The world's fastest growing religion is now the largest

VATICAN CITY (March 30) - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent."It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

For full story go here http://news.aol.com/story/_a/muslims-outnumber-worlds-catholics/20080330161309990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

March Reading Report

I have been looking for a new Sr. Pastorate ministry so my reading level has been down. Oh yeah and it is March (good ol March Madness). Here is an update of the works i am trying to read outside of Scripture... What have you been reading?

Books I am currently reading:
Future Israel (Barry Horner) Ch 7
Preaching and Preachers (D.M. Lloyd-Jones) Ch 8
Spiritual Depression (D.M. Lloyd-Jones) Ch 1
Definite Atonement (Gary Long) Ch 4
The Exemplary Husband (Stuart Scott) Ch 3
Shepherding a Child's Heart (Tedd Tripp) Ch 11
Christian Living Beyond Belief (Cliff McManis) Ch 8
Numerous Jude commentaries (various authors)
Definite Atonement (Barry Horner) Ch 9

Books i might never finish:
The Message of the O.T. (by Mark Dever)
What Jesus Demands from the World (by John Piper)
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1 (John Calvin) (Book 1, Ch 17)

Books I’ve finished in the last year and beyond:
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Don Whitney)
Pages from Church History (Stephen J. Nichols)
Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God's Grace (various authors)
The Reformation (Stephen J. Nichols)
Spurgeon VS Hyper-Calvinism (Iain H. Murray)
A Scottish Christian Heritage (Iain H. Murray)
Meetings that Work (Alexander Strauch)
The Truth War (By John MacArthur)
No Place for the Truth (by David F. Wells).
The Cross and Christian Ministry (D. A. Carson).
Women's Ministry in the Local Church (Ligon Duncan/S Hunt)
The Holiness of God (by R.C. Sproul)
Growing Up Christian (by Paul Graustein)
How America Lost Her Innocence (By Steve Gallagher)
From Pride to Humility (pamphlet by Dr. Stuart Scott)
Humility: True Greatness (by C.J. Mahaney)
Biblical Eldership (by A. Strauch)
Expository Preaching With Word Pictures (Jack Hughes)
The Reformed Pastor (by Richard Baxter)
Legacy of Sovereign Joy (by John Piper)
Whose Money Is It Anyways (By John MacArthur)
The Treasure Principle (by Randy Alcorn)
Baptist Life and Thought (By William Brackney)
By His Grace and For His Glory (Dr. Nettles) large sections
Knowing God (J.I. Packer)
Way of the Master: Evangelism Training (Ray Comfort)
Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth (Wayne Grudem) large sections
Girl Talk (Carolyn Mahaney)
Various articles and commentaries on 1 Cor 11:2-16
Various articles and commentaries on 1 Tim 2:8-15
Various articles and commentaries on Titus 2
TMS Journal (on New Covenant Theology)

Books i've recently recieved:
A Tale of Two Sons (by John MacArthur)
The Cross and Salvation (by Bruce Demarest)
James:Reformed Expository Commentary (by Daniel M. Doriani)
1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart (by Dale Ralph Davis)
The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1: The King and His Kingdom (by Jim Boice)
Putting Jesus in His Place (by Robert M. Bowman)
The Mortification of Sin (by John Owen)
Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers (by Mike Abendroth)
Love That Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace (by Gary & Betsy Ricucci)
The Cup and the Glory (by Greg Harris)

Dr. Phil on contextualization

Phil Johnson is doing some wonderful posts on the emerging church and the topic of contextualization. Here are a few of his quotes:

"Today's contextualizers are trying to adapt the content of the gospel message as much as possible to the worldview of whatever subculture they see as their target audience. Not only do sea lions become an acceptable substitute for sheep; postmodern tolerance becomes an acceptable replacement for Christian charity."

"Unbridled enthusiasm about this sort of contextualization has dramatically changed the evangelistic strategy so that the number one goal in contemporary evangelical outreach is for the church to assimilate into the world as much as possible—and above all, be cool—so that the world (or some offbeat subculture) will like us. That is actually the driving idea behind both seeker-sensitivity and the Emerging church approach."

"In the early 1970s, left-leaning missiologists made contextualization into a religious shibboleth. They also turned the dictionary definition of the word inside out. They weren't talking about studying or explaining biblical truth in its own context; instead, what they wanted to do was adapt and stylize religious ideas and symbols to fit into the cultural context of their target audience—namely oppressed and marginalized people groups.It wasn't long before hip, young evangelicals discovered and embraced the basic concept, and then franchised it."

Reformation and Revival in Indy?!?

It is possible God might bring about a new reformation and revival in central Indiana. I say that because of the gifted Pastors I know of who are faithfully serving Christ at churches throughout the Indianapolis area.

I am an Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church (Carmel) and our Sr. Pastor has been faithfully preaching the Word of God for 34 years now. http://www.fbccarmel.com/ We have a wonderful church family here. Though i am currently looking to transition into a senior teaching pastor role in a new church setting, I rest easy knowing FBC remains in good hands.

My good friend Kirk Welch is the Sr. Pastor at Centennial Bible Church. CBC just recently hired a close friend of mine from So. California, Pastor Joe Penberthy. These two men love the Lord and are committed to proclaiming His truth. http://centennialbiblechurch.org/ Joey and I attended TMC and TMS together.

Three years ago I met another TMS graduate who serves the Lord Jesus Christ in Brownsburg, IN. Pastor Kirby Myers is a gifted preacher and has been serving the Lord at His current church for over 7 years now. http://www.biblechurchofbrownsburg.org/

Just recently, my friend Eric Bancroft took over at Castleview Baptist Church. Eric is a gifted preacher and a great discipleship leader. Eric was on staff at John MacArthur's church as the H.S. Pastor for many years. CBC is blessed to have Eric as there new Sr. Pastor. http://www.castleview.org/

Three weeks ago I met with Pastor Brian White and was encouraged to hear him share about his love for the Lord. I was also informed that College Park Church (in Indianapolis) hired a new Sr. Pastor from Holland, MI. Pastor Mark was recommended by Dr. Jim Grier and Dr. John Street so i would imagine he is a like-minded brother as well.

All that to say, this area has all the makings for true reformation and revival as lost souls are saved and as the saints become who they are in Christ.

Have we become Overly Familiar with God?

One of the most exciting parts of Shepherd’s Conference is singing worship songs with 3000 other pastors. The conference has many highlights and that is always one of them.

Rick Holland preached this morning on “3 Dangers of Careless Familiarity with God.” He reminded us that being part of spiritual leadership is extremely dangerous. Holland said, “God has no desire to be part of our lives, His one desire is to be the point of our life.”

Leviticus 9:22-10:7 records the infamous story of Nadab and Abihu. These religious leaders got too familiar and careless with their God and were judged for it in a major way. Holland reminded us that we are often guilty of this very thing ourselves.


Here are the “3 Dangers of Careless Familiarity with God” from the Lev 9-10 passage.

1. Redefining what God requires (Lev 10:1) and becoming overly familiar with God.


2. Underestimating how God responds (Lev 10:2).

This fire consumed the sacrificer not the sacrifice. This was another reminder of the holiness of God. Even as Pastors we often presume on the grace of God.


3. Ignoring what God desires (Lev 10:3).

God responded according to His holiness to show that any innovations would not be tolerated. Stick with what the Word says and don’t try and get cute with God. The trend today is to treat God as cool, to treat Jesus as your homeboy, and to be as cool as you possibly can be before your congregation and your culture.

This passage is also about how God disciplines spiritual leaders. “We don’t have a higher standard but we do have a higher accountability.”

What kind of Religion does Jesus Christ Seek to Destroy?

Pastor MacArthur preached tonight from Luke 20-21. Seeing John has been in Luke’s gospel for 10 years now it was probably a safe choice. This sermon was a classic exposition of a text that is often misunderstood (Luke 21:1-4). John started off by reading Luke 21:6. In this verse Jesus predicted that the symbol of the Pharisaic Judaism that dominated Palestine was going to be utterly destroyed. In light of this, MacArthur asked, “What kind of religion does Jesus seek to wipe out?” He also asked, “How did Jesus interact with the false teachers of his day?” How should that impact the way we dialogue (or don’t dialogue) with the false teachers in our day?

The truly unique part of this message was how MacArthur interpreted Luke 21:1-4 in light of the overall context (Luke 20:41-21:38). John believes Luke included this story (Luke 21:1-4) as a sad example of how false teachers get rich at the expense of the poor and needy (see Luke 20:47). In other words, this story is not meant to teach us how people are to give (out of grateful hearts/until it hurts/etc). Jesus was probably disturbed that this poor widow gave up everything for an apostate religious system (see also Matthew 15:1-9). False teachers are almost always greedy persons (Luke 16:14). Tragically, apostate frauds become rich at the expense of the people they abuse. MacArthur also noted that bad theology always leads to sinful practice (Luke 20:46-47).

MacArthur ended the night tracing this abuse through various false religions (Roman Catholics and the sale of indulgences/Word of Faith teachers and the seed faith doctrine, etc.) False religions typically exploit those whom God cares about greatly (the widow, the poor, the needy). False teachers will not escape God’s judgement (see Matthew 23; Luke 20:46-47). God is not only concerned about truth but about compassion and mercy. We Pastors must lead by example.

Shepherd's Conference 08

I’m back in my old stomping grounds for the first time since 05. It seems like forever ago when i actually lived in sunny (think 73 degrees) Southern California. It is crazy to think that driving on these freeways was ever “normal” to me. You can be going 75 mph and have people pass you left and right. It is great to be back at Grace Community Church. Grace was my home church for 12 years. It is a special church with a great testimony in the community and around the world.

Pastor John MacArthur was on fire today during his opening address at the 08 conference. Last year he spoke on “Why every self-respecting Calvinist should have a Biblical eschatology (pre-mill that is)”. This year it was on “Why every self-respecting Calvinist should reject the church growth movement.” It was actually a relevant/updated powerful sermon. Though topical in nature this was another gem from John. He showed how sovereign election actually goes against the entire church growth premise.

God is obv. all about building His church (Matt 16:18); the question is what means does He want to bless in order to bring it about? In other words, by what means does Christ build His church? MacArthur went to the book of Acts and suggested the following 5 means: 1. A Transcendent Message 2. A Regenerate Congregation 3. A Valiant Perseverance 4. A Evident Purity and 5. A Qualified Leadership

One of the great quotes from this sermon was as follows, “The modern cry for Contextualization is a curse!” Why? Because the message of the cross transcends all languages, cultures, education backgrounds, social backgrounds, etc. The proof of this statement is revealed in the book of Acts (please listen to the sermon for the full context of this statement).

MacArthur asked we pastors, “Can your message go to every person in your own zip code, in your town, in your home state, nation, world?” “Will your sermon be outdated in 2 weeks?” If so, then you’re not preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now much more could and should be said but I’m no Tim Challies.

I'm Back...

Back in So. Cal that is.  I forgot how fast people drive in So. California.  The pace of life is so much faster here then it is in Indianapolis (Carmel).  I actually sort of enjoy the slower pace of life.  I was going 75 on the 118 today and was getting passed left and right.  Crazy!

It is great being back in the 70 degree sunshine.  When i left Indy it was cold (25) and raining (freezing rain/snow).  

It is also a joy to be back at my former home church Grace Community.  This is my first time back in 3 years.  The music and everything today was just awesome.  John MacArthur preached a classic sermon that i highly recommend to everyone (Shepherds Conference dot org).  I would imagine Tim Challies is blogging all about this at his website if you're really interested.

It's time for dinner and then more MacArthur tonight.  Gotta run!