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 Any old school gospel fans out there? I’m talking the Hawkins Fam, the Winans, (no not B.B. or C.C.) vintage Richard Smallwood, Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Choir and of course the original Commissioned? When I got saved back in the early 80’s they began to dominate the gospel scene. Teens and young adults loved to hear gospel music that actually sounded like it was written in and recorded in 1980 rather than 1950. As time wore on these groups changed and faded, but their sound was indelibly impressed on my mind and heart.
This coming Sunday millions of people will attend a church and engage in worship. What will happen in many of those church’s is the subject of this post. How do we view worship today? I recently read a news story that reported on how evangelical churches are spending billions of dollars on the latest audio-visual equipment. Many houses of worship are pressing to look and feel like the latest high tech concert venues and more and more worship appears to be a well put together variety program.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I thought that I would transfer some of my reflections to paper. With inexorable regularity, the festive season has returned and with predictable insipid insight we make the same comments we have made since attaining mature (?) adulthood: “My, I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving already!� “Where did they year go?� “Time surely flies as you get older!� “Soon it’ll be Christmas, then New Year’s and 2008.� “Where did last year ago?� Needless to say, these are simply halfhearted and, even feigned attempts, at being surprised by the swiftness of the juggernaut of time.
 Brothers:
Praise the Lord!! What an awesome conference!! What a joyous time in the Lord and what above all, what a great, glorious and incomprehensible God we serve!!
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The day had finally arrived. A little more than a week ago the President of the United States called a special joint session of Congress and the Supreme Court. The President gave no indication of the reason for such a rare meeting and though sources said that Congress and the Supreme Court have an idea of what’s going on they’ve kept it to themselves.
 It was a fantastic journey preceded by a spectacular deliverance. Just over three months ago the Hebrews had been the perpetual slaves of the Egyptian empire. Though slavery had been part of humanity for at least hundreds of years this was one of the first instances where an entire people were enslaved solely based on ethnicity.
Is Obama Black enough? That is one of the major questions/issues hovering around Illinois Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama. For some the answer is easy. According to columnist Debra J. Dickerson “Obama isn't black.
 "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Those powerful words from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s speech at the March on Washington in 1963 were words to live by for a generation. Among other things Dr. King noted that “This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.�
Today I looked out over my bookshelf and a book by RC Sproul caught my eye. It is one of his more popular books, though it was written for children. The title of the book is A King Without a Shadow. As I reflected on the title and content of the book I was reminded that kings actually do cast shadows. They usually cast huge and irrepressible shadows over their nation and family. Today I am thinking of one king in particular. His name is Martin Luther King, Jr.
{Well I} woke up this mornin' with my mind
stayed on freedom.
Woke up this mornin' with my mind,
stayed on freedom.
Woke up this mornin' with my mind
stayed on freedom.
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah.
With this song and many others brave, non-violent freedom fighters faced the taunts, jeers, threats and violence of their enemies.
"Now when it comes down to religion and I'm finished with this. When it comes down to religion it's all about God. But God is not of any one religion. HE CANNOT BE.
How does God speak today? How should you go about discerning His voice? How should the church decide what to believe, teach, and promote regarding God, His Son and the gospel of Jesus Christ? How should believers seek God’s direction regarding the important issues of their lives? In what ways should we settle disputes that arise about church believe and practice? Are our beliefs and practices based on our experiences plus scripture, the private revelations from people who say they’ve heard directly from God plus the scripture or on scripture alone? This is crucial because churches, families and individuals will pursue their relationship with God based on something. We’ll submit to the guidance of our own experiences, a pastor/guru or the scriptures.
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The Council of Reforming Churches is a new broadly reformed network of churches dedicated to bringing the light of the reformation to the black church and black community. We exist to see biblically reformed theology sown, take root in, flourish among and eventually become the dominant theology within the black church and African-American community.
The Council of Reforming Churches exist to bring reform to the black church. That statement has at least two assumptions. The first is that reform is needed in what we commonly know as the black church. The second is that we will continue to have a black church that needs reform.
The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line. Thus wrote the insightful and prophetic scholar and sociologist Dr. W.E.B. Dubois in the Atlantic Monthly, 1901. His words proved true as America continued to struggle with the contradictory notions of proclaiming and fighting for worldwide democracy while at the same time denying the benefits of said democracy to millions of its citizens solely on the basis of skin color.
 Sunday mornings used to mean something special to me. But I now face them with dread, with a bittersweet sorrow that tugs at my heart and a headache-inducing tension that makes me reach for the Advil. I am torn between my desire to play hooky from church and my Pentecostal indoctrination that Sunday is the Lord's day, a day of worship when real men are supposed to lead their families into the house of God.
Why are bible believing Christians so adamant about Jesus being the one and only way to obtain a perfect, permanent relationship with God the Father? In a world torn by religious strife and hatred isn’t it prudent to share Jesus as one of many ways to God? Wouldn’t it be more humble to admit that none of us can really know the mind of God and therefore back up from the proclamation of Jesus and Jesus alone? And wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier to have a faith that respects and accepts the truth claims of others?
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 Imagine a new family moves next door to you tomorrow. You being the hospitable sort you are invite them over for lemonade, grilled hamburgers and of course Star Trek reruns. Since you’ve been in the community for awhile your new neighbor asks you a few questions about the hood. Where’s a good cleaners? Where do you go food shopping? Where the place to get a good, smooth mocha latte? What about a sharp haircut? Where’s the post office, lowest priced gas station and nearest Blockbuster? Where do you go for good pizza, the nearest movie and all important Dunkin Donuts? You talk for a bit more and then just before he leaves the new neighbor asks “where do you go for truth around here?
Not too long ago I was at a bar-b-que and during the usual conversation at such things couldn’t help but pay attention to the song playing in the background. At first I thought it was the music of a popular gospel choir I’m familiar with. But what really caught my attention was the words and theme of the song. Basically the song was about me, my blessing and in essence my expectation of the good life. Following that I decided to take a morning to tune into my local praise inspirational station. I was treated to much more of the same. Most of the songs I listened to for two hours or so were about my blessing and my prosperity‘. In fact the title of one number was ‘My Name Is Victory’.
 “They are enemies of the Cross of Christ� (Phil. 3:8).
" Let us, my brethren, make haste and be gone, lest the bath, wherein is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, should fall upon our heads."
-- Attributed to the Apostle John
 Regardless of where one stands concerning the state of the American church today few can deny that faith is a very popular concept. ‘Faith’ has soared to new heights even as other biblical words such as justification, propitiation and redemption have fallen out of our collective spiritual lexicon. For many faith is the gateway toward the good life. It is the key that unlocks the door to a life of prosperity, achievement and full health.
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 “My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling! He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block�. “God’s will for us is to be successful.� That’s a sample of the mission statements of a well known entertainer and local purveyor of the prosperity gospel. Both claim to define what God’s mission is and thus by extension what the church’s mission should be. Yet, what is the church’s mission?
 The more things change the more they stay the same. Here we are almost five hundred years, an entire continent and a completely different language from 16th century Europe and we are still more or less grappling with the same issues with which they wrestled. Five hundred years ago the question was quite simple: how does one obtain favor with God and a place with Him in eternity?
In the second installment of the blog series 'To God Be Glory In The Church' our brother Michael Leach lays out the attributes of the church of God.
Our brother Michael Leach recently wrote a letter of exhortation to the brothers on the subject of God's church. The next few posts contain excerpts of that letter under the heading 'To God Be Glory In The Church.
The third installment of our current blog series features the marks of a biblical church as spelled out by our brother Michael Leach.
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About a year ago I wrote that among other things CRC is a group of churches that stand on an promote the historic five solas of the reformation. I return now to take a little bit more in depth look at each of the solas and why we believe they are still important and relevant for God’s church today.
In the last installment of our current blog series our brother Michael Leach exhorts us to press toward faithfulness in the biblical distinctives of the church so that we can avoid the pitfalls of recasting the church according to the shifting winds of our current culture.
 Our discussion continues with the first response to brother Eric's post which was submitted by Rev. Kevin Smith. Rev. Smith has served as the pastor of the Waston Memorial Bapist Church since Feb. 2004. He is a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where is also a candidate for the Ph.D degree. We welcome this brother to the discussion.
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For the next several days CRC will post the thoughts of several reformed African-American pastors and leaders who are attempting to bring the truths of reform theology into the Black church experience. We welcome your comments and thoughts but ask you to be respectful and stay on the topic. The first post is from our friend and brother Eric Redmond who serves as the Pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Temple Hills MD and also as the 2nd VP of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was he who suggested that we take the time to comment on the issues he’s working through in his present pastoral context.
I've decided to weigh into the clash with a response to the veep's first question. I'm particularly interested in addressing it since CLF is a church plant of Tenth Presbyterian Church. While the answer springs from the the question the response isn't necessarily directed at my brother Eric himself. The answer is more of a reflection on the place of culture in the church at this time. I hope it's somewhat helpful.
Leading off this week's discussion in our Culture Clash subject is Rev. Thabiti Anybwile. Many of you know of our brother and fellow elder from his blog called Pure Church. Among other things he serves as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman and is the author of two books, The Faithful Preacher and the just released The Decline of African-American Theology. Brother 'T' is also a founding member of The Council of Reforming Churches.
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 Did I ever tell you about the time I got saved? No? Well let me tell you the story. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade. There I was minding my own business when for some reason I aroused the ire of a certain very big and very mean high school student. Honestly, I cannot tell you what I did to this child that made her (yes, it was a girl, but keep in mind, a much, much bigger girl than I was) so mad, but suffice it to say that she set her sights on me and salivated over the opportunity to throttle me after the last day of school. Finally, the last day of school dawned and I ventured to Lamberton School filled with fear and trepidation. (Now I know how some of those Old Testament kings felt). Unlike the rest of my schoolmates I simply couldn’t get into the joy of that last day. There was no talk of summer plans, final grades or who was breaking up with whom. My world was filled with the dread that sometime after the final bell rung my bell was going to be rung.
 Let’s see how many times have I heard it and I’m sure you have too. The argument goes something like this: the church is irrelevant, impotent, outdated and ineffective in reaching our world today. One of the latest attacks on the church comes from George Barna in his book ‘Revolution’. According to Mr. Barna ‘For thousands of years, Christians have been inventing church, but neglecting to be the church Christ commissioned.
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 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.  And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? How does God speak to people today? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? How does God save people and for that matter what is salvation? What is the nature of God? Are there things about God, salvation, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, scripture, God’s church and other things that are set in stone (forgive the pun) and others with which the church can be somewhat flexible? And even if we do settle upon some of these things today what about tomorrow? Should the church revisit and perhaps even revise these issues each generation or each time it comes into contact with a new or different culture? I don’t think we have to. Why?
 It’s finally here. West Philly just got a brand new, ice clean Target store. They have everything from ipod’s to ironing boards. I can now get my film developed, while picking up a new crock-pot and sipping a latte from Starbucks. (face it folks they’re like the Borg, resistance is futile) Hopefully the management of this Target will keep the store clean, (I hate shopping in a store with cluttered aisles) feature superlative customer service (no one acting like I’m disrupting their entire life just because I have a simple question) and by all means open additional checkout lines before I’ve waited 20 minutes to pick up a pack of batteries.
Bryant, my newest nephew, you were born in relative obscurity a few weeks ago. At your birth, you were known only to your family, friends, hospital staff, and God. Even the Vital Statistics Office was not informed of your arrival until a few days thereafter. But my prayer is that your seemingly obscure birth is part of God’s plan to bring about a reformation in our churches.
Asked why, Victoria says, "Because that's the rules."
That's how this teenager responded when asked if she would identify the culprit of a violent crime. These 'rules' are the new, dangerous and sad code of our streets. It's a world where not only right is wrong and wrong is right but where thinking people actually believe that this is the way it should be. In this world Judas is the hero, Jesus the chump, the gospel is crap and the church a joke.
Reading is indispensable. I remember when I was in seminary and how often I was required to read books which I otherwise would not find any interest. Those of us who have had the pleasure (and distress :-) of being in class with Dr. Frank James will testify to the large stack of books and extensive reading assignments Dr. James would require. Dr. James reminded us that RTS was not our mother's seminary. We had work to do. We had reading to do. I recall once looking over the reading assignments for one of James' class and saying to myself, "I can't wait to get out of seminary so I can read what I want to read."Â
127. That’s the number so far. And despite a plethora of forums to address it the chances are that by the end of the year Philadelphia’s homicide rate will meet or exceed 400. Our best minds, best intentions and best efforts are utterly impotent to stop this plague from overwhelming our communities. Sadly, Philly isn’t unique among large cities in this regard. Most of our major cities are suffering from a rash of irrational murders and violence with no end in sight.
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Did I ever tell you about the time I got saved? No? Well let me tell you the story. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade. There I was minding my own business when for some reason I aroused the ire of a certain very big and very mean high school student.Â
Those in my generation might recall the campaign RIF or Reading is Fundamental. It was the governments way of encouraging young and old people in the erstwhile pursuit of reading. It insisted that at the heart of a well rounded education was the desire, even the love, for reading. We can all agree that the old Uncle Sam got this one right. Reading is fundamental. And it is no where more fundamental than in the gospel ministry.
A number of years ago several houses in a Philadelphia neighborhood experienced a problem. It seems they were actually sinking. After the usual investigation by the city it was determined that these particular homes weren’t built on solid foundation. Over the years they began to sink and would soon have to be vacated. Those houses highlighted the necessity of a strong, solid foundation. For no matter how nice it looks and no matter how well it’s maintained a house built on a faulty foundation will never be able to fulfill its primary purpose.
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Those in my generation might recall the campaign RIF or Reading is Fundamental. It was the governments way of encouraging young and old people in the erstwhile pursuit of reading. It insisted that at the heart of a well rounded education was the desire, even the love, for reading. We can all agree that the old Uncle Sam got this one right. Reading is fundamental. And it is no where more fundamental than in the gospel ministry.
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Where do you want to go today… a mind is a terrible thing to waste… be prepared… good to the last drop… we love to fly and it shows… what‘s in your wallet… America runs on Dunkin. . . For Christ, the Church and the Truth. Are any of your favorite mottos listed above?