John Piper Confused by Laughing Audience While He Confesses Sin

Just read this and thought I would pass it along. I've noticed something similar happening during normal times of fellowship as well (ie. small groups, etc).

Lesson I learned from the stuff below: Just because people get uncomfortable talking/hearing about intense things, does not mean that I need to insert a joke as some sort of relief. Uncomfortable can be life changing. I don't want to train people to handle their sin by blowing it off with laughter.

A few weeks ago John Piper spoke at a conference for the American Association of Christian Counselors. You should listen to the first five minutes. Piper decided to be as transparent as possible, given the audience, and to discuss some of the prevailing sins that he has struggled with his entire life. And the audience laughed uproariously. Piper was obviously perplexed and commented on how strange their reaction was.

If you didn’t know Piper, some of it could probably come across–at least initially–as unintentionally funny. But it is quite clear soon after that Piper was not cracking jokes but was being deadly serious about sin.

Greg Gilbert, calling it “one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard,” sees in this an “incredibly important and massively undervalued lesson”:

"Do you see, at root, what had happened at that conference? Over the course of a couple of days, those conferees had been trained to expect humor from the speakers and therefore to react to the speakers with laughter–all the way to the point that they were incapable of seeing that John Piper was being serious in his confession of sin to them. You can quibble with whether the first couple of Piper’s statements were (unintentionally, it seems) kind of funny. I happen to think they were. By the time he gets to about the 3-minute mark, though, there’s nothing funny left, and he’s moved into very serious stuff. Yet the atmosphere of humor and levity at that conference was so thick–the training so complete–that the people were incapable of seeing it. So they laughed at Piper’s confession of his sin.

Apparently the conditioning of that audience to think everything is funny took no more than a couple of days.

How deep do you think that conditioning would be for a church who sat under a funny-man pastor every Sunday for fifteen years?"

HT: JT

John MacArthur - The Singing Preacher

This may not be your style of music, but the man can definitely hold a tune.



Who knew?

Ignatius: Youth Pastor Extraordinaire

Thank you iMonk for this amazing video. Unfortunately this satire is more realistic than most of us would like to admit...


Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

Jonah vs. Park Squirrel

I was just talking on the phone with my wife and apparently our two year old son Jonah had a little too much fun at the park today. The story plays out like this:

Jonah sees semi-tame squirrel.

Jonah approaches squirrel.

Jonah tries to pet squirrel.

Erin grabs Jonah out of fear of rabies.

Time passes...

Moments later Jonah finds the same unsuspecting squirrel

Jonah kicks squirrel.

The end.

I imagine it looked something like this...

"Rabbi" Duncan on Hyper-Calvinism & Arminianism

“Hyper-Calvinism is all house and no door; Arminianism is all door and no house.”

( Courtesy of The Scriptorium)

Validation - Short Film

Smile, smile, smile...

Pre-Flood Job Hunting

Tiger Woods Walks On Water

It appears there was a glitch in the Tiger Woods '08 video game where Tiger could walk on water. For Tiger Woods '09 the game's publisher, EA, shows it wasn't a glitch after all.

Knee injury? I think not...

How does this even happen?

It must be video day in the blogosphere. Here are two videos that I'm not sure whether to laugh at, or feel sick over. The first was featured on Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds. The second was featured on the Reformation21 blog. I'll let you judge which is worse.





Let's throw in some Rowan Atkinson for good measure...

iTunes "Religion & Spirituality Barometer" - 9/9/08

Barometer Reading 9/9/08



This Week's Winner: Joel Osteen! I'm starting to wonder if I am going to be writing that name a lot over the next few weeks.

Honorable Mention: John Piper and Mark Driscoll in the Top Ten! Maybe John Piper needs to come out with a magazine like Oprah. Yes...I can see it now.

Saying "No" to Some Things, "Yes" to Others

Our 19 month old son, Jonah, already knows that he doesn't want to do certain things. However, it appears that there is one thing he does want to do...

John Piper Goes Gangsta'

One of my first blog posts contained a picture of John Piper the Mercenary. Well, looks like he is at it again...


I'm starting to think he is faking the whole conservative Baptist thing. Get the whole story here.

Mark Driscoll's "A Book You'll Actually Read"

Looks like Mark Driscoll has written a few more books, and each one is only 96 pages long! Click here to watch an overview video.

This series is available for pre-order and will be released on June 30th, 2008. They've made it possible to embed the introduction videos, so here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Also, if you want to have some fun, play all the videos at the same time (after watching each one first). I just did this and it made me laugh. Four Mark Driscoll's talking at the same time may just be someone's worst nightmare. If that's you, my apologies...

CJ Mahaney Interviews Sinclair Ferguson

If you haven't heard these interview clips already, you probably should stop whatever you are doing and listen to them. Ok, maybe that is going a little too far. Seriously though, if you have nothing better to do, it would NOT be a waste of your time. Here is the blurb from the Sovereign grace blog:

Over the past week we have been posting small excerpts from C.J.’s rich interview with pastor and author Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. Here is a complete index of those blog posts. Also, we’ve included the full audio recording from the two-hour interview.

Here is the link to these interviews:

Sinclair Ferguson Interview: Index and Audio

T4G Second String Speakers

Featuring:

John Macarthur - Vocals and Rhythm Guitar

John Piper - Vocals and Lead Guitar

Thabiti Anyabwile - Vocals and Bass

R.C Sproul - Drums

They're gonna rock your socks off...

6 Reasons Pastor's Should Blog

Here is a link to a recent post by Abraham Piper on DesiringGod.

6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog

As we can see, this is clearly biblical...

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to blog, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own blog well, with all dignity keeping his readers submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own blog, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that his blog may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. 1 Timothy 3:1-5 (English Blogging Version)

Together for the Gospel (aka T4G)

Yes, the rumors are true. I am officially signed up for the Together for the Gospel conference. That means that from April 15th-17th I will be getting an earful from the following men, each addressing a specific topic:
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Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry: A Joyful Defense and Decleration of the Necessity and Practicality of Systematic Theology for the Life of the Church

Thabiti Ayabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church

John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology

RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement

Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor's Soul
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This should be a very exciting, encouraging, and challenging few days. I have learned quite a bit over the last few years from each of these men. Out of the eight speakers I am least familiar with Thabiti, but after listening to him in a recent 9Marks interview, I am really looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

You know, with this conference rolling around, I have begun to realize how incredibly nerdy I am. While most people go see their favorite band perform, I go see godly men preach. I go and hear from my favorite writers. Instead of buying loads of CDs, I'm stocking up on books, more books, and even more books! I'm so thankful that God has given me an insatiable thirst for knowing Him more fully.

I would ask that, those of you who frequent this blog, please pray that I would have discernment in what I learn from these men. Anyone can fall under the temptation of praising the acts of men, and I am no exception. Pray that I would praise God for whatever good comes from this conference, rather than praise men.

Lastly, I can't explain how happy I am that I get to spend the duration of this conference with my good friend Eric Conn. Eric, the duel begins my friend. Be prepared for absolute and total humiliation!

Twelve Days of Luther - Day 7

After the writing of the 95 Theses, Luther finds himself in public conflict with the Catholic Church. Now labeled as a heretic, Martin Luther finds himself writing even more in defense of not only himself, but of the truth of the gospel. Pope Leo writes the following words about Luther comparing him to a wild boar:

"Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod. When you were about to ascend to your Father, you committed the care, rule, and administration of the vineyard, an image of the triumphant church, to Peter, as the head and your vicar and his successors. The wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy it and every wild beast feeds upon it."




Also, please note that the 95 Theses was nailed to the Wittenberg Castle door on October 31st! Goodbye Halloween! Hello Reformation Day!

The Man Cold

Ok, I'm not one to blog about every funny thing I see on the internet. However, due to the amount of times I've been sick already in 2008, I felt that I had to post this video. You could say that I was 'compelled' to post it...

And now for an accurate assessment of what happens when a man gets sick. I give you, The Man Cold.

The Man Cold

Twelve Days of Luther

About two years ago my wife and I rented the movie Luther starring Joseph Fiennes. While Mr. Fiennes looked nothing like the reformer, the movie in and of itself was rather interesting. Below is a clip from the famous "Diet of Worms" scene:



I think they may have broken the intensity knob on that one...

Over the next twelve days I will be hosting a video based on the life of Martin Luther and the history behind the start of the Reformation. The videos are straight from YouTube, and are taken from the PBS special Martin Luther. You can buy the DVD here.


Oh, and as a special treat, the documentary is narrated by this guy:



On that note, I will now end the introductory post to the Twelve Days of Luther.