A friend and co-blogger, Chris Campbell, introduces our very own C.J. Mahaney, who will also be speaking at the Next Conference in May 2010. I can’t wait to be there.
Tour Mark Dever's study
One of my favorite authors and Christian leaders gives a little tour of his study. Along the way you’ll discover a few interesting quirks. I expected some of them – really smart guys can be like islands of normality surrounded by oceans of idiosyncrasies. Preaching squirrels? That’s straight up strange.
Dever has a canon of theologians whose works he reads month by month, respectively, in each year. I don’t have such an organized approach, but if I did, Dever’s work (his preaching, his books, interviews, and articles) is unsurpassed in terms of what has most shaped my thinking about ministry and the gospel, especially over the past year.
Santa or no?
A few thoughts from Noel Piper on one of the most vexing theological questions of our time: what do we do with the generous, cheery, if scarily omniscient, well-fed man in the red suit?
Have you read Harry Potter?
I haven’t. Theologian and writer, Andy Naselli, recently finished the entire book series. Some people, not surprisingly, were disappointed/shocked by this and told him so. I’m certainly not endorsing the books, much less the movies (again, I haven’t seen or read any of them), but what Naselli discovered when he personally addressed each one of his objectors is sad.
I have spoken confidently against authors I’ve never read before. I can even think of occasions when, after reading more from a particular author, I realized that I caricatured and misrepresented the work. Oh, the inner bigot is ugly.
Yes, the prophets and NT writers as well were capable of outrage. But, outrage is a dangerous thing. And when outrage is not informed by the facts and the context, it either is or can come across as nothing more than bigotry. Either way, we lose credibility.
Michael Horton on leaving a legacy
From an interview with Burk Parson’s (part 4):
Considering that everyone leaves a legacy. What do you hope will be your legacy among God’s people?
My children. I hope that they’re godly young men and women–that they have families that are godly, regardless of whatever vocations they go into, I hope they are involved in their churches and that they will raise godly children–that they are excited about and in constant wonder as they behold the glory and grace of God, even though they’ve grown up in the church, and that the things of God will never become old or rote to them, and that they will love and serve their neighbor in their callings.
Blogging for Next Conference
Starting next week, I’ll be joining a team of bloggers pulled together to talk about, get prepped for and amped about the Next Conference (formerly New Attitude). Come visit the blog. Leave a comment and help us stir things up.
If you’ve been to this conference it really needs no introduction or sales pitch. It is perenially outstanding. We worship God together as we sing gospel-laden songs that help us fix our eyes on Christ. We hear excellent preaching – messages that are anchored to the text of Scripture and aimed at fueling our joy in God and strengthening our faith. We have loads of fun – lots of time to connect, deepen friendships, poke some fun, and meet new friends.
Go see the blog, bookmark it, and consider attending the conference. It’d be great to see you at the blog. But more than that, I’d love to save a seat for you in Baltimore.
Favorite authors: Andrew Peterson
I’m skating near the edge of the criteria for favorite authors because in Andrew Peterson’s case, I’ve most benefited from his songwriting, which I wasn’t planning to venture into here. Even more to the edge, I’ve only read one of his books.
I am not a big fiction reader. At least I wasn’t until recently. As our kids are getting older I find myself wanting to expose them to a broader range of good prose, good poetry, good music, etc. The hardest thing to get them hooked on is a wide range of good music. Peterson gives us some of both. Here’s a piece of a note I just sent to some friends about his work.
He has an incredibly keen eye to relate the flow of redemptive history to the gospel and the gospel to the grind of life in a fallen world. Having been through 2 of his cds and recently finished reading his novel to the boys, I’m starting to think that pretty much whatever he comes out with, I intend to get (if I can afford to).
Some places to get acquainted with his stuff:
- Resurrection Letters Volume 2
- Behold the Lamb of God (2 cd set – “live” and “remixed”; if you only picked on I’d recommend the latter)
- On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (novel, Wingfeather Saga, vol 1)
- North, or Be Eaten! (Wingfeather Saga, vol 2, just released)
Some favorite songs from the projects I’ve heard:
- Hosanna (Letters)
- All Things New (Letters)
- Invisible God (Letters)
- All You’ll Ever Need (Letters)
- The Good Confession (Letters)
- Deliver Us (Lamb of God)
- O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Lamb of God; instrumental)
Some of his songs have serious teaching potential and seem to have been written expressly for that purpose (Matthew’s Begats; So Long, Moses; It Came to Pass – more of the stuff on the Behold the Lamb of God project).
One more snippet that I think gives a sense of the man behind the work was this portion from his blog. He was talking to his band about his idea for the upcoming tour of concerts:
“The concert has two parts,” I told them. “First, we’ll break the ice by playing in the round. You do a few songs, I’ll do a few songs, we’ll tell stories and let the audience get to know us. Then after the intermission we won’t talk anymore. We’ll just play the songs.”
Now, if you’re familiar at all with concerts by Christian artists, you know that if there’s one thing we love, it’s introducing songs. Sometimes the introduction is several times longer than the song itself. Sometimes this is good, most of the time it’s bad. For the Behold the Lamb half of the concert, though, I was resolved that the songs should do the work of telling the story. I wanted the audience to lose themselves in the story (which, by the way, is a good picture of what our response to the Gospel ought to be). Let me tell you, that was a scary thought. To play ten songs in a row with narry a word between meant there was no way to gauge the audience, no way to change songs mid-set to accommodate a lukewarm crowd, no way to break the ice with a good joke. We had to trust that the story was good enough.
And, of course, it is.
I just found (yesterday) that North Or Be Eaten! was available. The boys don’t know the second book is finished yet. It should arrive next week. Can’t wait to see their faces. Can’t wait to read the book.
Kauflin on worship as counseling
Characters: David Powlison and Bob Kauflin
Context: In between sessions at the recent CCEF Conference
Question: What does our time of singing have to do with the struggles people bring into the corporate gathering?
Result: About 3 minutes of pastoral gold on the interface of worship and counseling.
