Stout Voices…

While attending an Igniting Ministry training event at First United Methodist Church in Williamstown this past Saturday, I picked up some of their literature available to its members and visitors. One of those documents contained the following:

Good words for us all to remember and put into practice.

Technorati Tags: UMC, Stewardship Covenant, FUMC Williamstown

Practicing our faith in the world requires our deepest resolve, our greatest faith, our unwavering trust, and a very, very large measure of God’s grace.

Three Simple Rules
A Wesleyan Way of Living
by Rueben P. Job

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Sometimes we read or hear about healthy churches or what it takes to be one. So when I recently saw the title of this book, What is a Healthy Church Member?, it intrigued me. Though I’ve not exactly thought of it this way, it does makes sense that to have a healthy church would require that the church (the congregation) have healthy church members or at least enough to have a positive impact on the spiritual life of its members and surrounding community. In other words, working only on church “systems” to create a healthy church isn’t enough unless that includes creating and maintaining healthy disciples. As soon as I finish up some other books I’ll have to dig into this one.

The book’s author, Rev. Thabiti M. Anyabwile, is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman Islands. He holds BA and MS degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University. The chapters of his book are listed below:

• A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Theologian
• A Healthy Church Member Is Gospel Saturated
• A Healthy Church Member Is Genuinely Converted
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Evangelist
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Committed Member
• A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Growing Disciple
• A Healthy Church Member is a Humble Follower
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Prayer Warrior

Amazon Book link: What is a Healthy Church Member?

Rev. Anyabwile’s Blog: Pure Church
First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman Islands

Conference presentations for your listening pleasure…

Knowing God with the Psalmist (Craig Cabaniss)

Audio Presentation

Expressing Emotion with the Psalmist (Thabiti Anyabwile)

Audio Presentation

Glorifying Christ with the Psalmist (Mark Dever)

Audio Presentation

Enduring Hardship with the Psalmist (David Powlison)

Audio Presentation

Living Life with the Psalmist (Bob Kauflin)

Audio Presentation

Source: Worship God 08 Conference

Technorati Tags: WorshipGod08, Worship God 08

Four Friends… One Passion… Together for the Gospel

View the 2008 Conference Slideshow

List of audio presentations: t4g.org/08/media/

Technorati Tags: T4G, Together for the Gospel, T4G 2008

As a new lay speaker, having just completed the course last month, I was asked if I would speak at Red Hill UMC and Murphytown UMC, both pastored by Rev. Sue Jones and who would be attending Annual Conference in June. Initially, I thought to myself I’m not ready for this so soon after taking the basic laying speaking course. Then I thought, “if you didn’t want to speak, why did you take the course?” Well, I envisioned myself more as a teacher of a small class than a congregational speaker. Nevertheless, I changed my mind and accepted the offer to speak.

What an awesome responsibility! What an honor and privilege to bring God’s word to God’s people. Did I feel adequate? No way! However, over the last two to three years I’ve had an intense desire to learn more about our Christian faith. Through lots of Bible reading and study, Disciple Bible classes, Sunday School class, Men’s Group study, other books and audio/video presentations I’ve learned a lot. Drawing on this learning and on materials I had written and shared with my Sunday School class I put together my presentation. Being somewhat of a procrastinator (ok, more than somewhat) I didn’t pulled it all together until the day before I was to speak.

The day to speak came yesterday, Sunday, June 8th. Having had to do some public speaking/training during my Navy career I had gotten over the fright of speaking many years ago. That said, I had not had any significant public speaking engagements for over 20 years. I had ask Pastor Scott, my Sunday School class and the members attending early service to remember me in prayer. They must have done a good job of it as I got through it ok. I hope the fine folks I spoke to got through it ok as well. I’m sure that I was more blessed by the experience than those who heard me. Red Hill and Murphytown are both wonderful small country churches and the folks there were very gracious to me, especially considering that what I thought was a 15-20 minute presentation actually turned into about 40 minutes at Red Hill. When my wife Teri told me I had spoken that long I couldn’t believe it. So long in fact that Teri and I were about 10 minutes late getting to Murphytown because of it. In the drive over I quickly cut out parts of my presentation and Murphytown folks only had to listen to me for about 30 minutes.

I hope in some small way I brought the great folks of Red Hill and Murphytown a blessing in the message I delivered. I know my wife and I were very blessed to be among them. If I ever have the opportunity to speak there again, I promise to keep the message shorter.

As I was searching on Amazon.com for a book about the Atonement, I found this book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, written by Timothy Keller. So I bought it and a book about the Atonement. I’ve not finished reading it but have read enough to know it is a thoughtful book on the topic of God and skepticism. If you have a son or daughter (any family member or friend) wrestling with doubt about Christianity or perhaps they have adopted the current post-modern view that all truth is relative, this may be a good book to share with them.

Why does God allow suffering in the world?

How could a loving God send people to Hell?

Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive?

How can one religion be “right” and the others “wrong”?

Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God?

These are just a few of the questions and doubts even ardent believers wrestle with today. As the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts” skeptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. And in The Reason for God, he addresses each doubt and explains each reason.

Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and reasoning to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

…the issues in the public discourse around Christianity have become much more complex than they were in the mid and late 20th century. The questions are now not just philosophical (e.g. Is there evidence for God’s existence?) They are also now cultural (Doesn’t strong faith make a multicultural society impossible?), political (Doesn’t orthodox religion undermine freedom?) and personal. Also fifty years ago, when C.S. Lewis was writing, there was general agreement that rational argument and empirical method were the best ways to discover truth. That consensus has vanished.

Related Links:
Timothy Keller: Yes, I wrote a book

The Reason for God Reader’s Guide [PDF]

The Reason for God web site [good resources here]

Technorati Tags: Tim Keller, skepticism, christian, apologetics

On May 7th a group of concerned Evangelicals published a ‘manifesto’ that they had worked on for three years in an effort to reclaim the term Evangelical and its meaning. At this time I simply wish to present to readers several links for your perusal. I’ve read the full document and there is much I agree with–it is a good document. Some well-known people have become signatories and some have not for various reasons.

An Evangelical Manifesto - Executive Summary

An Evangelical Manifesto - Full Document

An Evangelical Manifesto Web Site

A critique by Albert Mohler Jr

Albert Mohler Jr - Continuing the Conversation

A critique by Alan Jacobs, Wall Street Journal

Technorati Tags: Evangelical Manifesto, Evangelical, Protestant, Christianity

Dr. George Grant, senior minister of Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, and director of the King’s Meadow Study Center, has written an article titled The High Call of Service (TableTalk Magazine, May 2008) which is partially quoted below. It is a good reminder that we should all be about our Father’s business by serving others.

John the apostle admonishes us accordingly, “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). In the biblical scheme of things, love is something we do, not just something we feel. Mercy is something we extend, not just something we intend. Hope is something we must act on, not just something we harbor. Our orthodoxy (right doctrine) must be matched by orthopraxy (right action). Our life together must be marked by both Word and deed.

This does not by any means minimize the primacy of the Word of God in the Christian life. It is simply a recognition that God’s truth will always bear incarnational, tangible, and demonstrable fruit.

The entire article may be read here: The High Call of Service.

Technorati Tags: High Call of Service, George Grant, TableTalk, Ligonier Ministries

The title of this post may sound odd or even a bit negative to our post-modern pluralistic ears. However, there are some things in life that we ought to be very careful about and perhaps not be so easily accommodating. One of those things are the varied voices seeking to corrupt or alter the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Burk Parsons, editor of TableTalk magazine and minister of congregational life at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida used that same title in an article in the June 2008 issue of TableTalk, a monthly periodical of Ligonier Ministries and R. C. Sproul. Part of what Parsons had to say is quoted below:

Our enemy’s supreme deception is in his attempt to convince us that he doesn’t exist. Toward that end, he has launched his assault against us with every weapon in his carefully fashioned arsenal. Perhaps his greatest success is in persuading us that being open-minded is a good thing. For it is precisely when we accept the notion that open-mindedness is a Christian virtue that we fall into the same devilish trap by which our first parents [Adam and Eve] were ensnared.

Once our minds are open to open-mindedness, all ideas, no matter how absurd, can come and go as they please — with our sanction. We thus become headless and brainless philosophers who just want to get along. Once such philosopher and self-proclaimed theologian has written: “So I believe we have radically to rethink our understanding of the place of Christianity in the global religious picture. And we have to face the fact that it is one path amongst others, and then reform our belief-system to be compatible with this. This is the big new challenge that theologians and church leaders have yet to face. We have to become consciously what are called religious pluralists.” This is the mantra of religious pluralists: Liberate your mind, lose your faith, and feel the love.

R. C. Sproul states in another article in the same issue: “It is the Christian’s duty to hold firm to the uniqueness of God and of His Christ and not to compromise with the advocates of pluralism.”

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). This does not mean that we should allow ourselves to become smug or self-righteous. Robert Rothwell, an associate editor of TableTalk magazine, says in another article in the same June 2008 issue:

Finally, we must love those who in this pluralistic culture do not yet trust Christ. Let us pray for their salvation and preach the Gospel, but may we never see them as nonentities or mere ideas that need refuting. Befriend them. Do good to them. Go the extra mile and understand their concerns, hopes, and fears (1 Peter 2:15). Since God loved us when we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), can we do any less than to love those around us?

Technorati Tags: pluralism, christianity, R C Sproul, Burk Parsons, Ligonier Ministries, TableTalk