Emerging Wednesday- inerrancy, Amazing Grace, and choice sermons

A movie called Amazing Grace is coming out on the 23rd. It stars Ioan Gruffud as William Wilberforce, the British Parliament member who helped end slavery in the British Empire decades before America abolished it. Early reviews I have read are promising, and the trailer looks good. I intend to see it in theaters and support it. Oh, there's some connection the the song Amazing Grace as well, if you hadn't already figured that out. For those out there that want a total surprise, I won't say what the connection is.

Tagged onto the movie's release is a movement to have as many churches as possible sing Amazing Grace on Sunday, Feb. 18th. While there may some PR here to promote the movie, the website for this (http://www.amazinggracesunday.com) talks quite a bit about the resurgence of the slave trade in some parts of the world. I might just add our house church to the list....

While attending Lee University, one of my favorite chapel speakers was Rev. Joe Novenson, pastor of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church near Chattanooga, TN. He is an amazing teacher that presented the gospel in a humble yet powerful way that still captures my spirit. I was pleased to discover that many of his recent sermons are available as mp3's on the church site for free. In a day where many pastors are charging $20-30 for sermon sets (something that REALLY bothers me when the price is exorbitant), it is refreshing to see someone of great anointing and talent willing to share it freely.

Now here's the one that'll get somebody mad- I am studying this whole topic of biblical inerrancy. Since I was raised in rather fundamentalist circles, believing in an inerrant text is kind of a given, so it was never discussed. I have been reading some excellent posts from internetmonk.com on the subject and am encouraged for one reason: you can still believe the bible is true even though it may not be inerrant. Most fundalmentalists will say that if the bible is not inerrant, then you:

1. Can't take the bible as true anymore.
2. You are claiming that God made mistakes, which he can't do.
3. You doubt the Spirit's ability to rightly inspire the authors of the text, or the authors' ability to hear it correctly.

In all areas of faith, Christians are always willing to concede that no matter how anointed a person is, or how much God uses them, they will still make mistakes and that's just part of the result of a perfect God communicating through an imperfect man. But when it comes to Scripture, that argument is completely dismissed and somehow that fraternity of bible authors managed to get everything correct down to the last punctuation mark. We always talk about how God can overcome our failing and still get his message across, but that doesn't apply to Scripture.

I'll be talking about this alot in the near future because I really want to understand both sides. I am starting with an intertmonk recommended series by Chris Tilling.