Dick Lucas on Preaching

In November 2006, Dick Lucas gave the third annual Charles Simeon Sermons on preaching at Taylor University in Indiana.

As always, Dick Lucas’ sermons are encouraging and challenging – especially for those with the enormous privilege and weighty responsibility of preaching.

Here are direct links to the mp3 files –

1. The School of Christ
2. Truth Worth Knowing
3. Through a Glass Darkly
4. That People May Know
5. God’s Knowledge of Us!

Video of some of the talks is also available on the Chapel archive page.

Why Theology?

Here’s a two minute video that could be used in church. It was created as part of a short film competition related to John Harris’ new book Dug Down Deep.

See the other film entries at JoshHarris.com.

Pastor welcomes Hell Pizza

This story from a Rockhampton newspaper last month is a simple example of how to steer people away from controversy and towards the Lord Jesus.

Story via St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Rockhampton.

(Great to see they are also using The Essential Jesus.)

Taking Sovereignty Seriously

Mark Thompson recommends John Woodhouse’s article in the issue of Southern Cross to be distributed in churches from this Sunday … He quotes John as writing —

“I am astonished at how glibly we sometimes speak of gospel work — as though leadership skills, ministry strategies or entrepreneurial flair is what is needed to make the gospel effective. Leadership is not what makes the blind see. Strategies do not make the deaf hear. Entrepreneurs do not make the dead walk!

It is God who calls out his elect, chosen by him before the foundation of the world. They could not have saved themselves and nor could we have saved them no matter how clever we are. And he hardens the heart of others in their chosen state of lostness.”

Find the article on pages 18 and 19 (‘Serving a Sovereign God’) of the February 2010 Southern Cross.

Resources from around Australia

It’s exciting to see helpful new resources being produced for Anglicans around Australia. Here are some you may wish to check out –

1.) For kids – from the Diocese of Canberra & Goulburn

Lessons for Children during Lent by Jane Robinson.

“a series of six very simple lessons for children during Lent…”

2.) For adults – from the Diocese of Tasmania

Lectionary-based study outlines – Growing Disciples of Jesus.

“designed for use in home or church-based study groups, and to be a helpful resource for preachers as well.”

3.) For adults – from the Diocese of North West Australia.

World-Changing Sermons – from the Book of Acts. Lenten studies by Bishop David Mulready, available from Anglican Youthworks Sydney.

“For each of the six weeks leading up to Easter … explores a world-changing sermon from the book of Acts.”

(Check out the song ‘The Mission of God’ at the above link.)

Christianity Explored

Kevin DeYoung at the Gospel Coalition is enthusiastic about Christianity Explored.

‘But I saw it on TV’

Here’s a disturbing report on how the mainstream US media reported a large anti-abortion demonstration in Washington two weeks ago.

From LifeSiteNews. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)

Sovereign Grace music sale

Sovereign Grace music and books are at reduced prices during February. Of particular interest to Australian readers will be the mp3 album downloads.

Details at Bob Kauflin’s Worship Mattters.

Desiring God Conference for Pastors 2010

The Desiring God Conference for Pastors is currently taking place in Minnesota and as talks are given, audio and video is being made available online.

Here’s John Piper’s invitation to the conference, and the notes on the pre-conference seminar by Paul Tripp are challenging and well worth reading (1, 2).

Engaging with Liberalism

“But within the local church liberalism can be pervasive not because it enters via the pulpits, but via public worship—a softening of the mind and a lowering of the defences through the songs sung, the prayers prayed and the liturgies used. …

It is nearly eighty years since our forebears fought to ensure that the 1928 Prayer Book would not be accepted into the Church of England. Compared to Common Worship*, that book appears to be a compendium of soundness! The ex opere operato view which is pretty well explicit in the baptism service is simply astonishing. This is where at the Synod level evangelicals need to resist such trends and at the parish level refuse to capitulate.”

– Melvin Tinkler points out the bankruptcy of liberalism and offers advice on how to resist it. His 2008 article from Churchman has just been republished by Church Society (PDF file).

* Common Worship is in wide use in the Church of England.

Hitchens explains the gospel

Earlier this month the Portland Monthly in Oregon, published the transcript of an interview with atheist Christopher Hitchens. He spoke with Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell.

One of them rejects Jesus, the other wants Jesus but without ‘all that stuff’ –

Sewell: “When you speak of ‘religion’ in your book God is Not Great it seems to me that you’re generally referring to the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the Scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of Atonement – that Jesus died for our sins, for example. Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?”

Hitchens: “Well, only in this respect: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ – in other words, the Messiah – and that he rose again from the dead and that by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you are really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”

The transcript on the website has been fairly heavily edited and leaves out an exchange immediately following the above. Sewell says she believes…   Read more

Connecting the Mind and the Tongue

“I want to go on record at this point as saying that I understand the attraction of Rome: the sheer mass of the organization (if you’ll pardon the pun); the overwhelming aesthetics; the desirability of belonging to such an august and ancient institution which knows what it is, where it comes from, and where it is going; and the cornucopia of brilliant intellects that have debated, refined, and articulated its confession over the centuries.  All that I understand; all that I find attractive; all that I find superior to what evangelical Protestantism has to offer, particularly in its crassest megachurch and emergent varieties.”

– Carl Trueman contributes “Reflections on Rome Part 1: Connecting the Mind and the Tongue” at Reformation 21. As always, provocative and worth reading.

Al Mohler on The Shack (again)

Albert Mohler has again written about The Shack, with good reason. Here’s the punchline –

“The popularity of this book among evangelicals can only be explained by a lack of basic theological knowledge among us — a failure even to understand the Gospel of Christ. The tragedy that evangelicals have lost the art of biblical discernment must be traced to a disastrous loss of biblical knowledge. Discernment cannot survive without doctrine.”

Read it all here.

Related: More Catechesis, please.

Matt Kennedy on ‘Leaving home’ (part 1)

This time last year, Matt Kennedy and his congregation at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, lost their property to the Diocese of Central New York. Matt tells the story of what happened next — at Stand Firm.

(Screenshot from WBNG News, NY.)

Carson on theological study for God’s glory

Don Carson was interviewed last year on studying theology for the glory of God — by Mike Reeves at The Theology Network in the UK. The interview runs for 34 minutes.

Worth hearing – especially if you are considering theological training and wondering where to study.

← Previous Page — Next Page →