Different Strokes for Different Circumstances

Lev Grossman in the NY Times:

The codex isn’t just another format, it’s the one for which the novel is optimized. The contemporary novel’s dense, layered language took root and grew in the codex, and it demands the kind of navigation that only the codex provides. Imagine trying to negotiate the nested, echoing labyrinth of David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas” if it were transcribed onto a scroll. It couldn’t be done.

I think our way out of the sometimes bitter paper vs. e-books debate is to recognize that some kinds of reading are great on a Kindle, some are best in a codex. Some are fine for the computer screen; others fare better on an iPad.

The harder something is to read, the less likely my Kindle is to be a good place to read it (price still sometimes decides in favor of the Kindle, however: that’s reality). The shorter something is, the more likely I can take it on a computer screen. In between—newspaper articles, longer blog posts—I can go either way, but I prefer the Kindle for things I don’t need to “act on” right away. Through Instapaper I can easily transfer articles from laptop to Kindle.

I think we’ll get used to these reading options.

ACPADI Book Club—Creation Regained Week 4, Chapter 4: “Redemption” (With Chapter 5 and the Postscript Kind of Thrown In There)

I’m late, I’m late… I was on a professional development trip and I just couldn’t get the last post of the month out. I needed to redeem the time a little better, apparently.

So here we go: Redemption. First I’ll just tick off a few reflections:

• Normally I’m uncomfortable with reasoning directly from individual biblical words to a resultant systematic theological point (pp. 69–70). Just because redemption, reconciliation, renewal, and regeneration start with “re-” doesn’t mean that the Bible predicts a restoration of the originally good creation. Let’s not reason right from words but see if the Bible says this in sentences and paragraphs. But, in fact, the chapter goes on to prove that the Bible does in fact say what Wolters is saying, so the concurring evidence of a lot of re- words is indeed helpful to note (nevermind that not all the underlying Greek words Wolters points to have the equivalent of a re- prefix).
• Good quote: “Redemption is not a matter of an addition of a spiritual or supernatural dimension to creaturely life that was lacking before; rather, it is a matter of bringing new life and vitality to what was there all along.” (p. 71)
• The second biblical text Wolters cites in the chapter is an extremely important proof for his view, and it’s one to hold onto and mull over. “Through Christ God determined “to reconcile to himself all things [Col 1:20].’” God isn’t merely going to rescue people out of this sin-cursed earth and then leave it all to burn; He’s going to fix everything the fall broke.
• Which brings us to another key statement to hold on to: “The scope of redemption is as great as that of the fall; it embraces creation as a whole.” (p. 72) There is no neutral ground: either Satan rules a particular square inch of this world or God does. And in the end all things will be submitted to the Son (1 Cor 15:27–28).

But now I hit a little wall. Wolters says that the “obvious implication” of what he’s saying is “that the new humanity (God’s people) is called to promote renewal in every department of creation.” (p. 73) Okay… Fine. But is that really what Paul was talking about when he said that God had given him “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18)? Wolters thinks so, but in that context people—not kitchens, bedrooms, and boardrooms—are the ones being reconciled. Right?

Here’s how I get over that wall: I do think people are the most important objects of God’s redemptive work through Christ. We are the only part of creation that bear His image, so we have higher value than many sparrows (though there’s humor in that line in Matthew 10, it’s surely still true on its face). But sparrows do have value, and so does all the rest of God’s green earth. God has not given up on His creation and will not. We dare not give up on it if He won’t.

The kingdom of God is among us (Luke 17:21), but we are to pray that it will fully get here (Matt 6:10). And meanwhile Wolters is right to call all Christians to press the claims of God’s kingdom everywhere they find themselves, everywhere God calls them. Most of us are not standing in pulpits. We’re in kitchens, bedrooms, and boardrooms. Those are not neutral territories; we have to attempt—in the power of God, following His word—to claim them for Christ.

But if your background is like mine, you are still suspicious. Isn’t it the case that many individual conversions are the only way that any domain of culture will actually be reclaimed? Won’t Rachel Ray and Emeril Lagasse (and whoever makes KitchenAid mixers) need to get saved before we can reclaim the American kitchen for Christ? Won’t pretty much everyone in the U.S. need to get saved before we can reclaim the bedroom? And won’t most corporations have to move to China before we can bring the American boardroom under Christ’s rule? Why bother talking about redeeming culture at all when that is so clearly a fruitless task? Those who are more eschatologically sophisticated may add, “Why polish the brass on this sinking ship?” (like the Christian school teacher I had many years ago who sniffed at the very idea of recycling).

For one thing, Wolters has made it clear in previous chapters that the Bible points to God’s goodness as being everywhere in creation. “Some element in every situation is worth preserving.” (p. 93) Jesus could tell even the dead church at Sardis, “Strengthen what remains” (Rev 3:2).

For another thing, Wolters is not recommending “violent overthrow” but what he calls “progressive renewal.” (p. 91) That progress will feature lots of individual conversions. And one of his major illustrations—that the resurrection was like D-Day—assumes that renewal will not be easy and linear. Wolters is not a postmillennialist who believes things will get better and better until Jesus comes.

This is where Michael Goheen’s contribution in the Postscript comes in. He incorporates the storyline of Scripture, the importance of the Great Commission, and the reality of suffering in this time of overlap between the age that is passing away and the one that is to come. “The church, as a preview of the kingdom, shows actual ‘footage’ of what the kingdom will look like to interest unbelievers in the future.” (p. 132) You and I are a trailer for the coming attraction.

So whether or not our work for the kingdom seems to endure or get destroyed the day (or even a century) after we do it,* whether or not our work ever turns the tide in any domain of human culture (family, politics, business, art, education, etc.), whether or not we face suffering for our attempts to oppose the powers ruling this age, we have a responsibility to exhibit and promote kingdom values. God said, “Fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:26-28). Jesus said, “All power is given unto me, so make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18–20). These two commands are not in conflict. And we have work to do.

*I like what Jeremy Larson said in a book club comment about my old boss, Phil: “Regarding premillennialism and the Creation Mandate, my dad has said that when premils make comments like Mark made above (permanence or no, we have a duty to subdue), he’s happy to work with them.” Good.

1 Marks Interview Series: Kerry McGonigal, Preaching and Teaching Preaching

Right click here to download the interview.

In the first installment of the 1Marks interview series, I spoke with Dr. Robert Bell about Old Testament stuff. In the second, I spoke with one of my pastors, Dr. Robert Vincent, about church and personal evangelism.

Today we’ve reached the third installment. The topic is preaching, and the interviewee is Kerry McGonigal, an elder at my church and a friend who has taught homiletics at BJU since 2003. (Right click here to download the file.) Kerry is a great communicator, even though in this recorded interview you can’t see his fingers. He’s got energy, he’s got a vision for what preaching can and should do in the lives of God’s people, and he’s formed wise strategies for teaching preaching to others. He also preached what was at the time the best chapel sermon I’d ever heard at Bob Jones (since then he has been superseded but now holds second place).

I’m very excited about his ministry teaching preaching, because I have seen in my own life the power that a faithful and careful ministry of the Word has.

Kerry and I mention a number of books in this interview, and we agree with every single word written in these books and every single thing that any of their authors have ever done or said. (Okay, maybe not quite.) Click the book to buy it at my favorite online bookstores:

The Funniest Computer Problem I’ve Ever Had; OR, It Could Have Been a Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

This story comes in two acts.

ACT ONE: Last week I went on a professional development trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Because I love my iMac so, I carefully shut it down and even unplugged it before I left.

I returned a week later in a flurry of activity. I had run back and forth four times between two concourses at the Atlanta airport trying to get on an earlier flight so I could pick up my wife and baby when they arrived in Greenville instead of arriving at the same time (I had forgotten to drive the car with the car seat in it…). After several polite “nos” from the gate attendant in Atlanta, at the last moment someone at the Delta service desk gave me permission to get on the earlier flight. I raced over to Concourse D just in time. I was the last person on a completely full plane. They gave me seat 23D, and the guy in that seat got to go to first class. Go figure.

But coming down the gangway into the plane I realized, “Oh no! My keys are in my suitcase because there is a knife on the key ring and I couldn’t get through security with it!” That suitcase was certainly not on the same plane I was; it would come on the later flight. But there was nothing I could do. I got on the early flight.

Then I realized that about two years ago I put—or I thought I put—one of those magnetic key holders underneath my car. Maybe it would still be there!

I landed at GSP and raced out to the lot where my car was parked. I lay on the ground, reached up, grabbed the key holder, and shook it. Jingle, jingle! Yes! I uttered a prayer of thanks to God!

But then the key wouldn’t open the door. Or the passenger door. It did, however, open the hatch. I crawled in, unlocked the doors, grabbed my stuff, and took off for home.

ACT TWO: I took a shower, then went out to my office. I plugged in and turned on my iMac. I watched the familiar gray screen and the Apple logo come up. I went inside to grab some Nutella for a snack.

I came back out a minute later, and the computer was off. Oh no… My mind raced: will I have to get a new computer? Should I get a Mac Mini? How can I sell an iMac that doesn’t work? What do I do with my design files?

Another try, and I watched the start-up sequence all the way this time. The computer came on just fine, and I even saw my desktop, but then it immediately went into the shutdown sequence.

Several more tries. Reset the P-RAM. Still couldn’t get it to work.

I used my iPod Touch to search for answers. One site suggested accessing Mac OS X Lion’s recovery utility on a special read-only partition. Looked promising, but I had to go pick up my family at the airport.

Somewhere that evening it hit me what was likely happening: Mac OS X Lion has this new feature which restores whatever apps you had open the last time you shut down. It just so happens that I shut down the computer with a shut-down app from Dockables. The app’s sole purpose and function is to shut down the computer.

But when Lion came back up, it started that app—and shut down my computer immediately. I tried force quitting open applications, but I was never fast enough. The app is so simple that it takes no time at all to load.

The next morning I used Terminal in the recovery partition to tunnel into the Shutdown app and delete some of its entrails so it couldn’t function.

Success. And the funniest computer problem I’ve ever experienced.

Love the Lord with All Your Heart

Several years ago our outreach pastor asked me to write some music for words by our church’s resident lyricist, Eileen Berry. The purpose was to have a “theme song” for our church’s Bible clubs. Because I worked at the weekly teen club, it also landed in the rotation there. Since then it’s been sung many times at outreaches in the community.

I’m not by any means a trained composer, but we needed something a little less formal than what our highly trained composers at the church usually provided. Feel free to use it yourself.

NICOT and NICNT for Logos

The most valuable commentary set on the planet (by some estimates) is again available at the cheapest price Logos has ever given for it, $1,000.

Reports of the Death of English Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Poor English has been dying since at least the 17th century.

Review: Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching

Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching by Judith E. Lingenfelter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary: As a Western teacher teaching non-Western people, you need to become a 150% person: you’ll never make it to 200%, but at least you can make an effort to understand and work within another culture’s very subtle customs.

Quick review: Very worthwhile. The author (Judith wrote most of the book) has a keen eye for stories and real insight in revealing their lessons. Here’s a sample:

Yet I was not always successful in this endeavor; sometimes I relied on old alternatives rather than continuing to learn from the context. An example of my failure on Yap to decipher the hidden curriculum occurred when teaching the color wheel during a Head Start class. The first day I confidently held it up and had the students repeat the colors in English after me. They did fine until they came to the colors blue and green. I patiently went over these colors again and again until they could repeat verbatim what I had said. Only ten years later in graduate school, when reading about differences in cultural perceptions of color, did I realize what I had done. In my frustration, I had failed to ask why my young students knew all the colors except blue and green. I now understand that on this tiny island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, they use many words to capture the distinctions of blue and green necessary to function effectively in their environment. I had solved the color wheel ambiguity by forcing a level-1 solution on a level-2 problem. To be an effective cross-cultural teacher, one must learn the other-culture perspective and derive from it new alternatives for the challenges faced in a classroom. Relying on past experience will often lead to misunderstanding and failure. Only by understanding the other-culture context can we identify appropriate alternatives for teaching that will have maximum effectiveness for student learning.

Here is Judith Lingenfelter’s own summary of the book:

The basic argument in this book is that our culture serves us well when it is the only culture in focus. In fact, it is a palace when there are no other contesting voices around us, when we can live fairly comfortable, ordered lives in the context of our own cultural system. However, when we are pushed into relationships that are outside the boundaries of our culture, that culture becomes a prison to us. We are blind to other ways of seeing and doing things, and we assume that our way is the only way that is appropriate. We become frustrated and angry with those who insist on breaking our rules, and we attempt to enforce our rules on them.

View all my reviews

Another Bibles International Story

Some Bibles International consultants have used an interview format to help teach certain skills to native translators.

One team of national believers prepares a set of interview questions for a particular Bible character and another prepares to be interviewed as that Bible character.

Only one representative of each group gets up in front of the whole assembly.

But when they did this in the African country of Chad, everybody in the audience started shouting out the answers to the questions.

The consultant said, “Wait, it’s Noah who’s being interviewed!”

The people replied, “Oh, yes, but we’re Noah’s sons and he’s getting old and forgetful!”

Dogba Story

One of the translation consultants at Bibles International just related a funny story. One African tribal group, the Dogba, had the grandest time hearing the American consultant mispronounce their language. They would give her Dogba words, ask her to repeat them, then laugh uproariously. No outsider had ever tried to speak their language.

Thankfully, Christ’s representatives were the first.

Cleveland Park Bible Church’s New Website (Pastor Ken Casillas)

Check out the new website I made for Dr. Ken Casillas and the friendly folks at Cleveland Park Bible Church.

And watch the video I created with the help of a Nikon D3100, a Zoom H2, Adobe LightRoom, and Final Cut Pro X:

Professional Development

I’m at Bibles International for a week to hear Glenn Kerr talk about Hebrew discourse analysis and Bill Smallman talk about cross-cultural communication.

I’m reading a very interesting book on the latter topic, Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching, by Christian educators Judy and Sherwood Lingenfelter.

The book is full of stories about cultural clashes—especially between Western teachers and non-Western students—and subsequent wise reflection on the reasons for them.

It seems to me that stories are almost the only way to learn this material, no matter what your cultural background is. It’s utterly amazing that by age 5 children enter school already deeply acculturated, even in very subtle matters like what kinds of questions are appropriate, inappropriate, or even worth asking.

Fish on Augustine

Let Stanley Fish tell you something about your own theological tradition that you should know if you don’t already. This is from Fish’s conversation with Marvin Olasky before an audience of students at King’s College:

Those of you who have studied Augustine will remember that one of his central tenets is the distinction between using and enjoying the things of this world. People who use the things of this world as a springboard to the higher truth of God and Jesus Christ are doing the right thing. Those who enjoy the things of this world—that is, linger on them as if they were valuable in and of themselves—are making a huge mistake; and as he puts it, they are captive to the wrong love. That’s the danger that Augustine is always warning against.

What Fish is after is the distinction between uti and frui. God is the only frui—the only ultimate joy, the only joy which we should enjoy for His own sake, the only one that is valuable in Himself, the sole joy we can linger on for eternity. All other joys are, or should be, uti. We should use them to get us to God.

This is similar to Edwards’ distinction (in The End for Which God Created the World) between subordinate ends and ultimate ends.