8
Oct
2009

John Piper’s Not-So-Funny Talk

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08 Oct 2009

A friend pointed me to a post on Justin Taylor’s blog concerning John Piper’s talk at the American Association of Christian Counselors. In the course of his talk the crowd just laughed and laughed and kept on laughing at what Piper was saying–even when it was serious, reverent and meant to be taken seriously. I have never seen or heard and example like this. I suppose it is indicative of the overall attitude of the American church. I guess that there are lots of jokes in pulpits all across America. But how prevalent must it be to engender such untimely audience laughter? You can listen to the talk here. You can read Justin’s thoughts here.

HT: Justin Taylor

About Post Author

Nick Batzig is the senior pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC and an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries. Prior to serving at Church Creek, Nick was a pastor at Wayside PCA on Signal Mountain, TN. Formerly, Nick served as the founding pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective--sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He frequently writes for Tabletalk Magazine, Reformation 21, He Reads Truth, and the Christward Collective. Nick was also the host of East of Eden, a podcast devoted to the Biblical and Systematic Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can friend him on Facebook here and follow him on Twitter @nick_batzig

2 Responses

  1. Timothy
    Reply

    Wow, that’s painful to listen to. Agreed that this could be indicative of the overall attitude of the American church. C.S. Lewis wrote about flippancy in one of the letters in The Screwtape Letters. He probably didn’t imagine it to that extent, or certainly in such a setting as a sermon.

  2. Camden Bucey
    Reply

    This was really strange. Piper repeatedly told them how perplexed he was and they kept thinking it was part of a shtick. The first comment did sound somewhat intentionally funny. However, it quickly turned very serious yet the crowd didn’t catch on.

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