What to think of the NOOMA videos
Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos feature excellent production and are wildly popular – but what do they actually teach?
At 9 Marks, Greg Gilbert has written a three part review. If your youth group is using NOOMA, the review is essential reading.
“Once you get past the razzle-dazzle of the videos’ style and really listen to what Bell is saying, you start to wonder if maybe they’re not so good after all. Watch the videos with a discerning eye, and certain questions start nagging you: What’s the cross for again? Why did Jesus die? How do you become a Christian? Hold on—did he just say that everyone has the Spirit of God living in them already? Jesus has faith in me? I am the gospel?”
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Nooma video covers image: 9Marks.)
Blogging the Institutes
Graduates of Moore College will long remember that reading through John Calvin’s Institutes was a requirement of their course. Asked about the reason for the requirement, former Principal Broughton Knox wryly quipped that it was so students would finish at least one book while at College!
Last month, the team at Reformation21 began ‘blogging through the Institutes’ to challenge others to read this key Christian document. It’s a big challenge!
Ligon Duncan writes – “Why should you read through Calvin’s Institutes with the lads here at ref21 as we blog through this work every weekday of 2009? Ten reasons:
1. Because it the most important book written in the last 500 years.
2. Because it is foundational for every Reformed systematic theology ever since.
3. Because Calvin was the best exegete in the history of Christianity…”
Follow Reformation21’s Blogging the Institutes here.
Preach or Perish: a Review
ACL President Dr Mark Thompson reviews Preach or Perish, edited by Don Howard –
There is a quite vigorous and exciting debate about preaching taking place in Sydney at the moment. All the participants are convinced of the importance of preaching. They know how critical effective preaching is to the life and growth of Christian congregations. Yet there seems to be a widespread sense of a need to lift the standard of preaching across our city in order to honour our Lord and edify his people.
On the one hand, dry and disengaged literary studies are boring the socks off some congregations. It feels as if pages are being read from a commentary with little concern about how this part of the Bible addresses life as a follower of Christ in the twenty-first century. On the other hand, the life-giving word of God can be so easily swamped by the repartee of the Christian entertainer. The skill of the preacher becomes the focus of attention rather than the power, love and holiness of the God whose word he dares to speak.
Every preacher I know wants to preach better and there is no end to the list of people who want to tell us how. Yet few combine a commitment to handling the Bible responsibly with a concern to communicate effectively as consistently as the contributors to this new book edited by Donald Howard. Donald is known as a trainer of preachers, a pastor concerned that God’s people are built up in faith by the effective application of the word of God to the lives of real people. He is just as disturbed by trite story telling and moralising and as by undigested and poorly communicated profundity. And he is a long-standing member of the ACL!
This collection of brief essays by preachers who have given their lives to helping men and women come to faith — and more, to grow in maturity in faith — through hearing and responding to the word of God, is full of wisdom and help for preachers of all ages. It demonstrates yet again that it is not only the latest internet gurus who know what makes good preaching and what hinders it. Theology and practice come together in an extraordinary way which will challenge old preachers and set good patterns for young ones.
With contributions from the editor, John Chapman, Peter Jensen, Marcus Loane, Donald Robinson, Kel Richards, Dudley Foord, David Cook, and many others, readers are treated to insights into preaching from preachers who have honoured Christ and served his people, not just in a short burst of popularity, but consistently over many years.
If you want to improve your preaching or improve your appreciation of preaching and all that it involves, you’ll benefit from reading this book. It is worth learning the lesson that good principles are lasting principles. I warmly commend it.
Mark D Thompson.
(“Preach or perish – Reaching the hearts and minds of the world today”, edited by Donald Howard, is available from MooreBooks for $25.)
ESV Bible Reading plans
If there’s one thing most of us need to work on in 2009, it’s reading the Bible more regularly and systematically.
The people at ESV.org have assembled a helpful range of Bible Reading plans and made them available in a range of formats.
Want to be reminded each day of the passages to read? Want to receive it by e-mail? Read it on your iPhone? Even the Book of Common Prayer’s lectionary (in ESV) is available.
See ESV.org for details. (Hat tip to Justin Taylor, who has links to even more plans.)
The Advent of Humility
Innumerable Christmas devotionals point out the humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth—among shepherds, in a crude stable, with a feed trough for a bassinet. When Jesus himself tried to summarise why people should take up the yoke of following him, he said it was because he was meek and humble (Matt. 11:29).
Seldom, however, do we explore the full implications of how Jesus’ radical humility shapes the way we live our lives every day. …
– Tim Keller on humility – at Christianity Today (just before Christmas). (h/t Between TwoWorlds)
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
“Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood.…”
– The Times columnist Matthew Parris makes some interesting observations.
(Photo: Times Online.)
Communicate Jesus
Helpful new Sydney-based website from Steve Kryger. Ideas and resources “to help churches and Christian ministries as they seek to communicate Jesus”.
Worth seeing – at communicatejesus.com
Can a Christian deny the Virgin Birth?
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? This question would perplex the vast majority of Christians throughout the centuries, but modern denials of biblical truth make the question tragically significant. …
The great quest of liberal theology has been to invent a Jesus who is stripped of all supernatural power, deity, and authority.
– Al Mohler provides an overview of modern attacks on the virgin birth.
Goodbye Larry King, hello Jerry Springer!
The hoo-hah over President Elect Obama’s choice of Rick Warren continues unabated, with most of the critics focussing mainly on Warren’s attitude to homosexuality and gay marriage. …
As Don Carson commented recently, American Christians have yet to wake up to the fact that the gospel really is despised by the world. And I would add: in a culture where everyone seems to need to be liked, affirmed and, above all, agreed with, that realisation is going to be very hard and challenging for the evangelical establishment to take on board.
– Carl Trueman writes at Reformation21. (Seen at Between Two Worlds.)
Why the Church of England cannot lose its ‘Head’
“Even if the Church of England were disestablished, even if Prince Charles became King and took the title ‘Defender of Faith’, even if his son converted to Islam and duly became our first Muslim monarch, the situation would be unchanged …”
– John Richardson writes at the Ugley Vicar.
Memorising Scripture – An Interview
“The name Ryan Ferguson may be familiar to some of the readers of this site. Ryan has appeared at a couple of conferences where he has recited long passages of Scripture. I first saw him at WorshipGod ‘06 where he dramatically recited all of Hebrews 9 and 10 (though he had memorized the entire book).
I recently got ahold of Ryan and asked if he would answer a few questions about memorizing Scripture. I trust this brief interview will serve to encourage you either to begin memorizing passages from the Bible or to press on in your conviction that you ought to.…”
– Tim Challies interviews Ryan Ferguson. (See also these earlier posts.)
Ambassadors for Christ
“You know, this is a matter of common honesty. The great apostle says elsewhere, ‘I am an ambassador for Christ.’
What is the business of an ambassador? Is it to voice his own opinions? Is it to say what he thinks? …
– encouragement from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – at Reformed Voices.
Latest Themelios now online
The December 2008 edition of Themelios is now available – courtesy of The Gospel Coalition – in PDF, html or iPaper formats.
How to play piano in church
“Most of us start off life as classically trained solo pianists. So when we turn up to church and are asked to play from chord charts, and improvise, and play in group, we often don’t know where to start.
So we are proud to present a free set of video piano lessons designed to cover everything you need to get yourself up to speed on chords, improvisation and playing in a band.”
– Garage Hymnal’s Andy Judd with a resource for aspiring church musicians that’s worth checking out.
Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism
Brand new from The Latimer Trust in the UK:
Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism: J.Gresham Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy of 1922–1937 by Lee Gatiss.
At the beginning of the last century a more liberal way of interpreting Christianity began to grow in popularity. Traditional believers in many denominations are currently reaping the fruit of a failure to heed the stark warnings about liberalism given at that time by American theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937). Much of what happened in the Presbyterian Church of which he was a part will sound eerily familiar to Anglicans today.
This book examines key battlegrounds in the conflict between conservative, liberal, and so-called ‘moderate’ Christians in the early 20th Century – training for ministry, the denomination’s attitude towards money, and competing notions of mission.
Machen’s principles eventually led him to leave both his seminary and his denomination to create new institutions. But did Machen get it right about how to combat liberalism? Even while we acknowledge his theological insight, should we also be wary of repeating his mistakes?
Lee Gatiss is Associate Minister of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate in the City of London and Editor of The Theologian: The Internet Journal for Integrated Theology at www.theologian.org.uk.
The book can be ordered from The Latimer Trust.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…