\nNo doubt our people need more virtue, but how do we address the issue without\nour sermons becoming modern Aesop’s fables?<\/p>\n\n
\nStephen L. Carter’s (integrity)<\/em><\/strong> (Basic Books, 1996, $24) can\nhelp us understand some nuances of integrity, but the book raised for me\na larger, more critical issue: Why is there such an integrity shortage?<\/p>\n\n \nIn the opening section, Carter, a professor at Yale Law School, outlines\nintegrity’s steps:<\/p>\n\n \n1. Discernment.<\/strong><\/em> People of integrity act rather than react.\nThey do not understand “the right thing to do” through mere tradition or\ntrends, but through strenuous moral reflection.<\/p>\n\n \n2. Consistency.<\/strong><\/em> Carter relates the word integrity<\/em> to\ninteger<\/em> and concludes, “a person of integrity, like a whole number,\nis . . . a person somehow undivided,” a seamless weaving together of\nunderstanding and action.<\/p>\n\n \n3. Forthrightness.<\/strong><\/em> “A person of integrity,” he writes, “is\nunashamed of doing the right.” We must be willing to say openly we are acting\non principle.<\/p>\n\n \nCarter ends his opening analysis by demonstrating that integrity is much\nmore than mere honesty or forthrightness. One can be honest about one’s lack\nof integrity!<\/p>\n\n \nIn the next section, Carter provides case studies of integrity in the areas\nof academ-ics, journalism, marriage, law, and sports. Although I found a\ndozen relevant, useful illustrations in these pages, I was somewhat disappointed.\nFirst, Carter never applies his definition of integrity to the world of\nbusiness—a rather large omission. Second, most of the examples cited are\nobvious. So the book raises a burning question that it never answers: If\nintegrity is so important for a strong society, and if the path of integrity\nis fairly clear,why<\/em> is there such an integrity shortage?<\/p>\n\n \nFor answers, I suggest Cornelius Plantinga’s Not the Way It’s Supposed\nto Be<\/em> (Eerdmans, 1995). He shows that sin by its nature creates delusional\nfields of self-justification.<\/p>\n\n \nThe trouble with (integrity)<\/em> is that Carter cannot tell us how to\nfind the “good” with which we must live consistently. He is a Christian,\nbut he insists we can recognize moral absolutes without religion: “Some beliefs\nand acts are morally better than others—and . . . it is possible to tell\nwhich are which.”<\/p>\n\n \nHow? He appeals to the Enlightenment tradition, saying we can know moral\nabsolutes through the voices of reason and conscience. At one point he calls\nthe responsibility of parents to children a “moral absolute” and at another\nhe calls racial hatred an “absolute evil.”<\/p>\n\n \nHow do we know these things? Carter says we just do.<\/p>\n\n \nIt would be a great mistake for preachers to argue this way. Not only have\nChristians questioned this Enlightenment ethic for centuries, but currently\nthe educated classes are widely abandoning it.<\/p>\n\n \nThe Bible says, of course, that people with no personal<\/em> faith can\nclearly recognize the good, for our consciences know God’s law in some way\n(Rom. 2:15). But when people assert and use moral absolutes, they are living\nas if<\/em> there is a God, even if intellectually they deny him (Rom. 1:18-20).\nPeople who don’t believe in God say, “I just know this is wrong.” But, if\nthere is no God, they have no warrant to know it. The conclusion: There is\nno non-religious, rational basis for moral absolutes.<\/p>\n\n \nIf we are just the product of time and chance, what’s wrong or unreasonable\nabout racism? It’s the natural evolutionary dynamic—the strong eating the\nweak. And is conscience a better compass than reason? Jiminy Cricket said,\n“Always let your conscience be your guide,” but that’s what serial killers\ndo all the time.<\/p>\n\n \nIn The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil,<\/em>\nAndrew Delbanco, a professed secular liberal, cites John Wesley’s “no Satan—no\nGod,” and candidly admits that, without the religious convictions of God\nand sin, American society no longer has the vocabulary or the basis to do\nmoral reasoning.<\/p>\n\n \nSo as preachers, we must show how our virtue shortage, our indelible sense\nof and longing for virtue, are all powerful evidences for the reality of\nGod and of our need for his supernatural grace.<\/p>\n\n Tim Keller\nRedeemer Presbyterian Church\nNew York, New York<\/p>\n\n \n \nWhen I want to hone my fly-tying skills, I spend a few hours with one of\nthe best. My mentor, Bob Granger, has tied Advil-tablet-sized flies commercially\nfor over 25 years. After I watched him tie a size 14 royal trude—a tempting\nmorsel for rainbow trout—I found my own efforts more productive.<\/p>\n\n \nLikewise, when I want to hone my skills in leadership training, I spend a\nfew hours with one of the best: John C. Maxwell, former pastor and now head\nof INJOY. I listened to an audio cassette series, Developing Leaders\nto Make a Difference<\/em><\/strong> (INJOY, ten cassettes, $139.99), that Maxwell\nheld with his leaders at Skyline Wesleyan Church near San Diego, California.<\/p>\n\n \nHis seminar aims to develop leaders who are models to the people, mainstays\nto the pastor, and mentors to potential leaders.<\/p>\n\n \nDeveloping Leaders to Make a Difference<\/em> is designed for pastors to\nlisten to the tapes and use fill-in-the-blank outlines for note-taking. The\ntapes do not appear to be edited, so what you hear is exactly what Maxwell’s\nleaders got. Unfortunately, the comments or questions that class members\ncontribute are difficult to hear.<\/p>\n\n \nIncluded with each tape are lesson plans, which cover the same material (with\nthe blanks filled in!) and some suggestions for teachers. A few strategically\nplaced blank boxes allow the pastor to incorporate personal illustrations\nand material. There are also outlines pastors can photocopy.<\/p>\n\n \nMaxwell has packed the tapes and notes with useful quotes, principles, and\nlists that challenged me in my quest to mentor leaders. But I suspect that\nMaxwell’s gifts and passion have more to do with his success in producing\nsuccessors than does his material. The series is definitely worth the price\nbut probably as good as any. If leadership development is as important as\nMaxwell suggests (he pours more time into a leadership lesson than a\nSunday-morning sermon), then I shouldn’t heat and serve his material any\nmore than I might one of his sermons.<\/p>\n\n \nI’ll definitely cull much material from this series, but I sense the need\nto put it in my voice. To recall a Phillips Brooks line, preaching (and teaching)\nis truth through personality.<\/p>\n\n \nThe greatest takeaway for me was Maxwell’s idea for pastors to talk frankly\nabout their weakness. I need to ask my leaders what Maxwell asked his: “What\nare my weaknesses? How can you walk into my life and make up for my weak\nareas?”<\/p>\n\n \nUsed rightly, Maxwell’s material will help you succeed by developing\nsuccessors—a new generation of leaders.<\/p>\n\n Steven D. Mathewson\nDry Creek Bible Church\nBelgrade, Montana<\/p>\n\n \n \nI have a feeling Sally Morgenthaler—Bible student, worship leader, and pastor’s\nwife—wouldn’t like your church service next Sunday.<\/p>\n\n \nIn Worship Evangelism<\/em><\/strong> (Zondervan, 320 pages, $12.99), her\nconvictions are distinctive. Most church services, she says, fall into three\ncategories—all deficient:<\/p>\n\n sickening emptiness, hollow ritual, autopilot responses,\nperfunctory hymns.<\/p>\n market-driven, stylistic-ally impotent, superficial,\nan infomercial in a seeker-system.<\/p>\n combines the worst of the above, an “unpleasant\nexperience.”<\/p>\n \nMorgenthaler, a Lutheran (Missouri Synod), lays blame for declining church\nattendance on these models. Her remedy: Worship Evangelism<\/em>—a spiritual\nexperience with the living God. She advocates fusing the words worship<\/em>\nand evangelism,<\/em> for “seekers can be profoundly touched by God during\nheartfelt, corporate worship.”<\/p>\n\n \nEvangelism happens during worship, she says, as unbelievers hear the truth,\nand as they observe real worship between believers and God. Morgenthaler\nsupports her view with scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 14:24—”But if an\nunbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is\nprophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be\njudged by all.”<\/p>\n\n \nMorgenthaler suggests asking six questions before planning your next service.\nHere are three:<\/p>\n\n \n—What one thing can people do for themselves this week that we as a worship\nstaff typically do for them?<\/p>\n\n \n—What combination of the arts will involve as many of the senses as possible?<\/p>\n \n—What kind of interactive “twist” can we put on standard worship activities\nlike Scripture reading and prayer?<\/p>\n\n \nMany of Morgenthaler’s ideas are compelling, but I have a nagging concern:\nIs worship the most<\/em> important aspect of Christian living? “Number\nOne!” Morgenthaler says. She writes of “prioritizing worship above all else\n. . . clearly the most important thing God’s people should do . . . above\nall else.” But when Jesus was asked about the most important thing, he replied:\nLove the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength.<\/p>\n\nWhat good?<\/h2>
No warrant to know it<\/h2>
Training through Personality<\/h2>\n
John Maxwell’s leadership tapes teach how to create successors.<\/h2>\n
Planned succession<\/h2>
Beyond the Seeker Service<\/h2>\n
Making worship authentic yet attractive.<\/h2>\n
Traditional:<\/h2>
Cutting Edge:<\/h2>
Comfortably Contemporary:<\/h2>