Had breakfast this morning with a friend and our pastor. We like to grease our insides with Waffle House at 7am one day a week. But I digress.

Our discussion centered on Timothy Keller's new book The Reason for God. His approach to apologetics is refreshing - less evidential, more presuppositional. He alludes to the fact that more and more people are flocking to Christianity because of its doctrine - not because the church cafe serves Starbucks. Our pastor commented that one of the reasons Islam is taking Europe by storm is because people desire a belief system. Who knew?

The current (fading) trend in the western church downplays denomination, is light on sacraments and is bent on innovating the latest-greatest church experience. While we at Catalyst love a creative experience we wonder how long this mode of church will hang on.

If Keller is right (and this is not his central theme, just a point that sparked some thought) that "robust religious beliefs dominate the world," then perhaps we should move from this wishy-washy postmodern approach to doing church and put a doctrinal stake in the sand, put on our work clothes and get dirty spreading God's love and his message.

For ongoing thoughts and reflections on Keller's new book, hook up to our feed and throw some thoughts in the ring.


Tim Willard is a consistent contributor to Catalyst Monthly and was the managing editor for the Catalyst GroupZine. Check-out Tim's blog - FlickerNail.com