Andy Stanley, the son of renowned Bible teacher Charles Stanley, has established himself as one of the leading evangelical voices of this generation after his church plant grew over 25,000 people. Before we plunge into the book, I’ve noticed interesting “trend”: sons of mega-church pastors have successfully (in the 90′s) planted their own churches and have become leaders: Andy Stanley is one. The other comes to my mind is Ed Young, Jr., the son of Dr. Ed Young of the Second Baptist Church in Houston (4th largest congregation in US; I’ve attended this church when I was in Houston). Ed Young Jr started church near Dallas and again have become one of the most influential churches of America. Joel Osteen is a bit different story because he succeeded his father. Yet, all three in my view have gone well beyond their fathers’ influences and doing wonderful ministries. My friend KC first told me about North Point (Andy’s church) when I visited Atlanta. But it was not until Paul Hatfield recommended him to me that I’ve gone to his website to listen to him. And to the blogs. Thanks to the myriads of professional bloggers, I was able to glean many valuable insights from this man. And I picked up one of the latest books from Andy Stanley. And this was it. This was not a self-help book because Andy points to God as ultimate helper. However, good Reformed pastors can easily critique the book because there was no explicit “call to repentance” or “calling to Christ.” For example, I’ve heard John MacArthur condemning Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life because there was only calling to Christ at the end of the book. Even many of my professors said, “why didn’t he name the book ‘Cross Driven Life’ instead of ‘Purpose Driven’”? I think here’s the difference. Andy and Rick along with many evangelical Christians want to be a blessing to non-believers. They want to help people (non-Christians) who are struggling. And want to show them God’s ways are better than their ways. And when people are thankful of their advices (after following Christian or Bible advice, they realize ‘there really might be God’) then they will be more open to the invitation to follow Christ. When you actually read these books, you can tell Andy and Rick make Christ “explicit” from time to time. They fully realize Christ is the only solution. But the way they present Christ is in-direct. You can criticize them all you want. But what if those books become instrumental in bringing people to Christ? At the same time, MacArthur has a point. You can’t feed natural men what they desire in their fallen nature: health, wealth, success. Just as Christ didn’t come to give you “only” health/wealth/success, even when you are being indirect like in Andy’s book, explicit calling to repentance and trusting Jesus as savior and Lord must be there. What is the point of helping people out of their mess only to fall back unto their self-reliance and self-centeredness?

Now, what’s the principle of the path? It can be summarized as “Direction-not intention-determines our destination”. You get the point in one paragraph. Rest of the book is illustration after illustration to make his thesis clearer. Well, pick up and read. It’s a good treat.

1. I finally closed the deal this morning, an unfinished work that was always back of my head. Last week, Dr. Tipton approved my thesis and today I was able to sustain oral exam (by a conference call with two of my professors at WTS). Thanks all of you who have been praying for this, and especially who actually read mine, unwillingly. I am now free to read whatever I want. No more Wolfhart Pannenberg.

2. In light of “practicality” of what is coming in mini-series, 3:16 Driven Life, I (and New Song as a whole), do not want to make common mistakes what other evangelicals are making, i.e., driving a wedge between Doctrine and Application. When I look at some of “creative” ministries that are thriving in American soil, I cannot help but doubt their presuppositions. The other day, I was listening to Andy Stanely (son of one of the best known Radio Preachers, Charles Stanley, InTouch Ministries) and he says, “in our church, we dropped the term, ‘pastor’ because it’s irrelevant” (not irrelevant in the sense of “designation doesn’t matter” but in “it’s out of date” sense). You judge for yourself in light of Scriptural teaching whether the term or position of pastor is “irrelevant” or not. I also don’t think it’s coincidence that many of “creative” pastors come from Baptist background. As I look at myself, the Reformed seminaries’ focus on the expositional preaching “can” (not always) sometimes end up being no more than a mere transfer of knowledge. So, I see two extremes. One is, in over emphasizing the “practicality,” pastor or whatever he wants to call himself (for example, a pastor in twitter bio describes himself as “third culture consultant/social enterpreneur”; I am sure he’s condescending in that description to better represent himself to non-believers), giving a good, inspiring talk yet void of Biblical teaching, and the other is preaching becoming a Bible study. Probably, the answer lies in mid-way between the two.

3. My final thought is, this one deprives me of sleep at night, how can New Song be “better” church? How can we better understand and apply the truth in our lives? Is there a non-legalistic yet sustainable spiritual discipline that will keep us focused on Jesus Christ during the week? Paradigm shift. Is it possible for an individual? In what way? How can we set up organic structure in our ministries?

*negative mindsets and netural mindsets have to be transformed [not discarded] to proactive, positive, influencing characters. I think that’s the key. Read Driscoll’s article here.

[from newsongNY.org/Blog]