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by Joe Joe Aldrich
I have had Aldrich’s book Lifestyle Evangelism so long that I still chuckle when I look at the cover – it has two couples dressed in decidedly 80s fashion visiting together while sitting on a wall. The new cover is much better. I guess Christian publishers have learned to cease putting pictures of folks on the cover of books?
The whole focus of the book is intended to help educate Christians on how to “share their faith” through their relationships. Aldrich’s contribution to this essential Christian discipline and lifestyle is enormous.
The author first of all debunks the idea that evangelism is the work of the Christian. Rather, it is the work of God. God alone convicts of sin, calls people and draws them to Himself. However, Christians are both the medium through which God’s great truths and message of forgiveness are made known AND the means of making God known.
Aldrich continually points out that the church (a gathering a local believers) is the bride of Christ and therefore should be a beauty to behold. He points out Jesus’ words that said that the world would know that He was sent by the Father if his believers loved one another.
When you encounter a bickering group of Christians, it does irreparable harm to the gospel of Christ. That’s why the New Testament apostles were urgent and authoritative in their declarations about how Christians should treat one another.
When Christians and churches live a lifestyle of humility, obedience, and truly put one another’s interests before their own, they become a people through whom God reveals Himself to a lost world. The more sensitive a group of people are to God, the more attractive and beautiful they become to a watching world.
Aldrich points out that Christians cannot simply live “good lives” in front of their communities but rather they must speak and proclaim the truth of the gospel verbally to be an ongoing explanation of why they live the way they do.
Some churches focus on service to the exclusion of gospel proclamation while others focus on proclamation to the exclusion of service. Both are ultimately necessary and focusing exlusively on either extreme leads to imbalance.
Relationship alone is not enough. No one is good enough to let just his life speak for Christ. Words are necessary to point beyond himself to Christ.
I love one of his idioms. He says that in order to portray Christ and faith in Him as beautiful, we must not look like we were weaned on dill pickles.
To some Christians, the very word “evangelism” makes them break out in a cold sweat. They envision memorizing a long presentation and knocking on the door of a stranger to shove rote content down an unwilling neighbor’s throat.
Aldrich redefines evangelism as simply expressing what you possess in Christ.
Personally, I thought the two best chapters in the book were the one on Avoiding Evil Instead of its Appearance in which the author does a magnificent job of explaining how Christians are to relate with non-Christians. How far should we go to establish a relationship with them? Jesus was accused by the religious elite as being a drunkard and a “friend of sinners.” To what extent should we go to befriend those who are living remarkably “unChristian” lifestyles?
Another chapter that I thought was particularly well-written was the one entitled Evangelism and the Church Body which deals with how a church can become more beautiful.
This resource is an excellent one that has been around for a while now (first published in 1981), but its tone and teaching are greatly needed in the church today.
After a couple of months of weekend practices and much fru-fru buildup around the house, our daughter (8) performed in The Nutcracker at Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock yesterday. She was cast as one of the little angels (and it was such perfect typecasting…). Almost 30 folks from Monticello made the trip to Little Rock to watch the performance as well as my family and Carolyn’s mom and sister, from Hobbs, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.
With all the hoopla going on, Sam and I were ultra concerned about missing the games. This weekend was the first week of our fantasy football playoffs. Sam and I were slated to play each other, and the winner moves on while the loser, well, loses.
So slow moments (and there were many) found Sam and me sneaking peaks at my iPhone to see who was winning. My brother-in-law James helped out as well with his Blackberry, especially during intermission.
Probably one of the funniest moments came on the way to Little Rock, when Sam asked Carolyn, “Mamma, will there be a concession stand there?”
Adelyn did great, by the way. She looked beautiful and was quite the budding ballerina.
All the guys who made the trip were ultra disturbed by the male ballerinas’ leotard bulge.
Oh, and as of Sunday night, I was 15 points up on Sam, but he has a quarterback left to play in tonight’s MNF showdown.
Church: An Insider’s Look at How We Do It
by John G., Jr. Stackhouse
I distinctly remember being curious about this book when I saw it on the steeply-discounted book rack at Mardell’s a while back. I’ve had it for quite some time. Imagine my surprise after reading the first chapter to find myself drawn into the author’s writing style and observations about church.He treats the church with kids’ gloves, intentionally being gentle; however, he also asks some powerful questions that need to be asked.It’s a good read, and one that I would recommend!
See more about Church: An Insider’s Look at How We Do It
It seems that Ameri-Christianity always needs something to poopoo on. Right now it’s Phillip Pullman’s book and the soon-to-be-released movie by New Line Cinema (who also brought us the excellent Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Nativity Story).
Just in the last 10 years we’ve seen Southern Baptists boycott Disney. Others have remonstrated against Ellen the “Degenerate.” Whether it’s Harry Potter, Howard Stern or the Clintons, it just seems like Ameri-Christians are much better wagging their fingers than they are about wagging their tails.
There’s so much to enjoy and appreciate and exalt about life itself. Why do our tribes of Christians seem so intent on only identifying what makes them uncomfortable and challenges their closely-held beliefs?
Sure, there are things in life that are wrong and many times, evil. However, when all our culture hears from us are “that’s bad,” then they turn a deaf ear to our bleating and can’t hear us the very few times that we almost whisper, “that’s good.”
In relation to Pullman’s series, there’s an excellent review available over at Christianity Today’s movie section. (Thanks, David, for the link!) It is the most well-balanced and fair review I’ve seen yet and more closely resembles my own attitude to it all. Yes, I’ll be reading Pullman’s stuff to decide for myself. In particular, there’s a great quote that I think is worth chewing on. In response to the question, “Do Pullman’s stories pose a threat to children?” the reviewer responds:
Yes, if … And that is a very big “if.”
Pullman’s trilogy poses a threat if our children read these books without any discussion about the claims made by the characters in the story, or without any parental guidance. The stories pose a threat if their parents and teachers are not reading the books too, and participating in the experience, talking about what the storyteller is doing.
They also could pose a threat if parents forbid these stories in such a way that the child becomes fascinated by the forbidden book. In elementary school, I discovered that adults had crossed out certain words from storybooks like Huckleberry Finn. This became the most interesting aspect of the book for me: I held the pages up to the light, fascinated by what had been crossed out. If we make these books seem more powerful and dangerous than they are, and outlaw them, we have just thrown fuel on the fires of curiosity. Better to teach our kids discernment, so that if they do read the books, they can see Pullman’s deception for themselves. (And this raises the question: How many adults are discerning enough to read these books “with eyes to see”?)
It’s just my opinion, and I haven’t read the books or seen the movie… yet, but I would urge believers in Christ to not get their undies in a wad over this movie or book series. God is perfectly capable of defending Himself against the attacks of an author or movie, don’t you think?
Yes, let’s practice discernment, but let’s also practice generosity of spirit and kindness. How may a person like Pullman (and his fans and others) be reached with the love of Christ if all we’re spewing is attack?
In addition, doesn’t the negativity actually promote and encourage folks to see it? You know the old trick… if someone tells you not to think about a white elephant… you will. In another excellent opinion piece, Kim over at Faith and Theology concludes, “And the ultimate irony: there is nothing like a good boycott to market a product. Popcorn, anyone?”
I got sucked into the Arkansas-LSU game in the third quarter yesterday because Sam was watching it and kept making exclamations like, “Omigosh!” and “Daddy, you’ve got to see this!” and “Wow!” I just couldn’t concentrate, so I plopped down and was quickly enthralled with the drama as unranked Arkansas dashed the hopes of #1-ranked LSU in a triple overtime game.It must have haunted LSU fans, because the only other loss they’d had all season was also in a triple overtime to Kentucky. Elton had a great post about LSU’s lost dreams here.It must have been equally frustrating (and every other team facing Arkansas this year) to have only one gameplan on defense: Stop Darren McFadden. And being completely unable to do so.
Right now, McFadden is in the hunt (again!) for the Heisman Trophy, but I don’t think he’ll get it. Not that he doesn’t deserve it.
However, he’s played for a coach who has been completely inept at creating an offense that would enable McFadden to truly become the player he could have been. It’s a completely astounding tribute to his athletic skills and prowess that he’s done what he’s done in an offense that is totally dependent upon and built around him. It has been aided by the addition of two other amazing backs: Felix Jones and Payton Hillis. They took some of the heat off McFadden.
However, with Arkansas’ final season game being played, I am optimistic that it is also Coach Houston Nutt’s last regular season game as coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. I’ve been sounding off about this for over a year (here, here, and here) - even doing so before most folks in my area would acknowledge that Arkansas needed a fresh perspective.
Nutt’s uninspired, frequently frustrating coaching strategies when combined with a maddening multi-million dollar salary serves only to prove the U of A’s poor stewardship of its fans’ finances.
The rumor around the state for the past three weeks has been that Nutt will be leaving at the end of this year, his tenth year as head football coach. Perhaps Arkansas fans will no longer have to say, “Wait ’till next year,” after another botched season, in spite of all the talent necessary to finish in the top-5 or 10.
For now, however, every Arkansas fan has something to be proud of - an athlete that will most definitely be picked in the first round in next year’s NFL draft (and may be the No. 1 overall pick!), a team that knocked off rival and national #1 team LSU in their final season game, a happy finish to an otherwise mediocre (again) year, and a stable full of talented athletes for the development of a new coach.
From the pine woods of south Arkansas, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.
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