Is the Fad Fading?

by | Dec 1, 2006 | Seeker-Sensitive

Painful Decline | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction Like fads before it (i.e., Promise Keepers), could we be seeing the end of the Purpose Driven Church fad? According to the linked article, the Purpose Driven ministry is no longer its own entity, but is now overseen by the staff at Saddleback Church. Is the shift in oversight a result of a stronger local church theology? Apparently not. The PD ministry has lost its CEO and 1/3 of its staff and is now overseen by church staff. Those now overseeing the ministry admit that PD has reached a crest and is now settling down. Whether the PD approach is long-term or not remains to be seen. I realize that good ministries come and go over time for good reasons – and this one may simply have run its course. Yet I do have to wonder if there isn’t something more to the recent passing of the PD ministry. I happen to think that PDC as a movement will continue to fade for a number of reasons. First, as mentioned in the article, Rick Warren is not as interested in the PDC movement as he is the new P.E.A.C.E program. This program is being spun as a long-term “missions” program. I’m not convinced this is missions. In my estimation, the gospel is not emphasized in the P.E.A.C.E. plan. Church planting may be a plank in the acronym but if the churches begun through the new movement match the theology of the fading fad in America, will these churches have any lasting impact and more importantly, are they, biblically...

Authorial Intent vs. Reader-Response

by | Nov 12, 2006 | Biblical Studies, Hermeneutics

Biblical Foundations » Authorial Intent vs. Reader-Response Andreas Kostenberger just caused me to add his commentary on the Gospel of John to my CapCravings. I don’t know about all of his hermeneutical positions, but I enjoyed his thoughts regarding the need to stay within the author’s intention when interpreting Scripture. I will be looking forward to his next posts on the subject. I have read him on 1 Timothy 2 and found him very helpful and convincing on the subject of women not teaching in the context of the local church. In short, I don’t find it legitimate to assign symbolic meaning to a text, when the original author provides or suggests no such symbolic intention. Maybe when I finish Romans, John should be my next book to tackle. We will have some time to make this decision, I don’t think I’ll be out of the eighth chapter of Romans until...