My Reading List Updated

Posted on December 8, 2008

Here are a few books that I am reading and/or recently purchased.

Signs of the Spirit is a very helpful guide to Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections. Reading Edwards is difficult but worth the struggle. Sam Storms eases the struggle and promotes the strength of Edwards theology by following Edwards closely in order to identify true, authentic Christian spirituality.

Rosner is a great biblical theologian and tackles a very important topic–greed and idolatry. Greed and Idolatry is a timely, biblically rigorous treatment of texts that address greed that offers a poignant diagnosis and  biblical alternative.

A have a nasty habit of buying anything on Colossians. I used Dunn’s commentary quite a bit in my Th.M research in Colossians. Dunn offers some great technical and historical insights.

I read a couple chapters a while back and was generally impressed. There are so many shoddy books on “engaging culture.” Staub dropped a comment on my blog to say that I was reading him right!

http://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-seven

n + 1 is a stimulating journal that combines creative, thoughtful writing on a wide array of topics. I have been a subscriber from thier second year of publication.

Acts 29 Dallas Bootcamp Resources

Posted on December 5, 2008

A couple of weeks ago Acts 29 hosted a Church Planting Bootcamp in Dallas, hosted by the Village Church. The aim of these bootcamps is to assess, equip, and release church planters into planting gospel-centered, missional churches that plant more churches. The theme of the Dallas Bootcamp was Depth.

The were a number of plenary speakers and a variety of breakout sessions (see schedule here). Audio and electronic resources are being released as they are ready (I am trying to figure out how to upload my audio to wordpress). Mark Driscoll’s talk on the Mission and Vision of Acts 29 includes a clear and compelling vision for a church planting movement that keeps Christ at the center and takes the gospel to periphery of the world. My session was Spirit-led Ecclesiology: Following the Spirit thru Church Planting, which critically examined motives and methods of church planters that lean away from the Spirit-led center of church planting. This was followed by a brief biblical theology of the Spirit and practical reflections on how we can follow the Spirit through unplanned change, resistance and barriers. In short, it was a plea to not replace the Spirit with the gospel in church planting.

For now, here are the resources I have gathered:

  • Driscoll on Mission & Vision of A29                                 audio manuscript
  • Dodson on Spirit-led Ecclesiology                                    audio manuscript
  • Dodson & White on Building Missional Core Teams                notes

Preaching the Gospel from Our Past

Posted on December 4, 2008

The gospel fruit from last week’s sermon is falling off the tree. Person after person has contacted me to share how powerful the message was, how they are still thinking about it, how they were called to repentance and faith. In fact, gospel fruit is dropping all over the place. Yesterday I met with a guy who ran out of our Sunday service the first time he visited because he was so freaked by the “spiritual experience.” He was jaded and cynical but appreciated the kind of Christians he worked with. Yesterday he told me that he had been walking around with his past weighing heavily upon him, feeling that he had such a great penalty to pay. Then he said: “but then I realized Somebody paid that penalty for me. I am different. People are telling me I’m different!” This fruit is not because of great preaching but because of a great Christ. However, the greatness of Christ was more plain in the dimness of my own sin, my broken past.

The power of the Gospel to reconcile our past and present sin is all too often absent from the pulpit. Preachers hide behind the facade of professionalism, while our people struggle to understand how the incarnation really makes a difference. Our churches are longing for a little Christ in thier midst that shares their failures as well as their successes. They want to know a pastor who is truly human, so human that the need for the divine shoots through the roof. We constantly say that we are an imperfect people who cling to a perfect Christ. On Sunday, people got to see my imperfections next to the glorious perfection of Jesus Christ.

I guess this post is a reminder of the centrality of the gospel in church planting. A reminder to allow the full breadth of redemption to be experienced in our own discipleship and heard by other disciples. In the end, we are simply fellow sheep in need of the Great Shepherd. Our identity is disciple but our role is pastor, and because of that we bear the great responsibility of displaying redemption from our own stories, not just the stories of the Bible.

Sermon

Manuscript