Archive for the ‘Friday Five’ Category

May
10
2013

Loving Someone With Whom You Disagree

Today in my Friday Five interview for Leadership Journal, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Russell Moore, the newly elected head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. I’ve long admired Dr. Moore for his clear, biblical teaching and his winsome perspective on the Scripture and politics. One of the questions I asked him was about his relationship with the President. You might not expect a friendship between a liberal Democrat and a conservative evangelical, but this is what Dr. Moore said. I think his response gives Christians a good model for how to disagree agreeably:

I have disagreements with President Obama on some crucially important things, such as matters of life, marriage, and religious liberty. I have respect for him as a leader and as our president, and I like him as a person. When you pray for someone every day, it is hard not to love that person, even when he disappoints you in some area or another.

He and his Administration have always treated me with kindness and respect, and I have friends I love in the Administration. We don’t have to agree on everything to work together sometimes, and to seek to understand one another when we don’t agree.

I hope to honor and to pray for the President, as the Bible commands us to do, even when we disagree, and to work with his Administration when we have points of mutual concern for the common good.

I have learned a lot by watching the example of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in his friendship with the President. In a profile of Sen. Coburn in TIME Magazine, written by President Obama himself, of all people, the senator is quoted as saying, “What better way to influence someone than to love them?” I recognize the Spirit of Christ in that statement, and I hope to live up to it.

Read the entire interview here:

May
03
2013

The Key To Successful Blogging

It’s no secret that popular blogger, Rachel Held Evans and I disagree on a number of theological issues. But I consider Rachel a friend and was privileged to interview her for today’s Friday Five with Leadership Journal. One of the questions I asked her was the secret to her blogging success. She said this:

I’ve been blogging for nearly five years, and in that time, have seen slow, steady growth from one or two readers a day (namely, my mom and someone searching for another Rachel Evans), to several thousand readers a day. I credit this growth to two things: consistency and collaboration.

The biggest shift in blog traffic for me occurred when I started writing every day, on a schedule. There wasn’t a single event or post that suddenly grew my platform; it was just the hard work of sitting down at the computer every day and getting a post up.

Rachel was gracious to answer my questions, even some tough ones. You can read the rest of the interview here:.

Apr
26
2013

A Commitment to Holiness and Humility

I had the privilege of interviewing Rev. Samuel Rodriquez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Rodriquez is a well-known speaker who represents the growing Hispanic evangelical population. I asked him about a recent honor he received:

You were the first Latino leader to give a commemorative address at Dr. Martin Luther King’s annual commemorative event. Was that opportunity a dream come true?

Beyond a dream come true, the opportunity graciously rendered serves as a testimony to the purpose and promise of God for each of our lives. When I was 14 years of age, I saw a television special on Dr. King when a still small voice in my heart prompted me to write, “One day, God will enable me to connect with Dr. King’s family as I serve our communities.” With a commitment to holiness and humility, all things are possible.

I also asked Rodriquez about immigration reform and the misconceptions white evangelicals often have about Hispanics. You can the rest  of the interview here:

Apr
19
2013

The Political Idol

Okay, I had a terrific interview with cultural commentator and author, Eric Metaxas about a wide-range of things including civic engagement, the role of the Church in culture, evangelical subcultures, and the controversial White House Prayer Breakfast. It was brought to my attention that the section of the interview I had previously highlighted might have been controversial in the sense that it didn’t give the full context of Eric’s remarks and given the impression that I agree with the idea that Christians generally create “subpart art.” Alas, that’s not my intention at all. So rather than stoke a controversy, I decided to highlight another portion. In this section I asked Eric about the tension Christians face between civility and courage:

To be merely and nakedly political and to say things and advocate for issues in an uncivil manner will create an idol of politics and results. To worship that idol is to deny the gospel in another way.

You can read the entire interview here:

Apr
05
2013

Out of Ur: Friday Five Interview: D.A. Carson

My first Friday Five interview for Leadership Journal posts today. First up?  Bible scholar and author, DA Carson:

You recently released a book, Jesus, the Son of God. Why the emphasis on son-ship for pastors and theologians today?

The title “the Son of God” is one that is repeatedly applied to the Lord Jesus, so there is a perennial responsibility to understand it. There are two factors that make this responsibility more urgent at the present time. First, sometimes the world of biblical interpretation and the world of systematic theology do not mesh very well. In this instance, how do we move from the various uses of “Son of God” in the Bible to the meaning of “Son of God” in Trinitarian theology? There are important ways of making the connections, but not many Christians these days have thought them through. To restore such knowledge is a stabilizing thing, and an incentive to worship. Second, certain voices are suggesting that we can do away with “Son of God” and other familial terms in new translations for Muslim converts. In my view this is both bad linguistics and bad theology, and needs to be challenged.

To read the rest, click here: Out of Ur: Friday Five Interview: D.A. Carson.

Mar
19
2013

A Big Announcement

So I have a big, really cool announcement about my blog. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing all kinds of Christian leaders on this blog in a feature I call “The Friday Five.” I’ve learned a lot, made some great friends, and have heard from lots of people about how much they enjoyed learning from this diverse group of Christian leaders.

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Well, starting in April, I’m moving The Friday Five over to Leadership Journal, the fine print and online publication of Christianity Today. I’m excited to team up with my friends Skye Jethani and Drew Dyck and Marshall Shelley and Paul Pastor who operate this incredible publication. This is a great opportunity to bring these types of interviews to a wider audience. And I’m pinching myself, because LJ has long been one of my favorite publications both in print and online. I’ve learned so much from the terrific content. Now I’m part of it, in a small way.

So what this change means is this:

  • We will begin fresh at Leadership Journal with all new interviews. I will probably re-interview folks that I’ve talked to in the past, based on new projects and new ideas. 
  • They will still post on Friday. Most will be print interviews, but we may feature a few Skype ones.
  • The archive of interviews will remain here on my site, so you are free to browse those still.
  • I will have access to a wider array of leaders thanks to the resources of Christianity Today and Leadership Journal.
  • I will continue to offer fresh, original blogs here at my personal site, just not the Friday Five interviews.

I always gain so much wisdom by asking questions of people who know much more than I do. I hope questions I ask will benefit you as much as they do me.

BTW: You can follow Leadership Journal on Twitter: @Leadership_jnl

 

Mar
15
2013

Friday Five: Mike Lambert

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536623_561366103879852_1316570538_nToday, it’s my privilege to welcome to the blog, Mike Lambert. Besides being our friends, Mike and his wife, Wendy and their three boys are also members of Gages Lake Bible Church and are missionaries with Trans World Radio. Mike currently works as an engineer with Shure, the microphone company. The Lambert’s have a terrific story. They came to faith in Christ a few years ago, began attending church and also listening to Moody Radio here in Chicago. They began to really grow in their faith as a result of the preaching and teaching on Christian Radio. Then, one day, Wendy heard an appeal from Trans World Radio about the need for missionaries to help bring the solid teaching of Christian radio around the world. Fast forward to today and Mike and Wendy are beginning their journey as missionaries for TWR. They will serve the Lord in Guam. Recently, Chris Fabry interviewed Mike and Wendy on his national radio show. I asked Mike if he’d stop by my blog so I could interview him here. 

What was it that first motivated you to go into full-time missions? To be perfectly honest, I was pretty reluctant.  Wendy had heard about the need TWR had for engineering support on Guam and looked it up on line.  When she told me about it, I looked and thought “that looks perfect, except it’s a missionary position”.  I had never considered becoming a missionary.  I prayed about it for nearly a year.  During that time, I was constantly reminded of Guam and TWR’s need.  Finally, one Sunday in particular, the sermon was about Peter walking on the water.  I prayed what Peter said, “if it’s you Lord, call to me and I will come”.  I felt like he was saying to me “I think you know I already have”.  That was it, I went home that day and filled out the preliminary questionnaire.
It is quite a radical lifestyle change. Was that hard to get used to? Not really.  I really feel like we are doing what the Lord is leading us to.  Now that we are in this process of support raising and looking forward to starting our mission, I can’t believe I resisted it for so long.  I see now that I was trying to reach heaven while still holding on to the world.  Letting go and submitting to His will is very liberating, not to mention exciting.
Explain the work of Trans World Radio.  TWR broadcasts Christian radio programming in over 160 countries in over 230 languages.  Each year, they get over one million listener responses from around the globe.  From the station in Guam, the high powered short wave transmitters reach as far north as Japan and Russia, as far West as eastern India, and down into Australia and New Zealand.  China has one of the fastest growing Christian communities, but trained pastors are scarce.  To assist, TWR distributes Radio Church Kits to supplement radio broadcasts for China’s house church leaders. Each kit contains a radio, a Bible, and discipleship materials, carefully designed to ground Christian leaders in solid biblical truth.  In addition, they also broadcast a program called Seminary on the Air to help train new leaders.

Why Guam? When we interviewed at the TWR headquarters in Cary, NC, they asked if we were open to other locations or if we would only serve on Guam.  We told them we would go wherever we were needed.  Right now, the need is greatest on Guam for engineering support.  I recently saw a quote from the station manager on Guam that, in order to properly run a station that size, they need a minimum of two transmitter engineers.  Currently, they only have one.  That is one person on staff to respond if a transmitter goes down, or if there are problems keeping them from getting their signal out to the 1+ billion people in their broadcast area.  That is why there is such a critical need there.
Most people don’t understand the lengthy process of getting to the field. Can you share that and how individuals and churches can help? It has been quite a journey so far with the application process, screening, interviewing, and training.  Support raising can be the most challenging part, though.  We need people and churches to partner with us to help us reach people for Christ.  To learn more, people can see our TWR staff page.
*The Lamberts are currently raising support for their mission to Guam. If you’d like to consider supporting them, please click here. 

 

Mar
08
2013

Friday Five: Steve Mathewson

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Mathewson.Steve-2012webI’m thrilled to welcome my good friend, Steve Mathewson to the blog today. Steve is a fellow pastor in the Chicago area and also is a adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where I’m studying for my Mdiv. Steve pastors Crosslife Evangelical Free Church in Libertyville, IL Steve received a Master of Arts Degree in Old Testament in 1986 from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Ore. and a Doctor of Ministry in 2000 from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. He and his wife, Priscilla, have four children.

Steve is also an author. I wanted to talk to him about his latest book, one that I’m very, very excited about, Risen, 50 Reasons Why the Resurrection Changed Everything. It’s good reading for Christians as they prepare their hearts for Easter.

What motivated you to write this book on the Resurrection?

Three years ago, I had challenged the church I pastor to read through John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die in the fifty days prior to Easter Sunday. On Good Friday morning, as I was nearing the end of Piper’s book, the thought struck me that we needed a similar book for the resurrection. I had been doing some reading on the resurrection and had been studying Romans 8. So I set aside my preparation for the meditation I was to deliver at our Good Friday service and spent a few hours compiling an initial list of “50 reasons why Jesus was raised from death.” I was so moved and in awe of what God had done for his people through Christ’s resurrection that I started writing! I figured I could use this with our church family. But God in his grace has allowed it to be published and available to churches and believers around North America.

You seem more motivated in this book to talk of the theological significance of the Resurrection rather than defending it’s truth claims. Why this approach?

You’re absolutely right, Daniel! This approach has grown out of my conviction that we spend so much time defending the validity of the resurrection that we have little time or energy left to focus on how it has changed everything. We spend a lot more time, it seems, talking about the significance of the cross. This stands to reason because few people dispute that a Jewish man named Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago. We rarely have to defend the validity of Jesus’ death. The dispute, of course, is over the meaning and significance of the cross. But the idea of Jesus being raised bodily from death is so controversial! So, when we discuss or preach the resurrection, we usually focus on an apologetic defense of it. This is entirely appropriate, but we cannot afford to lose touch with the theological significance of this element of the gospel.

It seems the Resurrection often gets short shrift in our gospel proclamation? Seems like we emphasize the cross and atonement and “Oh yeah he rose again.” Why is this so harmful?

It’s harmful, I believe, because the gospel consists of two main elements: the death of Christ and his resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 makes this clear. Both elements happened according to the Scriptures and were verified by history–the cross by Jesus’ burial and the resurrection by the witnesses to his post-resurrection appearances. If we underemphasize the resurrection, we lost sight of many blessings of the gospel, including the resurrection-like power we have available to us (see Ephesians 1:18-20). In Philippians 3:10-11, the Apostle Paul says that he wants to know both the power of Christ’s resurrection and participation in his sufferings. If we focus on the latter but ignore the former, we run the risk of becoming gloomy, negative, and joyless.

I wonder if Christians understand all the wonderful ramifications of the Resurrection, especially with renewal and the Kingdom?

I’m not sure that we do! In my experience, we tend to forget that the resurrection of Jesus guarantees our future bodily resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 and 1 Thessalonians 4:14) and that these bodies will be heavenly, imperishable bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-48). That’s simply amazing! Furthermore, we do not make the connection that Christ’s resurrection has set in motion a series of events that will culminate in creation being set free from its bondage to decay (see Romans 8:21-22). I wonder if we realize how the resurrection makes it possible for Jesus to be our good shepherd forever (see Hebrews 13:20)? I confess that while I’ve studied and preached Acts 17:16-34 several times over the years, I had not really realized how the resurrection is proof of God’s commitment to justice. I could go on, but I think you get the idea!

What is one thing you’d like readers to take away from this book?

Wow, it’s hard to narrow it down to one thing! I suppose, though, that I want readers to take away the New Testament’s emphasis on the present blessings of the resurrection as well as the futureones. In addition to guaranteeing our future resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything about our current lives. For example, Colossians 3:1-4 makes it clear that the reality of our future resurrection has been pulled back into the present and has reoriented our desires. It makes us fruitful (Romans 7:4) and delivers us from a life of self-indulgence (1 Corinthians 15:32. In short, what I want reads to take away is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed everything–now and forever!