A study of the "effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry" from the leadership of Willow Creek Community Church reveals that it has been a "mistake" and is "not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ." Read the story in Townhall.com here.
It appears that the church growth model brings in lots of people, but does not form strong Christians. And the report comes from inside Willow Creek. Bill Hybels says "we made a mistake." That’s a pretty big mistake.
Touchstone (and Salvo) will have a booth in the exhibit hall at the 59th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. This year’s conference is at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego and runs from November 14-16. The theme of the conference is "Teaching Them to Obey." Touchstone editor David Mills and I will be there. If you will be at the conference, please come see us.
We will be handing out sample copies of the November 2007 issue which has the symposium on Evangelicalism Today. We will also be taking subscription orders.
Hundreds of papers will be presented at the conference. As I briefly flipped through the program book I saw that several Touchstone contributors will be presenting, including Donald T. Williams, Denny Burk, Angus Menuge, Jay Richards, Bryan Litfin, Francis Beckwith, Timothy George, and Ralph MacKenzie.
Touchstone executive editor, James M. Kushiner will be speaking on the topic, "Voting for Pontius Pilate: Washing our Hands of Abortion" at noon this Friday, October 19 in Washington, DC. The event is sponsored by Faith & Law and will take place at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 406. Lunch will be served. RSVP via email. The title of the talk comes from the editorial that Mr. Kushiner wrote with David Mills in the April 2003 issue of Touchstone.
In addition to the symposium on Evangelicalism Today that I previously wrote about, there are many other good articles in the upcoming November issue of Touchstone. Here are some of them:
Please make sure that your subscription is entered by tomorrow, October 12, in order to receive this issue.
As previously reported on such acclaimed websites as Between Two Worlds and Denny Burk’s Blog, the November 2007 issue of Touchstone will have a symposium on the current state of the Evangelical movement in the United States. Six Evangelicals from across the movement’s spectrum (Russell D. Moore, Denny Burk, John R. Franke, Darryl Hart, Michael Horton, and David Lyle Jeffrey) assess where Evangelicalism is today. To make sure that you get a copy of the issue, enter your subscription by Friday, October 12. Similar forums will run on the Catholic and Orthodox churches in the next year.
For those who might be interested: GodblogCon 2007 will be in Las Vegas, November 8-9. It "will equip you with a working knowledge of new media technologies and its impact on society, empowering your ministry to employ quickly and easily new media technologies to engage culture for the cause of Christ." The conference is part of the larger Blogworld & New Media Expo.
This Friday, September 21 at 7 pm, Touchstone executive editor James Kushiner will be speaking in Colorado Springs on the topic: "The End of Science: Why God is Not Dead." Details can be found here. Come early to get a seat as it looks to be a full house. If you have questions, email me.
The October issue is currently at the printer. It includes a critical symposium on preparing for marriage in our contemporary society, covering aspects such as the role of the churches, courtship, and romance.
This is Touchstone. So, it is not your "normal" dating symposium. It all starts with senior editor S. M. Hutchens’s proposal that marriage be arranged by the parents. Then, there are responses by the young-and-married Jocelyn Mathewes, long-time InterVarsity campus worker (and Touchstone contributing editor) Kevin Offner, and senior editor James Hitchcock. We will also have a special response section in a future issue with letters from readers.
Here are some other things to look forward to in this issue:
Psychology: When trying to understand Jesus and “what makes him tick,” the customary psycho-biographical methods do not apply to the God-man.
Place: As Christians are we to identify with a specific nation or state, or be cosmopolitan citizens of the world? What are the effects of this identification?
Parsonages: A reflection on the value to the pastor and to the congregation when a pastor lives among and beside those to whom he ministers.
Journey of Faith: A profile of Washington Post social writer Sally Quinn and her journey from Christianity to atheism to her current place as a spiritual seeker.
Graduation: A commencement address to a homeschool group that reminds young people that rather than just “going places,” they should aim for where all time is headed: to eternity.
Humanities: “The development of the humanities in Western culture cannot be fully understood apart from an appreciation of scriptural husbandry and a kind of ecclesiastical mothering which, together, have birthed and nurtured western intellectual life down to the present.”
If you haven’t already, subscribe today.
We are constantly adding content to the Touchstone Back-Issues Archive. Most recently, we have added articles from the Spring/Summer 1989 issue here.
Over at our Treaders discussion page, a Touchstone classic from 1993, Recognizing the Church by Thomas Howard is available for comment.
Tonight, Touchstone‘s executive editor and Mere Comments regular, James Kushiner will be on the Live from Seattle with Thor Tolo show on KGNW, 820 AM in Seattle. The show runs from 4 to 7 PM Pacific time, and Jim will be on during the 6 o’clock hour (the third of the three hours). You can also listen online if you do not find yourself in Seattle this evening. Guest host Grant Goodeve (yes, the one from Eight is Enough) will be talking with Jim about Touchstone and the other work of FSJ.
