The Gospel Song — an Animation
At Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin shares an animated video by Chris Powers – based on Sovereign Grace’s ‘The Gospel Song’, and some words from John Piper.
(The song is also available on that page as a free download.)
The Gospel for those broken by the Church
This talk by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt (known to many through The White Horse Inn broadcast) on the topic ‘The Gospel for those broken by the Church’ is well worth your time.
It runs for 50 minutes and is available from New Reformation Press (direct link to 36MB mp3 file).
“For all of you who have been given morality lessons instead of the Gospel, hear how Dr. Rod Rosenbladt succinctly presents Christianity as first and foremost a genuine truth claim about Christ as our righteous substitute, instead of a never ending list of popular religious recipes for personal success.”
(Photo: Bryan Johnson.)
Idea for your church: Garage Sale Giveaway
Some Canadian churches are running garage sales with an difference:
“The only way to explain that God’s love is free in a tangible way … is to say every item here is free.”
Read about it here. (h/t Anglican Essentials Canada blog.)
30 days of prayer
Now that Ramadan has begun (August 11 – September 9 2010), it’s a great time to love Muslim people through prayer.
30-days.net has much helpful information, including PDF resources and a 2.2MB downloadable prayer guide. Worth passing on.
Federal Election resources
While not supporting any party, the Centre for Public Christianity has assembled a range of material to help Christians to make an informed choice in the coming Australian Federal Election.
As well, the Australian Christian Lobby has just posted a new interview with Julia Gillard, in addition to its earlier material.
August–September DNWA prayer notes
The latest Diocese of North West Australia Prayer Notes and Bishop’s Letter are now available on their website – for your prayers.
Preach Christ
“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”
– At Between Two Worlds, Tony Reinke has assembled some challenging reminders from C H Spurgeon.
New Moore College video: Meet some of our Students
This 3 minute 30 second video from Moore College could be used to promote the college in your church. (The 29MB file is downloadable if you are registered with Vimeo.)
Tim Keller free Audiobook
ChristianAudio’s free audiobook download for August 2010 is Tim Keller’s 1997 book Ministries of Mercy – the call of the Jericho road.
Five top Missions books
Kevin DeYoung writes:
“As you may recall, Greg Gilbert and I are working on a book tentatively titled What is the Mission of the Church? Hence, over the past several months we’ve been reading dozens of missiological tomes. There are tons of missions resources, and we barely scratched the surface with our reading. But from what I’ve read, here are my Fav Five books on the theology of mission…”
– Many of our readers will be familiar with the number one book – and probably the number two book – in Kevin’s list.
Don Carson on ‘The God Who is There’
This looks to be very helpful. Andy Naselli writes,
“On February 20-21 and 27-28, 2009, Don Carson presented a 14-part seminar entitled ‘The God Who Is There’ at Bethlehem Baptist Church’s North Campus in Minneapolis. This series will serve the church well because it simultaneously evangelises non-Christians and edifies Christians by explaining the Bible’s storyline in a non-reductionistic way.
The series is geared toward ‘seekers’ and articulates Christianity in a way that causes hearers either to reject or embrace the gospel. It’s one thing to know the Bible’s storyline, but it’s another to know one’s role in God’s ongoing story of redemption. ‘The God Who Is There’ engages people at the worldview-level.
And now MP3s (full) and video (10-minute previews) are available for Carson’s 14-part series…”
– All the links are here. (h/t Justin Taylor.)
Culture and Theology seminar on Homosexuality
Matt Chandler at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, recently addressed a topic he had previously stayed away from. In a 2 hour Culture and Theology seminar on Homosexuality, Matt provides a great deal of food for thought. Well worth your time.
Dated ‘5.21.10’ on the Studies & Seminars page, here’s a direct link to the 35MB mp3 file.
Listening pastors
“It seems to me that pastors tend to be poor listeners for a few reasons: they are usually assertive people and have trouble slowing down, have honestly heard many of the same things multiple times (counseling situations, theological questions, etc.) thus they feel like they ‘know’ where the conversation is headed, they are multi-taskers who tend to think they can listen and think about other things at the same time, and they are used to talking/preaching with others listening to them!”
– Jason Helopoulos has a few helpful suggestions on listening as a pastor.
At Kevin DeYoung’s blog.
C.S. Lewis on Democracy
Food for thought from C S Lewis –
“I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government.
The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. … I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. … The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows…”
– C.S. Lewis, “Equality”, in Present Concerns. (h/t Between Two Worlds.)
ESV widget for Mac
If you use a Mac, you may find the updated ESV Dashboard widget useful.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…