Justin Taylor alerted me to this, available here.
Audio of Week – Matt Chandler
Matt Chandler leads the Village Church and I came across him recently because he will be the pastoral speaker at the upcoming Desiring God Conference for Pastors.
Mark Driscoll interviewed Chandler recently. I was really helped not only in getting information, but also in being convicted about my own heart attitudes on some issues. Download here.
Total Church – 3 Strands
I’ve enjoyed reviewing and blogging on the book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.
Here are previous posts:
Post 1
Post 2
Link to Interview with Authors
Post 3
This week, we continue the post on evangelism, discussing what they call the three strands of evangelism: building relationships, sharing the Gospel, and introducing people to community. They summarize:
Like three strands of a piece of rope, our approach to mission should involve these three elements.
Think about people you are trying to reach with the gospel or would like to start reaching. Identify ideas (often very ordinary ideas) for building relationships with them, sharing the gospel message, and introducing them to the network of believing relationships. Introductions might involve nothing more sophisticated than inviting both Christian and non-Christian friends for a meal or an evening out. It is not enough to build a relationship between one believer and one unbeliever.
When considering this model, it is important to avoid imposing a supposed logical sequence. Often people ask which comes first–introducing people to community, sharing the gospel or building relationships. None need be the first; nor need progress be made in one area before you can move into one of the others. In reality, any one of the three can occur first, and all three can sometimes begin to happen simultaneously. If one strand is missing, then, in God’s sovereign plan, the rope can still hold. But it is stronger when all three are present. (p.61)
Later on they say:
Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.
I find what they are getting at here to be extremely liberating. Often, thinking about sharing my faith with others, I get this idea about awkwardly getting into some conversation about things that immediately make people uncomfortable. No relationship is involved. I am dumping truth on someone. This model, though, says, go about living your life. Be relational. And as you live life in a relational way, be intentional with the Gospel. This is something that I can relate to. I hope it encourages you in that regard too.
On a deeper level, the NT emphasis on the local church and community is upheld. Often with the evangelism training I grew up with, there was much about how to turn conversations or not an emphasis placed on my living out Gospel truth in the context of Christian community. This is very good stuff.
MM – HW Kickoff
This Friday, October 10, HomeWord 2.0 kicks off. HomeWord are Friday evening worship services that aim to expose God’s word to our marriages. If you are intersted in what happened at the first HomeWord meetings, the audio is available online. This Friday, I will deal with one verse. Chew on this for the week and we’ll meet Friday night and discuss it.
Hebrews 13:4 — “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Have a good week and may God richly bless your marriage.
Thanks Hutch Library…
I was super-interested in James McPherson’s latest book, Tried By War which is set to be released October 7. I went up to the circulation desk at the Hutchinson Public Library and asked, “I noticed on Amazon that one of my favorite authors has a new book coming out. Is it something that you will be getting in here.” The helpful lady said, “Let me check.” She looked in their database and then on Amazon and said, “Why don’t we just go ahead and order it.” I was thinking, “Because you’re the library not a bookstore.” They ordered this book simply because I requested it and, as a result, I won’t have to buy it. Anyway, they called yesterday and my book is in and I just finished reading the preface. So this book, which is due out on Tuesday, might be read by then.
They’ve also been incredibly helpful with Interlibrary Loans. I was researching sermons today for October 12 and noticed that scholars have found the actual coin Jesus referred to in Mark 12:15-16. I requested a book that has a picture of this and, if God’s providence allows, will be able to look at the very coin that Jesus might have been referring to. Pretty awesome stuff that all these service took minimal effort and the scholarship of the world can come to me (even here in Hutchinson).
So thanks Hutchinson Library! You are a blessing.
New Starbucks Drink…
At my local Starbucks today, I had the opportunity to enjoy a new drink…
A doppio (pronounced DOUGH-pee-oh) espresso long…
Here’s the concept: an espresso is pulled through longer so that more water comes through the pressed grounds.
It was nice and smooth. On Starbucks new espresso machines, the espresso drinks seem much richer. Americanos taste better. To get this doppio, just ask for a doppio long.
Where do you get your batteries?
Audio – DG National Conference
Audio, Video, Manuscript and Downloads are available for the 2008 Desiring God National Conference. The Conference theme was on Words and their powerful effect in our lives. There were 8 Main Sessions:
Sinclair Ferguson: The Tongue, The Bridle and The Blessing–An Exposition of James 3:1-12
Panel Q&A: with Piper, Driscoll and Ferguson
Bob Kauflin: Words of Wonder–What Happens When We Sing?
Mark Driscoll: How Sharp The Edge? Christ, Controversy and Cutting Words
Dan Taylor: The Life-Shaping Power of Story–God’s and Ours
Panel Q&A: with Piper, Tripp, Kauflin, Taylor
Paul Tripp: War of Words, Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake
John Piper: Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross
I’ve worked my way through about half of these sessions and they have all been excellent, convicting, thought-provoking and encouraging. Enjoy!
A couple of book recommendations…
C.J. Mahaney has written a couple of chapters in this book on worldliness. You might remember that I am preparing to do a short series on Sunday nights on this. I was really helped by this book in numerous ways: 1) It’s an easy read. Sometimes you read books and they are a bit tedious, but this reads really well. 2) It’s Gospel centered. Many books on worldliness seem to point to legalism and don’t do this or that. This holds out the beauty of what God’s Word says and then points us to the cross for all of our failures. 3) It’s very practical. With chapters related to dress, the media, music, how we are to “love the world”, and our hearts, there is much teeth to live by in this book. I would recommend it and we will be giving away a copy each Sunday night these next two months.
The other book worthy of attention is:
Stephen Altrogge has given us all such help in his book Game Day for the Glory of God: A Guide for Athletes Fans & Wannabes. Stephen blogs at The Blazing Center. This book is helpful for it’s ease of read, Gospel-centeredness and helpfulness as well. The book deals with so many things I’ve thought of but never seen fleshed out in print. Things like how God is the source of all talent, how sports provide joy, what is a way to glorify God on game day, what is the Christian response when we win or lose, and how I can parent my children properly in relation to sports. Since most of the people around me are active in sports, as I read I was thinking of how helpful this has been to me and would be to them. Therefore, I urge you to get a copy and all God to be glorified through your participation in sports. There are some videos available to watch with this as well. Here’s the page on Stephen’s website about the book.
Avail yourself to these two options and watch God affect your life through these things.
More Total Church Quotes…(On Evangelism)
I have been posting about a post a week on Total Church. The first post was some highlights from the introduction and chapter 1. Then I posted on chapter 2, community. Today, I want to quote from chapter 3, evangelism.
The authors go to some length to remind us of how speaking the Gospel is central to evangelism. But the unique feature, in my opinion, is fusing that verbal witness with a gospel community. They say:
The gospel word and gospel community are closely connected. The word creates and nourishes the community, while the community proclaims and embodies the word. (p.55)
They go on and further speak of the centrality of the cross:
This cross-love is the primary, dynamic test of whether or not we have understood the gospel word and experienced its power. Not our doctrinal orthodoxy, as important as that is. Not our ingenious strategizing, as fascinating as that is. Not our commitment to preaching, as vital as that is. Not our innovative approach to planting, as radical as that may be. It is our cross-love for each other that proclaims the truth of the gospel to a watching and skeptical world. Our love for one another, to the extent that it imitates and conforms to the cross-love of Jesus for us, is evangelistic. (pp.56-57)
I also love this quote, because it is so true in exposing my heart…
People want a form of evangelism they can stick in their schedule, switch off, and leave behind when they go home. Jesus calls us to a lifestyle of love…Ideally evangelism is not something to be undertaken in isolation. Of course, if opportunity presents itself, the gospel word should be spoken clearly and sensitively in conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit–whenever, wherever, and to whomever. But evangelism is best done out of the context of a gospel community whose corporate life demonstrates the reality of the word that gave her life. (pp.57-58)
What does all this mean? Well for me, it seems that what I’ve been wrestling with recently on our church’s centrality being in the Gospel seems to be taking shape in this. To the degree that we are centered in Christ in our community will be the degree to which our effectiveness in evangelism will be pursued. This are simply incredible thoughts to bring together. More next time on the 3 strands of evangelism: building relationships, sharing the gospel, and introducing people to community.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 206
- 207
- 208
- 209
- 210
- …
- 243
- Next Page »