Dave Black On The Seven Marks Of A New Testament Church

Watch the video below where Dave Black discusses his book, Seven Marks Of A New Testament Church. It is a little over half an hour but it is fascinating stuff.



If you are interested you can also read my review of Seven Marks... I found it a far more accurate portrayal than many other books and organizations that seek to identify THE marks of a New Testament fellowship.

After you watch the video what do you think?

Book Review: Seven Marks of a New Testament Church

There are no lack of books on the topic of the church. Most, and I say this with no hesitation, are garbage and consist of feel good malarkey and repackaged business wisdom applied to religious organizations. It therefore was a welcome change to read Dr. David Black's newest work from Energion Publications, Seven Marks of a New Testament Church. These are the seven marks he chose to look at (with the disclaimer that these are not the only seven marks, an important note)....

1. Evangelistic preaching 
2. Christian baptism 
3. Apostolic teaching 
4. Genuine relationships
5. Christ-centered gatherings 
6. Fervent prayer 
7. Sacrificial living

It is probably inevitable given my background that I compare Dr. Black's book with the well known 9 Marks of a Healthy Church put out by Mark Dever and the aptly named 9 Marks ministries. Mark and company are some of the most prolific writers out there on the topic of ecclesiology and come from a reformed, baptistic, plural elder viewpoint. While I disagree with a lot of what Dever writes, I appreciate the thought and the Scriptural study that have gone into their works. Nevertheless I found far more to commend in Dr. Black's compilation than Mark Dever's.

The thing I liked best about Seven Marks versus 9 Marks is that it is believer-centric rather than clergy-centric. 9 Marks is designed as a "top down" system, get the right elders leading the right way and preaching the right sermons and teaching the right theology and you have a "healthy church". Members will follow. Dr. Black starts at the ground floor with an "every member shared ministry" that far more closely follows the apostolic pattern. The church is built from individuals working as a community for the mission of God. Leaders are enablers who help others be prepared for the work of ministry:

The essence of all New Testament teaching about church leadership is that leaders are to be enablers. They are not to do the work of the ministry as much as they are to prepare others to do that work (see Eph. 4: 11-12).

Black, David Alan, Seven Marks of a New Testament Church: A Guide for Christians of All Ages (Kindle Locations 338-340). Energion Publications. Kindle Edition.

That is the sort of plain wisdom we need a lot more of in discussing the church in the waning days of Christendom. Top down leadership and top down centered ecclesiology is great for creating top heavy organizations but for the church we need to flip that order around as Dr. Black has done here.

One thing that sort of confused me. While Dr. Black talks a lot about love in every chapter, love doesn't get a chapter of its own. Jesus said that all men will know we are His disciples by our love for one another ( John 13:35 ). Love is the key, foundational mark of the church. Indeed without it the church cannot be the church. I am not sure why it was not given a chapter but if I were rewriting the book I would add at the top of the list!

In spite of my one quibble this is a book I can unreservedly recommend for anyone studying the church, whether one is seeking to reform an existing group and starting a new group from scratch. It is not long and it tends to raise a lot of questions, making it perfect as a study guide or introduction to ecclesiology. Get a copy, read it and then pass a copy or three on to your church friends. They might be surprised by what they read!

(You can also get Seven Marks from Amazon for the Kindle, that is what I did because I like to be able to electronically mark important passages)

Finishing Well

As you might know, Dave Black's beloved wife Becky Lynn went home to Christ after a long struggle with cancer. Her example in that time has been an inspiration to me from afar and her husband's reflections from the celebration of her life made me both deeply sorrowful and impossible hopeful all at once.

Please jump over to When A Loved One Goes Home. Read it, absorb it, weep along with it and most of all live it. All of our lives on this earth are but vapors, here today and then gone. Read of a sister who made the most of her time and read of a brother who has humbly submitted to God's will over his own desire. It is sad but it is joyful.

I never got to meet my sister Becky in this life but I look forward to seeing her face to face in eternity. I can't wait.

My How Things Have Changed (And Not For The Better)

Sometimes the best blogging is the simplest and I love Dave Black's lists. This morning features a great list of bullet points, each one dead on the money and worthy of extensive study in its own right (and I would love to see him do a point by point on each topic below) about how the church has changed from the New Testament model.

•  The Lord's Supper has changed from a celebration to a ceremony. 
• Worship has changed from participation to observation. 
• Witness has changed from relationship to salesmanship. 
•  Leadership has changed from servanthood to professionalism. 
•  Mission has changed from being missionaries to supporting missionaries. 
• Body life has changed from edification to entertainment. 
•  Buildings have changed from functional to sacred. 
• Child care has changed from the hands of parents to the hands of strangers

All true I am afraid. Then he simply adds this:

The New Testament shows us that the need great of modern Christianity is to return to biblical faithfulness and the profound simplicity of the New Testament. 

Indeed. Many of us tend to blog in great volumes about the church but that simple statement kind of captures it. Anyway I don't have anything to add to that (well I do but it probably can wait!) but I think it is worth pondering.

Write Like Paul Wrote!

You cannot overemphasize the importance of Paul for the New Covenant church. A central figure in the book of Acts and the human author of so many of the New Testament books, Paul uniquely takes the lessons from the Gospels, especially the cross and the resurrection, and puts them into both theological and practical applications for us. Without Romans, Galatians and Ephesians our understanding of soteriology would be incomplete. Without 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus our understanding of the church would be sorely lacking (in fact it still is in spite of having his letters!)

I think we tend to think of Paul as this towering intellectual, an academic, the ultimate "pastor-theologian", especially in some of the more academic minded  traditions in the church like the Reformed camp. The idea of the "pastor-theologian", the pastor as scholar notion, has a strong pull in much of the church where pastors are expected to emulate Paul and his academic offspring in men like Calvin, Luther, Jonathan Edwards and others. I often had in mind the image of Paul as he appears in this painting, poring over books and scrolls, wrestling with the text and in turn being an endless fountain of deep theological teaching. Surely men who want to emulate Paul, a noble aspiration, would need to devote themselves to studying and thinking and writing! Right? Maybe not. Check this out from Dave Black yesterday...

As a general rule, Paul's epistles were written when he was actively engaged in missionary work, moving from place to place in the midst of intense preaching and teaching. I wonder: Would he have written better -- or written more -- had he been, like many a New Testament scholar today, sedentary? Would he indeed have written anything at all had he not been, at heart, a missionary for Jesus? Would we have the great Love Chapter had he not missionized the Corinthians? Would we have the marvelous Pastoral Epistles had he not planted churches in Ephesus and Crete? Here's what I'm saying: For Paul, as for Jesus (Matt. 9:35-38), Christianity was a way of life, not merely a way of thinking or cogitating in the abstract. The experience of actually serving Christ was central in Paul's ministry and writing. 

 So I ask: Can one be a true student of the apostle Paul and not be a missionary?

Interesting question. Paul wrote his letters under great duress at times, certainly not on a paid scholarly sabbatical. He didn't spend his day in his study, he was out preaching, working with his own two hands. He was often in danger from the enemies of the Gospel, beaten and imprisoned. He worked with his own hands to earn a living and was often on the move as the maps of his missionary journeys in the back of your Bible will attest. He was far from sedentary but we expect the great minds of our time to be just that, academics locked away in their study or attending conferences with other academics. I wonder what writing in the church would look like if the people who did most of the writing were also the most engaged in mission? I doubt the books would be quite as thick or  heady but I think the writing would be more useful to the church rather than just something interesting to chat about in academic circles.

I am all for study and pondering and debating over theology but I fear that too many of our greatest minds are mostly engaged in discussions among themselves, discussions that are inaccessible and incomprehensible to the rest of the church. I would love to see more of the great minds setting aside their offices stuffed with books, ditching their suit and tie and getting out in the mission field where the Gospel is lived out.I find myself more interested today in the simple writings of men and women on mission than on the highbrow academic works. There are lots of very persuasive, eloquent writers who write absolute nonsense but do so convincingly. I am less interested in how well someone writes than I am with how well someone lives.

If you want to emulate Paul, live like Paul. Get a job. Get out in the field. Live among the church. That is how Paul did it and he is the greatest theologian the church has ever produced. Paul's writings were formed by his missionary experience and zeal, his thoughts were forged in the fires of persecution and hardship. We need to hear more from those who live like Paul because they have so much to teach the rest of us who will never be asked to present a paper at a theology conference.

Book Review: Paul, Apostle of Weakness

There is hardly a more cutting indictment of a man than to say he is weak. Being weak in our culture implies someone who cannot function as a man is supposed to function and likewise suggests an infirmity or femininity on his part. So for many men, especially Western men, the idea of weakness is abhorrent. How much more so when you are told that weakness is actually a source of strength? This apparent clash between the culture of our day and the Scriptures is one of the most perplexing for many people. In reaction we sometimes see one of two extremes, either an feminized church culture that is all kleenex and doilies and lillies or an overly masculinized church culture of belching, monster trucks and mixed martial arts. Neither captures what the Bible is talking about when speaking of weakness.

It is only when we study what the Bible, in particular the apostle Paul, has to say about weakness that we discover what it means to the follower of Christ. Into this study comes the revised edition of Dr. David Alan Black's work Paul, Apostle of Weakness. This is an important entry into the study of Paul's writing on a critical topic for conversation in the church.

A word of warning at the outset. This is not an easy book to read. Unlike many of Dr. Black's other, more accessible books aimed at a broader audience like The Jesus Paradigm, Paul, Apostle of Weakness (PAoW for short) is a meatier book studying a very specific concept and a particular word. As such it often had me bogged down as someone without formal training in the original languages. I would not hesitate to say that the casual reader would have a very difficult time reading PAoW. I know that in many places I did! That is not meant to scare you off, just give you a realistic view.

Dr. Black explores the use of the word astheneia in Paul's writings. We often run into the idea of "weakness" in the New Testament but likewise we often see it as part of a broader topic. What Dr. Black does is to pull together each of the different uses of astheneia and show the overarching themes that Paul is drawing from. The passages are familiar but when pulled together in this way they take on a new life and we see that weakness was not a passing complaint from Paul but a central reality of his daily living.

Perhaps the best part of the book is the concluding chapter where Dr. Black draws together everything he has written into a summary. I found it very helpful in making a broad application of how weakness plays into our understanding of the human condition, the preeminence of God's power and the often frustrating inter-relationships in the church. I have more thoughts on that topic, you can be certain!

All in all, a very challenging book both because of the counter-cultural nature of the topic as well as the more complex than average writing level but it is also a worthwhile use of your time. Weakness as a submission to God is not being a weakling but rather a discovery of the source of our truest strength, reliance on God who is all sufficient. Check out Paul, Apostle of Weakness to aid your study of this never ending fountain of true strength!

Missions are in the mundane

Dave Black is leaving on a jet plane...but left behind some important thoughts...

Serving Jesus is like making a 60-yard touchdown run. (Yes, God plays football.) And the ball's in our hands. Let's get out of our holy huddles (especially those of you who have the "perfect" church) and run a play or two for Jesus. Yes, you will get scraped up (or beat up -- ask Paul!) along the way. But it's pretty hard to deny the need that is out there.

By the way, there's no sense in playing unless you expect results. Don't limit your playing field to the stained glass aquarium (or to your living room). Jesus is building His church worldwide, and He wants to use you. That's why you're here in the first place. Serve Jesus and there will be pain. Live for yourself and there will be pain. There will be pain either way. So why not get your pain working for you rather than against you? Let's unleash foot soldiers for Jesus. Don't need to go across the world to do this either. Know how to bake a pie and take it to a neighbor? Welcome to the mission field!

Now that is a convicting word. We can so easily get caught up in "doing church right" that we lose sight of why there is a church in the first place or what we are called to do. That mission can be summed up in one word: GO.That can be GO to Ecuador or Ethiopia or Haiti or that can be GO across town or across the street. We are so caught up in the big displays, the dramatic movements that we lose the sense in which God works in the very small, the mundane, the ordinary to change lives. I have a GO opportunity tonight and I am grateful for it. The rest of the week has lots of little GO opportunities, I just pray for the humility to recognize them and the wisdom to look up from my blog now and then to see the mission field I write about so often.

As an aside, I am trying to break free of the American church culture that I think impedes missions in the world and get perspective on the rich and varied world of Christianity but one place I remain an unashamed and unapologetic American bigot is in football. I am quite convinced that God has a special place in His kingdom for football and not the kind with the little round ball you kick around but rather the kind played as God intended, giant men crashing into one another and conquering the field one yard at a time. Such a glorious game clearly that the mark of the Creator upon it!

Ministry is a task for all of us

Dave Black has penned an excellent essay on Ordinary Missionaries and he is right on the money, as usual:

For several years now I've been studying the missionary movement in North America. I believe we are on the cusp of an era when insourcing missions will become the strategy for achieving global evangelization. A strategy that depends on outsourcing the work to paid professionals is not going to get the job done. Outsourcing will be around for a while longer because it is what everyone is used to. But insourcing will require a wholly different mindset. It's not just about producing more missionaries. It's about creating a completely different kind of environment -- a collaborative environment in which everyday people like you and me are constantly thinking about how to generate towel and basin ministries both at home and around the globe.

The future of ministry, missions, evangelism, the church itself, will rely on ordinary Christians. That is as it should be because that is how Christ designed it. We are not changing our methods because the way that Christ set it up failed, we are changing our methods to reflect what Christ intended in the first place!

I think this statement is the key:

Moreover, the more you are seen as insourcing, the more people will want to get involved as they begin to realize that they too can play a part in global missions.

What a simple and obvious statement but one that is both overlooked and in fact tacitly discouraged in the church! The key to missions in the future will be lots and lots of “regular” people getting involved and getting involved more than making a contribution to the Lottie Moon offering. The mission field is not “out there”, the mission field often is “right here” but the church has done a pretty poor job of equipping itself to respond to the ministry opportunities that are all around us. The task is too big for 1% or 5% of Christians, it requires every single one of us. That might mean going overseas. It might be ministering locally. It might be as simple as rearing and instructing our own children but however it looks it requires 100% participation. There isn't a sideline or a bench in ministry, we are all called to be on the field.

The day of “Stand back sir, we are professionals!” ministry is over in the West. As Dr. Black wrote, it will linger for a while because we by and large don’t know anything else but as Europe is demonstrating this change is inevitable. I can only hope that we can avoid exporting our mistakes of the last millennium to China and Africa and Haiti and Ecuador. There is no need for them to go through a professional ministry stage and repeat our mistakes. The church in developing countries, in the mission field, doesn’t need to “grow up” and adopt Western practices. Their practices are just fine. In fact it is the Western church that can learn a lot from the mission field in this respect.

Dave concludes with this paragraph:

How can the church in North America get to the place where we will launch out into action instead of merely talking about the millions of lost people all around us? The answer is very simple. There will be no change until we change our attitude from that of a hireling to that of a bondservant. We must turn our backs on all of our excuses and voluntarily live a life that is totally separated unto the Gospel. As the great British athlete C. T. Studd once put it, "Some want to live within the sound of a church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." It was because of His great love for people that Jesus deliberately reached out to the lost, sick, and dying people of His day. If we are truly born-again Christians, if we have truly come to grips with the terms of "costly discipleship" (Bonhoeffer), how can we possibly do anything less?

I love that. Being part of the church means more than hanging around with the church in the church doing church stuff. Someone this weekend described crisis pregnancy centers as “frontline” missions. The same is true in food pantries, rescue missions, prison ministry, orphanages, etc. That is where ministry happens because that is where those who need to be ministered to and hear about Jesus are. Christians sitting in Sunday school learning about being Christians is not ministry. Christians sitting in a pew week after week listening to sermons is not ministry nor is it equipping them for the work of ministry. Ministry requires standing up, getting out and getting dirty and most of it is "on the job" training.

Face it, most of those who most need to hear about Jesus and see His love lived out by His people are also the least likely to come to church. Our response cannot be “tough luck sinners, you gotta come to church. We are here every Sunday from 11 top 12!”. Our response must be to go to them. Jesus didn’t wait for sinners to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. If He had, He would still be waiting in vain. He came to us while we were yet sinners, dead in our sins and by nature His enemies. How can we as His redeemed people do anything less? How can we hide in our churches and send a handful of professionals out to do this task and still say we are being faithful to what He has called us to?

We cannot and we must not.

Pauline Dialogical Liberty

Check out the new and excellent essay from Dave Black on what Zwingli described as "The Rule of Paul". The more I read the New Testament, the less I see the church as established by Christ and led by the apostles in American Christianity. We use the same words that we see in Scripture but the results look strange and disconnected when viewed through the lens of Scripture. As Dr. Black writes, the recovery of the New Testament church is one of the great challenges set before us, a task we are called to that dwarfs many of the other less pressing issues that seem to dominate our time and attention.

This task of rebuilding the church is an urgent mandate for our generation. Are we willing to embrace a community in which kingdom citizens can participate as the Spirit leads them? Or are we using our positions of authority to perpetuate inequity? Are we building pyramids of power that Jesus cannot bless because His kingdom is flat? Do we allow edification to gravitate to the hands of a few? Do we work hard to decentralize ministry as much as possible? These questions cut to the core of our identity as followers of Jesus. His way unnerved the religious authorities of His day, and it will do the same thing today. His life and message assaulted the status quo. Likewise, Paul's appeal to every-member ministry offers an alternative model of community. Paul isn't just teaching church polity. He's unpacking bigger things. He asks us to remove the handcuffs that limit service to paid professionals. He invites kingdom citizens to become blind to status differences. He teaches that pastors are not to monopolize ministry but to equip others for works of service. He urges us to see others as more important than ourselves.

Those are important questions. Are we ready for the answers? This is a task that can only be accomplished through prayer and God's providence. We must make much of Christ and be willing to have our own role and acclaim diminished. For the glory of Christ to be demonstrated in His church, He must indeed increase and our pet traditions, power struggles, pride and power must decrease.

An important essay on the Supper

Dave Black writes a combo book review/essay on the Lord’s Supper that is an excellent read on a subject that we assume a lot about but that we are, I believe, completely missing the boat on. I like that Dr. Black points to Acts 20:7. What a great picture into the life of the church we find in verses 7 through 11. It is worthwhile to reproduce what is written here:

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted. (Acts 20:7-12)

I copied the above from the ESV Study Bible online and got a chuckle from the study note on verse 7: On the first day of the week. The first reference in Acts to worship on Sunday. Um, yeah except that what is being described looks almost nothing like what we associate with a “worship service”. So what is going on?

The church is meeting together, they are blessed to have Paul in their midst and they meet for a very long time. What transpires should be highly instructive to us today: they were sharing a meal (at least one, perhaps more?) and conversing with one another in fellowship. I would imagine Paul led the conversation but what is written clearly indicates that this was a dialogue between believers. They were not engaged in some sort of ritualistic symbol consisting of oyster crackers and a grape drink in plastic cups all served from an expensive "communion service". They were eating a meal together as the church in the sort of fellowship that can only be experienced in that sort of intimate setting. Eating is a messy business and it is one of those times we are at our most real. I think that by largely abandoning communal meals in favor of a ritualistic passing of the platter, we have lost a Biblical and wonderful opportunity to be in fellowship with one another. Passing a plate to your neighbor in silence simply cannot replace a joyful meal with fellow believers. I for one am praying for a recovery of the Lord’s Supper as a meal instead of a once-a-quarter ritual! Here is Dr. Black's conclusion and it warrants serious consideration:

This is the heart and center of the matter – the exaltation of Jesus Christ as Savior and Head of the Body. It sounds so simple; but when we are honest with ourselves it is surprising how we have failed to give Christ the “preeminence in all things” (Col. 1:18). I know of no reason why we should not follow the Scriptures in these matters except for inertia and fear – fear that it might be too radical, fear that our sacred traditions might get trampled upon. But such fears are absolutely groundless.

Amen, why do we fear what Scripture tells us and remain stuck in our traditions?

Check out The Lord’s Supper, Then and Now

Book Review: Why Four Gospels?

The authorship of the Gospels is one of those incredibly complex topics that academics love to argue about and frankly it is a topic that is way beyond most non-academic Christians. I would go further and say that most rank and file Christians have given only passing attention, if that, to the topic. The book says “Matthew” in my index so Matthew wrote it and that is about all the further we look into it. I am afraid that does an injustice to an important topic, namely where and how did we get the Gospel that we find in Scriptures? Unfortunately this is compounded by the morass of academic work that surrounds the topic that makes the subject seem overwhelming and off-limits to the average Christian.

Entering the fray is Dr. David Alan Black with a brief salvo in his recently updated book Why Four Gospels? published by the good people at Energion Publications. Dr. Black, no shocker to anyone who has benefited from reading his various essays, books and blog posts, takes a position that is contrary to the accepted stance of many academics. Rather than seeing Mark as the source for Matthew, Dr. Black argues for the priority of Matthew and further argues that Mark was designed as a “bridge” between Matthew and Luke, part of the process of legitimizing Luke. While Dr. Black is something of a maverick among contemporary academics with this stance, he is in good company with the early church fathers and he appeals quite strongly to them to support his view.

What I especially appreciated was how accessible this book was. Certainly this is a complex topic and Dr. Black has the academic chops to produce a work that is inaccessible to any but the most scholarly of readers. Instead he has put together a very nice introduction to the topic that is understandable to people who don’t live in the world of academia. Too many academics like to hide behind high brow academic tomes that put the average reader to sleep but Why Four Gospels? is interesting and engaging throughout, powerfully argued but also readable for people who have a more limited background. In spite of its accessibility I think it possesses enough meat that the professional academic will find the assertions challenging and the bibliography at the end is incredible.

Something else I found helpful was Dr. Black’s deference to the church fathers. It certainly seems plausible from what he has written that the early church fathers were unanimous in their understanding of Matthew as the first Gospel and when you consider that they lived far closer to the time of the authorship of the Gospels, their statements should carry a great deal of weight. As long as we properly recognize that while the church fathers are not authoritative in the sense of the Scriptures, their testimony can help our understanding of topics like the authorship of the Gospels.

The big advantages of this book are also the only downside. Given the relatively small size of the book, Dr. Black doesn’t go into much detail regarding the opposing positions. That is undoubtedly because he has addressed them in more detail in larger books and there are likewise a ton of books on the market already arguing against the priority of Matthew. Someone who reads Why Four Gospels? by itself is going to be getting only one side of the conversation but I hope that this introduction will serve two purposes, first to provide an introduction that puts the academic status quo on notice that the widely accepted concept of Markan priority is not without challenge and two that it will spur the reader to study this difficult but important topic in more depth.

I will confess that I didn’t fully follow everything that Dr, Black was arguing because I don’t have a sufficient background in the topic. I was introduced to it in a few New Testament courses in seminary classes but that has been a few years ago and hardly did justice to the topic. Having said that I certainly gained a lot from this book and found it an excellent introduction to a complex but important topic, an introduction that will spur further study on my part. Any book that makes you think is a good book and Why Four Gospels? certainly will make you think.

The next book to read

Just got a review copy of Why Four Gospels? written by the esteemed David Black courtesy of the good folks at Energion Publications. From the book description....

In Why Four Gospels? noted Greek and New Testament scholar David Alan Black, concisely and clearly presents the case for the early development of the gospels, beginning with Matthew, rather than Mark. But this is much more than a discussion of the order in which the gospels were written. Using both internal data from the gospels themselves and an exhaustive and careful examination of the statements of the early church fathers, Dr. Black places each gospel in the context of the early development of Christianity.

Though Markan priority is the dominant position still in Biblical scholarship, Dr. Black argues that this position is not based on the best evidence available, that the internal evidence is often given more weight than it deserves and alternative explanations are dismissed or ignored. If you would like an outline of the basis for accepting both early authorship of the gospels and the priority of Matthew, this book is for you.

It is not a huge book so it should be accessible for someone like me with limited academic background in this field. I was a bit startled that the bibliography was twenty pages long! Looking forward to reading the latest from Dr. Black!

(I probably should start doing more reading of books instead of blogging about books I am gonna read)

A needed rebuke

You need to read Dave Black's blog posting today. Several important and troubling posts including this one:

But I need to add a careful rider here. Television is not the only time-stealer. How much do I read on the Internet that is really worthwhile and beneficial? Personally speaking, I have stopped reading so-called Christian bloggers whose main purpose in life seems to be to expose the moral failures of others. I call these blogs narcissism factories. They bloat their writers' egos and smother their insecurities under a hubristic penumbra. Their message is as obvious as a Texas two-step: Either you're moral (like me), or you're not. They fail to realize how profoundly unbecoming it is to disclose the dark imperfections of their fellow human beings. "That blogger whose richest pleasure depends on exposing the sins of others -- what secret sin is he or she guilty of?" -- I often wonder. There is something terribly wrong when our blogs shine more brightly than our Savior and when our passion for holiness is replaced by a passion for haughtiness. By working to weaken bad passions we only succeed in increasing them. I struggle enough to maintain perspective without having to read Christian tabloids. I mention this personal disclosure because my experience, I think, is not uncommon.

I read that on my blackberry and immediately went and deleted a very snarky post I had set to post tonight. I guess I realized after reading what Dave had to say that the world doesn't need another blog post about how wrong someone else is about something. There are plenty of places in my own life where I stumble and have fallen. If I spent half as much time working out my own flaws as I do in pointing those in others I would be a far more effective servant, husband, father. There is a lot that I am pondering and praying about but allow myself to be distracted by the foibles of others. Focus! I used to live for the fights, for proving others wrong. I am trying to rid myself of that but I often need reminders and that was exactly what I got today on a tiny digital screen.

Why do we fear persecution?

I am re-reading the chapter on the Anabaptists in Dave Black's The Jesus Paradigm. Something really caught my eye and struck a nerve when I read this:

Because of these beliefs the Anabaptists endured fierce repression. What sustained them was the reality of Christian community. They truly loved and cared for each other. Like the earliest Christians, they wanted to be known above all by their love, Christian works and mutual support.

(David Alan Black, The Jesus Paradigm, pg,. 40)

What sustained them was the reality of their community of love. The earliest church or the Anabaptists in the 16th century or the persecuted church in China all have the support of genuine community. Why do Chinese Christians gather together in the face of probably arrest? Why did the Anabaptists refuse to compromise with the state church at the risk of being burned at the stake or drowned? Because the community of believers is that important to them and that community supports itself when the world comes calling.

I think perhaps one of the big reasons we fear persecution in the Western church is that we have no real community to support us. Our basis for community is getting together a couple of hours a week and our names on a membership roll. We depend on our family or on our savings account or our rights as Americans. If we were in a pinch we could probably find someone in the local church to help us out, but that is often the last resort. We desperately need to recover Christian community for the days to come. Anyone can see that the easy, comfortable days of Christianity are rapidly coming to an end. When the world once again turns on the Way, who will be there to support us? We need the love and fellowship of other believers to endure persecution because persecution is not a possibility or a probability, it is an inevitable reality. That persecution holds little fear for those who have faith in Christ and community with other believers in Him.

Christian Archy

My copy of Dr. Dave Black's newest publication, Christian Archy, arrived this morning. It is a short (less than 50 pages) but important little book that examines the Kingdom:

In Christian Archy, Dr. David Alan Black examines the New Testament to find the truly radical and all-encompassing claims of God's kingdom. In doing so, he discovers that the character of this kingdom is widely different from what is commonly contemplated today. Its glory is revealed only through suffering — a point that Jesus' disciples, then and now, have been slow to understand. This truth has tremendous implications for church life. The kingdom of God is in no way imperialistic. It has no political ambitions. It conquers not by force but by love. It is this humble characteristic of the kingdom that is a stumbling block to so many today. Christ's claim to our total allegiance is one we seek to avoid at all costs. But there is only one way to victory and peace, and that way is the way of the Lamb.

Looking forward to reading and reviewing it!

If you don't find this convicting, you aren't paying attention

A sobering and convicting post from Dave Black, Making a mockery of the Great Commission, reproduced in its entirety.

Our business as Christians is to make disciples of all nations. That’s what we’re here for. By life or by death, by what we do and do not do, in body and in spirit, our business is to work for the expansion of God’s kingdom on earth.

It is easily possible for us to so focus on our own little communities of faith that we come dangerously close to making a mockery of the Great Commission. Such an attitude is a serious symptom. It reveals a growing disease of the spirit that could become an incurable malignancy. Churches that are in this in-grown state are not concerned about it. There is no doubt about the crisis but our conduct is not rising to the occasion.

Theoretically and theologically we may believe in the Great Commission, but our belief does not motivate much activity. The situation around the world is desperate, but we are not. We drug and dope our consciences and allow things to go on as things have always gone. A sense of urgency for world evangelization is fast disappearing from us.

Demas had to choose between Paul and this world (2 Tim. 4:10), and he chose the world. This is a choice that every Christian, and every church, has to make. In Matthew 9:35-38 we see that Jesus went and went and went to all the cities and villages, teaching, preaching, and healing. Wherever He went He left a trail of blessing. This same Jesus lives in all of us who know Him. This ought to make a difference.

I encourage all of us to go “all out” for Jesus. He deserves it. Let the dead bury the dead. It’s time to plow a straight furrow looking straight ahead.

Ouch. I see myself in too much of that.

Don't leave the church, build the church!

Great quote from Dave Black on church leavers:

One of the current social fads is what we might call "post-church Christianity." People are dropping out of church, especially young people who may have been converted in non-traditional settings. I must confess that much of what we see in the Body of Christ is indeed very unattractive: anachronisms, inconsistencies, hypocrisies. But I cannot agree that the solution is dropping out. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we are obligated as believers to "stir one another up to love and good works." How can refusing to meet with other Christians allow us to obey this command? Each Christian is a building block in the temple of the church. Each is necessary for the Body to grow. Each has a part to play. Sadly, the word "work" has become a four-letter word in many of our churches. There are too many shirkers and not enough workers. Even Jesus said the laborers are few.

If you are a dropout from church (for whatever reason, and you may have some VERY good reasons!), my simple advice to you is this: Get to work. Jesus said, "I will build My church," and He had all of us in mind as His workers!

That is wise counsel. Again, calling for Biblical restoration of the church is not tantamount to calling for Christians to leave the church. No Christian can be healthy outside of the local assembling of the Body. I have no more use for lone wolf, "churchless"Christians than I do for those who seek to add layer upon layer of tradition, dogma and hierarchy on the local assembly. We are seeking the ancient paths, church as the apostles saw it. You can't have an apostolic ministry that rejects the methods and examples of the apostles! The reaction to the institutional, tradition bound church is appropriate but to respond by leaving is not. You don't have to choose between "Churchius Americana" and no church at all. There is a better way, a way practiced by the church in the first days and that is my goal. There is a lot to do and a lot to undo in the church and that will require hard work. That hard work is what we are called to do, not to sit staring dreamily heavenward or locking ourselves in our studies reading books. The work of the church is hard and frustrating and dirty more often than not but there ought be no more joyful labor for the redeemed.

Pray for Dave Black

Alan Knox just posted that Dave Black is seriously ill....

He became sick last week, and the doctor’s diagnosed him with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and sent him home.

However, they have now changed their diagnosis to malaria. Apparently, he contracted malaria during a recent trip to Ethiopia. He is being treated in a local hospital. Please pray for his recovery

Dr. Black is a man who has been increasingly influential to my thinking. I would ask for your prayers to the Great Physician on behalf of Dr. Black

Book Review: The Jesus Paradigm

(Disclosure: I received a free advance copy with the understanding that I would blog a review of it and with no other stipulations attached)

I finally finished David Black's new book, The Jesus Paradigm. It took me way longer than I expected through no fault of the book. Many of the thoughts Dr. Black expressed required some mulling over and honestly more than a few got me riled up, in good ways and in not so good ways!

I appreciate that Dr. Black, in spite of his advanced education and grasp of the Biblical languages, did not fall into the trap that many academics do of "writing to impress". His writing style is very lucid and concise and is at the same time intellectually challenging while remaining accessible. In other words, a person with a theological background and advanced training in Biblical languages is not going to be bored reading this book nor is someone with minimal formal education going to be intimidated in trying to wade through it.

Another thing I appreciated was that Dr. Black is bold and humble in his assertions. He certainly challenged me while I was reading The Jesus Paradigm and yet it never came across as him scolding me for my failings. The church could certainly use a dose of humility, and I put myself first in line for that. The idea of Christian discipleship is a "downward path" as described by Dr. Black. As we carve away the world and the organized religiosity that pervades the church, we find service and self-denial lead to satisfaction and joy. I thought of the words of John the Baptist when I was reading The Jesus Paradigm: He must increase, but I must decrease. (Joh 3:30) I found that as I examined myself in light of the truths Dr. Black was describing that I was wanting in many, many places. Dr. Black exhibits a Christ-centeredness that is refreshing. Lots of people talk about being Christ-centered but often that is a mask for denominational pride, theological particularism or self-exaltation.

I also liked the focus on the Anabaptists. Often forgotten and even more often misrepresented, the Anabaptists can still teach us a lot about the Christian life and about the church. Even in areas where I don't agree with them entirely, we still have much to learn. I enjoyed Dr. Black's comment that being peaceful doesn't equate to being a pacifist but that we should all seek to be peacemakers. There wasn't much mention of the aberrant theology that is often associated as a blanket accusation against Anabaptism. There were lots of perfectly orthodox Anabaptists. There were also a number of men in that camp who taught damnable heresies. However The Jesus Paradigm is not nor does it seek to be a comprehensive history of Anabaptism but he does show us quite persuasively that the Anabaptists are still quite valuable to the church today. I agree with him that we should seek a rediscovery of the writings and beliefs of those misunderstood and oft forgotten saints.

I guess I would say that Dr. Black "gets it". The "it" in question is a proper view of the Christian life, of discipleship. This book and the thoughts he shares are clearly the product of great study and prayer from a man who has the academic chops to be respected. Instead of pumping out popular books that reinforce the status quo, books like this challenge people and make us uncomfortable. In a church that is all too often far too comfortable, that is something we desperately need. We need to be shaken up.

However, no book is perfect and the big issue I had with The Jesus Paradigm had to do with the running political commentary. Right out of the gate I was a little put off by some of the political commentary. I understand, and would agree, that the church in America has far too often been too intertwined in politics. More often than not, the church has been linked to the Republican party, conservative politics, the "Religious Right" which is not healthy for the church or for the Republican party. But for a book that is not about politics, I found the frequent political commentary to be distracting. In condemning political entanglement, Dr. Black became so specific (even naming names like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity) that in his clamor for us to be apolitical I am afraid he did just the opposite. I think the book would have been healthier and more effective if he had skipped the strident political dogma, in large part because I am sure that many people who would benefit from this book will set it aside after a few chapters precisely because of the political undercurrents. I am not even saying he is wrong, although there are some places I would disagree strongly with him. What I am saying is that his argument in some places crosses over into anger (and as a connoisseur of angry rhetoric, I know of what I speak!) and frankly in some places exhibits naivete (for example, on page 122 he speaks approvingly of the view that peace in Iraq is dependent on reconciliation with Tehran, a view which seems somewhat silly given the recent events that demonstrate for us again that Tehran is not a place where good faith negotiations can take place). Again, it is not that he is entirely wrong but the tone and tenor are kind of jarring compared to the humble tone of the rest of the book.

All in all, this is an excellent book. Well written, accessible, challenging, reasonable for the most part. There is no higher compliment that I can give a book than to say it was challenging to me, made me want to read the Scriptures more diligently and that I marked pages and quotes liberally. This book did all three. It is a book that should and will challenge people to look at the assumptions we have about our walk as Christians, our view of the church and our status as redeemed sheep. Most importantly, this is a book that, as Alan Knox puts it, is strictly about discipleship and being a disciple of Christ involves a lot more than Sunday school, membership in a local church and dropping some money in the offering plate. It is a whole-life commitment. I hope that many Christians pick up this book, read it and examine themselves. I think the church will be far healthier if we focus on a life that is mission minded and Gospel centered, a life of discipleship that goes beyond theological camps and doctrinal triumphalism, that sets aside public displays of religious piety for quiet service.