Francis Schaeffer hoped the church would be a thing of strength and beauty. Stu isn't sure his friends would have used those words to describe the churches they grew up in. That gap, between what the church is and what it could be, is what drove everything Soul Revival tried to build.
They open up Schaeffer's 1968
The God Who Is There that turned up on the podcast studio bookshelf. Schaeffer's ministry at L'Abri. The Trinity as the foundation of love. Jesus's words to the Samaritan woman at the well. The Great Evangelical Disaster and why Schaeffer feared the West was hollowing out the gospel. And what it looks like to be a custodian of a community shaped by that gospel rather than by the culture surrounding it.
Timestamps00:00 Welcome — Stu's 10th year as Cronulla Sharks chaplain and the finals
02:00 A first edition Schaeffer on the podcast studio shelf
03:30 Francis Schaeffer and L'Abri — a shelter for questions in Switzerland
06:00 How Schaeffer shaped Stu's ministry — truth demonstrated as well as debated
08:30 The God Who Is There — why God exists even when culture turns its back
10:00 Is God Dead? — the 1964 Time magazine cover
11:30 The adequate universal for love — Schaeffer's argument from the Trinity
14:00 Love between the persons of the Trinity before creation
16:00 Jesus as the only way back into that relationship
18:00 The church as strength and beauty — and whether our friends would agree
20:00 The church is where the action is — not the pub, the sporting club or the concert
22:00 The Great Evangelical Disaster — Schaeffer's fear for the West
25:00 Three principles for evangelicalism — doctrine, practice and corporate exhibition
28:00 The commitments culture as custodians of the gospel
31:00 Galatians and keeping the main thing the main thing
32:30 Larry Norman, one way and the Jesus movement
34:00 Preview — the lost episode on commitments culture returns next week
Discussed on this episode
Francis Schaeffer -
The God Who Is ThereFrancis Schaeffer -
The Great Evangelical Disaster