River City Redemption Is Closed...New Location!

Please click over and bookmark the following two new blogs-River City Revolution Church's blog (http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/), updated every weekday by the leadership team and my personal blog (http://pastormattsblog.wordpress.com/), which will also be updated every weekday as well.

Thanks so much to all of you (close to 1300) who checked out the blog over the past year. I've received emails from viewers from Philly to L.A. It was a lot of fun and very cathartic. The new blogs will be even better.

Thanks again and God bless!

New Revolution Post and New Blog

My bro, Pastor Justin, will upload a new post over at Revolution today. Be sure to check it out.

Also, as you know, I'll be shutting this blog down soon but I am opening a new personal blog that will largely contain my own thoughts as I struggle to prepare to preach every week or so at Revolution (fortunately for all Revolution attendees, I will periodically turn the pulpit over to my bro, Pastor Dave Dunham). Feel free to check out the new blogs. Links are below.

Peace.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

and

http://pastormattsblog.wordpress.com/

New Revolution Post and Why Metal Rules!!!

Ryan Rolfe, leader of The World Most Dangerous Praise Band, has a new post on worship music at the Revolution blog. I love Ryan but he does slight the awesomeness of metal, and although he clearly holds a majority opinion, in my opinion, it is darn near an unforgivable sin!

Now, I am certainly biased. I have been a metalhead since roughly 1983! The first album I ever bought was Def Leppard's "Pyromania" followed by Quiet Riot's "Metal Health." Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil" led me to heavier stuff and by 1987 Metallica and Guns N' Roses made all the hair metal stuff sound girlish.

I then dove headlong into stuff like Pantera and dug deep into the past for stuff like both Ozzy and Dio era Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Motorhead, etc. All awesome!

After a while I became concerned with the amount of time and money I was putting into my metal collection which included dozens of tee-shirts, festivals and literally thousands of CD's. So, because it was becoming an idolatry issue, I began to sell off my CD collection BUT I still love metal, so what is a Christian metalhead to do? Back in the day the heaviest Christian stuff I could find was Stryper...go ahead and throw up in your mouth, I won't be offended. Luckily, Christian metal has come a long way and you can find pop metalers like Disciple, Pillar, Skillet and nu-metalers like RED and Flyleaf and rap metal like KJ-52 and even Christian metalcore like Living Sacrifice, As I Lay Dying and, of course, Demon Hunter!!!

Now many people do not consider metal "real music." Shame on them. Some of the world's greatest musicians play (or played) metal (i.e., Geezer Butler, Neil Pert, Dimebag Darrell).

Moreover, the reason I never "outgrew" metal is that everything else is so tame! And what I love about Christian metal is that it has stones! Now, we worship a big, mighty, holy God who creates, judges, destroys and all this set to acoustic guitars with soft melodies just don't seem to do it justice.

So, everyone is entitled to an opinion (I guess!) but I will continue to fly the flag for metal because it has real power...like the Almighty!!! However, Revolution services will largely be metal-less. Sad for me.

All that being said, my bro Ryan is a great musician. We are blessed to have him on board and you will dig his post which can be found here:

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

The Best Bible in the World!!!!

The greatest Bible in the world is the English Standard Version (In my mind, I sound a little like Will Ferrell as Ron Burgandy when I say that) and the study Bible hits bookstores this October BUT if you just can't wait (and who can????) then you can download the entire audio version of the Gospel of John over at Crossway (the 2nd greatest publisher in the world next to Banner of Truth).

If you are a core group member of Revolution then you should know that if God blesses our new church then I'll be preaching through the Gospel of John starting in January with the able help of Pastor Dave Dunham. Link is here. http://www.crossway.org/catalog/download.audio.bibles

Also, check out Eron Elswick's latest post ("Is Jesus Crazy?") over at the Revolution blog.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Why Plant A Church?

I get asked the question from a lot of church people, "why are you planting a new church?" The question assumes that all existing churches need to do is institute a new program or offer a different kind of service but study after study demonstrates that the unchurched and the dechurched will not enter existing churches for various reasons. Thus, the most effective way to reach both the lost and those that loathe the church is to plant a new church and that is why Revolution kicks off August 31st. Now, if we just find a building to hold it in...

Before I forget, be sure to check out Dave Dunham's new post over at the Revolution blog:

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Peace.

New Revolution Post

New post over at the Revolution blog re: the 2008 Xenos Summer Institute with links to MP3s by Mark Driscoll, D.A. Carson, Gary Breshears and Mark Mittleberg. All of the speeches are worth a listen. Check out Revolution at http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Narrative Over And Against Proposition?

As I was refreshing my memory re: all things Emergent for last weekend's sermon, I began re-thinking the old narrative v. propositional antithesis that many, if not all, of the leaders in Emergent trumpet.

If I'm speaking a foreign language it is essentially this--modern Christianity is beholden to a theology that is alien to Scripture and the 1st century Church. The Bible is a story not a powerpoint presentation and the modern church has turned it into a list of propositions or "Do you believe A?" and "Do you believe B"? and if you don't believe "A" and "B" and on and on then you are not really a Christian. In protest, Emergents argue that the Bible is really about living out the story contained within. In other words, its not so much affirming the belief that Jesus existed and preached the Sermon on the Mount and that the Gospels faithfully record the words as it is to live out the commands to "turn the other cheek" and "give to whoever asks of you", etc.

Now, on the one hand, Emergents have a point and it was one that easily snared me as a seminary student nearly ten years ago. The modern church has indeed turned a lot of the faith into a true/false test instead of a way of life or, to use Donald Miller's phrase, separated truth from meaning i.e., we affirm something as true but it doesn't truly mean anything to us because we don't live as if it were really true.

Yet, on closer examination Emergents have simply swung from one extreme to the other when they truly need to find a solid middle ground.

The Bible is largely made up of narratives but not exclusively and a good portion of Scripture, like the Epistles (Romans-Jude) contain propositions flowing out of the narrative. In fact, such a move is inevitable. You cannot engage any story without being confronted with a proposition. The very frame of the story confronts us with a demand to acknowledge its truth or falsity. Even schlock like Rambo IV (which was friggin' awesome by the way) demands that the audience side with Rambo or the Burmese army and the moment you have made such a decision a number of propositions flow from such a commitment. Paul saw this. So, did Peter, James, John, Jude, etc.

Thus, Emergents pose a false antithesis. The proper way is to embrace both the living out of the story of Jesus while affirming the truths He explicitly taught us and those He gave to the Apostles, such as Paul, who Scripture affirms, is Jesus' own chosen instrument (Acts 9:15).

This is the balance you find in the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20). Read it. Pray over it. Meditate upon it. It is a command to live a certain way but that way includes setting forth certain propositions.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:16-20 ESV)

Revolution Update and Don't Waste Your Time

Later today, check out my bro Justin Clark's post on what you can do to help Revolution. Link is below. Be sure to make it one of your favorites.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/





Ryan Rolfe, leader of the World's Most Dangerous Praise Band, will post tomorrow.





Revolution launches August 31st in Portsmouth, Ohio at a location to be disclosed later.





Check back soon for updates.





Finally, many of you know that I think it is largely a waste of time to read most of the stuff that Christian book publishers are pushing these days. I've already begged and pleaded with you to put down McLaren and Bell and dig into a good Bible, like the ESV Literary Study Bible, or something that will help you better study your Bible like Fee and Stuart's "How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth."





May I also humbly recommend anything and everything by John Piper. Even Rob Bell writes in a footnote in Velvet Elvis that everyone should read everything by Piper!





The good news is that many of Piper's books are online for free! Go to Desiring God (http://www.desiringgod.org/) and click on "Resource Library" and look to the left for "online books." I recommend that you start with the modern classic "Desiring God" and then peruse "What Jesus Demands From The World" and "Don't Waste Your Life" but its all good and its all free.





God bless.

River City Revolution and Dwight Schrute

Check out my bro Eron Elswick's post re: Jesus and the poor over at the new River City Revolution Blog. Posts forthcoming from Justin Clark and Ryan Rolfe this week.

Click over to

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Be sure to add it to your favorite list as it will be updated every weekday by a member of the leadership team of Revolution which launches on August 31st in Portsmouth.

Once again, I will be shutting down River City Redemption in the next few weeks but in the meantime I'm going to have some fun.

For example, here are my favorite quotes from one of my personal heroes, Dwight Schrute from The Office.

1) "I am faster than 80% of all snakes."

2) "Women are like wolves. If you want one you must trap it. Snare it. Tame it. Feed it. "

3) "I don't have a lot of experience with vampires, but I have hunted werewolves. I shot one once, but by the time I got to it, it had turned back into my neighbor's dog."

4) "If I could menstruate, I wouldn’t have to deal with idiotic calendars anymore. I’d just be able to count down from my previous cycle. Plus, I’d be more in tune with the moon and the tides."

5) " I am not a security threat. And, my middle name is "Kurt", not "Fart.""

6) "Why tip someone for a job I'm capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones. "

7) "I have been Michael's number two guy for about five years. And we make a great team. We're like one of those classic, famous teams. He's like Mozart, and I'm like...Mozart's friend. No, I'm like Butch Cassidy, and Michael is like...Mozart. You try and hurt Mozart, you're gonna get a bullet in your head, courtesy of Butch Cassidy."

The Gods Aren't Angry? and a Shout Out to Mrs. Pistole

I just finished watching The Gods Aren't Angry, which is the new Rob Bell DVD. Where do I begin?

Charles Colson told a pastor friend of mine that he believes Bell to be the most dangerous teacher in America today. He may be right.

I'm sure that Bell means very well because I did when I believed and taught exactly the same thing to several churches and youth groups while I was an Emergent.

Bell very subtly denies the great Christian doctrine of propitiation (Rom. 3:25 and 1 John 2:2 and 4:10...look them up in a good translation like the ESV or the NASB) and, therefore, the awesome doctrine of double imputation. Bell takes the Abelardian position that everything is about expiation i.e., that God doesn't need blood and that sacrifice is all about your conscience. Such a view greatly waters down the holiness of God and the great evil of sin.

Now, like I used to do, Bell is simply following the proponents of the New Perspective on Paul set forth by one of his heroes N.T. Wright. Read 2 Corinthians 5:21 and think about it a very long time. I can tell you that the adherents to the New Perspective, like Wright (and Bell) have never adequately dealt with it.

Bell also trumpets the theory of religion outlined most notably by another Bell hero, Ken Wilbur, who is a tantric, Mayan Buddhist. The Bible is very clear that other religions are not the product of organic responses to "forces beyond our control" but are, in fact, demonic (see Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15; Psalm 106:35-37 and 1 Cor. 10:20-28).

Bell goes on to deny that God is angry because He is a "god of love" but is that Biblical? Romans 5 and Colossians 1 teaches that before repentance and faith we were "enemies" of God and Philippians 3 teaches that He will crush all of His enemies under His feet. Revelation 14 teaches that the judgment of the unrepentant by Christ will be as if they were stomped in a giant winepress until the blood runs as high as a horse's bridle. Sounds pretty angry to me, Rob!

Bell fails to see that anger and love can and must be reconciled. For example, I hate abortion because I love children. One is often contingent upon the other. God must be just and the justifier (Romans 3:26).

Pray for Rob Bell. Pray that he repents from the culturally acceptable, narcissistic "gospel" that is really all about us and doesn't seriously factor in the great and awesome holiness of God and justice of the sovereign ruler of creation. It is, as R.C. Sproul wrote, as if Bell has only been converted to one person of the Trinity and that is tragic.

Okay, all that heavy stuff aside, here is a shout out to my sister in Christ (and Revolution core member) Mrs. Tiffany Pistole who is having oral surgery this week. Get well soon and I'll be praying for you.

ALSO please note that the River City Revolution blog is up and running with a post from yours truly and the one and only Pastor Dave Dunham on being a dude for Christ. Coming soon, posts by my bros Eron Elswick, Justin Clark and Ryan Rolfe (i.e., the heralded leader of The World's Most Dangerous Praise Band). Check it out here:

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Revolution and Xenos Summer Institute

River City Redemption will be shutting down very soon but fortunately you can click on to the new River City Revolution Blog here.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Thanks to my bro Dave Dunham for getting it up and running.

-----------------------

Xenos Christian Fellowship's 2008 Summer Institute focused on the Emergent Movement and contained a few surprises including Mark Driscoll rebuking the crowd for not praying for Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. Gary Breshears, a professor of theology and co-author of Vintage Jesus, gave a seminar on the works of McLaren (who he has met and conversed with) and spent a good deal of time congratulating McLaren on energizing so many for social justice. The biggest surprise was that the best and most moving speech was given by D.A. Carson on Thursday night. His lecture (really a sermon) entitled Experience and Truth from Psalm 1 and 1 John was amazing. I encourage you to get the CD from Xenos.

The speakers did indeed take Bell, Pagitt, McLaren and others to task in the mold of John the Baptist, Paul and King Jesus himself but there was a great emphasis on praying for these brothers who have gone astray.

I agree and repent of the harsh language I have often used to describe them. I remember when I was Emergent and downplayed the holiness of God, scoffed at the the need for atonement and portrayed sin as largely corporate and political. It helped me feel independent at first but an empty smugness followed that nearly destroyed my faith and my family. I thank God that His Spirit is working on me and helping me to repent every day and to say that Jesus is Lord.

We must still strongly contend for the faith for Satan has always been more successful at twisting God's Word then outright denying it but we, and especially I, must do so with a better attitude.

Taking A Break...

No real post today. I'm taking most of the day off to listen to Mark Driscoll talk about Emergent this morning (which is great because I'm preaching about it this weekend at CCC as Dad, Rick and I take a tag team approach to the sermon) and then I get to listen to D.A. Carson speak twice about postmodernism and Emergent and then sit in on a workshop re: the works of Brian McLaren with Prof. Gary Beshears. Driscoll and Dennis McCallum did a good job last night and I'm really looking forward to hearing Don Carson. I'll blog about the conference tomorrow. Until then....

Part Two of Books You Must Read RIGHT FRIGGIN' NOW!!!

Okay, so you go out and buy a good Bible (ESV or NLT) and you dig in only to discover that you don't know what in the frick is going on. I mean, you get over the talking donkey and some dude opening a can with the jawbone of an ass (don't send me emails that's a quote from ye ole King James Version) but then you get into the prophets and really weird crap is happening and you read the Gospels but you can't figure out who Jesus is pronouncing judgment upon and then you get to the book of Revelation and you haven't heard anything like it since your roommate in college rambled on after hitting his wizard shaped bong and a VHS copy of Fantasia. So if the Bible is God's inspired word then what do you do?

Fortunately there are number of great resources available to help a dedicated Christian study Scripture without chucking a spaz. I recommend "How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth" by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. The little book gives Christians an overview of each applicable ancient genre contained in Scripture so that they can better understand their Bible.

However, if you really want to dig in deep then I recommend "Grasping God's Word" by Duvall and Hays, which is a great textbook designed for Bible college students.

So, if you are dedicated and willing to let your geek flag flythen buy one or both and be the first kid on your block to actually understand what the @#!* the book of Daniel is about.

Part One of "Books You Must Start Reading RIGHT NOW!!!!"

Okay, so anyone who reads this blog knows that I cannot stand "Pagan Christianity" or "The Shack" or most emergent drivel.

So, in my estimation, what books don't suck?

How about we start with the Bible? Heard of it? I know, I know...a little long, some of the characters are hard to care about, you feel like you're reading a children's book when animals start talking, etc. etc.

Yet, if you truly have God's Spirit working within you to slowly "depervertifisy" you (does that sound George Bush like?) then you cannot go long without reading Scripture.

Yet, if you walk into a Christian book store (not that I recommend it! So much crap in there makes me want to go Jesus in the Temple and...okay, I digress...sorry) then you will notice a hundred different choices and some of them not even ye King James! I would recommend a good study Bible and access to Biblegateway.com, which has dozens of English translations available. I think that every serious Christian needs a good study Bible and access to other translations in order truly dig deeply into the Word of God.

The best reader friendly translation available is the New Living Translation. If you can afford it then you should grab a copy but if not then don't fret you can find it online at Biblegateway. I always recommend that Christians read whole books of the Bible in as few sittings as possible and not just engage in "read a verse and pray devotionals." In fact, the best way to study a book of the Bible is to read it through in one sitting beginning with a reader friendly but theologically accurate translation like the New Living Translation. Eventually, however, you need to slow down and study the book by breaking it down into smaller chunks and this requires a good literal translation and I define "literal" as a work that strives to stick as close to the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek as possible.

I think that the English Standard Version (or ESV) has surpassed the New American Standard as the best literal translation on the market and the best version out there is the Literary Study Bible. You should find one in a store and flip through it or peruse one online and see what you think but keep in mind that two new study Bibles will hit the market this fall and may easily rank as the best one-two punch out there--they are the ESV Study Bible and the New Living Translation Study Bible, which, by virtue of the scholars working on them, promise to be extraordinary.

So, if you decide to wait on one of the two study Bibles or if you feel the need to grab the ESV Literary Study Bible today then please...please...please...put down your crappy Tim LaHaye, Ted Dekkar, William Young stink pickle and just start reading a good version of the Bible!

Because if I run across one more so-called Evangelical Christian pushing some pile of poo that they think is "revolutionary" then I'm going to have to resort to extreme measures...think something like the picture to your right...I mean it...don't mess with me...I'm a lawyer and therefore have no heart!!!

My Alma Mater Does It Again!

I went to seminary at Abilene Christian University which is a strange place. It is a church of Christ school which was birthed as a sectarian fundamentalist Bible college but has now become a left leaning, emergent friendly place with a serious case of Duke, SMU, Harvard, Yale, Princeton envy. I knew that when I was there and when I left the place as a little emergent neo-neo orthodox pastor but I hoped that it would change. I love the faculty there and hoped and prayed that they would repent of following mainstream denominations and seminaries into the land of blur.

But this past week I received my quarterly alumni newsletter focusing on the seminaries upcoming lectureship (a huge deal to the folks at ACU) only to discover that the featured speaker is none other then Brian Mclaren...Brian friggin' Mclaren!!! The ex-Jesus Freak hippie who, with the help of Doug Pagitt, shifted the "conversation" among the Gen-X pastors of the Young Leaders Network from how to reach the lost among the Gen-X and Gen-Y crowd to how to jettison 2000 years of orthodox Christianity.

Now this is a really strange turn for ACU because it prides itself (to a sinful degree, in my estimation) on its rigid academic standards and here it is inviting a self-confessed "non-theologian" with no seminary training and a flair for poorly argued positions to highlight their most cherished event.

After I left ACU with my M.Div. in 2001, I was a Mclaren, Bell, Grenz, Barth, N.T. Wright Emergent. I preached nice little "God loves you, so recycle" sermons and fed my congregations' worst instincts wrapped in a nice liberal, feel-good package that ignored the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man and the need for substitutionary atonement. Yet, despite hours of prayer, fasting and "conversations" about such "deep thinkers" as Brueggemann and Moltmann I was an absolute miserable mess. It was only after God took me, smacked me around and introduced me to the Gospel preached by Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine and...well...the Apostle Paul that I found true peace.

So, after staring at Mclaren's mug in my alumni mag, losing my mind and repenting (a few times) I will start praying that ACU either truly turn from leading students down the same liberal, narcissistic path it led me or that God will move to close its doors before it does too much harm.

Weekend Post: Tim Keller on Missional vs. Evangelistic

Why Revolution? Frankly we will be the only missional church in the area in so far as it understands that we are living in a post-modern, post-Christian, post-"you name it age." That's why.

Blogging Slowdown

Sorry that posts have been few and far between this week but I've been travelling through upstate New York with the fam. Will begin regularly scheduled blogs next week until I hit Columbus on Wednesday for the 2008 Xenos Summer Institute featuring D.A. Carson and Mark Driscoll. Anyone interested in attending the Wednesday night session should contact Christ's Community Church at 740-353-1633.

Will be back with more on Revolution, must read books, kick tail music (have you checked out This Fire's Embrace new one?) and other stuff that will probably torque off a lot of fundamentalists and liberals. Until then...

Revolution Blog

River City Redemption Project will be shutting down soon (sad times), so that I can focus solely on the new Revolution blog, which will be manned by a team and not just yours truly. New address and more coming soon...stay tuned.

"So, What Are Supposed To Do Einstein?"

As I was sitting here in my hotel room outside of Buffalo, New York, it hit me that after reading my last few posts, you may raise the objection, "So, what do you think the church is supposed to look like, Einstein?"

I'm going to spend a lot of time unpacking that here and there over the next few months but in short here it is: (1) the church is, was and shall always be the worldwide collection of those called by King Jesus to fulfill his command found in Matthew 28:16-20 and known as the Great Commission i.e., evangelism and discipleship; (2) the church has a hierarchy of leadership that is and will held accountable to the King. The idea that the early church was a loose, spirit led democracy is clearly undercut by Acts and Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus. If nothing else, read Acts 15:1-21. Notice that James the Brother of Judas makes a decision for the whole church! (3) the church fulfills the Great Commission by proclaiming the Gospel, which is possibly best summarized in 1 Cor. 15:1-11); and (4) the church is a community where God's reign (or His Kingdom) is seen clearly in acts such as believers taking care of one another (see Acts 2:42-47). This was the church that was the instrument of the Holy Spirit to create disciples who praised God while being fed to the lions.

Now granted, this is a grossly oversimplified list that will need to be unpacked at length (although not as short as Calvin's who defined the church as the place where the Gospel is heard and the sacraments administered) but I wanted to start to toss some things around lest you think I'm just throwing rocks at the heretical butt pirates who have given the faith a bad name...not that I won't throw rocks at them in the future. I really enjoy it too much to give it up!

The More Things Change...

I've spent the day in Ithaca, New York with the folks from the church I helped pastor for three years while I attended law school. The church sits in the shadow of Cornell University (known since the 19th century as "godless Cornell") in a town which boasts that it is the "pagan capital" of the east. Talk about missional!

A few conversations I had last week along with the time I spent with my former comrades today has sparked a lot of thought about the state of Jesus' church in the world. It seems to me that the religious landscape among "God's people" has not really changed all that much since our King ascended back to His throne.

In the first century there were essentially four groups within Judaism--the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots. One may argue that the Zealots were more politically centered than theologically so but, in James Carville's words, "let's not complicate the simple."

First, there are the Pharisees who, while knowing in some sense that grace precedes and accompanies election, still easily lapsed into harsh legalism in the hopes of earning God's favor once again. The Pharisees were not unlike many within evangelicalism today who think of the faith in terms of exchange, whether its the Joel Osteens & purple haired freaks on Trinity who preach that if you show up in church and get the right attitude then God owes you a paycheck or the meanspirited King James only folks who believe that if we just all stop cussing, drinking beer and watching "Superbad" then God will reward our country with full employment, G-rated movies and women folk who know how to cook, clean and keep their gob shut.

Second, there were the sadducees who in their desire to "get along" with the powers that be decided to cut the Bible up in order to get rid of all that king and resurrection talk. The sadducees tended to be wealthy and hang out with government officials at cocktail parties talking about politics and the art. Sound familiar? Like liberal mainliners and certain emergent streams who decry the "religious culture" while being fully enveloped in another religious culture that is equally unbiblical i.e., like quietly lusting to be accepted by the elite.

Third, there are the Essenes who are the sectarin nut jobbers who have written the world off and care only about their own spirituality. Go ahead and lump both certain fundamentalists who have bomb shelters, automatic weapons & every Tim LaHaye book next to chicks with napkins on their heads and, again, certain emergents who have given up on evangelism and are "just trying to be faithful" by withdrawing to coffee shops and pubs where they read Volf, Brueggemann, etc. without actually speaking to anyone about issues related to salvation.

Finally, there are the zealots. These encompass both the Jeremiah Wright liberation theology types and the angry, pudgy, buzzcut, middle aged dudes who voted for Tancredo and volunteer to patrol the borders to keep out hungry foreigners in the name of Jesus!!!

King Jesus please come soon or, at the very least, Lord, please save us from your followers!