THE BULLETIN OF IBTM
with Douglas Jacoby
For the audiovisual version of the bulletin (YouTube, about 3 minutes, read by Chase Mackintosh), click here.
Rhodes (Dodecanese Greece)
Closing Nicaea message, “The Aftermath of 325: Seven Crucial Transitions
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25 June 2025
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Good morning from Rhodes!
The Nicaea conference (marking the 1700th anniversary of the epic first ecumenical council) was so encouraging! It was a true honor to be on the program with so many eminent scholars, men and women in the fields of church history, biblical studies, and theology.
This week Vicki and I are spending time with other professors and spouses. There are 20 of us, plus the senior staff of Tutku Educational Travel, the company I have booked all my tours with for a decade now.
Q&A 1699: Is faith measurable?
A sister recently said (as I talked about having faith the size of a mustard seed) that she didn’t believe faith is measurable. One either has faith or doesn’t. That threw me for a minute, but I circled back to that scripture that speaks of the size (in this case tiny) of a seed. Jesus told His disciples that they had little faith. What are your scholarly insights on this? — L.A.
No need for scholarly insight. At least nothing deep. The Bible does speak about measures of faith (Rom 12:3, though that passage seems to refer to our spiritual gifts).
Faith grows. The seed of the word is planted (Luke 8:11). It is fed and increases through the Word (Rom 12:17). So yes, you have faith or you don't. And if you do, that faith can grow.
Q&A 1700: How open should the church finances be?
Should the finances of the church (including percentages allotted for staff, outreach, children’s ministry, training, giving to the needy (including members facing hard times, unemployment, etc) be transparent? Should the books be open? Should finances be discussed and finalized by all members of the church, or only by a leadership team? — T.N.
In my opinion, the financials should be open, not hidden. Not that leadership teams are a bad thing. (Much better than a single dictator!) But in general I sense that we should trust one another more.
Those who have financial strengths and wisdom will prove to offer valuable insights. We need their voices, whether they are recognized leaders are not. Of course not every member has financial understanding, and humility vis-à-vis our gifts is vital (Rom 12:3).
(Sorry it took so long to reply to your question. Usually I’m a lot faster than 18 months.)
Final Thoughts from Renaissance
Since late May this bulletin has featured thought-provoking quotations from Os Guinness. In 2022, after my first reading of Renaissance: the Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times, I posted comments and select quotes HERE. After the second reading—and this is a book worth reading twice—there are even more quotations I’d like to share, the last of which feature in today’s bulletin.
“American Evangelicals… basked briefly in the cultural sun after the collapse of Protestant liberalism in the 1960s, flexing their newfound political muscles and enjoying a surge of cultural attention when around a third of America claimed to be “born again”—only to squander the moment with what was commonly their truth-deficient “feel-good” theology, sub-Christian politics, mindless evangelism, and a host of trendy chases after relevance that proved transient, worldly and unimpressive. Tellingly, the era of Evangelical prominence coincided with an era of moral degeneration in the nation, which it did nothing to halt. The movement has ended not surprisingly in, first, a suicidal dilution of the Christian faith, and, then, in a significant defection from the faith by those who were repulsed by such shallowness and folly” (129).
”… Can Western civilization endure if the Jewish and Christian faiths that were its strongest foundations are removed from influence altogether? Can post-secular Christian faiths provide the grounding for notions such as human dignity, individual liberty, personal responsibility and human sexuality, which were gifts of the gospel to the West and are crucial to Western freedoms? Or are proud Western boasts about freedom and democracy about to be drowned, not in the hard despotisms of post-Christian Nazism and Communism, but in the soft despotism of the post-Christian centralized, bureaucratic, all-encompassing and government-heavy societies toward which we are fast sliding now? What is certain is that if the Christian faith fails to recover its integrity and cultural influence, post-Christian secularism will be in control, and this time it will have no alibi. All the ensues for the West will be the responsibility of our brave new godless self-gods” (142-143).
That's all for this week. Unless you'd like to pre-order the new version of our collection of prayers, Amen & Amen. This will be published by BroadStreet. Release date: 5 August.
Preorder here.
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Have a great week! — DJ
