Church growth gone wild
Archive for October, 2009
16 Oct
Your role in the kingdom of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul offers some encouraging words to church leaders. “While always initiated and empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit, history tells us that the most powerful periods of church renewal and reformation follow the efforts of Christian leaders to teach the Word of God accurately. Certainly, the Protestant Reformation would not have [...]
15 Oct
The literary and thematic unity of Matthew 19-20
The more I preach through Matthew’s gospel account the more I see its wonderful thematic coherence. For example, it is interesting to see how scholars treat passages like Matt 20:17-19 or Matt 20: 29-34. They will say things like, “this is a late addition by Matthew borrowed from Mark or Q” or “this passage is [...]
15 Oct
Books on the Life of Paul
I am doing a bit of writing on the life and ministry of Paul and I have found that this is a fairly limited area within evangelical scholarship. There are many works on the theology of Paul but not so much on his life. I have Richard Longenecker’s The Ministry and Message of Paul and [...]
9 Oct
Chri$tian Publi$hing and the Reformation: What have we learned?
Printers played an unsung role in these early years of the reform movement, though it it not always easy to determine their motives. Many acted from deep religious convictions and risked all to produce evangelical literature for their countrymen. For others, religious sentiments combined easily with profit margins. The market for popular Reformation authors was [...]
9 Oct
Christ is muffled in ten thousand places
A number of years ago I heard a speaker quoting Eugene Peterson to the effect that there was something deficient in John Calvin’s theology, as evidenced by the fact that he was capable of writing all that high level theology in Geneva without ever once describing the glory of the Alps right out his window. [...]
7 Oct
The circus leading up to the Reformation
“The fifteenth century was the great age of preachers who moved through cities and towns, not only encouraging the people to reform their lives but also providing a good deal of entertainment” [Bruce Gordon, Calvin (Yale University Press: 2009), 11].
7 Oct
Wayne Grudem responds to Justin Taylor and Sam Storms (almost)
Justin Taylor posted a brief comment this moring following the Desiring God Conference’s round table on eschatology. Taylor stated that premillenialism is weakened by the fact that sin and death remain after the parousia. Taylor reasons: I don’t want to be insensitive to my Premillennial friends, but it struck me a few years ago that [...]
1 Oct
Not under the Law, seriously, no really I mean it
Testimony time around the campfire I once set off a fire alarm at church camp but that’s not important right now. I’m always interested to see how expositors handle the issue of the Law, especially the Decalogue. About six years ago I preached through Exodus 2o which personally brought enormous clarity to me on many [...]
1 Oct
Preaching Revelation
I have been the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Freeport for close to a year and half now. After a short topical series on “biblical preaching” i decided to take my new congregation through the last book of the Bible. The most common response i get when sharing that bit of information with others is “Are [...]
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