Trevin Wax has done a good job of thinking through what Francis Schaeffer might say to the gospel-centered movement within today’s church.

As I recently read through Crossway’s collection of the Letters of Francis Schaeffer, I was struck by how applicable Schaeffer’s insights are today, particularly in regard to evangelical movements, leaders, and doctrine. His counsel deserves to be heeded by those of us in the “gospel-centered” stream of evangelicalism.

With this in mind, I have selected some favorite excerpts from these letters and woven them together creatively. Using Schaeffer’s own words, I am imagining out loud what counsel he might give us today.

Read it all.

We’d love to have you join us this Thursday evening!

One of my favorite Pilavachi stories:

Off for a two-day retreat at Pinehurst, NC with the clergy from across the diocese for our first retreat.  The primary goal is to simply get to know one another more personally and to spend quite a bit of time in prayer.

I would welcome your prayers for safe travel and a rich time together.

UPDATE:

Thanks for your prayers.  We had an amazing time away.  The hope was to develop collegiality and deepen our relationships.  We spent our time focused around the Word, prayer and the individual sharing of our stories addressing these dimensions: our conversion, our call, our departure from TEC (if applicable) and what we are seeing the Lord do in our life and ministry right now.  Very rich conversation.  Very rich times of prayer.

Keller writes:

“In reading what a number of respected Christian authors have said over the years about polemics and theological controversy, I have distilled a few rules. These rules, I believe, will help us neither avoid polemics nor engage in them in a spiritually destructive way. Almost every rule is mentioned in some ways by multiple authors, but when a writer has put a principle in a particularly strong or apt way, I’ve put his name on the rule.”

Read it all.

The previous three posts have addressed church: it’s permanence and it’s incarnational form. One last thought on the matter comes from this video clip from Gospel Coalition. The video was published a year ago and it is a conversation between Mark Dever, Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald. Driscoll and MacDonald are advocates of multi-site video church and Dever is not. In short, Dever advocates the identification, development and release of increasing numbers of preachers who lead a local congregation.

I’ll be curious what you think. Does Dever have a point? Do Driscoll and MacDonald come across as a bit defensive? Is there a perspective you thought/wished had been addressed?

Multiple Sites: Yea or Nay? Dever, Driscoll, and MacDonald Vote from Ben Peays on Vimeo.

I liked this article from Ligonier Ministries. Let me know what you think:

We must remember that there is but one institution in this world that will also exist in the world to come. It is not one’s country; it is not even one’s family. It is the church of God. It is disloyalty to Christ not to revere, serve, and prove loyal to His kingdom, His house, and His body, which is to say, His church.

Read it all.

From Reuters:

Among Catholic-Protestant splits on display during Pope Benedict’s visit to Germany is a disagreement over whether Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer who launched the split in western Christianity, has now been rehabilitated.

Pope Leo X cast Luther out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1521 with a vociferous decree branding him “the slave of a depraved mind” and calling his followers a “pernicious and heretical sect.” But his present-day successor, Benedict, spoke so positively of Luther’s deep faith during a visit to the monk’s old monastery in Erfurt on Friday that Germany’s top Protestant bishop announced Luther had effectively been rehabilitated.

“Luther has experienced a de facto rehabilitation today through this appreciation of his work,” Bishop Nikolaus Schneider, head of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), announced to journalists on Friday after talks with Benedict. “We heard this very clearly from the mouth of the pope,” he said. “What follows now formally is another question … but that’s not so important for me.”

Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi begged to differ on Saturday. “To say that would be exaggerated,” he told journalists in Freiburg, the last stop on the pope’s four-day tour of his homeland.

Read it all.

How wise of an idea is cohabitation? Is there a track record to examine? These are critical questions to ask because many millions of people are doing it and in dramatically increasing numbers.

Well, the good news is we don’t have to wonder about strong, reliable answers to those questions. An absolute wealth of social science research by leading sociologists and demographers of the family are telling us much about the consequences of living together before marriage. Here are some of the most startling findings:

Read it all.

Postings will return mid-week, next week.