Matt Chandler Suffers Well
Pastor Matt Chandler was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor back in December…since then he has had opportunities to bring glory to God and advance His kingdom in ways that he would have never imagined. He wouldn’t have wished this trial upon himself but He has embraced God’s sovereign plan and in so doing he stands as a great example to us all.
The AP ran an article on Matt and his family and it’s being published around the world – pray that God uses it well.
Matt Chandler Pre-Surgery Talk
Matt Chandler, pastor of Village Church in Dallas, TX. talks candidly about his upcoming brain surgery. I encourage you to watch this and ask the Lord if there are areas of your life where you aren’t trusting Him.
via Video from Matt.
Lesslie Newbigin – Born 100 Years Ago Today
Read a great article at Christianity Today about a pioneer in the faith, Lesslie Newbigin. We owe much of our modern missional thinking to this man and his innovative thinking.
Christmas Tips for Dads
Mark Driscoll gives 16 Daddy Christmas Tips in this article on the Resurgence blog -
’Tis the season for Dad to drop the holiday ball, stress out as the money is being spent for presents, and miss yet another providential opportunity to lovingly lead his family. So, this blog is intended to help dads not fall into the same old rut of holiday humdrum, sitting on the couch watching football and eating carbs, but rather intentionally plan out the upcoming holiday season. Our children grow quickly and if we miss the sacred moments God opens up for us to connect with and bless our families, everyone suffers and we set in motion generations of missed opportunity.
Dad needs…
- a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?
- to check the local guides for what’s going on to make fun holiday plans for the family. In Seattle it’s here.
- to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is your calendar ready for December?
- to not let the stress of the holidays, including money, cause him to be grumpy with Mom or the kids. Dad, how’s your joy?
- to give experiences and not just gifts. Dad, what special memories can you make this holiday season?
- to manage the extended family and friends during the holidays. Dad, who or what do you need to say “no” to?
- to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt and bless?
- to schedule a big Christmas daddy date with his daughter. Dad, what’s your big plan for the fancy daddy date?
- to schedule guy time with his son. Dad, what are you and your son going to do that is active, outdoors, and fun?
- to help Mom get the house decorated. Dad, are you really a big help to Mom with getting things ready?
- to ensure some holiday smells and sounds. Dad, is Christmas music on the iPod, is the tree up, and can you smell cookies and cider in your house?
- to snuggle up and watch some fun shows with the kids, especially the little ones. Dad, is the DVR set?
- to take the family on a drive to see Christmas lights while listening to music and sipping cider. Dad, is it mapped out?
- to help Mom get the kids’ rooms decorated. Dad, do the little kids get lights or a small tree in their room?
- to read about Jesus and pray over his kids. Dad, how’s your pastoral work going with each of your kids?
- to repent of being lazy, selfish, grumpy, or just dumping the holidays on Mom. Dad, are you a servant like Jesus to your family?
Ambition Conference Audio
Last week I attended an Acts 29 Conference (church planting bootcamp) at Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY. As I said in my summary of the conference the messages were amazing and well worth listening to.
The audio of the sessions is now available
If you only listen to one message then make it Matt Chandler’s wrap up session on Ministry for the Long Haul.
Chandler Interview – Part 1
Dustin Neeley, Pastor of Crossing Church in Louisville, KY interviews Matt Chandler about church planting , preaching, and leadership.
Seasons of a Church Life
Mark Driscoll (Pastor of Preaching at Mars Hill Church in Seattle and President of Acts 29) wrote a great article about the different seasons in the life of a church. I liked it so I thought I would it post here for your reading enjoyment. (more…)
Great Article by Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll is now writing for the Washington Post and here is his first article…it’s about the fact that Christianity at its core is about Jesus.
Period.
You can read the article here.
The Pastor Scholar
This article written by Dr. Philip Ryken, senior minister at the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, is a brief history of John Calvin and his amazing ministry. (more…)
A Worldly Christianity?
I wanted to pass along the latest entry in The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal, written by Dr. Art Azurdia
It’s called “A Worldly Christianity?” and it’s very good.
“The title of this issue of The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal—even posed as a question—may arouse a bit of consternation in some. In truth, it is not my intention to be provocative. It is my intention to capture a dialectic that defines the essence of authentic Christianity.
What do I mean? On the one hand, as followers of Jesus Christ we are exhorted to keep ourselves “unstained from the world” (Ja 1:27). Moreover, we are informed that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (Ja 4:4). On the other hand, none of us can deny that God Himself loves the world (Jn 3:16). Nor can we ignore Jesus’ repeated self-identification as the one whom the Father has “sent into the world” (Jn 10:36, et al).
Do these statements seem a bit antithetical? Contradictory, perhaps? The apparent contradiction becomes even more glaring when one considers the various expressions of the Great Commission (each of which—it would do us well to remember—was uttered by the resurrected Christ):
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Ma 28:19)
Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mar 16:15)
. . . the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations . . . you are witnesses of these things (Lu 24:46-48)
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you (Jn 20:21)
. . . you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)
At the risk of seeming pedantic, I draw these obvious references to your attention to establish the basis for a clear and simple assertion: the commission of Jesus Christ is to a worldly Christianity. In His mind, at least, these are not mutually exclusive concepts. To the contrary, as His followers we cannot hope to be authentically Christian without being meaningfully worldly. Acknowledging this, however, requires us to recognize that evangelicals in nearly every generation (including ours!) have repeatedly succumbed to two practical distortions that have severely undercut our influence in the world.
The first distortion is cultural gluttony. It is sinful compromise with the world—the consequence of being missional without being theological. Often masked in the guise of desiring to win the world, we rabidly pursue likeness to the world. Over time, unfortunately, the world’s values, objectives, and desires, become our values, objectives, and desires. Cultural gluttony is the act of consuming the culture until it forms us. The present condition of American evangelicalism serves to handily prove our susceptibility to this distortion.
The second distortion is cultural anorexia. It takes the form of a radical and decided withdrawal from the world—the consequence of being theological without being missional. Since we are determined not to let the world shape us, we isolate, insulate, and withdraw. Before long the Church evolves into a kind of enclave, a ghetto, an island of irrelevant piety, and eventually we lose the ability to speak to non-Christians. Worse yet, our hearts become filled with a compassionless indifference toward such people. Arrogance eventually emerges. Missionary endeavor finally disappears.
Can you identify with this experience? To succumb to such a distortion is an amazingly simple and subtle phenomenon. It often occurs unintentionally in the life of a pastor who, over time, becomes consumed exclusively with church ministry. The tyrannous demands of the pastorate allow him no time for meaningful engagement with unbelievers. Not uncommonly, this replicates itself in his congregation, which sadly comes to exist as a haven from the world rather than as leaven within the world.
Allow me to remind you, dear brothers, just as I must remind myself: The sphere of our mission is the world. At the very least this must mean that our reaction to cultural gluttony must never take the form of cultural anorexia, precisely because Jesus Himself commissions us for the world. It is, then, our great task as pastors to persuade our people away from fear; to convince them that it is a great day to be a Christian. We are alive at a time when people are being destroyed by sin as never before, and the truth belongs to us—the truth that can conquer any perplexity modernity or postmodernity may set before us. We have the gospel. We have the promise God made to Abraham that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. We have the fulfillment of that promise in Revelation 5, where we read that Jesus purchased human beings for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Consequently, we must seek to inculcate into our people the biblically-informed confidence of the hymn-writer:
This is my Father’s world;
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world;
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
and heaven and earth be one.1
At this critical moment in history we must not allow our congregations to lose their nerve and flee the culture, justifying themselves in expressions of pseudo-piety. We must convince them that it is Jesus Himself who sends us into the culture; not in service to the culture—in the sense of helping it achieve its own ends—but in a divinely subversive way, infiltrating the culture with the kingdom of God and the gospel.
As you are about to discover, all the features contained in this issue of TSFJ (articles, sermon, interview, historical reflection, quotes, book reviews) seek in some way to address this exceedingly complicated responsibility facing the church of Jesus Christ. Its conclusions/suggestions may not prove comprehensively satisfying. It is my prayerful hope, however, that they will stimulate your own critical thinking regarding this important matter . . . for the glory of God, the reformation of the church, and the good of the world.
So bear with the title—“Worldly Christianity.” Why? To imitate Jesus means a commitment to be authentically Christian and meaningfully worldly.”
You can read more of the Spurgeon Fellowship Journal here.
For a more developed look at this topic I recommend the book Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian
Gospel Coalition: Tim Keller
Tim Keller is one of the most brilliant preachers of our day. He understands the gospel…He understands our culture and he understands how to engage our culture with the gospel.
If you haven’t read his books Reason for God or Prodigal God…you are really missing out.
Tim opened the Gospel Coalition Conference in Chicago yesterday. The Resurgence blog is making all of the speakers notes available and Tim’s were so rich I wanted to share them with you.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry”
Paul’s preaching was effective: it changed people’s lives to such an extent that it even changed the culture. The reason for this is that Paul confronted idols.
Confront Idols
You can’t preach the gospel effectively if you don’t challenge idols. Paul always challenged people’s idols in his preaching. In Acts 17, Paul went to the Agora, the marketplace, which is where the idols of that culture were formed. In our culture, the marketplace is not shops and busy streets, because that’s no longer where culture is formed. For us, challenging idols in the marketplace means going to Hollywood, Harvard, and the New York Times—the places where ideas and beliefs are shaped.
Every culture, gender, class, city, field of work, etc., has its own idols. Idolatry is anything I look at and say, “If I have that, my life has value.” Anything that is so central to your life that you feel you can’t live without it is an idol. Idolatry is making a good thing an ultimate thing. Because Paul saw idols everywhere, he was a really effective preacher. Like Paul, we need to discern, expose, and destroy idols in order to preach the gospel.
3 Kinds of Idols You Have to Expose to Preach the Gospel:
- Personal Idols
- Religious Idols
- Cultural Idols
Personal Idols
- Money can be an idol, especially in the business world. Everyone recognizes this as the idol of Wall Street. (All over New York City, child sacrifice is going on. If you want to succeed, you have to sacrifice your family. If you’re going to get the money and power, you must sacrifice your children. Jobs are set up that way.) How do you do your job without bowing down to it—how do you demythologize money? Only by living in the gospel.
- Romance is another idol. This is when you look to your lover or spouse for worth. Only they can make you feel valuable. You cannot lose this person. People who have a good marriage must constantly fight this idol, constantly looking to Jesus and finding their satisfaction in Jesus more than their spouse.
- Self-expression is an idol of the artistic community.
- Children can be idolized when you find your significance and meaning in your children. You know you’re worth something if your children turn out well.
Unless you understand personal idols, your counseling, pastoring, and mentoring is going to be superficial. You won’t really be able to help people. As Luther said, there’s a reason the first of the Ten Commandments is about idolatry. You never break commandments 2-10 without first breaking number 1. You cannot understand moral failings or psychological problems without understanding idolatry.
Religious Idols
- Those who worship religious idols think they are devoted to God, but they’re not.
- Truth can be made an idol. Are you resting in the rightness of your doctrine rather than the work of Jesus? If so, the Bible calls you a fool. In Proverbs, “the scoffer” is a person like this. The scoffer is always sure he is right, and always disrespectful, disdainful, and mocking toward his opponents. The internet breeds scoffers, because if you’re a scoffer you get more traffic to your blog.
- Gifts can be an idol. You can mistake spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit. Especially if you are successful in ministry, you can begin believing in justification by ministry: “I know I’m in God’s will because my ministry is going well.” Many of us in the Reformed world make an idol out of being a great preacher: “If I could just be a great preacher, then my life would have significance.”
- Morality is a religious idol. It’s typical for Christians to feel like that God loves them and will bless them because of their moral record.
Cultural Idols
Evangelicals love to talk about cultural idols. We look back at the idols of the Enlightenment: the elevation of human reason, the belief that reason/science will solve all the world’s problems. Today we see the idol of individualism. We attack Western individualism, but in many traditional cultures family is an idol—so you have honor killings, women treated as property, etc. In individualistic cultures like our own, the individual is an idol. No one can tell anyone else they’re wrong, no one can impose their beliefs about God on anyone else.
Any ideology can be an idol: free-market economics, communism, socialism, democracy, liberalism, etc.
Confronting Idols Is Dangerous
When idols are opposed, it’s dangerous. Idols are violent. Through idols, the powers and principalities control us. If you oppose them, you take your life in your hands. Paul risked his life to oppose them; he rested in Jesus, who had already given his life to defeat the principalities and powers. Jesus defeated the idols both objectively and subjectively through the cross:
- Objectively: Punishment for our adultery and reconciliation with God were fulfilled in Jesus.
- Subjectively: We remember that none of our idols can die for our sins. Our idols will always crumble under the weight of our expectations. Only by living in the power of the cross, exulting in the cross, and proclaiming the cross can we be fearless and free from the power of idols. You must learn how to take the gospel to the idols.
You can watch or listen to the sessions from the Gospel Coalition the next day here. You can also watch today’s sessions live here.
Darrell Bock on studying the gospels
The Resurgence caught up with Darrell Bock at the recent Christian Book Expo. In this video he gives a quick synopsis of how to study Matthew-Luke as opposed to John.
[vimeo 3852520]
Interview with Dr. James Earl Massey
The following link is an interview with Dr. James Earl Massy, a distinguished African American pastor and author. The interview is conducted by
Dr. Art Azurdia for the Spurgeon Fellowship Journal.
click here for interview with Dr. Massey
If you are a pastor I encourage you to read this article as I think it has some great insight for modern day preachers and teachers.
Mark Driscoll on Nightline
Mark Driscoll is probably one of the more polarizing figures within Christianity. He appeals to young people like few pastors do but also offends people like few pastors do (yes there are pastors that ruffle more feathers than I do).
That being said I really appreciate Mark’s candor and his relevant approach to preaching and ministry.
This video gives a little glimpse into Mark’s style and what God is doing at Mars Hill Church where he pastors. It is my prayer that we at Calvary can reach our respective culture and context as effectively as they have.
For further discussion on this check out this link
[youtube 9oyHtsU5z9U]
Tim Keller Lecture at UC Berkeley
I am really beginning to love Tim Keller and this lecture given at UC Berkeley is no exception. His intellectual approach to Bible preaching and apologetics probably isn’t for everyone but he is really connecting with people who are looking for real answers to tough questions.
[youtube C9fmKSwuoDE]