Given that some people stay up at night wondering about how the intricacies of the Two Kingdoms approach to culture play out I thought I’d point to an article that will help you rest peacefully. And for everyone else who couldn’t give a hoot (or have no idea what Two Kingdoms theology is), just forget I ever wrote this post.
Tim Keller has written a very balanced (and on this issue I think ‘balanced’ is good) article on the current tension in the reformed and evangelical world regarding the mission of the church and the relationship of Christ to culture. Obviously the issues and ‘camps’ being discussed are far more complex and need much further reflection but this article gives a good bird’s eye view of the tension and suggests something of a way forward.
Just a quick shout-out for my friend and colleague Lenny Long (follow him on twitter) who is taking a small bunch of people off and planting The Vine Church in the Burgundy Estate area of Cape Town. They have two main informal gatherings at the moment on Sunday morning 10am and then on Wednesday evenings [...]
A common line of rhetoric that I’ve encountered when talking about the issue of gospel proclamation vs. doing mercy and justice is to point back to the Social Gospel as a case in point where priorities were not correctly upheld and the church slipped into a gospel that was in fact no gospel at all. [...]
A few days ago I was sitting in a seminar where the whole (old) issue of priorities came up regarding proclamation of the gospel and promoting mercy and justice initiatives (which one is more important). It seems to me that many are still failing to find adequate categories to express the issues at hand and [...]
Here’s a very important piece by Dane Ortlund, the senior editor at Crossway Books, concerning a recent article in Christianity Today by Jason Hood. Dane carefully articulates what I think is the biblical approach to holiness that, whilst susceptible to charges of antinomianism, is no antinomianism at all. I’m more convinced about one thing in [...]
A couple of theological items on the web in the last few days that I thought were worth a look: 1. I don’t know if you’ve picked up on the theological ‘saga’ of the last week involving John MacArthur’s ‘misunderstanding’ (you decide what it was) of Darrin Patrick’s book new book Church Planter. Well Darrin [...]
This is a fairly belated fourth thought with regards to theological education it was prompted by a friend who commented on the first three. So how do I see theological education and the local church coming together? Well for starters I think that at a very base level the task of the local church is [...]
Tomorrow morning I’ll be giving the final lecture in my first ever semester of lecturing at a tertiary education institution. I’ve been teaching an introductory course to the discipline of Biblical Theology/Redemptive Historical Theology at the Bible Institute of South Africa. It has been a joy to study, teach and interact with the students over [...]
I’ve resisted to write this post all week but I feel it’s appropriate to share it at this stage (some might doubt if there is ever actually an appropriate time to share it). Right now, as I write, the 3rd Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization in Cape Town is celebrating the joy, contribution and potential [...]
I drove through Ravensmead on the way to work a few mornings ago. It’s not my usual route but I had an early morning airport run and so the chance to drive through parts of the city that I normally don’t. You often hear people talk about places where there’s a church on every corner. [...]
The really great people at Redeemer City to City have just launched their new website which gives interested people a comprehensive view of what City to City does around the world. There are loads of great resources from Tim Keller, City to City staff members and other church planters. The site also has great videos [...]
Just a quick shout-out for my friend and colleague Lenny Long (follow him on twitter) who is taking a small bunch of people off and planting The Vine Church in the Burgundy Estate area of Cape Town. They have two main informal gatherings at the moment on Sunday morning 10am and then on Wednesday evenings [...]
On Friday Robin and I head off to Johannesburg and Durban for two weeks. The first purpose of our trip is to get a bit of rest time in. Church planting is busy work and its been full steam ahead since the beginning of the year. The second purpose is to continue raising the profile [...]
Here’s something you probably didn’t know: According to the Global World Cities Ranking, Cape Town is the 16th (level with 5 other cities) most prominent city in the world where English is the Lingua Franca (English is not necessarily the most widely spoken language in each of these cases but it is the language on which each [...]
Christian, husband to my beautiful Robin, missional dreamer, pastor, church planter, Arsenal, Sharks and Springbok supporter, surfer (in the real sea), patriotic South African, Capetonian.
