Stephen Um on Grace Renewal (Video)  

Justin RuddyJanuary 26, 2012 

The folks over at LEAD have done a great service in making all the video and audio from their 2011 conference avaialable online. Here is video of Stephen Um's breakout session on grace renewal dynamics: 

 Grace Renewal - Dr. Stephen Um from Gospel Alliance New England on Vimeo.

Check out the LEAD site for video and audio of sessions from Ray Ortlund, Matt Chandler, Jared Wilson and others. 

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Panel Discussion with Matt Chandler, Ray Ortlund and Stephen Um  

Justin RuddyJanuary 12, 2012 

In November of 2011, Stephen Um and others from CGC had the privilege of being a part of Lead 2011. Held in Auburn, Maine, the conference brought together church leaders and laypersons from around Northern New England for a time of reflection on what it would mean for our churches and lives to be gospel-centered. The conference was put on by Gospel Alliance NE, and featured Matt Chandler and Ray Ortlund as plenary speakers. The conference also included a panel discussion between Chandler, Ortlund, and Stephen Um, which was well moderated by Jared Wilson, whose blog you may be interested in checking out. Here is the video from that panel discussion. The conversation between these four men is fun, insightful, and enriching. Enjoy:

Panel Discussion - Lead 2011 Panel from Gospel Alliance New England on Vimeo.

If you're on the go, you can download the audio from the panel discussion here.

In the coming days we'll video from Stephen Um's breakout session, as well as links to the other audio from the conference. 

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Martin Luther the Social Networker?  

Justin RuddyDecember 22, 2011 

Over at The Economist, an article entitled "How Luther Went Viral" suggests that the phenomena of social media may not be all that new. In fact, the writer claims that the Protestant Reformation is a prime example of a pre-modern movement using technology and social networks to accomplish its end. Much of the article attempts to draw parallels between the Reformation and the Arab Spring, pushing the reader to think about the nature of movements, protest, relationships, technology, etc. Here's the concluding paragraph of the article: 

Modern society tends to regard itself as somehow better than previous ones, and technological advance reinforces that sense of superiority. But history teaches us that there is nothing new under the sun. Robert Darnton, an historian at Harvard University, who has studied information-sharing networks in pre-revolutionary France, argues that “the marvels of communication technology in the present have produced a false consciousness about the past—even a sense that communication has no history, or had nothing of importance to consider before the days of television and the internet.” Social media are not unprecedented: rather, they are the continuation of a long tradition. Modern digital networks may be able to do it more quickly, but even 500 years ago the sharing of media could play a supporting role in precipitating a revolution. Today’s social-media systems do not just connect us to each other: they also link us to the past.

You can read the whole thing here.

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Engaging Skeptics with the Gospel (Audio)  

Justin RuddyDecember 08, 2011 

Stephen Um recently presented a breakout session at November's Plant New England conference. The audio, which is just over an hour and includes Q&A, has recently been made available online. In the breakout session, Dr. Um addresses issues of contextualization for ministry that will be applicable for Christians, whether ministers or laypersons, in all contexts. We hope that this resource will benefit you as you think not only about the content of the gospel, but also the ways in which it can be winsomely and effectively communicated in various settings. You can download the audio directly here.

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God Hates Your Self-Righteousness Because He Loves You  

Justin RuddyNovember 29, 2011 

Here's a choice excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian's new book: Jesus + Nothing = Everything. The book is a great introduction to the radical nature of the gospel of grace, serving as a tenacious gospel remedy for hearts that lean toward "performancism" (read: all):

In our bones, we know that God hates unrighteous ‘bad’ works; we’re not nearly so convinced that he hates self-righteous ‘good’ works just as much, if not more. In fact, the most dangerous thing that can happen to you is that you become proud of your obedience.

In his excellent book A More Radical Gospel, the late Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde writes: 

Our misdeeds are not the real root of the problem. They are just what the tradition called actual sins. There is a much more serious problem, what the tradition called original sin. It is much more subtle and inevitably hidden from us. The relationship is broken by the presumption of our ethical behavior, our morality, our good deeds, our insistence on doing it ourselves. The relation is broken because these too turn us quite simply against grace. . . . The Almighty God desires simply to be known as the giver of the gift of absolute grace. To this we say 'no.' We say, rather, that we intend to make it on our own, that grace is 'too cheap.' Then the relationship is destroyed just as surely as it was by our immortality.

Our ‘good works’ can become the very thing that gives us so much self-comfort and self-approval, this very thing we find so killingly attractive. Self-righteousness is our attempt to provide our own righteousness apart from his. God hates it because he loves us. And because self-righteousness can lead only to the robbery of freedom (47). 

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Richard Lints and Michael Horton On Christians in the Academy  

Justin RuddyNovember 17, 2011 

Our very own Richard Lints was recently featured on The Gospel Coalition site in a video discussion with Michael Horton. The two dialogue about the importance of Christian scholars experiencing the sharpening of the secular academy. Check out the video: 

Christian Scholarship in the Secular Academy from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

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Theology and the Sweetness of Literacy  

Justin RuddyNovember 16, 2011 

Over at the Books & Culture blog Tony Reinke has some helpful thoughts on theological convictions that should undergird and spur on our approach to literacy and reading. Here are three ways that the Christian faith might encourage us to be thoughtful readers and literacy advocates in a post-literate culture: 

First, I've found that we can gauge our literary tastes with Scripture. Is Scripture sweet to me like honeycomb dripping directly into the mouth (Psalms 19:10, 119:103)? This taste transition from Scripture-as-broccoli (necessity) to Scripture-as-honey (pleasure) is nothing less than a divine work of grace. To find spiritual delight in the prose, the poetry, the promises, and even the warnings of Scripture is at the pinnacle of God's purpose for literacy.

Second, the Savior's glory transforms literacy. When we see the knowledge of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, we read the Bible differently (2 Cor. 3:14-16). And we read everything differently. God's illuminating grace makes it possible for us to see what reflects our Creator and Savior in the starlight of creation and on the pages of great literature. The gospel provides us with new literary awareness.

Third, in the search for meaning, books trump images. It is no small challenge for a language-centered people to live faithfully in an image-saturated culture. Adam and Eve turned from the command of God when they saw the beautiful fruit. Ancient Israel chucked the earrings of adornment into a fire to craft a golden statue. And when the ear, the organ of language reception in an oral society, is exchanged for eye candy, things always go badly for God's people. The same is true today. This sacred history can help motivate us to develop our literacy.

For more theological reflections and practical suggestions on being a thoughtful reader, check out Reinke's new book Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Look for a forthcoming review on the CGC blog. 

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David Brooks on Admitting Our Sinfulness  

Justin RuddyNovember 15, 2011 

A recent op-ed from David Brooks over at the New York Times points up the foolishness of denying human sinfulness and corruptibility, and would seem to suggest that coming to terms with it may be a key to living well, or at least honestly with ourselves and one another. He uses the recent scandal at Penn State University, along with the media's reaction to said scandal, to ask his readers if we really have the right to feel superior to the morally fallen. His answer? 

People are really good at self-deception. We attend to the facts we like and suppress the ones we don’t. We inflate our own virtues and predict we will behave more nobly than we actually do. ...In centuries past, people built moral systems that acknowledged this weakness. These systems emphasized our sinfulness. They reminded people of the evil within themselves. Life was seen as an inner struggle against the selfish forces inside. These vocabularies made people aware of how their weaknesses manifested themselves and how to exercise discipline over them. These systems gave people categories with which to process savagery and scripts to follow when they confronted it. They helped people make moral judgments and hold people responsible amidst our frailties.

But we’re not Puritans anymore. We live in a society oriented around our inner wonderfulness. So when something atrocious happens, people look for some artificial, outside force that must have caused it — like the culture of college football, or some other favorite bogey. People look for laws that can be changed so it never happens again.

Commentators ruthlessly vilify all involved from the island of their own innocence. Everyone gets to proudly ask: “How could they have let this happen?” The proper question is: How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive. That was the proper question after Abu Ghraib, Madoff, the Wall Street follies and a thousand other scandals. But it’s a question this society has a hard time asking because the most seductive evasion is the one that leads us to deny the underside of our own nature.

Brooks' question, "How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive," is almost a set-up for the gospel, which both forces us to face the ugly realities of our sin (non-evasive), consider them truthfully (non-self-deceptive), and offers hope for overcoming these twisted "natural tendencies" through the power of Christ's death and resurrection, along with his continuing work in our lives through his Spirit.

Sure, the gospel is an answer to Brooks' question that requires the introduction of faith into the conversation, but dismissing outrightly its legitimacy as an explanation for human sinfulness, and an instrument for real change and renewal in an individual's life, seems disingenuous. When the unfounded moral superiority that Brooks decries is backed up by a kind of uncritical, worldview-superiority that is unwilling to admit any alternatives, we will soon find ourselves with no grounds from which to address corruption and injustice that we so readily see in others, but appear unable to see in ourselves.

(Another interesting piece that approaches what we might call "sin," which is based on more definite research, recently appeared in New Scientist: "The Underhand Ape: Why Corruption is Normal"). 

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Renewal Audio from Richard Lovelace  

Justin RuddyOctober 31, 2011 

In the past we have pointed you to unsung but vital resources like S. G. De Graaf's Promise and Deliverance, or audio of the late Meredith Kline's classes. These are the kinds of gems that you'll find if you're reading the footnotes of your favorite modern day gospel-centered authors. Another under appreciated, even if oft cited, author is Richard Lovelace, who taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for many years. Lovelace's primary contribution is a rich theology of personal and corporate renewal in the gospel. His work has been extremely influential on the likes of Tim Keller, Jerry Bridges, Stephen Um, and others.

Two books comprise the bulk of his published material: Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal is a hefty systematic-esque treatment of gospel renewal dynamics, while Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth is a slimmer, more digestible approach to the same material. The primary purpose of this post is to point you to some rarely accessed audio resources made available by the C.S. Lewis Institute that feature Lovelace covering much of this material in a lecture setting. Nearly six hours in total, the recordings show Lovelace's grasp on the movement of God in history, the movement of God in our day, the dynamics of both personal and corporate revival, as well as a lengthy section on laying the foundation for church renewal. You can access the files here. The C.S. Lewis Institute also has extensive audio from the likes of Edmund Clowney, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and J.I. Packer. 

In any case, whether you encounter Lovelace's work via his books or this audio, you are sure to be driven to a deeper understanding of the necessity of the gospel for all of your Christian life. Enjoy! 

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Sermon Sketches #5 - Exile and Homecoming  

Justin RuddyOctober 13, 2011 

We continue in our Sermon Sketches series which today follows Stephen Um into his new sermon series: Encountering God. The series will track through the Old Testament, keying in on important characters and episodes where people encounter God. Throughout, attention is given to both the micro context of each text, as well as the macro context of how the texts fit into the larger "one-story-plotline" of the Bible. This week's sermon was taken from Genesis 3: 

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Encountering God:

Exile and Homecoming 

Genesis 3:1-24

• Introduction 
  • Up to this point in the Scriptures, Adam and Eve have had only one counselor speaking into their lives: God 
  • Human beings are "revelation receivers," and at this point in the narrative another counselor enters the picture 
  • The serpent is working with the same facts but interprets them differently in an attempt to woo Adam and Eve. 
• The Reason for the Fall 
  • If anyone is to be considered more accountable for the Fall, it would be Adam 
    • He is the the federal representative of all humanity, and the one who received the initial command. 
  • At the heart of the Fall is a deep rooted suspicion of God 
    • We ultimately want to reign our own lives.
  • There is a creational order that the Fall turns upside-down.
    • We were originally intended to worship God and rule over creation. With the Fall this is twisted: humanity now worships and is ruled by creation. 
    • Choice itself because a means of binding enslavement (Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice). 
  • The human heart was the target of the serpent's attack. 
    • The word play between naked (v.25) and crafty (v.23) in the original language bears this out. 
    • Eve was both the first moral conformist and self-liberator:
      • By adding requirements to God's original command she makes him stingier and stricter. 
        • Though God is a God of abundance, Eve adds "touch" (v.3) as a new restrictive requirement. 
      • By dropping the covenantal name of God (Yahweh) and lessening the intensity of punishment she makes him softer. 
  • We are all looking for life-sustaining functionality, but often times would rather engage in attempts at self-salvation to attain it. 
• The Result of the Fall 
  • Breakdown on every front is what comes as a result of the Fall:
    • Psychological (v.7a)
    • Horizontal/Relational - our relationships to one another (v.7b, 15)
    • Vertical/Theological - our relationship to God (v.8, 10)
    • Creational - our relationship to the created order itself (v.17)
    • Vocational - our relationship to work (v.19) 
  • When God was no longer at the center of humanity's life, the result was chaos. 
  • When God is placed at the center, the result is harmony. 
• The Remedy (or Reversal) of the Fall 
  • There are a number of important gospel themes that run through this text: 
    • v.15 - the overcoming of death 
    • v. 21 - the covering of shame 
    • v. 23 - the implied longing for homecoming that results from exile 
  • Pulling the thread in v.21, we are forced to ask, "How will our shame be covered?"
    • Shame is not the same as guilt, it references something external, the way others perceive us. 
    • The death of the animal in v.21 introduces the concept that death is important in providing life. 
    • When we trace this through the scriptures, we find that there is an ultimate Lamb who comes to die, and in doing so covers our shame with his righteousness. 
  • Following v.23, "How will we get back home?" 
    • We have been shut out of paradise and we cannot go through the flaming swords on our own. 
    • The only way to be brought back home is for an ultimate insider to come outside, to absorb our "outsider-ness," and go through the flaming swords on our behalf, that we might be made insiders. 
    • Christ does this for us. As the Second Adam, he fulfills all that the first Adam failed to do. 
    • Through him we are welcomed back home, given a new center, and even a new perspective on the law itself. 
  • Jesus is the one who provides us access, a way to get back home. 

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Plant New England Conference Today!  

Justin RuddyOctober 10, 2011 

Today, Stephen Um joins Mark Dever, Wes Pastor, and more than 150 attendees for Plant New England: a conference devoted to fostering gospel-driven church planting in New England. Stephen's breakout session will address the topic of "Engaging Skeptics with the Gospel." If you're planning on attending the conference, the breakout session will be held at 2:45pm, today. Also, tomorrow at 10:45am, there will be a panel discussion between Mark Dever, Wes Pastor, Stephen Um, and Mark Prater, which will be moderated by Collin Hansen.

For more on the conference see the conference schedule as well as this blog post over at The Gospel Coalition where Wes Pastor explains the conference purpose and theme. Onsite registration is still available for those interested in making a last minute decision to attend. We look forward to linking to audio resources as soon as they become available. Hope to see you there!

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Sermon Sketches #4  

Justin RuddyOctober 03, 2011 

We continue our series of Sermon Sketches with an overview of Stephen Um's recent sermon on the non-negotiable Gospel-DNA element of Missional Community. 

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Gospel DNA: Gospel Believing and Gospel Shaped

City Vision

Acts 1:8; 2:1-11, 42-47 

• Introduction 
  • For the past 1,000 years the western world could be said to have been in period of history called Christendom 
    • Advantage: there were agreed upon ways to talk about things like morality 
    • Disadvantage: morality was often present without heart transformation
    • Result: a community that has no way of rightly showing mercy to outcasts who they do not fit into accepted categories
  • We no longer live in a Christendom context. We must recognize that the western world is now post-Christian.
    
    • Ministry in such a context must be done through a contextualized, missional, gospel-shaped church. 
  • Note: All that will be said here must be understood in the context of the previous sermons in this series (Gospel Theology, Grace Renewal, and City Vision). 
    • The idea of a "missional church" can never be thought of in isolation from the gospel. 
• 1. What is a Missional Church? :: Definition
  
  • In short, a missional church is the Great Commission in action
    
    • A body of contextualized believers on mission
    • A missional church is not "attractional" for the purpose of church growth, but for the purpose of enabling people to hear the gospel. 
    • A missional church is "preparational" for the purpose of preparing each individual to be missional. 
    • All aspects of a church must be missional so that the gospel is always being contextualized but never compromised.
  • God's mission in the Bible 
    • Beginning with the Garden of Eden in Genesis, there is the notion that God's people are to cultivate his creation in a way that brings him glory. 
      • This included the notion of geographical expansion, which is inherent in 2:10-14, where four rivers are seen to flow out of the garden in each direction. 
    • By Genesis 11, fallen humanity is joining together in one place to build culture that brings glory to themselves rather than the Creator. As a result, they are dispersed. 
      • At Babel the people had one common language but no unified vision for the glory of God.
    • In Acts 1 people from all different cultures are brought together to hear the gospel.
      • Here, though there are numerous languages, everyone understands and embraces a common vision for the geographic expansion of the gospel. 
    • Acts 1:8 lays down this program for geographic expansion, and actually provides a general outline for the book of Acts (i.e. Jerusalem -> Judea -> Samaria -> the end of the earth). 
      • Acts gives us a picture of a missional church living out the Great commission to make disciples of all nations. 
    • Revelation gives us a picture of this mission fulfilled: all peoples giving glory to God. 
• 2. What does a Missional Church Look Like? :: Picture 
  • In Acts 2:42-47 we have a picture of a missional community that is faithfully present in its culture.
  • The early church was not one-dimensional in the way it understood or functioned in its mission. 
    • There was a ministry balance: emphasis on preaching/teaching, fellowship, mercy and social justice, evangelistic worship, etc. 
  • Some characteristics of a missional church:
  • a. A missional church never acts as though skeptics are not present. 
    • It must be assumed that skeptics are present, so we must avoid talking about the skeptic in the third person. 
  • b. A missional church discourses in the vernacular. 
    • Avoid tribal language: de-Christianize our language without de-biblicizing it. 
    • We must hold on to all language that is biblical, but avoid extra-biblical cliches, pious tone, etc. 
  • c. A missional church knows how to enter a skeptics worldview, challenge it, and re-tell it with the gospel.
    
    • Note that our tendency is often to begin with the challenge, but you can't rightly challenge a story without entering or understanding it first.
    • The most common worldview held in the western world is that 1) an individual must be about self-creation, authentication, and securing his or her own freedom or happiness, and that 2) this must be done in such a way that a community is created where it is safe for others to do the same.
    • The challenge to this worldview is that its two main elements simply can't be held together. There will always be a clash between the individual's freedom and the freedom of other persons in the community. What will take precedence?
    • The gospel re-tells this worldview by showing that because we have been made free ultimately in Christ, we can experience the greatest freedom through life with and service to other persons in our community.  
  • d. A missional church understands that there is often a process to belief, or a number of mini-decisions that one makes. 
    • This is not to deny the necessity of conversion, or to blur the line between those who are in Christ and those who are not, but to recognize a process that often takes place.
    • Awareness - an individual may begin by being exposed to the gospel and understanding that is different than what they know as "religion."
    • Relevance - an individual recognizes that aspects of the gospel address issues about which they have questions, concerns, etc. 
    • Credibility - the gospel begins to be seen as credible through the answering of lingering questions and the integrity of the lives of those who are shaped by it. 
    • Trial - an individual tries on the gospel, seeing how it fits. 
    • Commitment - the point at which an individual recognizes his or her need for grace. 
    • Note: this is not a hard and fast process, but a missional church cultivates places where this process is allowed to take place. 
• 3. What is Missional Living? :: Dynamic 
  • Missional living is organic and relational. 
    • Missional living is active, not passive: individuals are not consumers but participants/producers. 
  • Missional living means that we will look much like our neighbors. 
    • As we contextualize, we share the same concerns for our neighborhood, schools, streets, etc.
  • Missional living means that we will look very unlike our neighbors.
    
    • We will be characterized by relational integrity, hospitality, mercy and social justice, etc.
    • We are engaged in a process of radical neighboring where we are concerned about the holistic, comprehensive well-being of our neighbors.  
  • Our missionality is driven and shaped by the gospel:
    • The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) begins with a lawyer asking the question, "Who is my neighbor?"
    • He is really asking "Who is not my neighbor?," seeking safety, comfort, and justification from the needs of those unlike himself.
    • Jesus expands the definition of neighbor and shows us our need of an ultimate Good Samaritan to show us undeserved mercy.
      
      • Jesus is the ultimate good and great Samaritan.
      • He is the perfect picture of mission: engaged, contextualized, shaped by the gospel.
    • We can mediate justice and mercy because it has been given to us in Jesus. 
      • The question is no longer, "Who deserves my mercy?," but "Who is in need of my mercy?"
      • We show mercy while recognizing our own need of it. ("I'm in need of mercy, too"). 

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The Gospel and Our Lack of Good Fiction  

Justin RuddySeptember 27, 2011 

As of late I've enjoyed leafing through Tony Reinke's Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books. In his chapter on the benefits of reading fiction, he quotes Flannery O'Connor on the potential perils of religious fiction: 

"Ever since there have been such things as novels, the world has been flooded with bad fiction for which the religious impulse has been responsible. The sorry religious novel comes about when the writer supposes that because of his belief, he is somehow dispensed from the obligation to penetrate concrete reality. He will think that the eyes of the Church or of the Bible or of his particular theology have already done the seeing for him, and that his business is to rearrange this essential vision into satisfying patterns, getting himself as little dirty in the process as possible. His feeling about this may have been made more definite by one of those Manichean-type theologies which sees the natural world as unworthy of penetration. But the real novelist, the one with an instinct for what he is about, knows that he cannot approach the infinite directly, that he must penetrate the natural human world as it is."

Reinke's summary of O'Connor is that "good Christian fiction plants the seeds of grace deep in the soil of realism and common human experience" (123). As an avid fiction reader, I have often wondered why evangelical, gospel-centered Christianity has not given us many noteworthy novels or novelists. There are certainly a lot of answers to that question, but with this quote in view I can't help but think that there are three primary issues at play in the evangelical lack of profound, thoughtful, true-to-life fiction: 

First, as O'Connor points up, on the whole, we are not the most profound interpreters of "the natural human world as it is." I do believe that Christianity provides the best framework for understanding the world as it now stands: a glorious ruin groaning for redemption. However, and I include myself here, we have a tendency to allow our thinking about the world to get stuck in the framework itself, failing to make the proper connections to real life. This tends to make our fiction trite. 

Second, as a movement that tends to be slightly short-sighted and disconcertingly focused on the pragmatic, we find it difficult to see the payoff of writing and/or reading fiction. To play with Reinke's language, we are generous in our seed-sowing, but we do not often plant the seeds of grace deep. Writing good fiction would require that we take the long view.

Third, and this is the piece that drives the first two issues, we haven't yet fully grasped the implications of the gospel. Were we to push the gospel into every area of life we would be forced to connect our theological frameworks to "the natural human world as it is." Furthermore, the gospel would enable us to move beyond the pragmatic, microwave approach that we often take to storytelling, allowing us to dig deep into the dirt of this world to plant seeds of grace and hope. 

Ultimately, in the gospel we have all the resources that are needed for the telling of good stories. In fact, having the most compelling of all stories at the center of our lives has the potential to make us the best of all storytellers. Practically speaking, we can move toward producing better fiction by 1) encouraging a wide reading of good fiction in our churches, 2) being a receptive, constructively critical audience for burgeoning writers in our midst, and 3) praying for a deeper understanding of our world in light of the gospel that would lead us to take the long view. Obviously, there is no quick fix to the present situation, but we can hope that as we continue to grow in the gospel it will ultimately infect every area of our lives, including the stories we write and read. 

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Sermon Sketches #3  

Justin RuddySeptember 26, 2011 

• 1. Importance of the City :: City and Culture
  • Jeremiah 29:4 -- Babylon has taken Israel into exile. 
    • Some make it their goal to avoid being Babylonized. 
    • God's instructions are for his people to engage, settle, and prosper in the Babylonian city.
  • Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard, claims that cities are humanity's greatest invention.
    • Throughout this sermon it will be shown that cities are divine intention.
  • Why are cities important?: As the city goes, so goes the culture.
    • a. Cities are the developers of culture: the crossroads where all arenas of life intersect. 
      • Boast the most human capital. Boast the most ideas in an increasingly post-industrial era. 
    • b. Cities are the forgers of culture: the engine for creativity. 
      • Surrounded by people unlike me who stretch me. 
      • Surrounded by people like me who push me. 
    • c. Cities are the urbanizers of culture: trajectory toward an increasingly urban word. 
      • As of 2008, 52% of the world's population lived in urban areas. 
      • Humans naturally thrive on proximity and density. 
    • d. Cities are the globalizers of culture: as the world becomes increasingly connected, it is also increasingly urban. 
      • Tom Friedman's "The World Is Flat" gets it wrong by undervaluing face-to-face, offline relationships. 
  • In the midst of the city, the gospel is the only means by which we can be...
    • Humble: "I have a lot to learn from the city."
    • Confident: "I have a lot to offer the city."
    • Courageous: "I do not need to fear the city but can engage it." 
• 2. Theology of the City :: City and Bible
  
  • In the bible, "city" is not defined in terms of population or size, but in terms of safety, fortification, and power. 
    • The city was a place of refuge, and in many ways still is (particularly for marginalized people groups). 
  • Biblically, a city was a "walkable human settlement," characterized by density and diversity. 
    • ie. Everything needed to sustain life was within walking distance. 
  • The first city in the bible is actually the Garden of Eden 
    • It was the engine and location where culture was to be established.
    • Following the four rivers, there was to be an exponential geographic expansion of culture and human flourishing for God's glory. 
  • The last city in the bible is actually the restored, consummated Garden-City. 
    • What God had in mind in the beginning is escalated and consummated in the New Heavens and the New Earth...a city! 
  • This final garden-city is established through Jesus Christ, the one who did not experience the safety and refuge of the city, but was cast out and marginalized (Heb. 13) 
    • Jesus lost the city that was to gain the city that will be so that we, as citizens of that future city, can engage the city that now is. 
  • We engage cities because God engages them. 
    • As Tim Keller has said, there is more "image of God per square inch" in cities than anywhere else in the world. 
    • It is clear from the New Testament that Paul's church planting strategy was urban focused. 
• 3. Mission of the City :: City and Church  
  • The church must reach the city if it is to reach the culture. 
    • Although Christians represent more than 25% of the culture in the U.S., we do not have a legitimate, shaping influence in culture largely because we don't have significant numbers of Christians in the city. 
    • However, the goal is not to gain and wield power over culture. Rather, it is to show forth the gospel through upside-down power sharing that culminates in human flourishing. 
    • What would our city say if this church were no longer here?
  • Potential attitudes toward the city:
    
    • Despise the city: always fighting the city, resenting that you must live in it.
    • Accomodate the city: reflect and mirror the life of the city, including all of its brokenness.
    • City on a hill: a posture of love and service.
  • The church's goal must not simply be church-growth but city-growth.
    
    • We want our city to look more and more like the city of God.
    • When we are concerned about the common good, flourishing, and prosperity of our city, the need for more churches is obvious. 
    • A desire for city-growth leads to church-growth happening organically.

Note: the broad themes of this series draw upon material in development by City to City, with whom Dr. Um is involved in training church planters around the world. 

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On Spiritual Pride  

Lynn M. DunstonSeptember 23, 2011 

Pride is an ugly thing. I’m not talking about the kind of pride we feel when our country makes us proud, nor am I talking about the kind of pride that little Johnny’s parents feel when he kicks the game-winning goal. I’m talking about an ugly spiritual pride—the kind of pride that lurks within all of us. This is the kind of pride that causes the boss to speak condescendingly to her employees because they haven’t attained to her level of “success.” It’s the kind of pride that causes the Harvard student to roll his eyes at the community college student. This kind of pride makes the religious person grow cold in his affection towards God because his life has been free of major crises, and has never needed one of those dramatic “conversions.”

The problem with spiritual pride, however, is that it’s always relative. That is, when we compare ourselves by ourselves, we always appear shiny and polished. When we are the standard by which everyone else must be measured, then we are certainly nothing less than a limited edition. As John Calvin aptly put it, “As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods” (38). 

The cure for this spiritual malady, of course, is to obtain a new mirror. For as soon as one gazes into the reflection of the truly Divine, then one begins to recognize all of the scratches, the variously shaped dents, and the multiple layers of imperfection that were mysteriously invisible in the old mirror called Self. All of a sudden what once appeared so magnificent—the promotion, the academic appointment, the prestige of success—now appears to be nothing but attic dust. All of this is what happens, says Calvin, when one gazes on God’s holiness: 

Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and to ponder his nature, and how completely perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power—the straightedge to which we must be shaped. Then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God. (38).

My friend, if you find yourself sick with the dreadful disease of spiritual pride—a disease to which none are immune—take pains to be cured. Don’t hesitate, for this is a matter of urgent importance. Gaze intently on God’s holiness and pray that his Christ would reveal to you the depravity of your disfigured heart. For in so doing, you will not only be given a new mirror through which the true reflection of Beauty can be seen, but you will also find a new and truer reflection of yourself.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John T. McNeill. Vol. 1. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006.

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