Old news is still good news as I’ve been savoring the fact that my man Adrian Peterson won the Pro-Bowl MVP award this last Sunday. Hey, Vikings fans need all the encouragement they can get and having a young stud like Adrian in the backfield provides a veritable cornucopia of hope for one of the most historically heart broken franchises in NFL history. We’re gonna ride this horse to the Super Bowl in 08!

Once again Saudi Arabia is clamping down on Valentine’s Day. After reading this article at CNN.com I’m angered by dead-beat husbands who flake out on Valentine’s Day. I’m angry at myself for the times I’ve extended less than stellar efforts to show my wife how much I love her. Is Valentine’s Day commercialized? Yeah, so what! Shouldn’t we show our wives how much we love them every day? Yeah, so what! Valentine’s Day is a great day to do something awesome for your wife and you’re a flake if you don’t. Maybe you’d appreciate your wife a little more if there was a totalitarian police force trying to keep you from expressing your love to her. Just because we can doesn’t mean we do. Just because they can’t doesn’t mean they don’t. Take the time to lavish affection and attention on your wife and do something really special for her. Tomorrow night my good friend Andy and I are going to do a double date thing and pamper our wives. Why? Because we love them and relish the opportunity to crank it up a little on a particular day that happens to be named after old St. Valentine. Enough said. 

There’s a very interesting article from Newsweek highlighting Tim Keller and his ministry in New York. Rather than link you directly to the article I want to link you to a post over at Between Two Worlds; Justin Taylor’s superior blog for all things interesting. The post offers some important clarifications from Keller on the article.

Check it out HERE.

One of my favorite Christian preachers/thinkers is Timothy Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. I have been drinking Keller’s cool aid for a couple years now and it has radically transformed my relationship with God, my understanding of the Bible, and my approach to preaching/teaching the Bible. I’ve gobbled up just about everything available by the guy. This is why I am so thrilled to get a copy of Keller’s latest book The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. The book comes out in a week, but I’ve already placed my order with Amazon.com.

Just recently, Redeemer has made available a series of 7 sermons by Tim Keller related to the book from the sermon series The Trouble with Christianity: Why it’s so hard to Believe it. If you have time to listen to these messages you will be blessed AND equipped to honestly wrestle with those who ask the hardest and best questions about Christianity. Check them out!

Exclusivity: How can there be just one true religion?	1 John 4:1-10	download
Suffering: If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?	1 Peter 1:3-12	download
Absolutism: Don’t we all have to find truth for ourselves?	Galatians 2:4-16	download
Injustice: Hasn’t Christianity been an instrument for oppression?	James 2:1-17	download
Hell: Isn’t the God of Christianity an angry Judge?	Luke 16:19-31	download
Doubt: What should I do with my doubts? (AM)	John 20:1-18	download
Literalism: Isn’t the Bible historically unreliable and regressive? (AM)	Luke 1:1-4; 24:13-32	download

So my good buddy Justin over at Buzzard Blog just put up a post with a terrific challenge along with a terrific idea. When I think about Evangelism (good-newsing; proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ), I think one of our biggest obstacles is this very American “default mode” of cocooning. We come home from work, hit the automatic garage door opener, pull into our garages, close the door, and tuck ourselves away in our very comfortable and private sanctuaries. The problem is that we REALLY enjoy staying stuck in our cocoons and we never seem to develop relationships with our neighbors. This is the year of evangelism for me, personally. When I do the Great Comission I want to simultaneously do the Great Commandment. When I share the Gospel with a person I want to love that person as I love myself. It’s kind of hard to love someone if I don’t have a relationship with that person.  Justin’s post offers a great challenge and a great idea for me. I hope he challenges you as well.

My comfortable cocoon.

So I have spent the week in Chicago at the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Mid-Winter Conference. I’m finishing up my orientation coursework for the Covenant. It has been fun to hang with our worship/college pastor Bo Bannister and our student ministries pastor Matt Patterson. But, it has been miserable being away from my wife Jillian and son Caleb. I’ve spoken to them on the phone a couple times a day, which has been good but also just makes me miss them all the more. It has been great having my laptop complete with hundreds of pictures of my loved ones. Here are a few of my latest favorites.

At East Beach in Santa Barbara on New Year’s Day!

My little man, Caleb John, about a month ago.

My church (Community Covenant, in Santa Barbara, CA) has kicked off this year with an emphasis on evangelism. We are doing a short, one month, series on the topic and hope to continue to build a culture of evangelism throughout the year and into the future. As I’ve been thinking about this topic I’ve realized that I haven’t read much about evangelism. So I’m beginning a year long study on the topic of Evangelism. Of course I’m not just planning to study about evangelism; I’m also planning to do evangelism. If I’m going to be promoting a culture of evangelism among my people I better be cultivating a evangelistic heart in my own chest. So, here are some of the books on my reading list:

The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, by Mark Dever (I’m half way through this and so far so good!)

Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith, by Bill Hybels (I’m a little over half way through this and it has provided some thought provoking material.)

Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People, by Will Metzger

The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. Coleman

Evangelism Outside the Box, by Rick Richardson

Out of the Salt Shaker & Into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life, by Rebecca Manley Pippert

So here is my first foray into the frenzy of on-line blogging. I blame this entirely upon my good friend Justin Buzzard who, by producing one of the finest blogs in cyberspace (Buzzard Blog), has inspired me to try it out. My friend Denise Bogard also deserves some blame for pointing me to WordPress. If this is a detrimental diversion then I blame it entirely upon you two. But, I hope it will be a good and useful diversion. If so I will certainly lavish upon you inordinate amounts of gratitude.

To me blogs are more than on-line journals. They are much more than a person’s opinion. At least they should be. The most useful blogs are those that provide fascinating information, news, resources, and networking. My desire is that this blog would be useful for those who choose to visit it.

The title of the blog comes from a quote by G. K. Chesterton. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it said that the Church is simply lagging behind the culture; that we’re just “behind the times.” In many cases that’s perhaps true. But, Chesterton’s statement turns this idea on its head and gives us a different view of the Church. The Church is and ought to be “beyond the times.” Fads come and go, but the Body and Bride of Christ will remain forever. In order to live “beyond the times” the Church needs to have a keen eye for what is occurring in the times, that is in culture. But, a keen eye for culture alone will not do. The Church must keep her eyes fixed upon the founder and perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:2). Therefore, my hope for this blog is that it will be a place where our eyes of faith will be fixed upon Jesus as they survey the cultural landscape so that we may more and more approximate that lofty Chestertonian claim that the Church lives “beyond the times.”