ClarkeComments.com

Hello All:

I just discovered that WP was set to only allow comments once someone was registered and logged in. That is now fixed and people can comment at will.

-Clarke

Hello All:

What I’m currently reading:

Harding in the Balance - Radical Congruency Blog.

I can’t comment about the appointment, as I know nothing about either Bruce McLarty or Monte Cox. I will say though that it seems rather harsh to state that Bruce McLarty is unqualified to be the dean of a middle school, much less the dean of the school of Biblical Studies.

Deans hold many responsibilities, many of which are administrative in nature. Unless McLarty is a horrible administrator, I would hazard a guess that he probably is qualified. Being a preacher, he should know something about the bible.

Personal attacks of this fashion are often the tools of liberals who can find nothing else to use to fire off a salvo at others.

Second of all, reading section #2, it sounds as if Justin has a problem with free enterprise, and equates it with conservatism. Believing in free enterprise does not a conservative make. Socialism doesn’t work, and its end result is the strangling of freedom. Christ came to liberate us, not remove our free will.

And, what is wrong with receiving donations from conservative businesses and people? Justin, if you have a huge problem with conservatives contributing to the college, why don’t you donate yourself, and encourage your “progressive” liberal friends to do the same.

Harding has the right to keep an eye on the “progressive” faculty it has. The liberal faculty at institutions such as ACU are helping to create even more division in a church that has had too much to begin with. It is noble of Harding to attempt to prevent their faculty from contributing to the same.

-Clarke

Hello All:

Today was an odd Sunday. We went to church, and heard a sermon about the new “truths” of post-modern thought from the former minister of a neighboring congregation that now attends our congregation. The sermon included quotes from the movie “Titanic.”

Also, the elders came up to the front with both of our preachers, and both of our new, young ministers announced that they would be leaving the church. One is moving to Abilene, Texas to finish his graduate studies (he had been traveling back and forth between Portland and Abilene) and the other is taking time off to work on his marriage.

I wish both of these men and their families well. While I don’t know either of them very well, they have both been very active in the congregation and have touched many peoples lives. It is a shame that they are both leaving at the same time.

The second minister who is taking time off may come back after consultation with the elders, but that didn’t sound highly likely.

Its hard to know exactly what is going on around us. Both my wife and I feel that we should be asking some questions because the timing is a little odd and we both wonder if there isn’t more to this than was announced. At the same time, I’m not very inclined to ask questions when both situations are very much filled with personal problems.

I just pray that God’s will is being pursued by these changes in the congregation.

And I hope that we don’t hear any more sermons on Post-Modern thought for a while.

-Clarke

Hello All:

I’ve had a copy of The Cultural Church by F. Lagard Smith for years. But, I’ve never actually sat down to read it.

I started it the other day, and I wish I had read it sooner. Smith’s thoughts on the winds of change sweeping through our churches is just as relevant today as it was ten years ago. While the call today isn’t so much “a new hermeneutic” the issues of biblical authority and how we approach the church and Christ are still much the same.

I found it amusing that one of his reviewers was Tim Woodruff. Woodruff is Smith’s cousin, and a man I know all too well. Those who read my articles often already know that story.

While I won’t be commenting on the book every time I pick it up, I plan to make some commentary on it as I
go through it.

If you haven’t read it, I would encourage you to click the link above and order a copy. This book should be read by every Christian who is worried about the changes being proposed in our churches.

-Clarke