The Bishops' Pulpit

Encouraging Perspectives on the Church

Charlie Jones of Peculiar People has a good article in his Charlie's Chat this month on the new face of American Evangelicalism and how it is reshaping its understanding of what it means to minister the gospel. He is basically micro-reviewing Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian and Robert Webber's book, The Younger Evangelical, both of which present a positive look at the shifts that are happening in the evangelical movement across the US: young believers becoming more concerned about theology and the beliefs of Christians throughout history; mercy ministry being seen as being the "hands of feet" of Christ, not just a slick way of throwing a track at someone; evangelicals beginning to venture outside the "church fortress" [read: "cultural ghetto"] we've created to actually engage culture, not just throw a Bible at people and retreat back to our defenses. It's exciting!

I also want to plug byFaith, the new PCA denominational magazine:

I read several articles last night in the Sept./Oct. issue (Tim Keyes, "The Earth is the Lord's" and William Edgar, "Good Company, Good Art, and a Good Laugh" - neither of which happen to be available online) and am very encouraged by the approach the magazine is taking. They are really underscoring the fact that Christ is redeeming all of creation and that He hasn't slowed down any recently. Their articles (in fact, all the articles I've read thus far) challenge us to think through our beliefs and to question some of our practices to see if the way we live/think is really Biblical and reconciliational. (This month there's also an article that focuses on Covenant College's own Dr. Brian Fikkert and his work.) Check it out.