The Bible-signing thing shouldn’t bother you too much, honestly. Just think of it along the same lines as someone signing a yearbook for you at the end of a school year. It doesn’t signify that you idolize the person in an unchristlike manner, but rather you seek to commemorate the moment - the same as taking a picture would serve.

Timmy - thanks for the article. There is a very real danger with the current reformed resurgence beginning to resemble the ‘churchcianity’ prevalent in modern America and other westernized countries. I think that some of our ‘leaders’ should take note of the danger and seek to diffuse it by appearing as ‘normal people’.

As an example from the Holy Hip Hop genre, members of groups like CHRISTcentric, the Cross Movement and folks like shai linne, Timothy Brindle and others don’t do the ’star treatment’ when they minister and teach through their music at events. They interact with the audience and sit and talk and form real relationships with the people that they meet instead of simply standing out on stage for a few minutes and then being wisked off back into some private area and never meeting the people they serve with their music. One of my good friends often recounts meeting members of the Cross Movement at one outreach they were at in Philadelphia and then when he came across them at another outreach months later in Washington DC, not only were they just as friendly, but they actually remembered him and treated him like family. Many other folks I’ve come to know open their lives and their hearts up in the same fashion. Most of them give away more CDs than they actually sell (especially to non-Christians who attend these events), putting the promulgation of the gospel and sound teaching above selling a CD.

Their names are ‘known’, but they conduct themselves in a manner that keeps them on the same level as those they serve with their music - much like the apostle Paul did during the course of his ministry.

I do believe that many of the reformed ‘leaders’ of the current wave seek to do this consciously because they are familiar with the ‘celeb-status’ that can very easily develop. I do believe that some may be aware of it, but simply not taking any active steps to stop it from happening (at least not on their side). I guess my post here is simply the ‘outworking’ of what Gene mentioned earlier in regard to how past generations of reformed folk viewed their teachers.

What may be helpful is for the ‘leaders’ of the current reformed wave/movement to begin bringing non-famous folks to the table and to the pulpit at conferences. The larger the diversity of people, the less of a tendency there is to focus on one, two, three, seven or eight people exclusively.

In His Service,
Kerry

Thanks for the comment. Something you said reminded me of what Dr. Rainer, CEO of LifeWay, said earlier this year as a report on LifeWay and the local church. He argued that Broadman & Holman would publish more theological books, but they simply do not sell like the fluff and pop-Christianity books. He mentioned that B&H Academic (which is new to LifeWay) is needed, but it is coming at a financial loss since they are not able to cut even on the books they are publishing.

Putting out solid theological books is costly in more ways than one, and having been bred through a bias of anti-intellectualism and affinity to novelty and relevancy, Christians are cultivating an inability to acquiesce to the truth which is less palatable than the cotton candy they have tasted. Indeed, as David Wells as aptly stated, there is simply no place for truth. And when there is, it does not need to be commercialized.

Grace and peace,
Steve
Col. 1:9-14

A much needed post brother… thank you.

It’s always concerning when sectarianism becomes normative under the guise of furthering ministry as we have in today’s evangelical climate.

Consumerism plagues our faith today and we all feel the sting of it not only at the conference level, but also at the publishing and music levels as well.

I fully agree with Gene’s post here. The defense of sound doctrine, and in specific today, the gospel of sola fide is much needed. Council’s rather than conferences I think would be a significant shift in the right direction if the issues of doctrine, theology pertaining to the essentials of the faith and the gospel were the chief concern.

But there is an additional problem: when commerce becomes so tightly linked with ministry (as it is in todays evangelicalism) it is much more difficult for real change to occur on a theological level for it might mean the sacrifice of significant financial support.

The question then would be: are we still paying John Tetzel?

Thank you again for your excellent blog and timely article.

Grace and peace,
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7

Great to hear from you guys! I trust things are going well with you. Thanks for the link to the Trueman article. From what I understand, however, he received a lot of criticism for that post and subsequently softened his position. I do think he makes some excellent points, some of which surfaced in this conversation.

I still think we who attend conferences need to develop a more mature and discerning attitude and perspective on conferences. They certainly can serve a great purpose, but we would be amiss to not reflect on the negative, unintended consequences from such a conference culture.

http://www.reformation21.org/Reformation_21_Blog/Reformation_21_Blog/58/vobId__2692/