The Reason For God.......

So this book landed today! Lots and lots has been said about the book and loads of people have been asking me for it since way back in January. Until recently i had not heard of Keller or his ministry in Manhattan. As well as being asked for his book i also heard Mark Driscoll mention him a few times, and not in a sarcastic manner!!  You can find a great list of Resources on the guy here. So whats going on with the guy and his book and his Church? I like this description of Redeemer Church that appeared in Newsweek: "There's nothing sexy here. There's no rock band, no drop-down theater-size video screen, no 100-member gospel choir—just a few chamber musicians and a couple of prayer leaders to help the congregation along in its hymns. The crowd at Redeemer Presbyterian is overwhelmingly young, single, professional and—for lack of a better word—sober."  I like it because, in a time where we are now surrounded with 'rock bands, drop down theater size video screens etc' in Church it is always encouraging to hear that it is not always relevant and necessary to choose these styles. There are negative conversations going around about Keller due to his views on evolution, 6 days of creation etc but perhaps we will get to that another time. In the meantime i shall begin the book as soon as.............

Healer.............

The story behind this song is incredible, the song is incredible and Mike is awesome



Listen to the words of this song, watch the story and see the humble, reverent worship of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. By HIS stripes we are healed....................need i say more

Jesus is senior Pastor

"I am not your senior Pastor, i do not give myself that title. Jesus is Senior Pastor" Mark Driscoll

"Aren't I something! Look at me!"

"we (and I include myself in all of these things) must avoid a triumphalistic attitude. It is good to gather in the name of the Lord Jesus and to give him praise, but as fallen creatures who are imperfectly sanctified it is so easy for our praise of Jesus to morph into praise for our group and then for us to feel superior to others who do not see what we see."

This is a snippet from this article that is well worth a read. The Title "young, restless & reformed" caught my eye even though i struggle with "reformed" as a definition/term for what we are or more importantly, what i am. I guess restless is the word in that phrase that is closest to what i am!!

H/T Simon

Questioning Spirituality................

A while ago i got this book! I am tempted to stop right there with this post! You can read more of the official info here. Hey, i even exchanged a couple of messages with Phyllis Tickle on Facebook, she wrote the foreword, which on my pre-release copy was missing! I am not sure what else to say, i admit to almost throwing it away a few times, that would have been silly. I will not get into a deep theological criticism of the book. For one, i am not intelligent enough to do so but also i got frustrated and have not yet completed it so it would be unfair to judge the whole book on a partial reading of it. Here's the thing, i got fed up with Questions! Questions, one after the other and very few answers. I am sure there are answers in the book somewhere, i just wasn't seeing them. As some of you who read 'supersimbo' regularly (2 of you) will know i am not exactly John MacArthur but neither am i Brian Mclaren, if you see what i am saying? I don't expect all the answers but id like some and when i read a book by a "senior pastor" it concerns me to find such an abundance of questions and compromising. I will repeat that these thoughts are based on reading just over half the book. I have a friend who was raised in "Church" and at 30 years old is full of doubt, questions and difficulties with God, Faith and his soul. I know the solution to his situation is not more questions, it may not be a "slap in the face" barrage of truth either but again, i hope you see where i am going? Questions CAN be good, they are not always good though, especially if its all we have.
I don't see this as a review of the above book, just an observation or first impression. I will most likely read the rest of it when i am less inclined to burn it or throw it across the room, stay tuned.

Famous Christians......

Its been a while since i mentioned Bono and for those of you who know me well you will know that i like to drop him into conversation from time to time, especially when i know it will get a negative reaction.I have one friend who will almost physically attack if you suggest that Bono is a christian, "But he smokes cigars, drinks and has said f*@k on live T.V." he will protest. Yes this is true and don't we all have our faults, perhaps we don't get an opportunity to display them so publicly and no doubt given the chance we would stay spotless and without blame right? Anyway i found a blog via Brian Seay just now and well i needed to share one of the posts on it. Here ya go;

"Although the jury is still out on Stephen Baldwin, one of our favorite things is Famous Christians. I have to admit, Scientology has kind of been kicking our butt for a few years. I mean they got Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Giovanni Ribisi. They even got Beck, dear sweet sounding Beck. But we're not that concerned, want to know why? Because we have Bono. He's worth like 18 other normal celebrities. Seriously, he is most of the most active, productive people on the planet. I almost wouldn't be surprised if at some point he admitted that he had been cloned in the late 90s. How else can you explain his work in Africa, his concert tours and his ability to regularly put out good albums? Thank God for Bono."

Original post here
The Stuff Christians like blog is here, it really is worth a look.

Some Sunday Honesty........

I have seen a lot of Easter blogging, read a lot of "He is Risen" and "Jesus is Alive" comments on facebook, twitter and all the usual spots. We went to Church this morning and yep, the service was nice. The pre-schooler who told me to close my eyes when the Minister was praying was a funny moment and then we went to Cherith's parents for dinner. I think what i am saying is that today was nice but right now i feel like i should be saying more on my blog about Easter, about Jesus having risen and about what that means to me. I have to be honest though and say that whilst i completely understand the importance of Easter and i believe with all iv got that Jesus is risen, i feel like i have never engaged with it in the way that perhaps i could or should, at least not this year anyway. Growing up it was an event at school and some days off on holiday. The Church i grew up in did nothing to corporately celebrate Easter besides some mild references to it in a "sermon." I do not blame this for any lack of connection i might have but it probably has not helped. So, I could have posted a whole big Easter sermon on here and that would have looked great but i decided to be honest instead. There is no conclusion to this post, except to say i am a work in progress and sometimes that sucks.................

EASTER.........

(H/T The Ongoing Adventures of Asbo Jesus)

Jesus Brand Spirituality.....

I got an "advanced readers copy" of this book yesterday. I am looking forward to reading it but was disappointed to discover that the foreword by "facebook friend" Phyllis Tickle was absent from my copy. She is adamant she wrote it so it should show up in the final print run! She tells me its "one heck of a fine book." You can find out more about what the author is calling "Jesus Brand Spirituality" on the website of the Church he pastors here. I should also say that i am not advocating or affiliating myself with Emergent thinking, you will see references to it on the Church Website. Imagine a world where you read a book by a certain author and suddenly you are elevated to being a member of his "club" who shares all his or her beliefs without your knowledge? We live in that world! Oh, did i say that the main tagline of the book seems to be "He wants his Religion Back" in reference to Jesus. Its great that i am looking forward to the book and instantly i disagree with that statement. I guess its the way its worded, i understand the meaning behind it but i like to think that Jesus never had any intention of starting a "religion" in the sense that most people understand the word. This is hardly new thinking on my part so i won't wax lyrical on that but you get what i mean!? Anyway, more on this another time............

Little Preachers............

The preacher sat in the blue booth, lips pouted, arms crossed. His shirt was covered in Rocky Road ice cream, his shorts in cheese pizza sauce. It was a quarter past 5 on a Saturday. Nearly three hours had passed since Terry Durham arrived at a suburban skating rink, and the 8-year-old didn't want to leave. Yes, you did read that correctly, the preacher and the 8 year old are one and the same person! We are watching a documentary about this kid and two others like him, i am very troubled by this! I have had to see it to actually believe that it is not a hoax, im speechless. It is weird to see a preacher being naughty and get a spanking from his mother whilst on the way to preach at a conference though! On a serious note though this is absolutely awful, these kids are being destroyed by crazy parents with an agenda and God only knows what other mental problems, im disgusted!

Read more about Terry here
read about the documentary here

The Supremacy of Christ................

I am not sure if iv ever read a book so quickly! I flew through this in about 2 days so yep, you guessed it, i will most likely read it again. The book is essentially a series of messages/essays that came out of the Desiring God national conference of autumn 2006 so the style of writing and the relatively short chapters probably helped to make it a fast read. Coupled with my experiences as a "Mentor" (i hate that word) and from work i have recently been a little dejected with the state of us, the "Church" and our standing in this world. In chapter 5, Tim Keller quotes Martin Lloyd Jones and specifically a series of sermons on revival he gave in 1959. One of the expositions was on Mark ch9, where Jesus comes off the mountain of transfiguration and discovers his disciples trying unsuccessfully to exorcise a demon from a boy.

"This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Jesus said

So, Jesus was saying that in this case the "demon" was in too deep for the "ordinary" way of doing ministry that the disciples knew. He goes on to propose that our "ministry methods" are, in many cases, no longer good enough. The "demon" is in too deep. This is, in essence what Martin Lloyd Jones was saying in 1959 and boy oh boy have things changed since then? So, in our age when people are professing no religious preference, especially in "secular," Pluralistic Europe, what is our response? What is the response to "the Church" that is constantly changing, splitting and damaging what little respect followers of Jesus have left?

Well, the answer is in the title of the book and i have to say that within it's pages i saw some hope, i saw that hope through Jesus Christ, the dejection i was feeling has shifted slightly. Thats why i will re-read and ponder and pray about what iv read.
I will come back to this, but for now the Supremacy of Christ in this "postmodern" world is on my mind, perhaps it should have been in my thoughts a lot sooner.......