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Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2007

Willow Creek has become probably the most influential church movement in America and perhaps around the world.

As their pastor, Bill Hybels has introduced a seeker-driven structure to their church whereby the church engages creatively and with contemporary relevance to the needs of the non-Christian. Their discipleship structure has tended to be very programme-orientated.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Nov 2007

So here’s the kind of question I most commonly get asked about our church. Not ‘what do you believe?’, not ‘what is your vision for the church?’, not even ‘what kind of programmes do you have for our children?’ No, the question I most commonly get asked — by outsiders, you understand — is ‘who do people vote for?’

The election is still a year away (November 2008…), but already positioning is going on for the religious vote. Rudy Giuliani, famed former mayor of New York City, is trying to deal with the possible negative repercussions of his well-known pro-abortion stance. Conservatives, it is felt, will not possibly support him for that single reason. And, in fact, an influential group called The Council for National Policy, has voted that if Giuliani is nominated as the Republican presidential candidate they will seek to form a Third Party. That’s fighting talk.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Oct 2007

On July 21 2007, William Lobdell, the Los Angeles Times Religion writer, authored a piece which described how being a reporter for religion caused him to lose his.

Apparently, Lobdell had viewed the post as Religion writer for the LA Times as a calling, an opportunity for a serious Christian like himself to set straight the many inaccuracies that the main stream media foisted on an unaware audience. He had come to Christ years previously at a retreat run by an Evangelical Mega Church. He had accepted Christ in his heart, had sensed that he was born again, and had become part of the culture that encourages quiet times and devotion to God.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Aug 2007

So I can never tell how much any one issue is becoming controversial in the ‘broader’ church — after all, we all live in villages, so to speak.

But one ‘emerging’ issue seems to The Emergent Church (though I bet they’d rather we say ‘the emergent church’; postmodern sensitive dudes seem to like lower case grammar, just read any McLaren book).

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jun 2007

‘I am the Law’

Rochelle and I have now lived in America for seven years. In that short space of time we have been sued twice. I’m not sure if this is a remarkable regularity for Americans, but given that in my entire existence in England previous to that I had never been sued at all, it does seem somewhat astonishing to us.

On one occasion, a driver, without a valid license or registration for his vehicle, was in an accident with ours and proceeded to sue us subsequently for damages to his jacket and tie. It was raining. We stood outside in the rain together. We actually sheltered under the same umbrella which had been kindly donated to us by a member of the church who happened to be passing. The legal procedure was dropped in the end. I know someone has sued for slipping on a back porch because it was wet when it was raining. I ask you: do people have nothing better to do with their time?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jul 2007

On Sunday June 3, eight of the Presidential hopefuls for the Democratic Party lined up for a publicly televised debate on CNN out of Manchester, New Hampshire.

On Monday June 4, the three ‘first tier’ candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) lined up for a publicly televised event broadcast by CNN out of George Washington University in Washington DC. This time they talked about their faith.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Feb 2007

This week I highlight three diverse stories from the American continent, which in different ways indicate the growing confusion besetting the evangelical movement.

Politics?

First, there is the story running in the Colorado Springs Gazette, published on January 7 2007, concerning the new situation for evangelicals in Colorado Springs. For years, the city has been dubbed ‘the evangelical Mecca’ or ‘the evangelical Vatican’, host to the massively influential ‘Focus on the Family’ ministry of Dobson, and the, until his recent moral demise, charismatic ministry of mega-church leader, Ted Haggard. Last summer, Ted Haggard sat in his book-lined office at New Life Church, smiled, and said: ‘It’s happened. My whole vision has happened.’ But now, as reported in EN, Haggard has been discredited, and the political connections of the evangelical elite with the Republican Party have suffered a trouncing at the polls. Dobson travelled far and wide in support of Republican candidates, but the Democrats took control of Congress. Dobson blamed the party; pundits blamed social conservatives like Dobson. But the real story is that the evangelical-Republican alliance looks shaky.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 May 2007

In the last week, America has been gripped by two very different news events.

Most recently the college campus of Virginia Tech has been rocked by the sudden and unexpected violence of one of its own. A student went on a murderous rampage, killing dozens of fellow students, and eventually (as is all too predictable in such grim farces) committed suicide. This has deeply shocked a nation, for university campuses are still viewed to some extent as havens of learning and reason, and the carnage explodes the myth. As a member of the Yale community I received a forwarded message from Yale’s President Levin expressing the deep condolences of Yale towards the terrible happenings in Virginia.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Apr 2007

What do a US Army General and a left leaning New York magazine have in common? Answer: They both hate torture.

In a fascinating story that spans issues related to the influence of popular media, the actual versus the perceived views of top military brass, the survivability of extreme conservatives even in Hollywood, The New Yorker ran a story this last month that described how the head of West Point (= Sandhurst) confronted the makers of 24 (the hit US drama) about their romanticisation of terror.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2007

First he denied it. Then he confessed it. Now the dust has settled we need to consider it.

What would make Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, a 14,000 member charismatic success story, with the ear of the President of the United States, at only 46 years old a respected member of the evangelical dynasty, what would make him engage in homosexual activity with a male prostitute over three years and take crystal methamphetamine?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2007

JONATHAN EDWARDS
The Holy Spirit in Revival
By Michael Haykin. Evangelical Press. 228 pages
ISBN 0 85234 599 2

Michael Haykin’s Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival is a fine piece of writing indeed.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2007

It’s been coming for some time. But now it’s here (or thereabouts). Yes, you’ve heard right: in Pennsylvania (a state in America; not China, or North Korea, note!) 75-year-old Arlene Elshinnawy and 70-year-old Lynda Beckman were arrested for sharing their faith on the public sidewalk.

They faced 47 years in jail for spreading the gospel because of a Pennsylvania ‘hate crimes’ law. This law is, I’m told, nearly identical to HR 254, the ‘hate crimes’ bill reintroduced in Con-gress and apparently on the ‘fast track’ in the House Judiciary Committee.

It is a privilege to share something of what I have learned about the life and legacy of William Wilberforce. I am of British descent through my mother’s family, and I treasure my ancestral ties to Britain.

America and Britain have always shared a special relationship, one of which William Wilberforce was very well aware. They were, as he saw it, ‘two nations, who are children of the same family, and brothers in the same inheritance of common liberty’.

Following the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, the work of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) has blossomed remarkably in many countries.

As he comes to the end of his tenure as General Secretary of IFES, Lindsay Brown reflects on some of the marvellous stories of how God has been at work in the lives of students worldwide.