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C.J. Mahaney writes some helpful advice on family vacations:

Here’s what I’ve learned. The difference between forgettable vacations and unforgettable vacations is not the location or attractions. Nope. The difference between forgettable and unforgettable vacations is the father’s attitude and leadership. This makes all the difference.

Family vacations provide a unique opportunity each year for fathers to create memories their children will never forget. Memories that will last a lifetime. Memories that will be recreated by your children with your grandchildren. Memories that will outlive a father. But in order to create these memories, a father must be diligent to serve and lead during a vacation. How a father views his role on a vacation will make all the difference in the vacation.

So in this season where family vacations are being carefully planned and eagerly anticipated, I thought it might be helpful if I passed along seven lessons I’ve learned over the years, in hopes that your family vacation will be a God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.

Here’s an outline of his advice:

1. A Servant Heart
2. A Tone-Setting Attitude
3. An Awareness of Indwelling Sin
4. Studying Your Family
5. Skillful Surprises
6. Intentionally Together
7. Gratefulness to God

To read more check out  part 1, part 2, and part 3.

From the Gospel Coalition’s website…

We are excited to announce another feature at The Gospel Coalition that we believe will help advance the gospel around the world. And it has everything to do with the local church. Introducing The Gospel Coalition Church Directory.

The idea is to have churches that believe in the centrality of the gospel for ministry “sign up” so that people can more easily find and get involved in these churches. That’s it, but that’s everything because we believe the gospel is best learned and lived out in the context of the local church.

Are we on the map?  You bet.  To check out Atlanta Road Alliance Church on the map, go here or click the giant picture above.

Affirm

1. Affirm one another’s strengths, abilities, and gifts.

• Romans 12:10: “Honor one another”
• James 5:9: “Don’t grumble against each other”
• Romans 12:3-8: Confirm the gifts of one another

2. Affirm one another’s equal importance in Christ.

• Romans 15:7: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you”
• 1 Corinthians 12:25: “Have equal concern for each other”
• 1 Peter 5:5: “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another”
• James 2:1: “Don’t show favoritism”

3. Affirm one another through visible affection.

• Romans 16:16: “Greet one another with a holy kiss”
• James 1:19: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak”
• Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another”
• 1 Thessalonians 3:12: “[May] your love increase and overflow for each other”

Share

4. Share one another’s space, goods, and time.

• Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love”
• 1 Peter 4:9: “Offer hospitality to one another”
• Galatians 6:10: “As we have opportunity, let us do good”

5. Share one another’s needs and problems.

• Galatians 6:2: “Carry each other’s burdens”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11: “Encourage one another”
• Hebrews 3:13: “Encourage one another daily”

6. Share one another’s beliefs, thinking, and spirituality.

• Colossians 3:16: “Teach and admonish one another”
• Ephesians 5:19: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”
• Romans 12:16: “Live in harmony with one another”
• 1 Corinthians 1:10: “Agree with one another”

Serve

7. Serve one another through accountability.

• James 5:16: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other”
• Romans 15:14: “Instruct one another”
• Ephesians 4:25: “Speak truthfully”

8. Serve one another through forgiveness and reconciliation.

• Ephesians 4:2: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love”
• Colossians 3:13: “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another”
• Galatians 5:25: Don’t provoke or envy one another
• James 4:11: “Do not slander one another”
• Matthew 5:23-24; 18:15: Reestablish broken relationships with one another

9. Serve one another’s interests rather than our own.

• Hebrews 10:24: “spur one another on toward love and good deeds”
• Romans 15:1-2: Don’t please yourself but please others
• Galatians 5:13: “Serve one another”

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Enter the popular movie Eclipse.  Having run across this post, Mary Kassian sheds some light on the hit Twilight series.  These are important things to think about.  Now, some might say, “Oh, you’re just over-reacting.  That stuff in the movies never gets to me.  It doesn’t bother me.  I’m not a ‘cultural anorexic’ who legalistically avoids everything.”  Well, not to sound harsh (just trying to get to get to the point), then I think you might need to check to see if you’re on the opposite end of that pole: a cultural glutton.

To give you a taste of what she writes, here’s a piece of it below.

“It’s not surprising that young girls are falling for [Edward]. But sadly, their enthusiasm for being the leading lady in a heart-gripping romance lacks discernment. The movie grips them at such a deep emotional level that they shrug off the glaring warnings that indicate that this particular relationship is unhealthy. It’s a counterfeit version of a fairy-tale romance. It looks good and attractive on the surface, but the underlying darkness in Edward will most certainly lead to disaster for Bella. It may go well for a time, but in the end, it will kill her. She’s playing with fire, and she’s going to get burned.

Danger Signs
If Bella were my daughter, several alarm bells would be going off in my head about her relationship with Edward. I would not approve. Regardless of how ‘in love’ she felt, I would argue that this romance was not good for her, and would not end well. It would ultimately be bad and not good for her soul. There are some very clear danger signs in their relationship that I would flag.”

To find out the danger signs she assesses from the relationship, read the whole thing here.  It’s not that long.

Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide  for Ministry by Michael Lawrence.  I had lunch with him in DC when I attended the 9Marks Weekender.  Great book so far (currently reading) on examining the biblical storyline as a whole and how the pieces fit together in God’s redemptive plan through Christ.  And then, of course, how does our theology shape our ministry in the church.

The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman.  Also had lunch with him while at the 9Marks Weekender!  Thick and meaty book on the subject.  Very engaging.  His examination on why church membership is offensive to people today is excellent. 

The Courage to be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers, Emergents, and the Postmoder World by David Wells.  Doesn’t the title say it all?  David Wells is an excellent writer and culimates his decade long observation and analysis of what is happening to western evangelicalism.  I couldn’t put it down once I read the intoduction.

Old Evangelicalism: Old Truths for a New Awakening by Ian Murray.  Ian Murray is a great writer and along a similar vein as David Wells in examining western evangelicalism.  However, he is well-read concerning  17th-19th century evangelicalism and compares “then” and “now”.  I find his analysis very even-handed and never scathing, but he will give a well-researched and credible critique when needed.

The Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray.  Another one by Ian Murray.  A biography on Spurgeon, a historical hero of mine!

Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World by N.D. Wilson.  Nate Wilson is a very gifted and imaginative writer.  He has written the 100 Cupboard series for kids (My daughter has read them all.  I’m starting to read those too!)

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.  I’ve seen the HBO series and I have the book sitting on my shelf, but haven’t got to reading it yet.  Hopefully, this summer I will!

More books to come at another time!!

“Max McLean, star of The Screwtape Letters play, hosts Douglas Gresham, son of C.S Lewis and Executive Producer of Voyage of the Dawn Treader the movie, for a Christian Post exclusive interview in New York City.

Their discussion ranges from the challenges of writing and acting from Satan’s perspective in The Screwtape Letters, to an inside look at the upcoming release of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, to Lewis’ interaction with Tolkien and the Inklings literary group, to the impact Lewis’ words still carry today.”

You can see the video on The Christian Post’s website here.

Click here for some more info and a 20% off discount for Between Two World’s readers (Justin Taylor’s blog).

Below is a sample of a song put to video on youtube.

From Nathan Heller’s Slate.com article, “Why We Love The Shack” (June 3, 2010):

“When every publisher turned down the book in its current form, [William] Young and some friends founded their own firm, Windblown Media, to fill what they considered “a big hole” in publishing: Although there were “religious” books and “secular” books, they thought, there were no titles in the middle ground, no “spiritual” novels that cast God as a path to happiness without serving up dogma. The Shack is just that book, and its success proves not how much this country loves religion but how far from mainstream faith the nation’s aspirations have shifted (emphasis added).”

O, for The Courage to Be Protestant in our day.

For the sake of brevity, I want to highlight a couple of thoughts on how the season finale (as well as other episodes this season) depicts common beliefs people hold today concerning morality, humanity, religion, and the afterlife.  I’ll try to be as brief as I can (and if you haven’t seen the finale, some of this might not make sense)…

1. On morality… The writers constantly tried to be ambiguous on who was good and who was bad.  Very typical.  It’s almost as if they’re saying, “It’s a matter of perspective.”  However, in the show, certain characters do have to take a moral stand.  But on what principle?  Who says?

2. On humanity… This is the biggest problem the writers had to face.  Is man good and able to save himself and others, or is he corrupt and in need of redemption?  You can see this played out with the man in black and Jacob contrast, as well as their discussions.  But, Joe Carter, brings out an excellent point when he writes on Lost‘s “borrowing” of some Christian concepts,

Lost replicates many of these tropes (God the Father—Christian Shephard; the created but fallen world—the Island; death of Christ—the sacrifice of Jack; Kingdom of God—the afterlife in the church) but is unable to connect them because of an inadequate concept of sin. . . . The result is that the two primary deus ex machinas of Lost are rendered irrelevant: Where there is no sin there is no need for either Christ or purgatory.

You can read his whole review on Lost here. It’s very good.  Another point about humanity… they really wanted to stress the free-will of the characters.  Funny though, when you think about this: their “free-will” is at the mercy of the writers.  Oh my, did that open up a can of worms!

3. On religion… Basically, it’s classic religious pluralism, or inclusivism, that dominated the show.  Just look at the stained glass window in the church at the end of the finale.  It has a symbol of every major religion.  Their saying the common belief, “All religions lead to the same destination.”  Thus, “smorgasbord” preferential spirituality is what ends up being adopted.  It’s not whether something is true anymore, but whether it makes me feel better about myself and gets me through.  It’s therapeutic.  Because in the end, they all lead to the same destination, as the saying goes.  Of course, if one was to examine every major religion, they would see that they all make exclusive truth claims.  They can’t all be correct.

4. On the afterlife… Basically, the character’s “heaven” was, in essence, being with each other.  Community with each other is heaven, otherwise, they would have all been… lost.  Remember Jack saying in the first season, “We all have to live together or we die alone.”

I think this last point is quite striking.  Our world is starving for community.  And community is found in the church.  Why the church and not some other club?  Because no other club deals with the fundamental problem why we can’t live together: our sin.  Until we are reconciled to God and have experienced his forgiveness and power of becoming a new creation in Christ can those who are changed in this way begin to live together.  In the communion found with God, our Maker, do we then find communion with each other.

There is more I could write about, but it would take a book!  In the meantime, check out Joe Carter’s post The Unnecessary Christ of Lost (HT: Justin Taylor)

I’ve already written before about the Essential Edwards series before, but I just finished the volume On Beauty and it was such a refreshing read as Owen Strachan masterfully brings the writings of Edwards together explaining the beauty of the glory of God.  I plan on reading another soon.

Tim Keller is favorite author of mine and he has a DVD and book series out called The Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything.  I previewed it and it looks like a great resource for small groups.  There is a review online from TGC Reviews.  Here’s a bit of it… “For many church members the term gospel-centered is equated with evangelism-centered. It is not a surprising mistake since many in our churches have not been taught, biblically, how the gospel applies to the Christian life beyond conversion.  Timothy Keller and Zondervan have teamed up to produce Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything (DVD). The DVD is an eight-session course on the gospel and how it is lived out in all of life – your heart, workplace, community, and the nations – taught by Keller himself.”

I love science, but not from the technical side of things.  It is more so from the literary and magesterial sense of how it displays the wonder and grand design of God.  I’ve been impressed with Stephen Meyer as a writer and author so I plan to read his well-received book Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.  He’s a smart individual and in this book he tells of his story in research and corrects some of the misconceptions in regard to the intelligent design movement.

A classic on my bookshelf, but I am ashamed to say that I haven’t read yet by one of my favorite authors is The Problem of Pain  by C.S. Lewis.  It’s a short read, but I promise I’ll get to it this year!

There are a number of more titles that I can list… but I’ll wait until another post!

Most young adults today don’t pray, don’t worship and don’t read the Bible, a major survey by a Christian research firm shows.If the trends continue, “the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships,” says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group’s survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they’re “really more spiritual than religious.”

 Among the 65% who call themselves Christian, “many are either mushy Christians or Christians in name only,” Rainer says. “Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith.”

She lends some statistical data to her research when she writes:

Key findings in the phone survey, conducted in August and released today:

 •65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

 •65% rarely or never attend worship services.

 •67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.

 Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes, half no.

 ”We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church,” Rainer says.

LifeWay did a  survey themselves.  It was of teenagers in 2007 who drop out of church in connection with a study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which compared the beliefs of Millennials with those of earlier generations of young people.  This was their findings:

Even among those in the survey who “believe they will go to heaven because they have accepted Jesus Christ as savior”:

 •68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was “really important in life.”

 •50% do not attend church at least weekly.

 •36% rarely or never read the Bible.

 Neither are these young Christians evangelical in the original meaning of the term — eager to share the Gospel. Just 40% say this is their responsibility.

 Now, if this has alarmed you, Thom Rainer and Collin Hansen are still optimistic about the stats.

Even so, Rainer is encouraged by the roughly 15% who, he says, appear to be “deeply committed” Christians in study, prayer, worship and action.

 Collin Hansen, 29, author of Young, Restless, Reformed, about a thriving minority of traditionalist Christians, agrees. “I’m not going to say these numbers aren’t true and aren’t grim, but they also drive people like me to build new, passionately Christian dynamic churches,” says Hansen, who is studying for the ministry. He sees many in his generation veering to “moralistic therapeutic deism — ‘God wants you to be happy and do good things.’ … I would not call that Christianity, however.”

Since I am of similiar age to Collin, I’m probably one of those considered within that 15%.   Are the stats discouraging?  Yes.  Am I in despair?  No.  The stats do look grim, but Christ is the head of the church and he is continuing to build His church!  My joy in ministry is not derived from flocks of numbers, but the abundance of God’s grace that He has shown to me in Christ Jesus.

So what does this mean for us as the church in light of these stats.  At the sake of being brief, can I prescribe something that addresses the stats shown above and is what I like to call “refreshingly unoriginal”: Preach and teach the gospel.  Never assume someone understands it.  Stress the importance of the local church (even membership).  Christ reconciled us to God, and to each other.  Read the Word of God and absorb it until you bleed it.  Teach the Word.  Teach the Word.  Teach the Word, and teach the importance of the Word.  And pray in your closet with the Word opened before you.  Pray with trembling before God.  And pray with others so it becomes as natural as breathing.  Oh, it sounds so simplistic and looks very anti-pragmatic, but this is what God calls us to do and be!  Be faithful to His Word and what he has prescribed in His Word and leave the results to Him.  Isn’t it interesting that Jesus often used illustrations derived from agriculture?  Farming can be slow, hard work, and often discouraging, because you don’t receive immediate results.  Compare this to technology today which is fast, quick, impulsive, self-gratifying, and pragmatic, and the contrast is clearly seen.  Is this techonological mindset and characteristics inherent in our ministry as a church?  I hope not.

For more “refreshingly unoriginal” guidance, I encourage everyone to check out 9 Marks ministries.  And read another article from USA Today on this topic if you have the time.  But allow me to conclude with the words Paul charged to Timothy from 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (words I stress are in italics).

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

1. We must distinguish between theological principles and prudential judgments.
2. People matter most.
3. People are producers, not just polluters.

Read the whole thing.

The Together for the Gospel 2010 – The (Unadjusted) Gospel just wrapped up tonight.  Most of the audio and video is posted online.

The audio that is up for you to download are the following:

Session 1: Mark Dever — The Church is the Gospel Made Visible

Session 3: Al Mohler — How Does it Happen? Trajectories Toward an Adjusted Gospel

Session 2: R C Sproul — The Defense and Confirmation of the Gospel — What I Have Learned in 50 years

Session 4: Thabiti Anyabwile — ‘Fine-Sounding Arguments’ — How Wrongly ‘Engaging the Culture’ Adjusts the Gospel

Session 5: John MacArthur — The Theology of Sleep! (Mark 4)