I’m slowly breaking my addiction to entertainment. That is, I am spending at most a few hours a week on television and games. A huge improvement over the way I used to spend my time. That’s not to say all of my time is now used productively, but perhaps it is used better than it had been.

John Piper is the big influence on this. And just today he wrote Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies. Following are a few good snippets:

If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

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I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers.

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But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.
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One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.

Nathan at Cal.vini.st is giving away two copies of BibleWorks 8. BibleWorks is an excellent study tool for the original languages. I’ve used and enjoyed BibleWorks 7 and version 8 looks outstanding.

Following the SBC convention, I’ve noted with many others that most of the motions were negative, showing what the individual is against rather than for. I also noticed many of those motions were critical of movements, leaders, and changes involving young people. This is discouraging to see. But what we need to remember is that anyone can make a motion and motions themselves do not represent the denomination. Those making motions were presenting their own views. As a rule, it tends to be that people with negative agendas that are the most outspoken in these venues.

That said, I wish the response from some of the younger SBCers has been more gracious. The comments made on the SBC Voices post [Edit: Referring to the comments following Matt's post, not Matt's post itself. And not all of the comments, just a few of them.] Questions and Quotes that demand an answer from the SBC are very unhelpful and will do nothing but make conflict worse.

Remember three words from Scripture. Blessed are the peacemakers (Mt 5:9); Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (1 Cor 10:24); and For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. (Rom. 14:15)

I will continue to argue that casual alcohol consumption is not a sin. I will continue to abstain from drinking because so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ – those for whom Christ died – struggle with this issue. I will not allow it to be spoken of as evil, I will defend these as acceptable practices, but I will not value My Right To Alcohol over a brother for whom Christ died.

Controversy is best served by showing the love of Christ, not by flaunting controversial practices in the face of others. That is work best left to Satan, not children of God.

A few weeks ago SBC president Johnny Hunt released the document The Great Commission Resurgence. Since its release it has received over 3500 signatures and has generated quite a bit of discussion.

On the whole it is a good document. As others have stated, almost any pastor can agree with 98% of it. Most of the controversy has focused on section IX which deals with the need for structural changes in the convention.

Regarding section 9, I tend to think Hunt is right – there do need to be some changes in convention funding, structure, and support. My feeling is we have more bureaucracy than we need. We’ve become the Oscar Wilde quote – “Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” .

I like some of the things in the document. Hunt recognizes the need to adapt to a changing culture, moving beyond programs that worked yesterday and looking for what is effective today. From section 8: “In the past, Southern Baptists were characterized by a remarkable uniformity in both style and substance, but those days have long passed.” Then in section 9: “...the denomination has too often failed to adapt its structure and programs to the changing culture. We are frequently aiming at a culture that went out of existence years ago, failing to understand how mid-20th century methods and strategies are not working in the 21st century.”

Children and families are also affirmed: “Too often we believe that children are a burden rather than a blessing and smaller families are more ‘responsible’ than large families. Too many believe that motherhood is not valuable as a woman’s unique and primary calling and is not as ‘fulfilling’ as other occupations. Too many believe that husbands and fathers are not uniquely called and gifted for leadership in the home and that biblical gender roles destroy authentic equality.” We have three children and someone once commented that we have a large family. That astonished me. Society’s view of children and family has certainly changed, and not for the better.

I have a few little concerns with the document. I wish section 1 focused more on obedience to Jesus and section 2 said more about the Bible as a whole. Section 4 should say more about sufficiency and the need to strive to understand all of Scripture. Section 5 could use a little more clarifying. Section 6, I wish the phrase “Baptist identity” had been left out, though I think I know what Hunt means in the sentence and if so I’m fully in agreement. Section 7 should say a little more about pastoral ministry, and the last sentence of the section is a little quirky. Section 9 is nonspecific enough to cause a desire for clarification.

My main concern is with the overwhelming focus of the document being to seek a resurgence of great commission fulfillment. We need to be carrying out the great commission. We need to be bolder, more faithful in evangelism. But that is not the only, or primary, purpose of the church. The church is given to carry out Ephesians 2:7, to be a sort of trophy room for God, displaying his glory. Evangelism aids in this, so does discipleship. Historically, Southern Baptists have emphasized (though perhaps not carried out) evangelism fairly well but in the past several decades we have been very weak on discipleship. The whole push is to go and tell with little energy left for come and learn and grow. Even those things done as discipleship are often structured to be lures to get the lost into church rather than helping believers grow in the faith.

I appreciate Hunt’s work on this document and his desire to see Christians become more faithful in carrying out the great commission, but I wish the document also called believers to greater faithfulness in studying and knowing and applying God’s Word. I wish that it called churches to increase their discipling work. Many Baptists have declared the Bible inerrant while simultaneously forgetting what it says. I hope we see this change.

What is the God-centered goal of preaching? To borrow language from Piper it is to make much of God. My goal in my ministry – preaching, teaching, visiting, etc – is to help people love God more each day. I do this by trying to help them see more about God, his incredible character, his holy nature, his boundless grace.

The more people love God the more they will desire to serve and obey him. Luther, quoting Augustine, said, “Love God, and do what you will.” (Could someone point me to where those quotes are found?) The idea behind this is not that if you love God then anything else you do is permissible. Luther understood that if you love God then what you will to do is that which is pleasing to God. This is similar to Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” It is not that God says, “Oh, this person delights in me! I’ll give them anything they want!” rather it is that the person says, “I delight in God! The desire of my heart is to live for him, to enjoy him forever!” When you love God your heart and focus change to God himself.

The person who delights in the Lord does not desire a new car more than he desires God. He desires God more than he desires adultery or drugs or possessions or pornography or pride or power or a host of other worldly things. Preaching that focuses on doing rather than thinking and feeling gets at the symptom while neglecting the problem.

Consider Matthew 12:43-45:
[esvbible format="inline" header="off" reference="Matthew 12:43-45"]Matthew 12:43-45[/esvbible]

To empty a house of demons is all well and good but is ultimately a useless act of the house is left ready for reoccupation. If soldiers on the battlefield clear a stronghold they have done well, but if the stronghold is not secure the enemy will just return in even greater numbers and the problem will be worse than ever. If preaching leads people to change behavior without first leading them to be consumed with love for God then little good has been done. It has probably caused harm, creating people who seem moral on the outside but are dead and rotten on the inside. Teach people about God. Show them Jesus, the image of the eternal, invisible God, in all his glory. Pray for the Spirit to grow in them and for the first fruit of the Spirit, love, to grow wildly for God and then for others.

This is what I want to see happen through my preaching – people loving God, delighting in him, and becoming so filled with wonder at the glory of his goodness and grace that the things of this world grow strangely dim. Teach people to be filled with God. To desire him. To honor him and delight in doing so. That is how the Holy Spirit will work through us in the process of sanctification. That is how disciples are made.