Taking Christ’s church seriously – a tonic for the confused and disenchanted

“Talk about refreshing! I was recently encouraged to read the relatively recent book by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion (Chicago: Moody Press, 2009). It helped that the person recommending the book was my principal, John Woodhouse. He said I’d like it. And he was right.

Book endorsements, in my experience, seem to be getting more and more out of touch with reality. They make grand claims which just aren’t met when you shell out the money and buy the book. But on this occasion the endorsements by J. I. Packer — ‘As I read, I wanted to stand up and cheer’, by Mark Dever — the authors are ‘theologically faithful, fresh, and insightful’, and Al Mohler — ‘a powerful word of correction, offering compelling arguments and a vision of church life that is not only convincing, but inspirational’ all hold up. I was genuinely excited by what I read. …”

– Mark Thompson hopes you will read the book and stand up and cheer with Jim Packer.

(Best prices here.)

2010 Reform National Conference

Continuing our links to resources you may find helpful, the 2010 Reform National Conference was held at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire last October. The theme was ‘The counter-cultural church’.

Talks and other downloads are available from Reform.

Pastoral moves — latest 9Marks eJournal

Looking for a new minister?

Ministers, are you thinking of moving? Or wondering about staying?

The latest eJournal from 9Marks addresses these questions and gives some wise counsel.

Pastors Going
Leave Your Church Well
Prepare the Church for the Next Guy
Book Review: Handle That New Call With Care

Pastors Coming
What’s Wrong With Search Committees?
What’s Right About Elders?
What Not to do when You’re the New Guy
You Might Have the Wrong Candidate If…

Tips for an Interim Pastor
Pastors Staying
Staying to the Glory of God: One Preacher’s Death Wish
Staying for the Glory of God: The Sibbes, Simeon and Stott Model

All this and more at 9Marks.

Think! 2010 Desiring God conference

The 2010 Desiring God National Conference (“Think!”) was held last October. All the audio and video (large files!) is at the Desiring God website.

Todd Shaffer at Faith by Hearing recommends all the talks, with just one slight hesitation. See what you think.

Euthanasia: The Patient and the right of ‘Advance Directives’

“Dr Megan Best suggests that while Christians believe that we are not free to take the life of another person, this does not mean that we must prolong life at all costs. Nor does it mean that the patient has no rights to cease treatment or give directions about their last days of life…”

– Dr Trevor Cairney at the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education has some very helpful resources from palliative care doctor Megan Best at the Just in CASE blog.

The Pursuit of Holiness – free audiobook

The free audiobook from Christian Audio for January 2011 is Jerry Bridge’s The Pursuit of Holiness. Grab it here.

Stott on Charles Simeon

In November 2004, at Taylor University in Indiana, John Stott delivered a 33 minute introduction to Charles Simeon. The video was recently uploaded to Vimeo.

On preaching, Stott quotes Simeon: “Does [the sermon] uniformly tend to humble the sinner, to exalt the Saviour, and to promote holiness?”

(h/t Justin Taylor, who also has some useful links.)

Accordance for iOS

Those who use Accordance 9 Bible software may be interested to know that it’s now available for the iPhone and iPad. It’s a free app, and if you already have purchased modules, they can be used. Details here.

Mark’s Gospel performed by Max McLean

Looking for something worthwhile to watch on New Year’s Eve?

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds points out that the video of Max McLean performing The Gospel According to Mark is available in its entirety on YouTube, thanks to the Fellowship for the Performing Arts Theater Company.

See at all here – you can see the entire Gospel performed in about 90 minutes. Well worth your time.

Two-Year Bible Reading Plan

One of the most-searched-for terms on our website is “Bible reading plans” – and here Stephen Witmer on The Gospel Coalition website has some helpful thoughts – as well as a quote from Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

Barry Newman on ‘Science & Genesis 1:1–2:3’

Barry Newman has now uploaded all his blog posts on “Science and Genesis 1:1 – 2:3” as a single PDF file.

“One of the most significant areas that we believers need to address is the scepticism that arises because of what is perceived to be the consequences for belief of commitment to certain cosmological, biological evolutionary, anthropological, psychological and sociological theories. This blog series and ones hopefully to follow, will attempt to examine afresh the early chapters of Genesis to see what implications there are for such theories. Its main emphasis however will be on the text of Scripture itself rather than the theories themselves.”

– There’s plenty to provoke thought and further investigation.

Christmas Day sermon 2010 — Bp Stuart Robinson

Read Bishop Stuart Robinson’s Christmas Day sermon — to be preached this morning at St. John’s Reid, in Canberra. (PDF file.)

A Christmas sermon ‘from Luther’

“Dr. Rod Rosenbladt preaches a Christmas sermon borne of Martin Luther’s writings, constructed by Dr. Roland Bainton, who taught history at Yale University from 1936 to 1961. Though Luther never wrote nor preached this sermon, it is assembled from his writings as a series of parts, as Dr. Bainton envisioned Luther could have written a Christmas sermon. This audio was dug up from the archives…”

– a 14 minute 9.6MB mp3 file from The White Horse Inn. Listen with a smile. (h/t Faith by Hearing.)

New Themelios online – Volume 35, Issue 3

The latest issue of Themelios (Volume 35, Issue 3) is available as a free download from The Gospel Coalition. Articles include:

Editorial: Contrarian Reflections on Individualism – D. A. Carson
Minority Report: Terrible Beauty, Beauty, and the Plain Terrible – Carl Trueman
Fiction and Truth in the Old Testament Wisdom Literature – Daniel J. Estes.

Reading Sibbes Aloud Project

“The Reading Sibbes Aloud Project provides a growing collection of sermons of the Puritan Richard Sibbes. The great value of Puritan writing continues to be its depth of scriptural insight and timeless application. Please join Mark Dever as he reads through the works of the ‘Prince of the Puritans’ Richard Sibbes.”

– at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. (h/t Faith by Hearing.)

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