In yesterday’s review of the ESV Student Study Bible, I encouraged students to not simply own the Word of God, but have it own you. Many of you may have seen this video before, but it is worth watching again. Beautiful illustration of what I’m talking about.
OWN IT.
Bobby Gilles is one of the most gifted and effective communicators I know. He is an accomplished songwriter and story teller and heads up the very impressive communications team of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY. I have had the privilege in recent years to get to know Bobby and benefit from his work. Specifically, I have learned how he has used the Internet to spread the vision and mission of Sojourn church in very practical and intentional ways and sought to implement much of what I’ve gleaned in my own context.
Having said that, I was really encouraged to receive a message from Bobby over the weekend about the announcement of a new website intended to help churches in numerous ways, including:
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Put it this way. There are blogs I find essential for practical helps in ministry in the local church. If I want to find the best on productivity and effective administration, I go to Matt Perman’s blog, What’s Best Next? If I want to learn about practical pastoral helps, I go to Brian Croft’s blog Practical Shepherding. If I want to learn about all things worship, I go to Bob Kauflin’s blog, Worship Matters. And now, with Bobby Gilles’ new website, for help in exploring excellence in all forms of communication in the church, I recommend his blog My Song in the Night.
Add him to your RSS feed and check back regularly. Bobby knows what he is doing, and his gifts are a great asset to the kingdom!
My teenage and college years were the most formative years of my life as a Christian. It was during those years that I learned to study the Bible and develop and appetite to know God.
Yet it seemed that a lot of what people would call normal means of grace was missing in my life. The church in which I was a member was largely a-theological. Ministry was program-driven. Community was lacking. Disciple-making disciples were nonexistent (that’s what the program’s were for). Look back, I realized now that I did not know what I was missing because I had never experienced it.
In spite of the glaring absence of such means, God was kind to keep me tethered to His Word with a deep desire to know Him. It was not until college that I bought my first study Bible and learned to access tools that could assist me in my studies. If there was one resource I wish I had available to me during those formative years, it would be an all-in-one toolbox for studying the Bible. I’m glad to see that such a resource is available to students today with the new ESV Student Study Bible.
Over 100 evangelical scholars have combined their work to provide over 12,000 concise study notes, 900 helpful “did you know” facts, 120 Bible character profiles, 80 full-color maps and illustrations, and introductions and timelines for each Bible book. To be clear, our primary source of study is the Bible alone. But there are secondary sources that help us in the study of the Bible, such as concordance, atlas, commentary, dictionary, etc. And what you have in the ESV Student Study Bible is all those helpful secondary sources combined in one toolbox that is easily accessible for all students wanting to take a serious plunge into the study of God’s Word.
Christian students, we are living in a day and time when we own a lot of Bibles, but the Bible does not own us. My encouragement to you is to reject the culture Biblical illiteracy and don’t simply own another Bible. Have the Bible own you. Get the ESVSSB and wear it out. Take this incredibly well-bound and aesthetically pleasing Bible and graffiti it with your sweat and tears. Make your labors of mind and heart test the binding of this Bible and leave it with a strip of duct tape or two. Yes, get it good. Good enough to preoccupy your mind with thoughts of God, and you will never regrets the hours you spent listening to God as His Spirit makes His truths come alive in your soul.
In his book, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way, J.I. Packer has a chapter entitled “The Gospel as of First Importance.” In that chapter, Packer discusses the pastoral and formational applications of the Gospel. Many are familiar with the quote from Tim Keller that “the Gospel is not the ABC’s of the Christian life; it is the A through Z of the Christian life.” Packer writes,
“In that spirit we offer the following ‘Gospel Alphabet’–twenty-six pastoral and formative reasons why the Gospel must retain primacy as the content of Christian education” (108).
This week, we come to the letter “C”.
Paul was determined to “become all things to all people” for the sake of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:19-23). He knew that the Gospel could and should take on different cultural forms in different cultural settings. Yet when we export the Gospel to others, we may be guilty of confusing it with our own cultural trappings. For example, we know that some missionaries have been guilty of imposing their Western cultural forms on those to whom they carried the Gospel. Though this error could be conscious and express cultural imperialism, it is more often unconscious and reflects a lack of discernment about which aspects of our own Christianity are truly Gospel-driven and transcultural, and which are culturally driven and therefore variable. To help us avoid such an error, it is critical that we continually study the heart of the Gospel so that we may better distinguish the treasure we bear from the jars of clay in which we bear it (2 Cor. 4:7).
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8
Part 9 || Part 10 || Part 11 || Part 12 || Part 13 || Part 14 || Part 15
Monday: theologia crucis » theology of the cross (term used by Luther; true knowledge rest upon the hiddenness of God)
Tuesday: unio cum Christo » union with Christ (the marrow of Christian theology, the heart of the gospel)
Wednesday: viator » pilgrim or sojourner (literally “one on the way, or *in via*, describing Christians seeking city of God)
Thursday: intercessio Christi » the intercession of Christ (supplication offered by Christ as in His priestly office)
Friday: contritio » contrition (a genuine repentance arising out of filial fear and love for God)
Saturday: propheta omnibus excellentior » a prophet more excellent than all others (Jesus, in his prophetic office)
Last night, I picked up on Kindle John Piper’s latest book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (foreword by Tim Keller). I have always enjoyed reading works by Piper, but I’m especially interested in this one because of the topic and how it relates to my life and work.
There are two parts to the book: part one focuses on “Our World: The Need for the Gospel” and part two transitions to “God’s Word: The Power of the Gospel.” Needless to say, I’m eager to dive in.
A very cool addition to this new release is an 18-minute documentary of Piper and his past growing up in Greenville, South Carolina. Check out this excerpt from the documentary.
Today through Friday, I will be in Huntsville, AL for the GCM Collective National Conference. If you are unfamiliar with the GCM Collective, I encourage you to check out their website and join their online community. Their vision is simple, and I love it:
A gospel community is a group of believers that lives out the mission of God together as family, in a specific area to a particular people group, by declaring and demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms. Regular people, living ordinary lives, with great gospel intentionality. The GCM Collective is a community that allows people to exchange ideas, resources and encouragement around topics that relate to creating gospel communities on mission.
The guys behind the GCM Collective (Steve Timmis, Tim Chester, Jeff Vanderstelt, Drew Goodmanson, Caesar Kalinowski, David Fairchild, and Jonathan Dodson) have all challenged and helped me in tremendous ways in recent years, probably more than any other group outside my fellow elders. These brothers are gospel-driven practitioners who are leading churches to embrace a missional ecclesiology that is both healthy and fruitful.
If you would like to check out the conference schedule, click here. If you are attending the conference, hit me up. I’d love to connect. I will also likely be posting updates via Twitter for those interested in following.
Last Saturday evening, I had a conversation about packaging. Not packaging as in UPS packaging, but packaging as in presentation. I had a mini-rant where I expressed frustration over the fact that the guys who have the best content often times do the worst job in packaging it. Websites are goofy, cumbersome, and aesthetically off-putting (including logo, book designs, etc.). On the other hand, the guys in the evangelical world who don’t preach the gospel or hold fast to the faith are putting out the most attractive and appealing presentations (of their junk).
If you can relate to my rant and perhaps find yourself wanting a little help with the presentation of our church or ministry, let me recommend to you a new start up called Rocket Republic. They are a business that defines their mission in the following way:
The central mission of the Rocket Republic is to help kingdom pioneers effectively carry out the vision that God has placed within them. We seek to partner with churches and church planting networks to communicate the gospel to modern culture in a clear and compelling way. To that end we labor in the details of design, development, social networking and grassroots marketing.
Rocket Republic has “launch packs” geared to meet all your design, branding, and marketing needs, especially if you a new ministry or church plant. Items in the launch packs include logo marque, website design & development, Facebook pages/apps, Twitter bg’s, posters, inviter packs, palm cards, staff ID tags & lanyards, stickers, flyers, and much more. I strongly encourage you to check them out. The investment you will make in “packaging” and presentation will serve you well.
And if you have friends or know someone who could be set free from the aesthetic depravity, send them to Rocket Republic.
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In his book, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way, J.I. Packer has a chapter entitled “The Gospel as of First Importance.” In that chapter, Packer discusses the pastoral and formational applications of the Gospel. Many are familiar with the quote from Tim Keller that “the Gospel is not the ABC’s of the Christian life; it is the A through Z of the Christian life.” Packer writes,
“In that spirit we offer the following ‘Gospel Alphabet’–twenty-six pastoral and formative reasons why the Gospel must retain primacy as the content of Christian education” (108).
This week, we come to the letter “B”.
We must continually teach and learn the Gospel because even Christians struggle to believe God’s Good News. The message of the cross is both countercultural and counterintuitive. To the world it is foolishness and weakness. To our flesh it is simply too good to be true. And Satan, the devil–that accuser of the brethren–continually speaks a contradictory word to our hearts. He accuses us before God as surely as he accused Joshua the high priest (Zech. 3:1). Hearing all this we, with full knowledge of our failings, struggle to believe the truth of the Gospel. To believe it at an appropriately deep level, with an appropriate appreciation of all that it presupposes and implies, is a lifelong task. We must hear it again and again and ask God to seal its truth in our hearts. ”I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
