Life Here and There

Yesterday we heard from Pastor Rick, from Mark Driscoll and from Ed Stetzer in the general session. It was a powerful morning!

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For the record, I’m not a Calvinist. For the record, I’m not threatened by Calvinism and some of my greatest heroes are/were Calvinists (W. A. Criswell, Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield). And for the record, I’m definitely not an Arminianist either.

If you haven’t heard, Time Magazine has declared “New Calvinism” to be third on it’s list of 10 world-changing movements. (Mark Driscoll explains the differences between old and new Calvinism. I like Mark Driscoll, John Piper, and Al Mohler, all of whom the article names as leading voices among modern Calvinists who definitely have a heavy influence in modern evangelical thinking.

I don’t want to use this post (or the comments) to debate the theological issue of Calvinism itself. Rather I wanted to offer some of my own personal reflections on this movement in the form of what I appreciate about it and what annoys me. Feel free to disagree. I’ve already said I will love you anyway.

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Here’s an article over at Josh Harris’ site about Mark Driscoll’s preaching style – he uses nothing but a few post-it notes.

Preaching Notes: Mark Driscoll (Josh Harris).

When I was just starting out in ministry, I read the works of W. A. Criswell, who always advised young preachers to start out by keeping 2 admonitions: study in the mornings (keep the mornings for God) and preach without notes. I embraced this philosophy and God has blessed ever since. There are occasions when I will use post-it notes like Mark, but I never prepare a manuscript and rarely prepare more than a skeleton outline before preaching. Now come the questions…

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