-Ecclesiology- I’d like to do some further reading on the biblical order of the church. Currently in the middle of “Biblical Eldership” by Alexander Strauch. I’d like to tackle some other books on the church including Driscoll’s “Vintage Church”, Clowney’s “The Church”, and I think that Dever guy has mentioned ecclesiological issues a time or 2 somewhere.

-Eschatology- This has long been an area which I avoided like the plague because I didn’t want to be John Hagee or Tim Lahaye and pull out my charts. However, as I grow past (slowly) those reactionary tendencies, a few things are obvious:

• your view of eschatology influences how you spend your days here on earth
• Revelation, and the plethora of other eschatological passages are part of inspired Scripture and are therefore “profitable”.
• failing to delve into this subject has resulted in a failure to really grasp the wonderful hope of the believer’s future glorification. And that hope transcends the minefield of theological divisions within eschatology.

-Pneumatology-  Exegetically, I am fairly well convinced that the Holy Spirit still moves and that he hasn’t ceased to work in ways he did in the book of Acts, etc.  However, I agree with Chandler (when he was being interview by some charismatic British dude) when he said it didn’t make sense to believe the gifts were there, and then just ignore them.  However, I want to delve into this subject with scripture as my guide and avoid the weirdness of some of my charismatic high school buddies who I did ministry with.  My guess is that Sam Storms and Wayne Grudem will prove helpful here.

-Old Testament interpretation- I want to deepen my understanding of biblical theology and how the whole Bible fits together as Christian Scripture.  This means diving deeper into questions of New Covenant theology, etc.  I plan on reading Douglas Moo, Thomas Schreiner, and Graeme Goldsworthy on this.

All that should get me through the end of February at least…(joke)

*Note that this list is qualified as “theological” areas I need to grow in and does not take into account the abudance of practical, behavioral, emotional, etc areas that I need to grow in. This is a blog, though so I’m unwilling to share those areas publicly.

Being this close to the end of my Bachelor’s got me thinking about whether I will continue further study. In the end, the jury is still out. What’s certain is that I won’t continue at my current school, and I likely won’t continue at an SBC seminary at all.

I was already mulling all this over when @mxbx posted lines from “Good Will Hunting” over on Twitter about spending $150,000 on education that you could get for $1.50 in late fees at the local library. (I’d post the clip but Jesus told us not to use or hear anyone else use the “f” word…)* As I’ve thought through all of this, I’ve wondered “If that’s true for absorbing regular, old information, what are the implications of adding the Holy Spirit to the equation?”. Is the Master’s degree really necessary for me?

THOUGHTS AGAINST, OR “ME WHINING ABOUT THE STATUS QUO”

Now, there are some good reasons to go to seminary. But there are also some bad ones. Personally, I would include on the list of bad ones “It makes my resume look good” because personally it’s hard for me to swallow dropping $25,000 (minimum) so that I make a pastoral search team smile one day when they look at my resume. Likewise, a friend of mine recently put forth the point that when you go to school and take tests and turn in papers and stuff, then professors and SACS and so on can quantify your education and prove that you have actually learned stuff. But I have to wonder who I need to prove that to?

I wholeheartedly agree with the statement that “a call to ministry is a call to prepare” but I would challenge the implied notion that the “call to prepare” always means seminary. If I am indeed called to pastoral ministry, and God provides another pastoral post for me to serve in the future, it won’t particularly matter if I wrestled with theology through books and in community or if I wrestled with it in a classroom, will it? It seems what is important is the principle that I have indeed prepared, not the method by which I prepared…? No…?

Also, personally, I hate the idea of leaving my local church context (wherever that may be at the time) and uprooting my family to head off to do a monastic stint filled with footnotes, student loans, and ramen noodles.

CAVEATS, OR “WAYS IN WHICH SEMINARY IS BETTER”

Now, in the best of all possible worlds, (which is to say, if there were a solid means of seminary education at a reasonable price in the community God has called my family to) then seminary does have its distinct advantages:

-The structure forces you to study subjects that you wouldn’t ordinarily choose on your own. (For example, it would likely force me to understand dispensationalism a little more before I wrote those guys off as my brothers, but crazy.) This is a good thing.

-The expertise of the seminary faculty is an enormous resource. At a normal school (read “not an extension center”), the faculty has spent a lifetime delving into their area of study with both pastoral experience as well as scholarly precision. Interacting with these guys on a personal level is something wholly different and better than simply reading what D.A. Carson has to say about an issue. Besides, it’s a lot easier to learn Greek from a person, than from Mounce, no matter how many flash cards you get in that box.

CLOSING, OR “DISCLAIMERS TO KEEP ME OUT OF TROUBLE”.

In everything I am talking about here, I am not judging anyone who chooses to go to seminary. I am speaking entirely out of personal convictions for me, not universal convictions I impose on others. One of my closest homies is a dude who moved with his family to go to seminary. That’s cool if that’s what God calls someone to do (at which point it’s called “obedience”). I am not in the business of telling people what God has or has not called them to do…(maybe some day…joke).

However, at the end of the day, all of this rambling is to say that we should be careful not to impose on pastors a path to pastoral ministry that the Bible doesn’t impose. Preparation is not an option, but preparation by seminary is one option among many. Seminary may be the best scenario for some, but not all.

In the end, I don’t think too many people disagree with that in principle, so the blog post is mostly unneccessary thought spewing (which is why it’s in a blog, because that’s what blogs are for…joke).

All kidding aside, I wanted to get my muddled thoughts down in writing to help myself clarify, to allow others to sharpen, and to provide written record for the future of all the dumb things I used to say (okay, so I couldn’t put “all” kidding aside).

SECOND CLOSING

If I never used twitter, I wouldn’t be exposed to as much intellectual white noise and be this intellectually ADD.

[*This comment is sarcastic and unnecessary, but does get at the reason I'm not linking the video: because some believers would be offended by the F word.]

If nothing else, that great point from John Piper about how Twitter and Facebook will be used in the end to show that we wasted a heck of a lot of time rings true for me. (Note the personal, not universal, application of that statement.) I wondered what else I could get done if I was not browsing articles and thoughts from other people.

Oh, and also it’s been helpful in breaking that painfully narcissistic idea that other people want me to opine on everything.

In the 36 hours that I’ve been off Twitter and Facebook, I’ve sat down and read 100 pages in long sustained reading sessions to finish a book I’ve been working on a for awhile. Likewise, I’ve begun to make good on my commitment to watch all the Harry Potter movies with my wife (in exchange for her conversion to the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons).

I’ll rejoin the Twitterverse and Facebook world someday, but for now it’s a good break to keep good things from getting an inordinate amount of my time.

Dear Christian Mom,

You know me. I am Tyler, the 8th grader that hangs out with your son. I feel like I need to confess a thing or two, as well as express my gratitude.

Your son is a very nice kid that befriended me when I moved to this neighborhood last summer. I had no friends in the area. I recall still unloading boxes when he came by inviting me to join he and his friends in going to the local swimming pool the next day . I was very excited about this because all of my old friends now lived far away.

You have gathered bits and pieces of my story over the time I’ve known your son…My father died a few years ago. You may not know that he took his own life. Before that, He was abusive and an alcoholic. Currently, I live with my mom, my little sister, and my step-dad. You probably don’t know that I struggle with depression and severe anger. You can probably figure out that I’m a little bit scared about this world. Very insecure. More than a little misguided.

Other bits and pieces I’m sure your son has tried to hide from you. I like the “f” word and any other word that I’m not “supposed” to say. Your son stood strong for awhile, but eventually he too let a few naughty words fly. (Maybe you could concede that that wasn’t entirely my fault? Perhaps some of it was his own sin?) Anyway, I brag hyperbolically about the 2 “fights” I got into in the past few years. I listen to very explicit rap music. My mom doesn’t know, because I have a friend who buys it for me. Also, when there was that whole fireworks in the middle of the night issue. That was my idea.

There’s no getting around the truth: If I influence your kid, it’s going to be negative.

In short, ma’am: I’m quite a mess.

But I wanted to take a moment to thank you for letting your son hang around me. I want to thank you for not totally forbidding his friendship with me because I was very obviously one of “those kids”.

Last December, when your son asked if I’d join him for an ice skating event at church, I said yes because I had nothing else to do. I went and realized the social opportunites that were there (in other words: there were girls there). So, you kept swingin’ by to pick me up every Wednesday, every Sunday morning, and every Sunday night. That’s a mighty nice thing to do for a kid as messed up as I am.

This past summer while attending the summer retreat, I heard a man named Tony Nolan share the gospel. I’m sure I’d heard it many times before, but at this particular time, something messed with me. The next night I gave in and admitted that, although I’d been in church for 9 months straight, had walked an aisle and prayed the prayer 3 times, I still hadn’t surrendered my life to Jesus. I went up again and afterwards, I talked with the youth pastor and he helped me understand it all.
When we got back, he gave me a Bible I could understand. It turns out Jesus has a heart for guys like me. I keep reading these stories where he hangs out with tax collectors and other messed up people, and he makes fun of the uptight, religious folks. I think maybe that is one of the reason that you let your son hang out with me. Because Jesus did that kind of thing.

I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your son’s friendship. I’ve met enough of the other people at church to know that it’s not particularly popular to let your son hang out with a guy like me. Most of the moms are worried that I’ll rub off on their kid. It’s probably a semi-valid concern. You could have been like them, hiding your kid from messed up people like me, but I thank you that you let him continue that friendship. Through that friendship, I met Jesus.

I’m only in the 8th grade now. But one day I’ll be an adult, a husband, a father. There’s no way to know this now, but I think because of what Jesus did through my friendship with your son- that through the Gospel’s continued work in me, I will be saved from a family history of alcoholism, depression, abuse, and many other things. In the past few years, I’ve cried long nights without my father and the despair has seemed unbearable at times. Ma’am, I don’t want to exaggerate: but it may be that the Gospel I heard through this friendship has helped save my life.

I know that at times, I probably made you a little nervous. I know that you probably wondered if you were making the right decision. Or maybe you knew it was right, but you just thought it was a tiny gesture…

Either way, I just wanted to thank you for letting your son hang out with a sinner like me. Jesus used that to save me.

focused on the Kingdom,
tyler recker.

On this past Saturday, my wife and I suffered through the miscarriage of our 6 week old unborn baby.

But, man!, did she suffer well.

We are still grieving the loss, but we mourn with hope. We grieve with praises on our lips. We suffer through the sudden snatching away of all the excitement that we had, but we suffer through it knowing that God is still good, AND still good to us. We don’t know why, but we know the Who behind the why, and we are comforted.

I have said often before that you need to be theologically prepared for the valleys of life long before you get there. I am grateful for how my wife was.

I am grateful that my wife knew that we are wretched sinners that are owed no good thing by God, so that in our calamity she did not demand that God defend Himself for the circumstances that befell us.

I am grateful that my wife knew the absolute sovereignty of God so that “God is sovereign. He is in control.” was indeed a comforting statement, and not a bitter pill to swallow. Oh! How could I have comforted her otherwise? Had she not wrestled with His sovereignty in calmer times, how could I have comforted her?

I am grateful that my wife knew well the Cross, so that she knew (and knows) that “there is therefore now no condemnation”. Again, she nor I know they why behind this, but we know that this is not the curse of God aimed at us for our sins. God’s own son bore are punishment on the Cross.

I am grateful that my wife knew grace so well. She knew God’s goodness, so that she could say “He is still good! He is so good!” over and over while in the worst of the pain and agony. I am thankful that in the uncertainty before that she knew that if God did a miracle to heal her and the baby, then He would be good. But if God chose to allow us to suffer as we did, then He would be no less good.

I am grateful that my wife has known well the satisfaction and comfort of God being the Gospel. I am blessed that she has “tasted and seen that the Lord is good” so that she could cry out in the midst of her pain “Quote to me Scripture! Play some worship music!”

I am so grateful that my wife has suffered this tragic thing so well. In times like these, my vocabulary is insufficient to convey the truth. The words are simple enough to comprehend, but the depth of it all must be learned through life: God is good.

Some of you will undoubtedly think I write with too much levity, using this tragedy to make a pastoral point about the need for theology. Friends, I love you as brothers and sisters, but in thinking that you reveal your own ignorance of the goodness of God to comfort you.

Husbands, don’t let your wives walk through life unprepared for it’s storms. If a hurricane were coming, wouldn’t you put plywood on your windows? When life inevitably throws you hard times, won’t you please have your family ready for it?

Dads, don’t send your children into this world unprepared to deal with disaster. Where will they learn to deal with cancer, death, and miscarriages?

Men, know this. If you shirk this responsibility, then WHEN they face that time, and they don’t know how to deal with it…

you will wish then that you had made more time for teaching them the Bible…

that football game won’t seem as important…their sports leagues won’t seem as important…your job won’t seem as important…

…but you will wish that they knew deeply the truth of His Word and the comfort of the Gospel.

Our storm is not over. We are not healed. But I am full of faith that just as He has comforted us thus far, He will comfort us through this whole ordeal.

Given my recent influx of a little birthday money, I’ve had some good beers lately. I wanted to share 5 of my favorites in no particular order. I’m no beer critic, so I don’t know how to tell you about the technical things.

Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy- This is a new brewery out of Decatur, GA. I just had this on Friday night and it was excellent. It is an imperial brown ale, and I liked it very, very much. A server at Taco Mac compared it to a stronger Newcastle. Maybe that works, I don’t know. For me, it’s got a good blend of hops, carbonation, and full-bodied taste. Definitely look forward to these guys selling bottles later this year.

Highland Gaelic Ale- This is one that I’ve loved for awhile. It’s just plain good. I have a thing against drinking stouts and porters with spicy food like wings and nachos. I also have a thing against drinking most lagers that are the color of urine. This is an ale, so it’s very drinkable but still has good flavor. For me, this is a go-to beer as versatile as sweet tea.

Stone Arrogant Bastard- Not for everyone. But I love it. It’s pretty high on the bitterness scale, I believe. I don’t think it’s a whole lot better when you go for the Oak-aged one, but again I’m not really an aficionado and I listen to country music, so maybe I just have an unrefined palate.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron- Some beers just need to be drank by themselves or with a dessert or cigar. I would put this one in that category. I don’t like too much complexity and odd flavors while I’m eating, but again they go great with a dessert or a cigar. This one is a strong 12%, so split with a friend if you’re a light weight. I don’t know what to say about it but it’s a very complex brown ale.

Unibroue Trois Pistoles- This is the perfect cigar beer. It has a fruity twinge, which again is not cool if I’m eating something else. This is a darker Belgian style beer which I enjoy. I don’t like the lighter Belgian styles.

Use wisdom and moderation, obey the law, and if you can drink and praise God for it, then try out these 5. If you can’t, it’s okay, we can still be friends.

I’m simply sharing what I do with a steak and inviting anyone who reads this to share their best ways of prepping a steak because I enjoy messing with the grill.

When I haven’t pre-marinaded a steak because I wasn’t planning on grilling out, I stumbled into this which works fantastically:

1. Thaw out steaks in hot water. (This might not be the most sanitary way to do this, but a) I’m 23 and invincible and b) a few germs keeps your immune system on its toes.)

2. Place steaks in small pot.

3. Mix half red wine and half Dale’s Steak Seasoning. (In reality, I probably use a little more Dale’s than wine.)

4. Let simmer in low, low heat for 15-20 minutes. I’m no chef but I think this helps soak in the flavor faster.

5. Cook to medium rare. (Likewise, if your wife likes it medium-well, then cook hers to medium-rare and convince her that this is how medium-well is supposed to look. Remember, you will be the one eating those leftovers the next morning for breakfast.)

Feedback I’ve gotten:

-Generally, I got positive remarks on the content. No one critiqued me on biblical or exegetical points, which is not to say that there weren’t some of those. For example, I haven’t decided what to do with “Breaking of the Bread” in Acts 2 yet…Was this communion? Was this just eating? I think I just stayed silent on the issue. Also, Acts 2 is descriptive of what should be normative for a Christian community. I’m not sure that it’s prescriptive in the sense that we should set it up as a list of do’s and dont’s and then set up a legalism of what community is. Rather, this should to some degree be the natural outgrowth of a community of people who have been rocked by the Gospel. I may have preached this a little too “do this” rather than “be this”. Not sure…

-I said um alot. Especially in transition or when I was going back to my notes to find my place. Probably need to be more comfortable with silence and not feel the need to insert “fillers”.

-The message was probably a little disjointed with the first part being an exposition of Acts and then transitioning to the B.A.S.E. stuff. I probably could have integrated those two sections better and not had them be 2 seperate sections. As you probably caught if you listen to the message, this was very much a vision cast for our small group ministry. In that regard, I was trying to lay out very clearly what our B.A.S.E. points mean. So, this might be one of those places where the needs of the message override good homiletics.

-In an effort to not come across heavy-handed and hard, I backed off my tone from my usual tone. This was a conscious effort to communicate the joy and grace of community. However, the pendulum swung too far in the other direction and I lost the passion that I usually have when preaching. I was told that my passion is one of the things that I have going for me when I preach and because of this whirling around in my head, I lost communicating that passion. So, still working on finding the right balance. If you’re familiar with the triperspectival breakdown of Prophet, Priest, and King, I am very much a Prophet and then a King, and lastly a Priest when it comes to gifting. That said, it’s easy for me to see the problem and say “here’s the truth”, but I’m wrestling with finding the right balance of communicating that graciously. So where I usually come across too heavy-handed (in my own estimation), in this message I swung too far to the other side and just came across boring.

-The issue of using notes is another balance I’m trying to get right. This message was preached from almost a full manuscript. I have been in the habit of doing this when I am preaching on Sunday morning to adults because I have a tendency to be too loose and say stuff that’s offensive or go on tangents otherwise. On Wednesday night student sermons, I can study deeply, write out an outline of my points and put notes like “High school lunchroom story” and then still preach in a manner that flows well and conveys everything I need to. With adults, I’m still too nervous and still don’t trust my tendency to stick my foot in my mouth to go to that. So, this coupled with the fact that I’m not great at reading my manuscript created a lot of weird transitions and pauses and repeating myself. Ultimately, for me, I think the answer is becoming more comfortable with the adults so that I get over my nervousness and can preach from an outline with that audience. Also, the advice I got from one person is well-put “If you are overly concerned about coming across a certain way then you will overcompensate and that pretty much always derails your message.”

-I paced too much during this message. Part of this is just that I move when I preach, but too much moving conveys nervousness and makes me hard to follow. So, I should have moved slower and not so abruptly. Again though, part of this was the notes issue because I was constantly going to my notes to get a point, but then going away from them so that I wasn’t slavishly reading them in a boring manner. The notes really have a domino effect, so I should probably just preach with the outline that I’m most comfortable with…