominal Christianity is the rule.

• There is no fear of God.
• There is no fear of sinning.
• God’s grace is trampled under foot.

Why is that? Why does the gospel not come with power in churches that profess to be Christ-centered and Gospel-preaching? Murray tells us that churches from earlier generations did things differently.

They proclaimed the Law and then Christ. Today to preach the Law is legalism...

Live by faith, vow a marriage, have babies, plant a church, start a school, college, and seminary...

(Tim) Back in 1993, I wrote an article on a conflict over the policy of Westminster School in Atlanta that required board members of this private Christian school to be confessing Christians. The New York Times had done an article on the controversy and I took the piece as a jumping-off point to say a few things about home, public, and Christian schools. Since then, Mary Lee and I have educated our five children (as well as several other children who lived with us through the years) in each of those ways--home, public, and Christian school. This is the final year we have a child at home and Taylor, our youngest, is finishing high school at the school my wife Mary Lee, with a couple others, founded and served as principal--Lighthouse Christian Academy.

It's been years since we've had a child at LCA. When it put up a building, we watched its former commitments decline. It seemed bent on becoming the sort of Christian school that, from the beginning, we'd worked hard to avoid. But this is the ho-hum way of all institutions, Christian or otherwise, and there have been some encouraging changes at LCA the past couple of years--hence Taylor's presence there this year.

But as I point out in the article below, the best antidote to school decline is the founding of a new school. It worked with Yale as a reform of Harvard, Princeton as a reform of Yale, and it's still working with schools like New St. Andrews being a reform of Wheaton, Westmont, Gordon, and Covenant.

Tired and timid souls always laugh at the upstarts...

How to love Muslims...

(Tim) From ClearNote Blog, this question: "Let me ask you: when was the last time you loved the Muslim people?" (Read more.)

Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State, after all...

Following Tim Keller, Redeemer, Metro New York and Northern California Presbyteries, as well as all the seminaries, churches, and pastors who believe in women teaching and exercising authority over men as long as it's not in the pulpit Sunday morning or voting on the discipline of a man in a session meeting, the PCA's Mission to the World e-mailed the following announcement across the world at the end of the day, yesterday:

From: (Mission to the World)
Date: September 10, 2010 10:34:32 PM GMT
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: New Senior Team Members!

Dear Colleagues;
 
I am pleased to announce that Jill Milton and Heidi Harrison have been appointed new members of the Senior Team for Mission to the World.  Jill has been with MTW since 1981 and has served in various capacities during that time.  In 2009 she assumed the role of Director of the newly created Resource Team Department.  Heidi has been a part of the MTW family for 17 years and has served in various roles during her time in the office.  Most recently she been the Assistant to the Coordinator in addition to her role on the Latin America/Africa Resource Team serving missionaries in Africa.  She will be adding the role of Project Coordinator for the Senior Team to her responsibilities.
 
Please join us in thanking God for Jill and Heidi.
 
In Christ,
(Mission to the World)

So here we have this unilateral announcment exhorting us to "thank God" for women getting seats at the table that sets governing policy over MTW ministries and personnel...

The gospel of art...

(Tim) From ClearNote Blog: The notable disciple of Spurgeon, Archibald Brown, warns: 

The devil has seldom done a more clever thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out the gospel, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses!

...In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the 'gospel of amusement'. Their message is, "Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them... Don't touch their filthy things..." Anything approaching amusement is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon. (Read more.)

Return to paganism...

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) When I entered the ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I was involved in fighting against its policies endorsing the murder of the unborn. National policy statements were pro-abortion and, putting their money where their mouths were, pastors and church workers were able to get abortions reimbursed through the denomination's self-funded health insurance plan. Finding this out, I signed on to the board of Presbyterians Pro-Life and got to work opposing Molech worship inside the temple.

PPL had an advisory board and one of its members was Sam Moffett. At the time, Sam was serving as a Princeton Seminary prof and was one of the elder missions statesman of the world. Moffett's father had been the first missionary in northern Korea and Sam had been born in 1916 in Pyongyang. Following the Korean War, he served in South Korea for a quarter century with his wife, Eileen.

All this as preface to my recalling something Sam mentioned to me on the phone twenty-five years ago. Talking about our denomination's approval of the slaughter of the unborn, he commented how, when he was younger, he'd often seen newborn baby girls left to die on the river banks of China.

Grazing in Augustine...

(Tim) From Augustine's City of God, let's sample a few notes rarely struck by pastors marketing their church as "in the city" and "for the city;" but really, rarely struck by almost any shepherd working in the pastorate today in North America.

Take, for instance, the matter of food: how would we compare our declaration of the Order of Creation and the meaning of the Sixth Commandment to the vegans and vegetarians in our own congregations--of which there are as many now as back in the time of Augustine and the Apostle Paul (1Timothy 4:1-4)--to Augustine's own declaration, here?

...some attempt to extend "Thou shalt not kill" even to beasts and cattle, as if it forbade us to take life from any creature. But if so, why not extend it also to the plants, and all that is rooted in and nourished by the earth? For though this class of creatures have no sensation, yet they also are said to live, and consequently they can die; and therefore, if violence be done them, can be killed. So, too, the apostle, when speaking of the seeds of such things as these, says, “That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die;” and in the Psalm it is said, “He killed their vines with hail.”

Must we therefore reckon it a breaking of this commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” to pull a flower? Are we thus insanely to countenance the foolish error of the Manichæans?

Putting aside, then, these ravings, ...when we say, "Thou shalt not kill," we do not understand this of the plants, since they have no sensation, nor of the irrational animals that fly, swim, walk, or creep, since they are dissociated from us by their want of reason, and are therefore by the just appointment of the Creator subjected to us to kill or keep alive for our own uses... (I:20)

Are we similar to Augustine in his work magnifying, making the most of the distinction between the city of God and the city of man? What a contrast he provides here to our effeminate attempts to blur all distinctions--particularly that essential distinction on which eternity hangs, drawing the line of God's election between the slaves of God and the slaves of Satan. In his comments, Pastor Beatty has illustrated typical attempts today to market the Church as not other or peculiar or God-fearing or holy, but "we're just like you, really; and you're just like us." Contrast this...

The United Nations is utterly corrupt...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) We were privileged to have dear friends who serve in DR Congo with us for a week, recently. The husband grew up an MK in Congo and he and his wife have given their lives in service to Africa.

One evening, the discussion turned to the United Nations and I was shocked to hear the strength of this godly couple's condemnation. The wife said something like, "The United Nations is totally corrupt." What she said, though, was even worse--I just can't remember her exact words. I asked if she'd meant what she said and she intensified the condemnation.

The United Nations is perversely wicked in its work in Africa, and this extends not simply to its policies, but also to UN individuals profiteering both financially and sexually. Along with many of the NGOs, these UN men and women are the new colonialists.

If I were running for President...

Sending in the cheerleaders...

(David) As the Church of Christ goes about its business in this world it's important for us to remember what that business is. Our purpose is victory: the name of Christ proclaimed in the midst of His enemies, sinners snatched from the fire, glorious good deeds exalting our God.

Our purpose as the Church of Jesus Christ is not to be winsome--no matter how valuable winsomeness is in its own right--but to win. 

It is essential that we be winsome in winning. But the goal is victory--the kingdoms of this earth becoming the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ--not simply having others appreciate us.

I say this because as I listen to declarations of purpose by leaders of "missional" churches, it strikes me that they often confuse character with goal. They've made winsome character paramount, and while winsomeness is a very good thing in its place, it becomes a bad thing when it's confused with the ultimate goal of the Church: living to the glory of God, declaring His name, advancing the Kingdom of Christ, transforming the kingdoms of this earth into the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ.

It's as though the coach of a Christian football team facing a formidable foe tells his players to show love to their opponents, to display the character of Christ on the field so that they bring glory to God, and the team, hearing their coach speak of love and winsomeness decide that, rather than risk looking nasty by playing to win, they'll honor their coach's command by fielding the cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are pretty...

ClearNote Church of Indy: please pray...

(Tim) Over the years of teaching God's Word on Baylyblog, warning our readers day and night with tears, I've occasionally come face to face with the lack of commitment blog readers have to life outside of the internet. It's been discouraging, personally, yet I continue to expect that in this ministry, as with any other where men and women are build up in our most holy faith, there will be those who obey the Apostle Paul's command, that "The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him" (Galatians 6:6).

So if Baylyblog has taught you God's Word, please share all good things with David and me. And specifically, tonight I'd ask you to pray for my son, Joseph, and his wife, Heidi, as well as David and Vanessa Abu-Sara, as they work planting ClearNote Church Indy. If you're in the Indy metro area, join their work and put your shoulder to the plow with them. Indy needs Protestant churches that are Biblical, vital in their fellowship, given to prayer, and not modulating their message to tickle the ears of their sheep. In other words, Indy needs churches reformed and always reforming.

What are ClearNote Church of Indy's needs? Here's a letter Joseph just sent out explaining the challenges he and David face...

A small taste of Heaven...

(Tim, w/thanks to David W.) Last night, I was up in the bedroom when I heard screaming, downstairs. Going down to check out the commotion, I found our dear sister, Terri Wegener, standing in the hallway with her daughters, Mary and Lizzie.

Mary has been living with our son-in-law and daughter, Doug and Heather Ummel, this past year, and graduates from Bloomington North High School this weekend. So, as a gift to his family, David sent Terri home for the celebration--all the way from Ndola, Zambia. No one knew. It was a complete surprise. What joy to Lizzie and Mary! What joy to Mary Lee and me! What joy to us all!

If you want to know the pain of missions work that takes you overseas, watch this clip of Terri surprising Mary last night, in the Ummels' driveway...

Missional flattery and selfishness...

(Tim) Yesterday, a friend sent me a satirical piece his son and several friends had written about a bunch of new city church plants with names like Elevation Church, Dust, The Line, Infusion Church, and Austin City Life (see Howard Davis' comment, below). He commented, "What is really amazing is their unique web sites all look alike (and) I bet all their unique worship services are the same. And... they're all about being in the 'city.'"

From reading many city church web sites, it's clear such churches normally aren't missional if missional means faithfulness to Jesus' Great Commission commands. Most indicate no practice of rebuke, preaching God's Law, or calls to repentance. Instead, they prattle on about being "for the city" and they're positively chipper.

It's all about seeking common ground with unbelievers. And if they mention God's perfections, it's only those perfections that would be likely to make unbelievers feel good about themselves and think God might not be so high and mighty and scary after all. Christian faith and the Church are presenting as uniting believers and unbelievers in the same brotherhood and sisterhood of man in and for the city. Convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment is out and assuring the world of our goodwill toward them in God's Name is in.

Reading Augustine's City of God earlier today, I came across this excerpt. Augustine knew something about preaching the Gospel in the city and contextualizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ to urbane men and women world-weary in a decadent

Veritas Forum's Tim Keller on sodomy: "It's not good for human flourishing"...

(Tim) My parents gave most of their lives to campus ministry. The first IVCF staffers in New England back in the forties, they lived in Cambridge and were responsible for all of New England. I grew up going to Bear Trap Ranch and Cedar Campus--IV's camps for student leadership training--and listening to Dad teach the Word of God.

And now, for most of our ministry Mary Lee and I have served in college and university contexts. We started in Madison, Wisconsin; moved to Boulder, Colorado; then on to Boston; and now, for the past eighteen years, here in Bloomington, Indiana, where half the population of 70,000 or so is connected to Indiana University. Our church is filled with IU undergrad and graduate students, as well as profs and other IU employees.

So it's not from inexperience concerning the spiritual needs of the Academy that I say I've never been much of a fan of Veritas Forum. Well-intentioned, yes; but largely ineffective. Watching it over the years, including here in Bloomington, I'd say the main effect it has is allowing evangelical Christians who have been silent and compromised academics on their own campus to thump their chests for a week while hired guns come in and clean up the town. But with one exception--Walter Bradley, if you're curious--the hired guns seem pretty tame when it comes to their ability and willingness to pull the trigger. So, unlike the Apostle Paul's itinerant ministry, nothing much gets cleaned up.

Few places are as evil and so desperately need a clear and bold witness to sin, righteousness, and judgment--and then, to the wisdom and glory of the Cross of Jesus Christ--than the Academy...