Interesting  New Blog

• I discovered an interesting new blog recently by someone who has come to embrace Calvinism and leave some of the more extreme elements of fundamentalism. Many of his articles are very thought provoking and I am sure you all would be interested in perusing some of them. The blog is aptly titled The Reforming Baptist, and as for who that fellow is, his name is William Dudding.
• I like to read new blogs chronologically and so I was pleasantly surprised that his second post (from back in August) dealt with the topic my most recent post addresses. William’s post is entitled “Legislated Holiness” and it is a must read. He says a lot with a short post, and he drives his point home: legislation cannot truly produce holiness. (He follows it up later with a good post on legalism.)
• This post’s title should grab your attention: “Do You Listen to Preaching or Squawking?” The post is even better than the title, it is the best critique of IFBx preaching that I have seen since Regler Joe gave us the universal outline for an IFBx Conference Sermon.
• The last post of note to mention from William’s blog touches a more somber note. His post entitled “Mis-Representing God” concerns the all too common, tragic results of fundamentalist extremism: kids who grow up in that movement only to walk away from Christianity and faith completely. “If that is Christianity”, they reason, “I want nothing to do with it!”

On the Rise and Fall of Fundamentalism

• Ryan DeBarr has some very interesting thoughts concerning Fundamentalism being a victim of its own success. He suggests that Fundamentalism helped spawn the conservative resurgence in the SBC as well as the birth of the PCA. And these two movements now are a major factor in fundamentalism’s decline. It is a very worthwhile read.

On Perception, Reality, and a Culture of Fear

• Bob Bixby has a very thought provoking post on fundamentalism’s tendency to focus too much on perception rather than reality. He is talking mainly about something promoted by leadership whereby they create a culture of fear where everyone is afraid of  how they might be perceived if they are caught doing  various things. It is kind of hard to  talk about the post, you really need to read it. But I will post a few excerpts to whet your appetite.  (HT: Ben Wright)

One pastor chastised a member in his church for allowing a prohibited music at that person’s private function. The music wasn’t bad. It just gave someone the perception of bad music. She had “lost her testimony,” she was told. Several large ministries that I know of, “flagship ministries,” now permit the staff women to wear pants in public as long as no one sees them. [Yeah, yeah, I said that right.] Another major ministry allows its staff members to go to theaters as long as it is outside of a fifty mile radius of the ministry. Hmmm. I wonder what they can do if they go one hundred miles away? Two hundred miles? Tantalizing stuff!

Who are they afraid of? Is there anyone in the real world that will be permanently ill-affected by the sight of a Christian woman in slacks? Is there any normal person that will have his faith ransacked by the mere sight of a staff member going into a cinema. Is there any regular Joe that will fall from the faith by the beat of music? Come on! Who are they really afraid of? The reality is that they are pandering to legalistic, judgmental, Christians who have been bred in a church culture that follows leaders who say “perception is reality” and canonized their misperceptions. And how can you “lose your testimony” to judgmental Christians who are bent on drawing their conclusions from their perceptions when their misperceptions carry within them the power to constrain sincere people? Or why should you care?

…

Leaders actually try to control people based upon their perception even if they misperceive. The problem with believing that perception is reality is that it forces your hand to treat a harmless perception like a grotesque reality. It invites harsh over-reactions. Everybody knows that the male staff member should not have taken the female staff member back to her home without a third party, but you don’t have to can the guy and pin the scarlet letter on him as if he had committed adultery. The perception is dubious, granted, but the reality is probably that the staff members didn’t even think about the negative suggestions their ride home might provoke. Give “˜em a break. Merely consciously admitting the obvious that you don’t know reality for sure will temper how you respond to the perception. But, unfortunately, since perception is reality with these leaders they cultivate a culture of fear and they train their followers to control their leadership by the same means. Now, many leaders today are hamstrung by the cultures they cultivated.

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Christians need an environment where they know that they will get the benefit of the doubt. They long to be free from the “misperceptions” and accepted on the basis of, and even in spite of, the reality. It is only in an environment like that where they will flourish….[Be sure to read the entire article.]

On Finney and Fame

• Okay, fame is misleading, but it does go nicely with Finney.    Four links to my post on Finney and the altar call is hardly fame, although one of the links was from Phil Johnson in a Pyromaniacs’ Blogspotting post. (Thanks to David Kjos, Micah Fries, and “seeker” for the other links!)
• Confession time: If you  have yet to  put two and two together,  you may  be interested  to learn that  Phil’s use of the term “blogspot” is where I came up with the idea for “bobspotted”, as in “Bobspotted Blogrolls” and “Bobspotted Blogs”.
• I cannot leave this point without mentioning that Micah Fries‘ link is in the context of his own good article on the altar call and Charles Finney. He furnishes us with an interesting quote by Finney on his own use of that method. I encourage you guys to go check out his article, if you were interested in mine.

On A Free Book Offer

• Can’t  pass up letting you all know about a freebie! The book is entitled The Graham Formula: Why Most Decisions for Christ are Ineffective and it is by Patrick MacIntyre. Here is the deal, the book is free for pastors from now through September 29th. The rest of us can buy it for $7.99 (+ $3.99 S/H even if you qualify for a free book), or download it for $2.99, like I did.
• The book looks really good. It makes several of the same criticisms I pointed out in my recent post on Finney and the Altar Call. However, the book is actually dedicated to Finney, with the  belief that the altar call itself is not bad, rather  it is Billy Sunday’s innovations which are at fault. The book also praises Billy Graham in ways I had not heard before. But I think that idiosyncracies aside, the book does a good job in making an important point. The methodologies in vogue today are producing hundreds of false conversions. The book is filled with statistics and quotes from others who make his same point. And for that it seems even more valuable. It is worth $2.99 for sure, and if you can get it for free, go for it! Here is the link for the free deal, and here again is the link for ordering the book.