What do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of British evangelicalism?

That's the question Evangelicals Now asked Tim Keller, his answer is interesting, I just wish it was a bit more detailed:

TK: "Could I pass on that one? I’d like to be invited back! I’ll mention just one difference between British/European Christianity and US Christianity that has to do with the theory/praxis spectrum. Americans are more pragmatic, more anti-intellectual and skeptical of ‘experts’, and less able to follow complicated arguments. British evangelicalism tends to be more biblically and theologically rigorous, they demand more close exegesis and value expository preaching. This is a great strength, I believe, and one which I have profited from for years. However, (to my eyes) British evangelicals also tend to stay locked in their theory without much of an idea of how to organise and put their theories into practice. A typical criticism of British evangelical preaching is that it is theoretical, not heart-engaging or life-changing."

Is Keller right?

The Shack

'The Shack' is a novel written by William P Young, it is a fictional story which has achieved phenomenal popularity. It is being hailed as our generations Pilgrims Progress. With that in mind I bought it at the weekend and began reading it, as I continue to do so I'm going to post some thoughts here and then when finished examine it more thoroughly.

The first point that has to be made is that this is a fictional story but which, through that medium, teaches theology. Mack, the main character, is invited to The Shack of the title in a note signed by Papa - the families private name for God. The Shack is significant because it is where the bloodstained clothing of his youngest daughter Missy was found four years previously after her abduction during a family holiday though her body was never found.

We first meet Mack as he lives with 'the great sadness' that is the result of that loss. Having received the note Mack goes to the shack where he meets with the Godhead and what follows is largely dialogue between the Godhead and Mack.

The nature of the book makes it hard for us to be discerning as we examine it as the Bible exhorts us to do with everything. It is emotionally very touching, as a dad I found myself empathising with Mack and his grief, the great sadness that marked everything after the loss of his child. I found myself aware of my idolatry of my children, that actually they are the one thing I am not sure how I would live without. It made me turn to God and pray thanking him for his blessing but also praying that he would help me not to make my children idols.

There are a number of issues that the book has covered already about which I am uneasy however; as Mack meets the Godhead he meets God as a matronly African American woman - why is the big question, though the story maintains it is to challenge our preconceptions about God. The Holy Spirit is an Asian woman and Jesus is a young Jewish male. I was and am uneasy about such personifications of the Godhead.

The book does challenge us about our preconceptions of God, that we just make him our image with our limitations and it challenges us to understand that God is inherently good. However there are large parts of the book so far which seem to go against what the Bible teaches:

Young teaches there is no hierarchy in the Trinity and that all hierarchy is wrong. He also teaches that God is fully human in Jesus Christ incarnate. He also makes other statements and suggestions about the Trinity which have no scriptural support and therefore are just conjecture. The Trinity is complex and Young does have God saying that man cannot understand it, but overall the books teaching on it leaves me concerned.

More thoughts as I read on.

Where are all the good songs?

Following on from my reading I have been looking for a few new songs to use and learn. And I have been struck by a change in the way songs are written - they are now increasingly written by performers for performers. This makes it hard to take those songs and use them in a congregational setting, the music is complex both for those singing or playing.

There are also areas of Biblical Theology which remain scarcely touched by songwriters. Where are the songs that speak of God's judgement, or God's sovereignty, the second coming or mission? Most songs are also written for individuals and about individual response, yet when we gather as God's people we respond as God's people - where are the songs that express that "we".

As one who would not dream of writing songs, who loves singing and loves music perhaps I shouldn't raise such questions. I am not being critical of songwriters just pleading for some more depth and range in what topics they write about. Just as preachers need to preach all of scripture including the bits we may find hard so we need songs that deal with those self same issues.

Someone has said that "a persons theology is no deeper than the songs they sing."

The end of congregational singing

That was the topic in the briefing magazine this month. It was looking at whether congregational singing is dying.

It would be a tragedy if it were to die because it is a Biblical response to God. The Old Testament is full of examples of God's people bursting into song in response to a fresh recognition of the wonder of God or as a result of his actions on their behalf. Move into the New Testament and song continues to be an important part of Jesus life with his disciples and in the early church.

It is not the bread in the church service sandwich - to limit ourselves to such use of song is to miss the point. Singing is where we remind one another in song of the truths of God and his salvation history. It is where we sing of our need of God to help us in times of trouble, it is where we remind one another of the unshakable Sovereign God whom we serve. Like the Psalms it is where we express in emotion our theology and experience of God and his grace.

It would be a tragedy to see congregational singing die. we would be spiritually impoverished for its loss.