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the term, ‘pastor’ because it’s irrelevant” (not irrelevant in the sense of “designation doesn’t matter” but in “it’s out of date” sense).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]