Category: Christian Living

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Aimee Byrd and the New Neo-Orthodoxy

We must be honest about the evangelical landscape. We can’t deny the nature of things. Certain trajectories were written in stones, and some of us saw it coming. For instance, if you saw a woman climbing into a pulpit on Sunday morning followed by artsy-fartsy bands playing some silly versifications written by a 22-year high school drop-out, and–hypothetically speaking–this woman was to talk at length about the Songs of Solomon, and–hypothetically-speaking–she were to give a benediction at the end in the tradition of Aaron of old, what would ye say? If it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, is she Aimee Byrd?

Now, I have no animosity towards this woman, but a host of people warned us about those trajectories long ago, and all they received were ugly faces with “how-dare-you” signed letters?! This is where the rubber meets the egalitarian: this is expected in the evangelical scene. We don’t tremble anymore at the ways of prophets. We treat the Apostle Paul like some modernized hipster eager to overthrow his history in favor of new pastures of masculinity and femininity.

The Apostle Paul forbids women to preach (I Tim. 2:12). This has nothing to do with their lack of giftedness. She was not to usurp (authenteo) the authority of a man. An inherent authority was placed upon man because of the order of creation (I Cor. 11). A hierarchy was imposed on humanity. On the other hand, there are all sorts of men who should stay away from, step down, or run from the pulpit. This is not a competition of the sexes; it’s a calling of one qualified and called sex to attend to the needs of shepherding and preaching.

There is a fine market for this kind of thing out there. And everyone who once stood tall on the pulpit of Machen’s religion saw it. But some of these folks have stepped down from such pulpits to do nobler things. Russell Moore knows quite well how to tap into that world. By the way, congratulations to Dr. Moore on becoming editor-in-chief of Christianity Today. CT has become a shining light for leftist politics and Biden supporters; you are the Sojourners of Christian economics, the Jemar Tisby of race relations, the Jen Psaki of round-about explanations, the decaf of theological discourse. Again, congratulations!

And speaking of Psaki, let me circle back to something about that ol’ Dutch Theologian. Abraham Kuyper once wrote about the shibboleth of Anabaptist theology. They escape from cultural responsibilities because it’s just easier than fighting the good fight. These evangelical leaders will not cheer overthrowing Roe v. Wade for the same reason they will not cheer for the pastor who was imprisoned in Canada for standing up against tyranny– however they pronounce that in Canada. They will chew us for being outspoken against the government industrial complex, and all the while, they will claim to be heirs of the Genevan magisterium. They will say they are in coalition with the government authorities cause that’s how things are to be. Behold, Romans 13!

The vast majority of these folks have not repented. I know that because their tattoos still say, “Regert.” That’s not how you spell that word. They don’t think I know a butt load of crap about the gospel. But I dooo. Okay? There is a subtlety to human ingenuity, but I read subtleties for a living. Okay?

When my four-year-old asks me, “Father, what is a Calvinist?” He knows exactly what I am going to say. I say, “Son, a Calvinist is someone who despises sophisticated footnotes and who sees the trajectory of total depravity playing out in 21st century American evangelicalism.” But sometimes, he pushes me further, “Father, tell me more.” And I generally reply, “Son, Calvinism is the thing you get when you drink the Kuyper kool-aid.” And being satisfied, he went away with a glad heart.

But the general consensus is that those who stray from strict mandates will follow the way of the crowds. They will take over the mantle of neo-orthodoxy. And because we remember our history, we should pray for their demotion from the evangelical galas. We should pray that they return to the simplicity of worship in their local OPC churches and follow the way of straight-glory.

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The Way of Young Men

A father called me once and asked me to meet with his 17-year-old son. He wanted me to give him thoughts on how he could better work on his son in the last year or two before his eldest went to college.

Now, a bit about this father. This patriarch was a good covenanter who brought this young man up from the font in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He made his share of mistakes, but he doggedly loved his son and there was no doubt his son knew his father loved him. The young lad watched and heard his father seeking forgiveness from God and repenting before his tribe.

I eagerly took the opportunity. When I met this young man at a local coffee shop, he greeted me, and after grabbing our coffees, he sat down and pulled out his little notebook. He carefully wrote down a series of questions he wanted to ask me. These questions ranged from the characteristics he sought in a wife to my thoughts on various theological subjects. We spent about two hours navigating a host of questions, and I actually learned quite a bit from his intellectual and curious mind.

I did not leave that morning thinking to myself, “I really hope he makes it!” Instead, I left tremendously invigorated by his demeanor and preparation for life. In fact, when I left that morning, I did not think I had met a pre-adult but rather a man whose manliness far exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees.

David sang that the sons of the righteous in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants (Ps. 144:12). These men will be steady and sustained by true religion, being humbled by “the mind of Golgotha” (Kuyper) rather than the entertainment values of religious naysayers.

In our day, however, the example above is viewed as some foreign case, a rare breed of young men. Why has this become the mood? Because Christian fathers have given over their young men to expectations of failure treating the entire navigational process as something neutral. “I tried to guide them, but they just got lost.” But this is surely not the nature of fatherhood in the Scriptures. Fatherhood trains the hands of men for battle (II Samuel 22), they don’t exist as bystanders throwing a book, meme, or adding some generic one-liners on random occasions.

The kinds of fathers that have left an imprint on their sons are the ones who lead in the way of wild repentance and intentionally train their sons to keep their eyes open to patterns of deceit and corruption and truth and purity. They instruct in these pattern-finding missions because they learned from a series of self-inflicted wounds in their own lives or because their own fathers trained them in these ways, but for them, the goal is clear: to send out these arrows with covenant advantages rather than a deficit.

The young man at 17 didn’t simply make a decision to think carefully about life and his future at a moment’s notice; he was trained to think carefully, and he was encouraged that such thinking would bear good fruit. He sought out rhythms of grace because fatherly grace had been poured out on him in millions of little moments.

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Gratitude to Providence Church on the Occasion of Celebrating the Completion of My Doctoral Work

Thank you all for being here celebrating the completion of my doctorate! The Brito’s are humbled and honored by your presence. I want to offer a few words of gratitude:

First and foremost, I thank the Triune God for his goodness to me. When I began my work in January of 2016, I thought that academic work was just academic work that I had to work through. Little did I realize in my first course that a bunch of grown pastors could cry so much. We did a lot of good pastoral theology, but the parts I will most cherish was the intimacy of laughing with fellow pastors when Sinclair Ferguson told a joke no one understood and crying when he would begin the class in those biblical saturated prayers. Studying books about the ministry, theology, and practice encouraged me through various seasons of my pastorate these last five years.

I remember coming back from a week of classes where we devoured over 2,000 pages of Puritan literature and someone came to me and said, “Your preaching has changed.” Theology that drives men to piety and purity must change the man and his actions.

My entire work for my dissertation narrowed down to the role of three rituals in pastoral life: friendship, learning, and leisure. Under friendship, I explored the biblical theology of relationships in the Garden of Eden and how relationships after the Fall departed from the idea of pure relationality. God is man’s true friend, but man needs another to manifest the two central features of genuine friendship which are service and mission. I spent a considerable amount of time on Augustine and Bonhoeffer’s theology of friendship and how their definitions of friendship helped their pastoral efforts. Both Augustine and Bonhoeffer were surrounded by friends in monasteries or imprisonment and those communal forces strengthened their service to the kingdom.

Additionally, I spent a substantial amount of time focusing on what it means to be a pastor/theologian, and how learning rituals of priests in the Old Testament carry on to the liturgical calling of the New Testament pastor. To pursue education in the ministry and to always pursue learning is a biblical route of refreshment for pastors.

Finally, I delved into leisure practices in the Bible. The Sabbath is made for man, which means God created the Sabbath to play with his children. In the Sabbath, we discover what true leisure is. Pastoral theology is incomplete if a man cannot play with his flock in eating, drinking, laughing, and singing with them. I had the inimitable task of contradicting one of my favorite writers, Josef Pieper, and then arguing for what I call “holistic leisure.” But probably most enjoyable was delving into Martin Luther’s practices on leisure and concluding that Luther’s theology of play shaped much of his criticism of the Church of the day. For Luther, the Church in Rome was wrong theologically because practically they understood God as a God who is not fatherly in his interactions with his children. A God who does not play with his children produces a theology that is saturated with sad works instead of joyful and exuberant works.

Of course, everything I wrote, I wrote it in the context of Providence Church. This is the Church that befriended me when I was a fresh-out seminary pastor at 28 with a 6-month-old. This was the Church that encouraged me when I wanted to pursue counseling certification to help me shepherd more effectively and when I came with the idea of pursuing this doctorate. It is also the church composed of people from whom I have learned so much about life, love, and laughter. And this is the church that I have had more fun as a human being than a human should be allowed to have in a life-time. This community is the embodiment of friendship, learning, and leisure. Anything I accomplish, any selfie I take, comes with the Providence photobomb in the background.

Thank you for your support financially and prayerfully. Thank you to Pastor Stout and Elder Gilley for being flexible, supportive, and full of hearty amens these last five years. I thank God for a wife that has the capacity to move mountains if she could for a living, but chooses rather to tolerate a husband who missed birthday parties and Friday and Saturday activities for almost five straight years and who in a twinkling of an eye would take the kids to the mountains in Georgia so daddy in all his glorious grumpiness could finish one more chapter. When I passed my oral exam, it was a realization that my wife was with me every step of the way. I owe Lego-Land trips, 150 gallons of ice cream cones, and a lot of daddy time to my five children who have been puzzled why Dr. Daddy is always in his office working on something else. I love my little Burritos more than they will ever know.

Finally, I am grateful– down in the hierarchy of gratitude– for gifts of creation, especially Ethiopian coffee beans and pipe tobacco from Guatemala. My many thanks to all those who provided abundant coffee to me over the years and supplied a farm’s worth of pipe tobbaco.

God is infinitely good to me in the completion of this project, but he is also infinitely kind to allow me to shepherd a congregation so loving, patient, smart, hospitable, and full of grace. Your friendship means the world to me, your life and commitment to truth has taught me so much, and your ability to party every week like it’s Resurrection Sunday never ceases to surprise me.

Thanks for being here and enjoying this special moment with me.

I would like to ask my dear brother, Rev. Mickey Schnider, who has mentored me and who is in many ways the embodiment of a faithful ministry, to pray for us before we eat.

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Will Church be the same again?

Dear friend,
It’s been too long. I am back to write a few things about this upcoming season which some termed the “Great Re-Opening.”

Many churches are returning to some form of in-person meeting in May. Christians need to realize the tragedy of a season which has kept saints away from each other and the corporate gathering of God’s people. But first the good news.

The good news is that I have heard overwhelming reports of beautiful stories from families bonding over board games, long conversations, walks in the neighborhood, and more. This forced sabbath means that the life of many (even those continuing to work) has slowed down to some extent because society has slowed down. The exceptions are too few to even mention.Familial life is taken a front seat. Some have lived up to Wendell Berry’s dream of “rising early at dawn and picking dew-wet red berries in a cup.” Domestic life, so often despised by modern culture, is being restored. Front yards are looking meticulous, flower and fruit trees abound, and the human spirit within this community is flourishing. Of course, domestic bliss is not universal. Suffering, hurt, depression exist and are propagated more so these days in environments where the Gospel is not present. But overall, this season humbles the mighty and restores the weary.

Now for the bad news.

For many of us who are a part of theological traditions where worship is the assembly of flesh and blood humans next to each other, performing bodily rituals and postures, hearing actual voices without the translation of a virtual signal, surrounded by a sacred space and hovered by angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, this season has been tragic.

The evangelical church has found ways to cope with much through virtual exercises, but coping is only a form of survival. We can only survive for a time before our hope gives way. To further the bad news, there will be many evangelicals who will likely dread the return of corporate worship. They have lived before the pandemic in a state of apathy. They were quick to find some obscure rationale on Sunday morning to not come to church and now the compelling reason of the season has firmed their resolve that worship (the gathered assembly) is not really that crucial, and furthermore, if they had to, they could do just fine with a little pajama gathering around a screen on Sunday–preferably later than earlier.

But not all feel this way. There are some broken, hurt during this season. This desert has caused them to hunger more for the sacred assembly, or to use Hebrews’ language, the worship of Zion. I know too many elderly saints who have not missed two Sundays in a row in over 30 years. They treasured that consistency. To be church and in church was a way of life; where they found their strength, wisdom, and orientation for their weeks. May their love increase when some form of normalcy returns.

My concern is for the former group whose energy is in everything except that one distinct thing they were called to do by the Triune God. I am concerned because for many evangelicals, worship and the accountability of their local pastor and parish life were the only things that kept them from wholehearted ungodly pursuits. Further, the gathered assembly was the only semblance of heavenly air they breathed each week.

So, as many return to some variation of normalcy in May, I am not entirely discouraged. I believe even during the wilderness we are guided by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. I believe God guides us and keeps our longing alive. I believe that worship and fellowship will take on a new dimension of newness and tenderness than before. I believe voices will be louder than ever in singing praises to our God. I believe many who were apathetic will be restored and begin taking their faith with the seriousness it deserves. I believe families will worship with greater vigor because of the intimacy they shared this season. I believe churches will be full(er) again. I believe the gates of hell will not prevail. But I am also certain that the de-ecclesialization or the de-churching of many this season will require an extra measure of Spirit-grace and mercy. May we receive a double portion of it.

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Disagreeing well during Thanksgiving

The New York Times ran an opinion piece this morning about the chaos that is sure to come in Thanksgiving tables around America. The writer observed that since the Trump victory in 2016, the nation has become more polarized than ever before (surely a naive assessment of history; as of yet, I have not beheaded anyone nor am I aware of recent beheadings due to disagreements; see Vikings and history in general).

I will have little disagreement with my family this Thanksgiving. We all share a basic sense of morality, a biblical imperative to love one another, and a host of experiences that validate our perspectives. Still, our ideas and experiences are unique to us; shaped by our academic or sociological backgrounds so that even in agreeable environments healthy debates can take place and new knowledge can be gained.

In some families, however, there will be radical differences on issues ranging from child-rearing to the role of government in society. Dr. Karin Tamerius observes that this process does not have to ruin Thanksgiving for everyone. You can actually learn how to have a productive conversation with someone with whom you disagree. Tamerius says the following are good starting points:

1. Ask open-ended, genuinely curious, nonjudgmental questions.

2. Listen to what people you disagree with say and deepen your understanding with follow-up inquiries.

3. Reflect back their perspective by summarizing their answers and noting underlying emotions.

4. Agree before disagreeing by naming ways in which you agree with their point of view.

5. Share your perspective by telling a story about a personal experience.

I would alter the fifth step by affirming your starting point and presupposition. While the personal narrative can be effective it ought not to replace the authority structure you follow in building your ethical standards. Of course, stating your authority (in my case, the biblical norm) will likely lead to further conversations about what makes one authority superior to another.

The principle here is: Don’t waste an exchange of ideas. Make Thanksgiving great again by engaging rightly and respectfully.

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Letter to a Parent who compares his children to others

Dear parent,
I understand the temptation to compare your children’s accomplishment with others (II Cor. 10:12). There is always a child who will outsmart yours; there will always be a child who will thrive in an instrument faster and more effective than yours; there will always be a child who is more skilled in a sport than yours. Yet, our hearts sink with despair when we allow ourselves to fall into that trap of comparing.

If you give in to that mode of thinking, you will rarely be yourself again. Beyond that, you will endanger your children from being and expressing their gifts for who God made them be. They will grow up feeling the weight of never being enough, never resting enough, and always trying to fit into an image you had for them, or worse, feeling incapable of living up to your golden standard.

Resist that temptation. Cheer your child. Gently direct them. Minister to them when they fail. Don’t bring child x into a conversation to highlight your own child’s shortcomings. Encourage their gifts and remind them they are loved when they get a lower grade, when they can’t play that piano piece just right, and when they strike out.

Yours truly,
Pastor Brito

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A Genesis 3 Kind of Parenting

The entire premise of parenting is an anthropological truth: we are all fallen. However you parse it out, we are fallen from feet to forebrain; belly-button to bones. Since this is the truth, we have a whole lot of work to do; not the kind of meritorious work, but the kind of work with grace-saturated breathing. What this theological reality means is that the way to raise healthy children is by having a clear picture of their unhealthy natures as sons and daughters of Adam. While we should have a robust picture of Psalm 127-128 (more of this in another post), we also need to have a robust picture of Genesis 3. The entire narrative of fall and blessing make up the full parental picture.

If our parenting forgets Genesis 3 we will certainly idolize our children overlooking their little deceits as acts of cuteness, treating their good grades as acts of godliness, and their disrespect as acts of self-confidence. Therefore, we need to be ever aware that they are prone to fallen acts at home and outside. They need a constant exercise in remembrance: remember you are dust and to dust you shall return; remember you are sinful and you need a Savior; remember you are prone to wander and you need to be found in Christ.

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Die Before You Die: Meditations on the Death of a Friend

It was the always precise C.S. Lewis who urged in Till We Have Faces to “Die before you die, there is no chance after.” This briefest of Lewisian homilies reminds me of our Lord’s words in Luke 9: “For whoever tries to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life on my account will save it.” This biblical and glorious paradox certainly underlined Lewis’ statement. Lewis had experienced the death of his mother at an early age. He saw the vast wrath of war as he lost close friends. When he wrote of death it was not merely a result of research but from a deep experiential pain. His book A Grief Observed is an apologetic for dealing with pain when those closest to you die. When his wife, Joy, died, he wrote: “Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.”

My family, and especially my wife, who knew Melanie Branch so well, grieve today. We grieve because someone whose life shone so brightly the Gospel of Jesus was removed from this earth. She no longer grieves, but we grieve in her absence.

Today I stood outside the chapel with many others because there was no more room in the chapel. Many had come to bid farewell to a life well lived. My dear brother and pastor Rusty Branch stood bravely and broken to eulogize his bride before the cloud of witnesses. He offered a parallel between the three virtues of classical Christianity, namely, truth, goodness, and beauty and their manifestations in the life of his bride. His bride of 15 years, offered in her 38 years of life, a Christian manifesto of truth in her search and determined hope to see others embrace a biblical vision for the education of their children. She left an astounding legacy. My family is a recipient of this investment she made in her life. In the name of truth, she died before she died. She sought truth not for self-aggrandizement, but self-giving.

This dear sister not only breathed truth into the life of others, but she also embraced goodness. She was good in the sense that she embodied the good. Anyone who knew Melanie–even from a few encounters–understood her lucid view of the good life. It was not replete with “work harder” banners, but with a sincere “God has been good to us” theology. It was rich, simple, and unfading. Melanie died before she died by showing that goodness is the art of bestowing a glorious image of our Lord to others in the midst of pain.

Most powerful were her husband’s point about her beauty. Though she was overwhelmed by the choking power of cancer, yet her love of the Triune God provided a life-filled, hope-saturated example of beauty. While her body slowly died, she sought after the beautiful. God’s image becomes even more sobering and precious as his saints begin to see the life to come through the eyes of faith. The beatific vision becomes clearer and the eternal glass that separates life and death become less distinguished. She embodied beauty in life and God robed her with his beauty in her death.

I did not know Melanie as well as many, but the multitudes who came to witness this lovely saint speaks more than words. They all shared similar stories of a woman who endured the unspeakable pain of seeing a disease overtake her little by little, but who died for others before she died.

May the God of all peace comfort her husband, Rusty, and her children, Emma Rae, Elizabeth, and Allen. Your wife and mother died well. She died before death. She was a faithful servant. Her job is done. She will die no more.

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The Gods of Externalities

What the Gospel hopes to form in worship is a renewed heart. We may leave here externally fixed. We can put a Band-Aid to cover our pride for the next few hours, we can cleanse our speech, and give lip service to the gods of externalities, but when we live before God that will not do. Yes, if the world lacked a Creator and we were merely the product of a cosmic collapse, then living solely on the basis of externalities would be sufficient. But the reality is we live Coram Deo; in the face of God. God is here. God is everywhere. He knows your thoughts. Since indeed God is everywhere and knows all things, how much should we desire to confess those sins that are egregious in his sight?

Those whom God calls He justifies. God’s initial justification is punctuated by moments of continual justification in the life of the saint. God forgives us and justifies us with each confession. And so God’s people keep coming to Him for forgiveness, not as a way or earning God’s favor, but as a way of being renewed in the favor they already have. If God is your deepest treasure, then come and confess your sins today. Confess those sins that have wrapped and squeezed your heart preventing it from offering a beat to the God of heaven and earth. Come and confess those sins that so deeply hid that only God can excavate deep enough and crush them. Come, confess and like David, God will restore unto you the joy of your salvation (Ps. 51:12).

 

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