Phil Gons

Bible & Tech

Proclaim: New Church Presentation Software

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Logos Bible Software, the company I work for, is getting ready to enter into the church presentation software market with a product called Proclaim.

What Sets Proclaim Apart?

Proclaim takes a new approach to presentation software by pushing the data to the cloud and allowing multiple people to collaborate on the same project without needing to email files or pass around CDs or USB thumb drives. Being cloud based and multi-platform makes it possible to deliver a consistent look on everyone’s computer—removing last minute surprises.

Proclaim also breaks new ground by integrating with mobile devices in some really cool ways, allowing for real-time interaction between the presenter and the congregation and allowing you to control your presentation remotely. Finally, it will work well with Logos Bible Software 4, making the transition from preparation to presentation easier than ever.

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Bonhoeffer Buzz

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Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyDietrich Bonhoeffer has been the subject of some interesting discussion recently. If you missed it, here’s a quick overview.

  1. It started with the publication of Eric Metaxas’s “groundbreaking biography” Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Amazon | WTS Books).
  2. Its publication has been largely met with rave reviews, awards, and lots of secular press.
  3. Bonhoeffer scholars Richard Weikart and Clifford Green called Metaxas’s reading of Bonhoeffer into question.
  4. Blogger Tim Challies highlighted these critiques in a recent post.
  5. Church historian Carl Trueman weighed in with some wise insight.

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Michael Horton’s New Systematic Theology

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Michael Horton’s long-awaited systematic theology, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Amazon | WTS Books), is due out very soon. Zondervan’s website says it’s “coming January 2011.” Amazon says “January 25, 2011.” WTS Books says “February 2011.”

Systematic theologies are one of my favorite categories of books, so I’m really looking forward to picking this one up and adding it to my library.

The Christian Faith

Details

The Christian Faith runs 1,052 pages (which is the last numbered page according to Zondervan’s “Browse Inside” feature).1 It has a list price of $49.99, but the Westminster Bookstore has will be selling it for $30.99, and Amazon has it available for pre-order for $31.17 (or $30.99 for Kindle).

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  1. WTS Books incorrectly lists 960 pages, and Zondervan and Amazon say 1056, perhaps including ads or blank pages at the end. [↩]

Doug Wilson on the Morality of Technology

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Doug Wilson has some good, balanced reflections on technology in a post entitled “Calvinism, Eschatology, and the New Media.”

He opens this way:

Jesus is the Lord of history, and this is why we don’t need to be afraid of Twitter. Or Facebook. Or teenagers typing with their thumbs. Jesus is the Lord of history, which is why we don’t need to worry about Google making us stupid.

Here’s a key paragraph:

And so here is my central thesis: technology in all its forms is a type of wealth. The Bible contains no warnings about technology as such, but is crammed with warnings about the bias of wealth. Which way does wealth set us up? The Bible says that the wealthy are tempted to hubris, self-sufficiency, lack of concern for the poor, oppression, and the rest of that sorry lot. Wealth is a good thing, but it brings temptations. A lot of wealth is a lot of a good thing, but it brings with it a lot of temptations.

Here’s his concluding paragraph:

The constant and ever present temptation in the Church is the gnostic temptation of locating sin in the stuff, sin in the matter, sin in the wealth, sin in the technology . . . instead of locating it where it belongs, in the heart of man.

Read the whole post.

HT: Andy Naselli via Google Reader

Works of Michael Barrett Coming to Logos

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Michael Barrett CollectionI’m very excited at the prospect of having the works of one of the most influential Bible teachers in my life, Dr. Michael P. V. Barrett, available digitally for Logos Bible Software in the four-volume Michael Barrett Collection. I’m also happy that many who don’t know anything about him might soon have the chance to be enriched by his excellent teaching.

The collection includes his four books published by Ambassador International:

It doesn’t include his Love Divine and Unfailing: The Gospel according to Hosea, which was published by P&R.

I’ve mentioned Barrett’s works before. His chapter “Union with Christ: The Security of the Gospel” in Complete in Him (93–118) is one of the top picks in my list of resources on union with Christ. Sadly, it was out of print recently. But thanks in part to Chris Anderson’s efforts, it’s back in print for the time being. The others are in limited supply.

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Are the Father, Son, and Spirit Equally Persons?

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Here’s Karl Barth’s answer:

. . . even if the Father and the Son might be called “person” (in the modern sense of the term), the Holy Spirit could not possibly be regarded as the third “person.” In a particularly clear way the Holy Spirit is what the Father and the Son also are. He is not a third spiritual Subject, a third I, a third Lord side by side with two others. He is a third mode of being of the one divine Subject or Lord.

. . .

He is the common element, or, better, the fellowship, the act of communion, of the Father and the Son. He is the act in which the Father is the Father of the Son or the Speaker of the Word and the Son is the Son of the Father or the Word of the Speaker. (CD I,1, 469)

This sounds on the surface like a denial of full trinitarianism (and I am a little uncomfortable with it), but it shares much in common with the views of Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, both of whom tended to talk about the Spirit in ways that seem less than fully personal.

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My Church Is Better Than Your Church

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Rick Warren, one of America’s most popular pastors, tweeted earlier today to his 130,296 Twitter followers, “I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness & commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback.” This tweet came on the heels of two earlier tweets:

RickWarren: Mary, it’s true. Over 10,000 Saddleback members have now served in missions overseas through our network & P.E.A.C.E. plan.

RickWarren: For 30 yrs our plan was to turn spectators into participators, consumers to contributors, an audience into an army. It worked!

The final tweet was later deleted, but managed to get quite a few responses from the Christian twittersphere. Here are a few:

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