“Over the years I’ve come to believe that pastors are the most important subscribers I have [to the Mars Hill Audio Journal] because I think a local church congregation is the basic unit of cultural resistance. If we are really going to be countercultural—which I think Christians need to be to avoid worldliness—that is not just done as individuals, or as individual families, but you need a community of people, committed to one another and committed to sharing life together, to be countercultural.”

–Ken Myers, in his recent interview with Mark Dever, “Christians and Culture with Ken Myers”.

It has been a good week for my friend C.J. Earlier in the week his book Humility: True Greatness was referenced by NFL prospect Jon Copper in the Washington Post sports page. Today that same book was referenced by Baltimore Orioles outfielder Luke Scott in Sporting News Today (link here). Nice!

HT: Brian

Recently Drs. D.A. Carson and John Piper presented at the Carl F. H. Henry Center (hosted by Owen Strachan) in an evening under the banner: “The Pastor As Scholar and the Scholar As Pastor.” I’d highly recommend the entire set (but the interview is must-see).

• Piper’s message (audio, video, manuscript) Fascinating autobiography of an intellect with spiritual life.
• Carson’s message (audio, video)
• Piper and Carson interview (audio, video)

Saturday night was the fantasy baseball draft (10 team mixed AL+NL). My team is coming together nicely on paper:

Atkins, Garrett 3B COL
Aviles, Mike SS KC
Baker, John C FLA
Bruce, Jay RF CIN
Burrell, Pat LF TB
Cantu, Jorge 3B FLA
Devine, Joey RP OAK
Ellsbury, Jacoby CF BOS
Escobar, Yunel SS ATL
Floyd, Gavin SP CHW
Galarraga, Armando SP DET
Garciaparra, Nomar SS OAK
Giles, Brian RF SD
Gonzalez, Mike RP ATL
Hardy, J.J. SS MIL
Howard, Ryan 1B PHI
Lester, Jon SP BOS
Lincecum, Tim SP SF
Lowe, Derek SP ATL
Matsuzaka, Daisuke SP BOS
Ortiz, David DH BOS
Pedroia, Dustin 2B BOS
Polanco, Placido 2B DET
Ramirez, Manny LF LA (drafted as trade bait)
Tejada, Miguel SS HOU
Varitek, Jason C BOS
Vazquez, Javier SP ATL
Wieters, Matt C BAL
Zito, Barry SP SF

From a favorite Slate Magazine article:

“…Despite the awesome theological implications (Christians believe that the infant lying in the manger is the son of God), the Christmas story is easily reduced to pablum. How pleasant it is in mid-December to open a Christmas card with a pretty picture of Mary and Joseph gazing beatifically at their son, with the shepherds and the angels beaming in delight. The Christmas story, with its friendly resonances of marriage, family, babies, animals, angels, and—thanks to the wise men—gifts, is eminently marketable to popular culture. It’s a Thomas Kinkade painting come to life.

On the other hand, a card bearing the image of a near-naked man being stripped, beaten, tortured, and nailed through his hands and feet onto a wooden crucifix is a markedly less pleasant piece of mail.

The Easter story is relentlessly disconcerting and, in a way, is the antithesis of the Christmas story. No matter how much you try to water down its particulars, Easter retains some of the shock it had for those who first participated in the events during the first century…”

–James Martin from the article “Happy Crossmas! Why Easter stubbornly resists the commercialism that swallowed Christmas” in Slate Magazine (3/20/08).