Jonathan Storment’s Christian View of Work & Some Free Audio

Jonathan Storment’s post “God at Work: Mission Work” is something you guys should go and read. He has some really great reflections on the theology of work and retirement. Here is an excerpt,

It’s interesting that the Bible doesn’t have this idea of retirement. Instead the Bible has the idea of Sabbath. That is you don’t just work yourself to death until you turn 65. You work with the pace of someone who knows they aren’t the Savior and creator of the world. You rest for a season and then work for a season. But you never just decide to not work again.

In fact, the closest thing in the Bible that would resemble what we call retirement is death.

Which tends to stop most people from working.

Tim Keller points out in his book, “Every Good Endeavor” that if you ask most people in nursing homes how they are doing, they will report that they miss having someway of feeling useful to others. They miss work.

The Tim Keller book he references, Every Good Endeavor, is an excellent resource on how Christians should view work. I reviewed it here, if you want more information on it.

Also, Wes Woodell has posted up free audio of their retreat this past weekend. I wish more workshops and retreats would take up Wes,  Campus Ministry United, and the Tulsa Workshop’s practice of sharing free audio.

Third – Robert McClanahan’s post in New Wineskins on Violence entitled, “The Answer is Simple“. I think he pretty well nails it on guns, violence, evil and the solution.

My Article in New Wineskins

In case you missed it…the current issues of New Wineskins is on “Beyond the Institution.” There are some really good articles this month that I would encourage you to read. You can find those here. If you want to read my contribution to this month’s issue you can read that here – Institutional or Organic? or Both?

New Wineskins February Edition – Fellowship: Who’s In, Who’s Out and Who Decides

New Wineskins has posted the February edition and it is all about lines of fellowship. It is a very interesting and somewhat controversial topic. There are articles from Al Maxey, Jonathan Storment, Keith Brenton, Jay Guin, Adam Gonnerman, Brian Mashburn, Gary Holloway, & Royce Ogle. If this topic interests you, you will want to read some of these articles.

Danny Corbitt in New Wineskins on Instrumental Music

The latest issue of New Wineskins magazine highlights the issue of instrumental music. Danny Corbitt brought my attention to his article and I wanted to provide a link to it here. There are several other articles in this issue that are worth reading. Thanks to Mark, however, for pointing out how one-sided this issue of New Wineskins is. I don’t think you always have to give equal airtime to both sides of an issue but it is at least important to present it fairly. I was a little disappointed by how Jay framed the topic in his article On Salvation, Galatians and the Instrument,

“It’s really about who God is and his eternal plan for his people. Did God send Jesus to save us to worship a cappella? Or did he have entirely different purposes in mind? That’s the question.”

As I pointed out in the comments here, I don’t think that is really what the question boils down to. Reducing it to those two options really isn’t fair to what the debate is really all about, that either 1) God sent Jesus for the sole purpose of us worshipping a cappella or 2) God sent Jesus for something other than having us worship a cappella. Is our answer to that question really supposed to be the end of the discussion based on a false dichotomy? I respect Jay an awful lot but that one missed the mark in my opinion. As for the rest of his article, he does a solid job expounding on the implications of what Paul taught in Galatians regarding circumcision and salvation in relation to who we do and do not fellowship.

New Wineskins Magazine Now Free

Thank you to Keith Brenton for mentioning this. I look forward to being enriched by such a generous move. Here is their website. Thanks also to Greg Taylor.