Top 10 of 2010
It’s that time of year again where everyone posts their Top 10′s, 15′s, 20′s, from the year. Most lists are books or music. My list this year is going to consist of a hodgepodge of material. I read a lot more this year than in years past, but I still didn’t read enough to actually have a Top 10. And I definitely didn’t invest as much time in music as I would have liked. So I’m just going to give a Top 10 from 2010 that will include books, music, events, etc.
10. District 9
I realize the film, District 9, was released in 2009, but I only got around to watching it this year. Unfortunately, I don’t have the Benjamins required to frequent the movie theater. This movie was significant for me, because I rarely watch sci-fi movies, especially movies about aliens. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of sci-fi movies I have enjoyed in my life.
I realize District 9 is not for everyone, as my wife didn’t like it all (and fell asleep halfway through it), but there was just something about the storyline, the script, the actors, and the cinematography that really had me hooked. Not bad for a 30-year-old director‘s first feature length film!
9. Glenfiddich Whisky Distillery Tour
Last summer, my parents and little brother visited us in the Highlands of Scotland. We did the full tour — Loch Ness, Edinburgh, and haggis. But my favorite part of the visit was when we went to the Glenfiddich Distillery (pronounced ‘glen-fiddick’) in Dufftown. I’m not a big whisky man, but (a) this tour is completely FREE, and (b) you get a FREE whisky tasting at the end of the tour. The facilities and landscaping at the distillery were clean and beautiful, and the introductory short film was very well done.
Top marks for this distillery, and I highly recommend you visit if you are ever in the Highlands.
8. WordPress 3.0
This isn’t a plug for the developers, but I have been really impressed with WordPress since I began this blog a couple years ago. I made the move from Blogger, and I haven’t looked back. Not only does WordPress offer free blog sites, but they have also turned into a robust Content Management System (CMS) for web developers. I will say that Joomla! is the only other CMS I have used, but WordPress seems like it stands above the rest of the open source CMS products.
With the WordPress 3.0 release, we now have the ability to control menus (such as navigation menus) from the comfort of the WordPress dashboard. There is also the option of running a complete network of blogs/websites from one control panel. This may not interest those who have no knowledge or experience in developing and/or maintaining websites, so you may just have to take my word for it. But if you are interested in getting into web development or starting your own blog, I would recommend using WordPress. (Note: If you would just like to start a free blog without using your own web server, you will need to go to this WordPress site.)
7. Deep Church
For the past year, I have been ‘reading’ many audio books. Christian Audio is a great source, and they give out one free book per month. Some people aren’t able to sit down and listen to books, and I’ve found I can only really concentrate on a book when I’m driving. But Christian Audio has released some excellent free books in the past year, including Crazy Love, Religion Saves, and The Cost of Discipleship.
One of my favorites was Deep Church by Jim Belcher. Deep Church aims to be the ‘third way’ in the Emergent conversation. For more information, I will just refer you to my book review here.
6. The Autumn Film/Page CXVI
Page CXVI is a band that has put modern music to ancient (and some new) hymns. They gave away their first album, appropriately titled, Hymns, for free, and they recently just released their third album, Hymns III. I have known about Page CXVI for some time, but it was just a month or two ago when I came across Page CXVI’s other project, The Autumn Film.
The Onion describes The Autumn Film in this way:
Like a post-collegiate Fiona Apple jamming with Snow Patrol, The Autumn Film serves up a piano-drenched sincerity topped off with a voice that’s wise and heartbroken beyond its years.
You can sample some of their music here.
5. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
Forgotten God is another audio book that I received free from Christian Audio. It is Francis Chan’s follow-up to his bestseller, Crazy Love, and I think he hits the nail on the head in this book in regards to our neglect of the Holy Spirit. What I like is that Chan isn’t whining about how bad the church is in this area; he simply, yet passionately, suggests that somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that God has given us a comforter and helper in this life — one who empowers us in our ministry and personal sanctification.
I don’t agree with everything Chan says in this book, but what the book made me do was take a long hard look at my life. Am I neglecting the Holy Spirit? Do I ask the Spirit to move and work in me? Do I ask for wisdom and strength and power from the Spirit? Do I acknowledge the presence of God’s Spirit in my life? This book challenged me to do these things.
4. Counterfeit Gods/Prodigal God
Tim Keller has been hailed a modern-day CS Lewis. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I am wondering why it took Keller so long to start writing. Keller is able to speak deep truths in ways that are easy to understand, and he is thoroughly biblical in his approach. Two Keller books I read this year that encouraged me were Counterfeit Gods and Prodigal God.
In Counterfeit Gods, Keller attempts to get to the heart of what we worship and how we set up idols for ourselves. Prodigal God addresses a popular parable, The Prodigal Son, but turns its focus to the brother that is often neglected when we read the parable — the elder brother. Keller is an amazing storyteller, and each book reads as if he is sitting in your living room having a discussion with you over a cup of coffee.
I’m looking forward to Keller’s upcoming release, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus.
3. The Free Church of Scotland Decision to Allow Instruments and Hymns
The Free Church of Scotland Plenary Assembly recently made an historic decision to allow instruments and hymns in public worship. Though there were some in the Free Church who were not happy with this decision, I applaud the system that was set in place to review and vote on major changes to doctrine in the Free Church. You can read more of my take on this decision here and here.
2. Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System
My personal devotion time has always been a bit random. I will usually pick a book of the Bible and just read through it, usually at about three chapters per day. I’ve attempted Bible reading plans before, only to miss a day or two or six and give up.
After coming across Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System, it’s safe to say I won’t be changing to another reading plan any time soon. It sounds more like an elixir than a reading plan, but this system has me reading 10 total chapters from 10 different books each day. It seems like a lot, and I was a bit intimidated even starting such a reading plan. But I immediately realized why many are raving about this system.
Personally, I like how there is so much variety. I’ve found it is actually easier to read 10 chapters from 10 different books than three to four chapters from one book. Because of the variety — history, poetry, prophecy, Gospels, epistles — there is no monotony, i.e. it is easier to read a chapter from Isaiah or Ezekiel when you are also reading from Luke and Exodus.
I’ve also found that the more I read, the more I don’t know. The purpose of this plan is to be saturated in God’s Word, not necessarily remember every detail. But when you read it over and over again, you learn the details … and then realize that there is so much more in the Bible that you don’t know!
If you struggle with daily devotions or simply just want to change things up, I strongly suggest trying this system. At least give it a week and see how you do.
1. Becoming a Father
It’s amazing how much your life actually changes when you have your first child. And I’ve also found how exciting it is to love someone so unconditionally. Becoming a father to Annaleigh Grace has made me appreciate the love and support from my own parents, but it has also shown me how much our Heavenly Father truly loves us.
March 27, 2010 will be a day I remember for the rest of my life, and I am truly thankful that the Lord has entrusted me with such a precious child.
Derek Webb Interview
Photo by Chris Grebner
Update: After re-reading this post, I have decided some of what I said is not charitable or true to Webb’s interview. So I have removed it.
It’s strange (or maybe not strange at all) that Derek Webb keeps popping up in the news for one reason or another. I suppose he thrives on being a bit controversial, and that’s not always a bad thing.
Back in the summer of 2009, I wrote an article on Webb’s song, “What Matters More”, from his album, Stockholm Syndrome. Webb addresses issues of poverty and sexuality and how the church has treated said issues. At one point in the song, he says, “‘Cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face / About the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save / Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit/ About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today.”
In my opinion, as I stated in the article, Webb approached the issues in the wrong way — stirring up controversy to make a point. I understood his point, and didn’t think it was altogether wrong. But the context in which he made it was unnecessary. After that, I wondered to myself where Webb’s trajectory was taking him.
Unfortunately, his latest interview with the Huffington Post leads me to believe he may be on a bad trajectory. If you haven’t yet read the interview, I would encourage you to do so. I came away from reading the article thinking Webb gave it a big swing and a miss for Christians.
Webb says,
The church has spent so many years dealing publicly in the morality of the issue, in a way that misrepresents the response that I believe Jesus would have, that Christians have forgotten, or maybe never really [knew] in the first place, that whether your moral response to the gay issue is that it is perfectly permissible in the eyes of the Bible, or that it is totally reprehensible, your interpersonal response should be absolutely no different to gay people.
The response, by the way, is love. Period. It’s love and open arms, regardless of your position on the morality.
Yes, but… (I feel like that’s what we’re going to be saying to Webb from now on). Yes, but, Derek, do you not see that we need to define what “love” means? We need to qualify “love” here, or someone may get the wrong impression.
Does love mean we invite them over for dinner? Does love mean we invite them to play pool or go to the movies? Does love mean we cut their grass for them when they’re away on vacation? Does love mean we bring them into the community of believers to tell them and show them what it means to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus? Does love mean that we show grace, compassion, and tenderheartedness to them no matter what? Yes, yes, yes! To all of those, I say yes!
Maybe this is where the church has failed — being apathetic and hands-off. Love is not just tolerating someone or leaving them to their own lifestyle and culture; love is being proactive, because Love was ultimately proactive in saving his children from death. This is what it means to live our lives with gospel intentionality.
If that’s what Webb was saying, then I would completely agree with him. And maybe that’s what he believes in his heart and practices each day. Unfortunately, he doesn’t define what he thinks love is, so we are left with having to define love for ourselves.
What do you think? Am I being too harsh?
Dr. Roger Nicole Dies at Age 95
I was saddened today to hear of the death of Dr. Roger Nicole, a faithful Reformed theologian.
Many people will not have heard of Dr. Nicole, but those who have come in contact with him could never forget him. I’ve never personally met Dr. Nicole, but I studied for two years at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Orlando and had the privilege of borrowing his books. You see, Dr. Nicole donated most of his books to the RTS library, which is now called the Roger Nicole Collection. Twenty-five thousand volumes. I have a hard time sharing books, because I’m too afraid I will never see them again. This man donated almost his entire library to the education of future ministers.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine from RTS. He said he had the rare opportunity of visiting Dr. Nicole at his home and looked around his library (this was before the books were donated). The friend said, “Dr. Nicole, have you read all these books?” And Dr. Nicole responded, in his thick Swiss accent, “I don’t need to read all these books to know what they say.”
Dr. Nicole also impacted the lives of well-known evangelical theologians, such as Mark Dever and Tim Keller. This is a great quote from Keller on Nicole:
I came to Gordon-Conwell an Arminian, and left a convinced Calvinist, to a great degree because of the ministry of Dr. Nicole.
You can read reflections and obituaries on Dr. Nicole here and here. For background and bio, visit Dr. Nicole’s wiki page.
More on the Free Church Decision
Since I have not been able to blog my thoughts on the the Free Church of Scotland voting to allow hymns and musical instruments in public worship, I wanted to instead direct you to three excellent articles:
John Ross – “But what about the vows?“
David Strain – “The Seeds of Change: What should we make of the Free Church decision on worship?“
Peter J. Wallace – “A Church at the Crossroads” (pdf)
Pastors: Keep It Simple, Stupid
My sixth grade English teacher would always tell the class to KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid — whenever we were writing a paper or working through grammar. Today I came across an excellent article by David Murray, where he pleads with pastors to bring simplicity back to the sermon and gives a list of ways pastors tend to over-complicate their sermons.
Here’s my favorite:
Too much logic, not enough likes: Just read the Gospels and ask yourself if you sound like picture-painting Jesus or like philosophical Plato. Yes, we need logic. But we also need “likes” (e.g. the kingdom of heaven is like…) and stories (e.g. there was a rich man…).
Read the entire article here.
HT: Challies
