I wanted to draw your attention to a great new website featuring content from Dr. Russell Moore related to our Adult Bible Fellowship at Ninth and O Baptist Church, the Dean’s Class. There’s all sorts of new content on the site, but I wanted to draw your attention to a few things:

• Dr. Moore offers a video response to the question, “What is the Gospel?”
• Dr. Moore offers a list of recommended resources on theology, news, politics, and culture.

If you don’t like the design, blame me. If you do like the design, give credit to the others that helped out such as Robbie Sagers and Timmy Brister.

Just when you think the pursuit of religious pluralism cannot get any stranger, you read this headline: Bishop Urges Christian to Call God ‘Allah’. According to the article:

Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.

Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program “Network” Monday night he believes God doesn’t mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.

The Almighty is above such “discussion and bickering,” he insisted.

Should Christians be willing to call God ‘Allah’ for the sake of easing tensions? The answer is a definitive no. Why?

1. While the Koran presents Allah as a single deity, the Bible presents God as a Trinity – One God in three persons, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existing as Father, Son, and Spirit. Therefore, Allah is not God.
2. While the Koran presents Allah as God and Mohammed as his prophet, the Bible declares that true and living God has not just spoken by the true prophets but now also by His son (Heb. 1:3). Therefore, Allah is not God.
3. While the Koran presents Allah as a transcendent God who is distant from His people, the Bible portrays God both in His transcendence as well as His immanence – He who became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). Therefore, Allah is not God.

When you try to use the term ‘Allah’ as a substitute for the biblical portrayal of God the Father, it fails because of the literary and theological  baggage that it carries with it. Allah is not the God of the Bible. And the quest for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims will not be found in the change of a name but in the power of the blood of Christ.

Do you check your gmail account multiple times an hour? Do you drop anything you are doing the moment you here the ‘ding’ indicating a new message in your Outlook inbox? And, is this wearing you out? Well, if you answered yes, then you are not alone.

A research report conducted in the UK discloses that more and more people are suffering on the job from ‘Email stress‘. According to the article:

According to new research increasing numbers of workers say they are swamped with a never-ending tide of messages.

Trying to keep up with a stream of incoming mail interrupts normal work and leaves staff tired, frustrated and unproductive, it concluded.

Employees also feel under pressure to check and respond quickly to emails, with some checking their inbox up to 40 times an hour.

Checking email 40 times an hour? That’s quite hard to believe, but it’s certainly possible. What the research doesn’t account for is the recent surge in pda’s and other wireless devices that allow you to check your email anywhere, anytime. It used to be that a worker could leave their emails behind until they left the office. Now, many people I know refer to their blackberries as ‘crackberries’ or as an ‘electronic leash’ because they are bound to anything that’s urgent, regardless of the time or the place.

Another growing phenomenon the research does not address is the stress associated with following your RSS feeds on your preferred RSS feed reader. Whether you have 18 feeds or 118 feeds to sift through every day, the amount of data can sometimes be overwhelming. There is nothing like coming home from being away from your computer for 3 days to find that you have several thousand unread feed posts.

These trends concern me. Not because they are resulting in reduced worker productivity. Not because it is an added source of stress in the daily work environment. These trends concern me because every piece of new info that we consume commoditizes the rest to the point that the truly important things can easily become lost in the sea of information overload. More importantly, if we are not careful, then these things can also develop into a major distraction to our pursuit of Christ.

How do I deal with information overload?

• I regularly review my RSS feeds and remove those that are not meeting my expectations or needs.
• I regularly receive encouragement (and at times constructive criticism) from my wife on the importance of balancing this part of my life
• I intentionally schedule some of my day with things that prevent me from having the ability to access this info
• I specifically prioritize my devotional life to ensure that it doesn’t become compromised

‘Email stress’ is a manifestation of the larger danger of information overload. It is a danger that is here to stay, regardless of how it is manifested. Well, gotta go. I would keep writing, but I have to check my inbox.

The amount of students who are dropping out during their college years is shocking. But I am not talking about a surging attrition rate among American colleges and universities. What I am describing is the mass exodus of many Protestant teens from the local church during their college years.

A new study released by Lifeway Research reports that students are leaving the church faster than college football fans watching their team get blown out in 95 degree heat. According to a USA Today article describing the report:

Seventy percent of Protestants age 18 to 30 drop out of church before age 23 and give multiple reasons for their departure.

Why they leave

• Wanted a break from church: 27%
• Found church members judgmental or hypocritical: 26%
• Moved to college: 25%
• Tied up with work: 23%
• Moved too far away from home church: 22%
• Too busy: 22%
• Felt disconnected to people at church: 20%
• Disagreed with church’s stance on political/social issues: 18%
• Spent more time with friends outside church: 17%
• Only went before to please others: 17%

Reasons cited by the 30% who kept attending church:

• It’s vital to my relationship with God: 65%
• It helps guide my decision in everyday life: 58%
• It helps me become a better person: 50%
• I am following a family member’s example: 43%
• Church activities were a big part of my life: 35%
• It helps in getting through a difficult time: 30%
• I fear living without spiritual guidance: 24%

Lifeway offers a number of follow up articles unpacking the research:

• Reasons 18 to 22 Year Olds Drop Out of Church
  
• Parents, Churches Can Help Teens Stay in Church
  
• Church Dropout Study Podcast
• Listening to Students About Leaving the Church, by Jeff Schadt
• Why Young Adults Drop Out of Church and What Can Be Done to Stem the Tide, a Research Reflection from Scott Stevens
• Dropout Study Illustrates the Great Opportunity We Have, a Research Reflection by Jim Johnston
• Lost In Transition, a Research Reflection by Mark Lydecker

Dr. Albert Mohler also did a radio show on the issue last week.

Based on my experiences in college ministry, here are the primary reasons I think these students leave the church during college:

1. Some are not believers. Many attended church in high school because of pressure from their culture, their family or their peers; not because they know Christ and have a burden for meeting with His people for the sake of His kingdom. When their life situation shifts and these pressures are released, then their incentives for attendance are eliminated.
2. Many operate as spiritual consumers. In out individualized culture, most of these students function as spiritual consumers who view the church as just another vendor of goods. So, their decisions about the church are largely based on what opportunities will provide the best return on their Sunday morning time investment. As long as students see the church as a business united to consumerism rather than a bride united to Christ, this dropout rate will continue.
3. Most have not been taught to love the local church. As a result, they look at the church as just another option in the large spiritual buffet of Christian opportunities offered on many college campuses. When students can have their ’spiritual needs’ met through campus Bible studies and Christian organizations, then their investment in church will suffer.
4. Others put church on the back burner during their college years. This happens for two reasons. First, some forsake the church to sow their wild oats and live for themselves for a season of life. Second, others marginalize the church because they are trying to make the most of opportunities that are exclusive to college in order to maximize their personal and spiritual growth. In other words, in the quest to build a resume (or even, for some, to grow in godliness), the local church is not seen as a quality option.
5. Last, many are disillusioned with the local church. For some, this occurs as they have bad experiences with the local church they grew up in. They become disenfranchised when they can’t find a church that’s different from their home church. For others, this takes place as they struggle for multiple years to finally settle on a church to commit themselves to during college. They become disenfranchised when they can’t find a church that’s just like their home church.

My hope is that studies like this will renew the sense of urgency in our local churches and our denominational entities to make every effort to redeem this pivotal time in the lives of our young people. As long as churches continue to lump college ministry into the pastoral duties of other ministers and denominational entities continue to slash budgets because this area is unprofitable, this dropout trend will continue.

Cami and I were in church a few weeks ago when we noticed something we had never seen before in a worship service. In the row in front of us, there was a teenage girl sitting there with the bright, crisp light of her bluetooth headpiece glowing from her ear. Yes, the bluetooth has invaded even the most sacred of places. But it is not the only piece of technology that has entered the worship circle.

The Chicago Sun Times reports on the growing trend of people using their wireless devices for email and web browsing during the church service.  According to the article:

A new study of more than 4,000 Americans over 13, including 200 from the Chicago area, found that 12 percent of mobile e-mail users look at their e-mail on their cell phones, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices while in church.

Which city is the worst at wireless worship?  “Bible-belt-based Atlantans led the way in this category: 22 percent of respondents confessed they checked e-mail in church.”

The survey goes on to report that email has infiltrated another ‘holy’ place: the bathroom. “And 12 percent catch up with e-mail in the john.” Chicagoans excel the most at the techno tinkle: “Forty-seven percent of Chicago respondents looked at their e-mail in the bathroom or restroom.”

Have I ever participated in either of these activities? The answer is yes — rarely in one and frequently in the other. I’ll let you guess which is which.

As technology continues to invade our lives, the danger will be to compromise our pursuit of Christ because of the tyranny of the urgent. The way to God is not through the glow of the ‘crackberry’ but through the blood of Christ. No technological advancements will ever change that.

The Washington Post reports on ‘unethical behavior’ demonstrated by some Christian military leaders. What did they do that was unethical?

The Defense Department’s inspector general has found that four generals and three other military officers improperly participated in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian group, inappropriately offering support for the religious organization while appearing to operate within the scope of their official government duties, according to a 47-page investigative report.

Investigators concluded that the officers should not have participated in the filming in 2005 of a 10-minute video for Christian Embassy, a nonprofit religious group, which ultimately used the video as a fundraising tool. While Christian Embassy has hosted prayer meetings at the Pentagon for years, the inspector general concluded that the officers’ endorsement of its activities — while in uniform, showing their rank and in the halls of the Pentagon — violated ethical rules.

The trend in religious liberty rulings for governmental employees appears to parallel this ruling. There is a significant fear that others will misperceive the spiritual actions of employees as being supported by the entity itself. The desired goal is a total separation of personal and professional life that completely contradicts the biblical picture of following Christ.

What is so interesting is that, while public agencies are tightening the religious restrictions on employees, the USA Today recently reported on the trend of private companies promoting the spiritual activities of employees. According to the article:

Since the 1980s, spirituality has begun to move into the workplace. The shift includes Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, as well as people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Though only about 50 workplace ministries existed in the early 1990s, more than 900 are in place today, says Os Hillman, a Georgia businessman who has written The 9 to 5 Window: How Faith Can Transform the Workplace. Such ministries encourage people to see work as a calling from God.

Which companies are embracing this trend? What are they doing about it?

Dozens of companies — from Coca-Cola to Microsoft — are becoming more “faith-friendly” as they welcome the spirituality of their employees, allowing groups to meet for Bible study or to discuss business ethics with a religious twist. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has a Christian Fellowship Group, and the management at Bear Stearns, a Wall Street finance house, endorses and funds a weekly Torah class.

What is motivating this movement?

This faith at work movement is grounded in “desire for integration,” says David Miller, a Yale professor and author of the book God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement. Business people now want to bring their whole selves to work — mind, body and spirit — instead of having to “leave their soul with the car in the parking lot,” says Miller, a former investment banker. Some want their faith to serve as an ethical anchor, helping them to do the right thing and stand up to unethical practices. Others apply faith in a very different way, using it as a spiritual balm that provides serenity through workplace prayers and meditation.

What is the unifying theme?

The faith at work movement is diverse and decentralized, but one unifying theme is the quest to integrate personal faith and professional responsibilities. Tom Chappell, CEO of the natural-toothpaste company Tom’s of Maine, entered Harvard Divinity School at age 43 and then used his theological education to create a mission statement and business plan for his company. Not surprisingly, the plan was based on moral and ethical principles.

So, in the public sector, the push towards secularism has resulted in the marginalization of spiritual activity. In the private sector, the drive towards inclusivism has resulted in the pseudo-spiritualization of the workplace.

The Washington Post carried two stories (here and here) describing trends in social networking among teens. Here are some of the interesting stats:

• 66% of teens who have profiles say their profile is not visible to all Internet users.
• 46% of teens whose profiles can be accessed by anyone say they give false information on their profiles, sometimes to protect themselves.
• 49% of social network users say they use the sites to make friends.
• 23% of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the encounter. (That translates to 7 percent of all online teens.)

What teens post on their social networking profiles:

• 82% include their first name.
• 79% post photos of themselves.
• 66% include photos of their friends.
• 61% include the name of their city.
• 49% include the name of their school.
• 40% have included an instant-message screen name.
• 40% stream audio to the profile.
• 39% link to a blog.
• 29% include an e-mail address.
• 29% included their last name.
• 29% post videos.
• 2% include a cellphone number.

It seems to me that as the social networking phenomenon develops, users are maturing (if you can use the term ‘maturing’ for anything related to teens) in at least one sense — they are becoming more conscientious of the consequences of their online decisions. In other words, they are starting to realize that ‘those pictures’ may cost them ‘that internship’. And they are recognizing that it is unwise to make all of their personal info available to all people.

With that being said, the ongoing problem with social networking is that most people portray themselves as who they want to be rather than who they truly are. In the effort to market themselves, people try to reshape the reality of who they are by reinventing themselves online.

Yet, trying to cover up who we really are did not originate with Facebook or Myspace. It’s been going on since the first tailors sowed fig leaf garments to cover up their shame (Gen. 3:7). But a day is coming when the righteousness of those garments will be revealed for what they truly are — filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). A new day is dawning when these garments will be exchanged for those that are white as snow.

Here are some quality quotes from Martin Luther on Scripture, revelation, authority and inerrancy:

• “Is it not certain that he who does not or will not believe one article correctly (after he has been taught and admonished) does not believe any sincerely and with the right faith? And whoever is so bold that he ventures to accuse God of fraud and deception in a single word and does so willfully again and again after he has been warned and instructed once or twice will likewise certainly venture to accuse God of fraud and deception in all of His words. Therefore it is true, absolutely and without exception, that everything is believed or nothing is believed. The Holy Spirit does not suffer Himself to be separated and divided so that He should teach and cause to be believed one doctrine rightly and another falsely.” WA. 54.158.
• “One letter, even a single tittle of Scripture means more to us than heaven and earth. Therefore we cannot permit even the most minute change.” WA. 40. ii. 52; cf. LW. 27.41 for a variant translation
• “Consequently, we must remain content with them and cling to them as the perfectly clear, certain, sure words of God, which can never deceive us or allow us to err.” LW.47.308
• “If they believed that these were God’s words, they would not call them ‘poor, miserable words’, but would prize a single tittle and letter more highly than the whole world, and would fear and tremble before them as before God himself. For he who despises a single word of God certainly prizes none at all.” LW. 37.308.
• “For this is precisely the plague that results; when the Word of God is not proclaimed with earnestness and diligence, the listeners become listless and preachers become lazy; there the concern must soon collapse the churches become desolate. Then invariably there appear these false spirits, who offer something new, attract the rabble to themselves, and boast that they are masters of the Scriptures.” LW 51, 265.
• “No violence is to be done to the words of God, whether by man or angel. They are to be retained in their simplest meaning as far as is possible. Unless the context manifestly compels it, they are not to be understood apart from their grammatical and proper sense, lest we give our adversaries occasion to make a mockery of all the Scriptures.” LW 36, 30.

LW = Luther’s Works, ed. Jaroslav J. Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia and St. Louis, 1955-).

WA = D. Martin Luthers Werke, Briefwechsel, ed. Konrad Burdach et al. (Weimar, 1930-48).

Al Gore’s Live Earth concert series lurched to a lackluster start last night. Though the promoters claimed a worldwide involvement of over 2 billion people, the thousands of empty seats in the arena and the hundreds of empty performances on the stage lead me to believe that the actual numbers will be nowhere close to that. While Gore is trying to cause the world to consider their perspective of global warming, all the hype should cause us as believers to think through our view of ‘creation care.’

Dr. Russell Moore has put out some great resources to help us do just that…think through climate change from a Christian perspective:

• A few weeks back, Moore ‘testified before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on religious views on global warming along with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, the head of the Evangelical Environmental Network, and others. You can access the testimony and supporting documents here along with the other panelists testimonies here.’
• Dr. Albert Mohler discussed climate change with Dr. Moore on the Albert Mohler Radio Program: Creation Care And The Problem Of Global Warming
• In response to the Live Earth concert series last night, Dr. Moore wrote a quality commentary, Blood, Gore and Global Warming.

Here is a provocative quote from the blog to whet your appetite:

We ought to support reasonable laws that protect the earth and its resources. We will disagree often on how best to do that. But, in the meantime, we ought not to turn away from what we know to be true in order to support what we think seems to be true. Even if doing so wins us the applause of the rock stars.

Let’s take care of the earth, protect the natural order. But let’s remember that the world is not ultimately rescued by politicians or musicians or filmmakers or scientists. The world is saved by blood, not Gore.

Make sure you don’t miss the picture of Dr. Moore with Al Gore on the commentary.

My great wife Cami has just posted on the fact that we have lived in Louisville for one year as of today. It’s hard to think that I will more than likely finish my degree next May.