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 should evangelicals believe?

The question of the week on The Guardian ‘Comment is Free: Belief’ blog is, “What should evangelicals believe? What must an evangelical think and do to make him or her worthy of the name?”

My reply, the first of what will be five for the week, is here.

– John Richardson helpfully contributes to public debate in the UK.

Observing Evangelicalism with Don Carson

Mark Dever asks Don Carson about the highs and lows of the evangelical landscape in this 73 minute interview recorded in June and released last week by 9 Marks.

Original Sin and Justification by Faith

Back in 1953, the Rev Broughton Knox, who was in the UK for his doctoral studies, gave a lecture at the Oxford Conference of Evangelical Churchmen. His topic? Original Sin and Justification by Faith.

The text was published in Churchman – and Church Society has just republished it on their website as a PDF file.

Thinking about The Big Day in?

ACC coverage map Connect09 will be launched at 10:00am on Sunday February 8th 2009 with a telecast featuring music, videos, and an address from Archbishop Peter Jensen.

Churches wanting to view (and project) the live video will be able to stream it over the web.

A simpler solution may be to receive it through the The Australian Christian Channel – either via cable TV – or via free-to-air Standard Definition digital TV on Digital Forty Four (broadcast on UHF channel 35 from Gore Hill).

For details on Digital Forty Four, including their coverage map, see their website. (Prior testing with equipment in place is a very good idea.) See the Connect09 website for more.

Mark Dever on the difficulty of doing evangelism as a Pastor

In anticipation of their forthcoming Pastors’ Conference, the people at Desiring God have posted online some helpful short video clips of Mark Dever and John Piper.

Mark Dever on the difficulty of doing evangelism as a Pastor can be seen here – and the list of all the clips is available at Desiring God.

Preaching to the heart

Last week, Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, spoke at a preaching conference at Oak Hill College in London. His topic? Preaching to the heart.

Oak Hill has generously made the audio available on its website.

The Shack reviewed

Back in May, we linked to some reviews of ‘The Shack’ by William P. Young.

Given the popularity of the book and the number of glowing reviews available, it may be helpful to re-read the links from our earlier post.

Edwin Judge: The importance of history

The Centre for Public Christianity has made available a number of video clips from a interview with Professor Edwin Judge conducted by John Dickson.

Professor Judge of Macquarie University is a widely known and respected authority on the Roman Empire.

The segment “The importance of history” and related clips are linked on this page.

National Geographic blows it again

When I was growing up in the 1960s, my mother had a subscription to the National Geographic and I regularly perused its issues. It had a reputation as recently as the 1980s for a high degree of accuracy and the avoidance of sensationalism. Some time between then and this decade something went awry. …

– New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg. (Photo: Denver Seminary.)

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.