Three for Thursday

Jonathan Dodson on marriage. This is good. Jonathan discusses the idolatry of marriage and idolatry in marriage (with the help of some Radiohead lyrics). Here's a snip, just to get you started:

But you see, marriage is not the problem; it is our idolatry of marriage, our idolatry in marriage, sexual pleasure, personal rights, or relational intimacy. Unfortunately, our views of marriage and relationships have been conditioned by the brokenness of our own stories. But God in Christ offers us grace. He does not love us based on performance. He does not demand that we perform perfectly to obtain his love and acceptance. Instead, he performs perfectly for us, in life and in death and in resurrection, offering us true and ultimate joy and intimacy, from which we can freely love and respect our spouses. You see, when we let go of the idols of sex and intimacy, of husband and wife, we are free to love and respect one another.

If you're married, or thinking about getting married, or know someone who is, you should read the whole thing.

Speaking of Jonathan, he's done a triad of posts at The Resurgence called How NOT to be a Missional Church. He's going to follow up with a series of positive suggestions, so stayed tuned. As for the three "how NOT to" examples, they are, Event-Driven, Evangelism-Driven, and Social Action-Driven. I've seen all three of them up close and personal.

But "missional" goes well astray when it is not Gospel-centered. Which leads me to the next item: Misplaced, Taken For Granted and Ignored: My Strange Experiences With An Absent Gospel (Part 1)

BTW, about Michael Spencer, to whom I often send my readers. I love the dude. I assume we're related. He's cranky and truthy. He's one of those people who's always poking needles into our party-baloons, shouting, "Fly, you fools! The deluge even now breaketh upon us!"

Well, not exactly. But I said he was truthy, and truthy people tend to point out our illusions with disconcerting frequency (the pursuit of truth begins that way, it seems). All of which is prelude to his post about our delusional understanding of the Gospel. Part 1 of two. The first points out the problem (negative), the second will emphasize the "how to" of Gospel-centric preaching (do you seen a pattern emerging?).

BTW, just a note to say, if Michael Spencer is my blogging Gandalf, Jared Wilson is my Legolas. Me, I'm the grumpy dwarf.