Paralysed Speakers and Hearers – John Stott
Even those who no longer see any particular merit in preaching would probably agree that it is not what it was. Many of those who value it would say that it is in a state of steep decline, and to recall a few notable names from the past would appear to confirm this. Of course, styles have changed, the world has changed. But are we not missing out? Are we not in danger of losing a basic ingredient of a living church? …
– John Stott, as published in CrossWay, 1981. Read his brief article, as a PDF file, courtesy of Church Society. (Photo: Langham Partnership.)
What if Starbucks marketed like a church? A parable.
Of course, your church won’t be like this – but this video provides plenty of food for thought. Richard Reising, with a background in marketing, produced it to show how not to welcome visitors.
See the video on YouTube – and read Richard’s comments at his new Beyond Relevance blog.
Thinking about preaching
Colin Adams in Edinburgh shares what he finds helpful about his senior pastor’s preaching…
“Peter Grainger is the current Senior Pastor of Charlotte Baptist Chapel, the 18th in its history. It has been an immense blessing for me to work under him for almost six years. Peter’s preaching has not only taught me many biblical truths. Sitting under his expository messages has probably been more influential in developing my own preaching style than anything else.…”
– Read it at Unashamed Workman.
Anglicanism upside down Down Under? – understanding Lay Administration
“Conservative evangelicals, such as those typically found in Sydney, do not see themselves as bound to tradition as their High Church friends. Indeed, they are more than happy to reject Tradition if they understand it to be contrary to the Scriptures, as they understand Cranmer and his peers felt impelled to do.
It is no surprise that Sydney is a place that, while having a very low rate of usage of the Prayer Book, has a very high allegiance to the 39 Articles and the theology of the Prayer Book.…”
– David Ould explores Sydney thinking on Lay Administration – at Stand Firm.
Verbal Aspect & all that jazz in Biblical Greek
Con Campbell’s new book, Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek, is now available.
He recently wrote several blog posts on it at Zondervan’s Koinonia blog: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5
Here’s a list of scholars endorsing the book.
(Thanks to Justin Taylor.)
Robert Gagnon on Homosexuality and the Bible
In this 28 minute video from Pure Passion, Robert Gagnon answers some common objections about homosexuality and the Bible. Very helpful.
Watch it on Vimeo via Between Two Worlds.
Lambeth 2008 – a retrospect
“… The most blatant example of TEC’s attempt to influence the conference occurred in the Lambeth Witness, published by Integrity USA, which as the only daily publication on campus, was often mistaken to be the official Lambeth Daily, which had no paper edition in 2008. In the Lambeth Witness, Bishop Catherine Roskam from TEC suggested that statistically at least some of the bishops at the conference were wife-beaters, and that there were incidences of wife-beating in some African nations. This was widely seen as an attempt to undermine the Sudanese and other Africans who had been outspoken on issues of sexuality…”
– Chris Sugden offers some insightful reflections on Lambeth 2008 – at Anglican Mainstream. Worth reading.
Gospel Coalition media archive
“The Gospel Coalition has recently revamped its website, and it now holds 8,480 audio files and 842 video files. This archive has very nice topic and speaker indexes, and categories of sermons, Q&A, conference messages and interviews. This is a motherload of materials.”
– Thanks to Faith by Hearing for the tip.
The Two ‘Courts’
“There are two ‘courts’ we must deal with: the court of God in Heaven and the court of conscience in our souls.
When we first trust in Christ for salvation, God’s court is forever satisfied. Never again will a charge of guilt be brought against us in Heaven. Our consciences, however, are continually pronouncing us guilty. That is the function of conscience. Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of Heaven. We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt, but then reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Christ.”
– Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace. (With thanks to Of First Importance.)
What we do matters
One impact of Tractarianism has been that practices that had not happened in the Church of England for 300 years were reintroduced, tolerated, permitted and now in a few cases almost prescribed.
Although evangelicals at first opposed these things as springing from a different gospel, along the way many seem to have become numbed to them and even adopted the practices for themselves…
– Church Society General Secretary David Phillips writes on vestments, eucharistic practice, and international Anglicanism. (Direct link to PDF file, courtesy of Church Society.)
Praying for President-elect Obama
Well, my country and much of the rest of the world are electric with the election of Barack Obama as the new President of the United States of America. To say that it is historic, is a gross understatement.
Justin Taylor and Al Mohler, have both inspired some reflection on the question of how we as Christians –Bible-believing, Reformed, Christians– ought to pray for him, and I have freely borrowed many of their words and thoughts on this. But here are some ideas for leading our people to pray for our President-Elect. Barack Obama…
– At Reformation21, Ligon Duncan offers some initial thoughts on how Christians must pray.
(Photo: First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Hat tip: Justin Taylor.)
America has chosen a President
… Evangelical Christians face another challenge with the election of Sen. Obama, and a failure to rise to this challenge will bring disrepute upon the Gospel, as well as upon ourselves. There must be absolutely no denial of the legitimacy of President-Elect Obama’s election and no failure to accord this new President the respect and honour due to anyone elected to that high office. Failure in this responsibility is disobedience to a clear biblical command.…
– Al Mohler writes on the responsibilities ahead for Christian people after yesterday’s US election.
John Calvin – free audiobook
This month’s free audiobook from ChristianAudio is a reading of John Calvin’s “Of Prayer and The Christian Life”.
Use the code NOV2008 at the checkout.
The mp3 files are around 160MB – available free until the end of November.
Will Apple’s stance on ballot measure come back to haunt it?
Apple made headlines when it donated $100,000 to defeat a measure appearing on Tuesday’s California ballot that would ban gay marriage in the state.
But even more noteworthy than the size of Apple’s contribution was the promience given the decision—Apple posted a statement on its Hot News page outlining its opposition to Proposition 8…
– Macworld reports on Apple’s public stance on homosexual marriage in California.
Sobering words from Robert Gagnon
“If Obama is elected President this Tuesday he has made it a priority of his administration to pass legislation that will make war against Christians and persons of other religious convictions who believe that homosexual practice and abortion are immoral acts. Persecution will take many forms, as indicated by actions that have already taken place in parts of the United States, Canada, and Western Europe…”
– Sobering words from Robert A. J. Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary tonight’s election. (h/t Anglican Mainstream)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…