Catching up on some interesting linkage for the last week-plus, here.

Relevant magazine has been proving themselves worthy of the title with a few items of interest:

» Right Wing, Wrong Bird - part 1
» Right Wing, Wrong Bird - part 2
These are two excerpts from Joel Hunter's book - originally entitled "Right Wing, Wrong Bird", but retitled "A New Kind of Conservative" when the book got published by one of the bigs. Good reading. And for whatever it's worth, my take on Hunter's book is here.

One more from Relevant ...
» Are We Cheapening Our Faith
Just good reading.

There's also a decent read from the Wall Street Journal of all places ...

» WSJ: Churches Work on Their Message

In the Protestant community, traditionalists object to much about the new wave of seeker-friendly churches: the permissive dress code -- not only jeans, but shorts and flip-flops are often OK. The "messages" (never sermons) jazzed up with video clips and hard-rocking nine-piece "praise bands." The Starbucks cart that often sits in the lobby (and the fact that worshippers can take their nonfat lattes into the pews). Their biggest concern, however, is with the spiritual teachings.

Most seeker-friendly churches -- some of which can draw tens of thousands of worshippers -- are firmly rooted in Christianity. They offer weekly Bible-study classes and make clear in their statement of faith that Jesus is the only way to heaven. But the sermons tend to be buoyant, hip and dedicated to self-help themes, rather than theology.

More conservative, traditionalist pastors say that approach opens the door to a mushy secularism, or a la carte theology, in which worshippers pick and choose from the messages they find most helpful, without ever understanding that Christianity requires obedience to certain inflexible principles.

James Nieman, a professor of practical theology at Hartford Seminary, describes the clashing philosophies this way: A seeker church teaches general "morals for good stewardship and safe living," he said, while the more conservative approach is to instruct followers to "Believe the following things about Scripture."

Scot McKnight, a professor of religious studies at North Park University in Chicago, attends a seeker-friendly megachurch -- and says the stereotype is far from accurate. A worship service can be inviting and engaging without being superficial, he said, adding that "shallow Christians" exist in every church. Yet his pastors at Willow Creek Community Church recently concluded after an internal study that they were more successful at attracting and pleasing new members than in guiding committed Christians to a deeper understanding of their faith. The church has begun an intensive midweek course in theology and Scripture.

A little disclosure here. McKnight's blog is one of my favorites, so it's probably not much of a surprise that I agree with his assessment. Stereotypes are pretty much designed to miss the mark by a wide margin. Besides, I think there's a bit of health to be gotten from looking around for teachers who teach in a style that helps us grow. Optimally, they'd all be under one roof. But I don't think that tracks with the way technology spreads information around. I'm usually one or two sermons behind on listening to various teachings that I eagerly look forward to in addition to what I get at Lakewood. If I think I'm going to find a better pure teacher than Greg Boyd or a better story-teller than Joel Hunter or a more hip version of Rob Bell under one roof, then someone ought to repent for what they've been hiding so far.