Books
Here's a different approach. What are your big 5 commentaries on the four Gospels and Acts? I want your #1 commentary for each book: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. That will be a total of 5 books. If you could only have one on each book, which would it be? What's the first one a seminary student should have on his shelf? Go!
Blog Note: Please read the rules to each thread. These lists are most helpful when we all keep our lists "tight."
What are your big 5 systematic theology books?
Please, no debate on systematic or other theological methods. And limit it to systematic theology, not just any theology book you like. Obviously multi-volume systematics can be
listed as one book. Go!
What are your big 5 books on church/biblical leadership?
Resist the urge to put in books on general, secular or business leadership. I know those are very helpful, but we will have a separate list for those at some point. If they are books written by church leaders that could be used beyond church leadership, that's fine. And please don't list character books unless they are specific to leaders. This list might include books on elders, training future church leaders, leadership passages in Scripture, etc. I'll give you all a head start. Go!
List 5 books you would recommend on preaching? Think of a seminary student or newbie...what would help him? Think of a seasoned preacher...what would spice things up after years of the same process? Please no books of preaching or transcribed sermons. This should be a list of books on the art and science of preaching, on the preparation and delivery of sermons. In this post I'm thinking of preaching as the weekly public proclamation to a local church and visitors. I'm going to let you make your suggestions first before I give my list.
Which 5 books would you recommend on the topic of personal evangelism? Please stick to evangelism, not apologetics or missional church. They can be books on theology and theory or practice. I'm going to choose less obvious ones (mostly) and leave those for you all.
The Heart of Evangelism by Jerram Barrs (can't not mention this one)
Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar
Promoting the Gospel by John Dickson
The Pastor-Evangelist by Roger Greenway
The Art of Manfishing by Thomas Boston
I'm highly anticipating Andy Crouch's new book, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. You can read the introduction and first two chapters online. I heard about this book months ago and I'm eager to get my hands on it.
Go ahead, pre-order it on Amazon right now. Due out in July.
Starting a series of posts called The Big 5. They will be seeking your input on the books you would recommend on various topics, or for various reasons. For the first post: What 5 books would you recommend for a church's book table?
Your 5 should be somewhat diverse. In other words, don't give me 5 books on theology only. Mix it up. And I know you want to list more than 5, but no cheating! Don't necessarily suggest your best 5. Get creative. Mention some others won't mention.
Here are my 5, foundational-ish ones...
The Reason for God by Tim Keller
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Desiring God by John Piper
Putting Amazing Back Into Grace by Michael Horton
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney
Your turn. No need to add links unless you want to.
Chicago has once again been praised for being awesome, this time by Fast Company magazine. When we thought things couldn't get any better, the Chicago Bulls gets the top NBA pick. There was only a 1.7% chance of that. And to top it off, and this is an unbelievable achievement, Chicago also has the best gas prices (highest is best, right?).
Michael Foster: What do WE Mean by Missional Communities.
Jonathan Dodson: Living in the Tension of Mission & Community.
David Fitch: 10 Ways to Engage Mission in the Suburbs. Some great thoughts.
If you are like me and can't be at Whiteboard, there are options.
Alvin Reid has a love-hate relationship with the American Evangelical Church.
Good to hang for a couple of hours with Darryl Dash of DashHouse last night. He is in a city just north of me for a conference and decided to look me up, so we found some time for coffee. Great guy.
Care to buy Scott Lamb's 6,000 book library?
Jonathan Dodson isn't starting new ministries.
Learn how worship teams practice at Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY. They use The Planning Center.
Scott Hodge describes The Orchard's critiquing culture.
Joe Thorn pointed me to this video: "From Russia With Hate." Wow. Awful.
JD Greear is describing the missions strategy of Summit Church: Part 1, Part 2.
Resurgence interviews Matt Chandler.
Important values for Christian artists as summarized by Justin Taylor. The whole PDF.
Jeremy Pryor continues his explanation of The Story-Formed Life discipleship class...
I'm on Twitter now. Put it off for many months but am enjoying it so far. Some "essential tools," "twitter links," and "benefits." Twitter in plain English.
I've opened an Amazon bookstore for my blog. I'm building up all my recommended books there. When you buy through it I get something back.
Bob Franquiz: 10 things churches could learn from Disney.
Tim Chester: When Gideon gave a seminar on church planting.
Audio/Video of the Multi-Site Exposed conference in Seattle.
I've been out-of-pocket for a couple of days, so here's a post with just a little bit of Music Monday, Lots-o-Links, and National Poetry Month.
MUSIC MONDAY
A new video from Hot Chip. Pretty cool...
In case you didn't know, here's the reason wearing red jock straps over your pants is SO popular now...
LOTS-o-LINKS
Driscoll loves the ESV Study Bible.
John Piper: Preaching as Concept Creation, Not Just Contextualization
I love this clip. If you ever need to work on your business card envy, here's how. (WARNING: A little colorful language. This clip is for Mommies and Daddies only.)
NPM '08
Love this stuff from Borders Open Door Poetry.
Check out The Poetry Center of Chicago.
After a decisive vote last week, I NEED YOUR VOTE AGAIN! I need more votes than before! Go to the Said at Southern blog, scroll down a bit and vote for Reformissionary.
Please, everyone vote! It will result in a $50 gift certificate to Westminster Seminary Bookstore where I promise to use the money to buy copies of Keller's The Reason for God to give away to seekers and skeptics. A vote for me will help someone who doesn't know Jesus to know Him for the first time. Vote now!
This really is the mission of the church: to mobilize believers to engage every domain of society; to set in motion the radical transformation that the gospel brings to every person and sphere of life.
Bob Roberts in The Multiplying Church, p 123.
Saw Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! with the fam today. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Worth watching and discussing. Jonathan Dodson weighs in.
Joe Thorn expands on "The Table, the Pulpit, and the Square." Joe also summarizes Dever on evangelism.
Tom Schreiner, my NT prof from my SBTS days, has been interviewed. Among other issues, he speaks about his new New Testament Theology. It will have a prominent place on my shelf.
Monergism interviews Tim Keller. Keller's next book is listed on Amazon: The Prodigal God.
Scott Hodge shares a bit he is learning from Made to Stick.
After reading an interview with Michael Perry in the April issue of The Writer, I'm intrigued.
NT Wright says "Heaven is Not Our Home."
Exagorazo is talking about missional communities: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
I'm trying to make time to blog on the changes coming in my local church, and especially focus on some evangelism stuff I'm working to begin soon. Sorry it's taking so long, but it's been a nutty last few weeks. Maybe I'll blog on the nuttiness as well. Might be therapeutic for me.
"Alcohol, Acts 29 and the Missouri Baptist Convention" is a bunch of information put out by some Missouri Baptists that has finally proven, without question, that some people will never get it because they spend all their time trying to get worked up over extra-biblical issues. It's actually a very funny read for those of us who see how ridiculous it all is.
In Timothy Keller news, the Washington Post's Michael Gerson has a review of The Reason for God. It's a good one. USA Today quotes Keller, Driscoll and others on "Has the 'Notion of Sin' Been Lost?" (via Stet)
"Parks and squares aren't a luxury, but an essential feature of the urban infrastructure."
Bob Franquiz is looking to only work 4 hours a week. I've perused the book, and it looks interesting enough.
Speaking of books, how about the 2008 Christianity Today Book Awards. I picked up the "The Church/Pastoral Leadership" category winner The Call to Joy & Pain by Ajith Fernando at last year's Desiring God Conference. I like Ajith's writings and the topic was intriguing. It got buried in a stack of books, but is back on my "to read" shelf.
This looks VERY interesting to me: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures.
The top 80 church websites (because 80 is a nice round number). :)
Oh that more of us would do what they are doing in Austin for city-wide church planting.
It won't be Longfellow until National Poetry Month. It's my Gioia to blog on poetry every April. Keats your eyes open for more very soon.
Don Carson, commenting on Jesus praying in Gethsemane in Matthew 26:42-44...
In the first garden "Not your will but mine" changed Paradise to desert and brought man from Eden to Gethsemane. Now "Not my will but yours" brings anguish to the man who prays it but transforms the desert into the kingdom and brings man from Gethsemane to the gates of glory.
The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Matthew, vol 2, p 545.
As a couple trying to relate to neighbors and unchurched friends, we have found that even our home is not the first place to begin a relationship. If we invite new people over, it is usually for a cookout in the back yard, not for a dinner inside our home. The initial place is often a local restaurant that is neutral ground. Our church is not neutral ground for the unchurched. Planning evangelistic activities on campus creates and unnecessary barrier for many we are trying to reach. Our strategy needs to include locations that are neutral, common, and natural to the unchurched. We need to ask, "Where would the unchurched feel comfortable?" Rather than our own comfort being primary, we need to apply the attitude of a servant and missionary and remove unnecessary barriers to sharing the message.
Ron Bennett, "Authentic Church-Based Evangelism in a Relational Age" in Telling the Truth, Ed. Don Carson.
As Tim Keller continues his book tour and college campus talks (in Chicago last night and tonight), Veritas has put up his Columbia University talk, "Exclusive Religion in a Pluralistic Society: What are the Tensions and How Do We Move Forward?"
I'm sure many of you have seen that Keller spoke at Google. How awesome is that? Justin Buzzard was there and gave us plenty to chew on. Thanks Justin.
I did not make it to Keller's talk last night because I was at the Doctor trying to figure out what is wrong with me. He thinks I may have a touch of pneumonia. Exciting. I'm not going tonight either, unfortunately. If anyone makes it to a Chicago event, I'd love to hear/read how things go.
Quick God Story: My family is still sick, sick, sick. Unbelievable virus we are dealing with. We were all feeling better and now most of us are getting symptoms back. Our youngest now has 103+ temp again. Ugh. But all praise to God for this story. Saturday afternoon my debilitating fever and aches stopped and I had tons of energy Saturday night and plenty for the task this morning. I mean I went from the worst day so far on Saturday morning, and then full of energy and vigor Saturday evening. Then soon after gathered worship today my fever came back as did my aches and terrible cough (I didn't cough once during the sermon). There may be some medical explanation for why I had such a dramatic health hiccup, but I know WHO is getting the credit. I was truly singing this morning, "How Great is Our God."
Speaking of how sick I am, it would really help me turn this frown upside-down if someone would present me something this awesome with Joe Thorn's likeness on it. It would make my year! (HT)
When was the last time you wondered how Michael Foster would approach church planting differently? Exactly. And he promises to elaborate. I'm demanding he gets on it asap.
You need to make your way to the Vintage Jesus Newsroom, where Steve Camp goes for his devotional time.
Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, online free.
PastorHacks is into Jott (and Pinger). I've been using Jott for a while now with great success and productivity. I think Joe Thorn told me about Jott (I had to say that because he will speak harshly to me this week if I don't mention it. I don't like it when Hobbits get mean, especially when I'm sick.).
I may have mentioned this before, but Piper/Bethlehem's accountability stuff is worth checking out.
You should check out Abraham Piper's crazy little experiment of a blog. Alas, he is his father's son. (Only four more words.)
Speaking of numbers, Baptist Reformed types will probably not like Scot McKnight's new article, "The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel." Why? It's one short. I actually haven't read it yet, but McKnight is always worth reading (even when tragically wrong!). No heckling me please. I'm sick.
Here's Eugene Peterson at the 2007 Writer's Symposium by the Sea (isn't that where George McFly first kissed that chick from Howard the Duck?). The story he tells about Bono is worth the whole thing. (HT)
I've been taking camera phone photos of The Reason for God as I find it out and about. I'm encouraging you to find Keller in your context so when you recommend the book you know who has it on the shelf.
