All Christians are called to be watchful for other church members and to be watched over by other church members.  We call this disicpleship.  What that actually looks like from relationship to relationship can be quite different.  Some folk want to talk about their lives with others, some want to discuss the latest theological trends, and lets face it, some people want to talk about other people (not discipleship).  An issue we have at our little church is that there are not that many seasoned folk.  Most of us are close in age (the difference is typically no more than 10 years) and are in the same stage of life.  Ideally, the talking about your life scenario would have someone who is beyond a certain point of life who can reflect upon it and give advice to the young buck right in the middle of it.  Likewise, the young buck would encourage the older with zeal and enthusiasm.  It would be a win-win-win.    

I would like to point your attention to a series of blog posts over at 9Marks by our former Greg Gilbert entitled “Church Reform When You’re Not The Pastor“.  If you’ve been a member of this church for some time, some of these posts will bring back memories of former days here at 3ABC.  It’s been good to reflect on how these principles and practices proved true in the life of 3ABC.  But all-in-all it’s been God’s grace to see that 3ABC should prosper through a difficult reform.

Do you see anything wrong with this sign?  Of course!  It’s discriminatory because women are commonly found on construction and road repair crews holding these signs and working equally along side men.  At least that’s the argument from Cynthia Good, founding editor of PINK Magazine, as reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Good demanded that the signs be removed and the Atlanta Public Works Commissioner, Joe Basista, agreed.  “Public Works officials are replacing 50 ‘Men Working’ with signs that say ‘Workers Ahead.’ It will cost $22 to cover over some of the old signs and $144 to buy new signs, said Public Works spokeswoman Valerie Bell-Smith said.”  To a city like Atlanta, the largest in the South, that amount is like pennies in an ash tray.  But it is Good’s response to the city’s action and her future intentions that indicates a larger discussion – “Score one for gender equality.  (Atlanta) gets it.  (Now) we’re calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination.”

Last Sunday I completed a two-part course on The New Perspective(s) on Paul in our Christianity Matters class. Now if you have any understanding of the NPP, you’re probably thinking the same thing I thought when I sat down to outline the class – this is useless and esoteric. A local church, especially Baptist, has no need discussing the NPP. Where’s its relevance? In hindsight, that question ended up being the hardest and the one I did the poorest job at answering. (Note to all teachers: make sure your audience knows the topic’s relevance.) Though it should have been obvious since all of my reading and research was on a semi-scholarly to scholarly level. Most people don’t even know what nomism is much less care if it’s covenantal or variegated. (To which you say, “Huh?” And I say, “My point exactly!”)

In his new book, The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World, David Wells comments on the two weakness of the classical evangelicals. First, doctrine shrank because liberty was allowed on all issues other than the core principles that defined evangelicals – Scripture’s authority and Christ’s penal substitutionary death (7-8). In the end, a “series of hybrid” evangelicals emerged – “feminist evangelicals, ecumenical evangelicals, liberal evangelicals”, etc – that were defined and shaped by their additional “tag” rather than the core principles (9).

The need or lack thereof for church “vision” statements has the potential for being a controversial topic. I’ll confess that I’m a bit allergic to them myself. You’ll be hard pressed to find one on our website and I think I would have difficulty articulating one. What I can point to is our governing documents, particularly our Church Covenant. We remind ourselves of it on first Sunday of every month before taking the Lord’s Supper. Our “vision”, therefore, is to live in accordance with the articles of that covenant.