Gospel
Here's Tim Keller's Gospel Coalition Conference message: "Gospel-Centered Ministry" (also video). You should already have it if you subscribe to the Resurgence podcast. Check out the rest of my Tim Keller resources.
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I got this from Justin Taylor, and I understand it to be the final version of The Gospel Coalition's Foundational Documents. I have made it into a pdf file and hosted it on my blog. I have compared it to other copies that have been online for a couple of days and there are some changes, though they appear minor.
Colin Adams (Unashamed Workman) has started a series of posts called "Ten Questions for Expositors." His first interview is with Tim Keller.
I'm copying Mark Moore's post rather than rewriting it...
Justin Taylor has posted a link to an article about a Christian rapper who performed at John Piper's church. Taylor's post simply read:
Curtis ("Voice") Allen writes in Boundless about the fallout of his rapping at Bethlehem Baptist church. I pray that God would give me a similar sort of humility and graciousness.
Allow me to be honest. I thought to myself, "Oh great! A bunch of Baptists upset over something else." With that thought in mind, I clicked the link to read the article and find out what the griping was all about--assuming that it had to do with thumping beats and dancing. The first part of the article confirmed my suspicion. The second part of the article humbled me and moved me almost to tears. I have never seen such cross-centered humility.
If you want to know how to deal with criticism in a way that is gospel-centered and boasts in the cross, then I highly recommend you read this article called An Emcee's Gentle Word.
I read it and agree in full. Great article and response to criticism.
I first heard through Charlie Pharis that Tim Keller (Tim Keller Resources) has an article in the Cutting Edge, a Vineyard church planting publication, but it wasn't online. Now it is. Read Keller's article on "Our New Global Culture: Ministry in Major City-Centers." Looks like some other good articles there too, and Cawley has a list of Keller's points.
Ed Stetzer interviews Mark Driscoll for the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference) podcast. Want to know more about "the cussing pastor?" Want to know more about Driscoll's church, prayer life, struggles with sin, history with Emergent guys, or preaching? This is a great way to find out from the horse's mouth instead of the latest blog gossip. Great info. Very encouraging.
Grab it at the Exponential site, or on iTunes. The whole series of podcasts has been helpful.
Time Magazine interviews Al Mohler about his Calvinism in relation to his health: "A Calvinist Faces Death."
(HT: JT)
More Tim Keller stuff is up at the Christian Life Conference site.
How the Cross Converts Us
How the Cross Changes Us
How the Cross Unites Us
I linked yesterday to The Cross and Suffering
FYI, the DA Carson and Walt Kaiser audio is from the conference last year, as the dates show.
Hear Tim Keller's message "The Cross and Suffering," just fresh up on the web. The Christian Life Conference is going on there as I type. They will put up other audio here.
Find more Keller stuff on my Tim Keller Resource page.
As I was listening to a sermon by one of my favorite living preachers tonight, I thought I should give a short list of my favorite preachers of 2006. As a preacher I get great reward from hearing the preaching of others. Not only because it helps me learn what good preachers do and say, but because I get the Gospel over and over again.
These five preachers have been my Gospel teachers over the past year more than anyone else. I subscribe to their sermons and/or podcasts. They are in no particular order (except for the first one).
Tim Keller
The sermons of Dr. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, have haunted me for a couple of years now, but never so much as in 2006. He has a number of free sermons on the web that I link to on my Tim Keller Resources page. I also have a paid subscription to the weekly preaching at Redeemer, which includes mostly Keller sermons but others as well at Redeemer.
Keller's sermons are intellectual, a little more sedated than I normally like, and very reasonable. What is best about Keller's preaching is his simple explanation of the Gospel and truth. My Gospel vernacular is forever changed because of his sermons.
Bottom line: there is no other sermon resource that has so deeply challenged and changed me. Get on board.
Rick McKinley
Rick McKinley is the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland. On the surface Rick awakens my inner surfer. Is that an accent? Whatever it is, it works. McKinley is great on Kingdom and Gospel issues. He also speaks both practically and pastorally about simple and difficult issues alike. I rarely hear him preach without feeling compelled to get up and love my neighbor.
You can grab his podcast or find his stuff at Sermon Cloud or Imago Dei.
Matt Chandler
Matt Chandler is pastor of The Village Church near Dallas. He is a passionate guy with a solid handle on Scripture, quick wit, and compelling application. His sermon, "Gravity," is easily the most important message I heard in 2006 (video here). Matt is my wife's second favorite preacher next to me (I have to say that, don't I?).
Check out the sermon database for Chandler's sermons or find his podcast at iTunes.
Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll, a little known pastor in Seattle (Mars Hill Church), has been a life-changer for me. Mark preached to my wife and me at least once a week in the first half of 2006. We would put on one of his sermons while doing "sabbath" on Mondays in my home.
Driscoll keeps you listening though his humor (which is sometimes over the top), but his content and theology are what feeds. What he often does best is kick your butt with the truth and open your eyes to the grace of Christ. We have been so thankful for what we have learned through Mark.
Find his sermons at the MHC site, get his podcast, watch his sermons.
Rob Bell
Rob Bell is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids. Bell is a great communicator and may be better known for his Nooma videos.
I'm sure a few people will gasp at my listing of Bell in my favorite preachers of 2006. Doesn't he have theological issues? Doesn't he waver on hell and love McLaren (which for some is essentially the same as wavering on hell)?
I don't agree with everything I've heard in Rob Bell's sermons (same goes for any preacher). But I've listened enough to know this guy loves Jesus, strives for Scripturally accurate sermons, and aches to see lives changed by the Gospel. So even if Bell hiccups on occasion, I can't help but be challenged and compelled to faithfulness through his preaching.
Find his sermons and podcast feed at the MHC site.
I don't know if I've linked this before, but just in case here's Tim Keller's message at the Desiring God Conference, "The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in the Postmodern World."
Hamo (Andrew Hamilton) over at Backyard Missionary has some good thoughts (not earth shattering, but good) in his three part series, "Some Thoughts on Missionary Work in Suburbia." He discusses six building blocks.
Post 1...
1. Proximity - being near people
2. Regularity - spending significant time together
Post 2...
3. Depth - going beyond the fluff in relationships
4. Conflict - being prepared to disagree and realise that’s ok and necessary
Post 3...
5. The Message - we need to speak about who we are, and why
6. The Supernatural - ultimately it still comes down to a work of God
Post 4...
Going a little deeper with the above six points
I finally got around to reading Scot McKnight's 30 page paper on the Emerging Church, "What is the Emerging Church?," that he presented at WTS. It once again proves that McKnight is one of the most important voices speaking about (and within) the Emerging Church. I highly recommend you read it if you any interest in understanding the EC.
If you haven't read Tim Keller's All of Life is Repentance, please do. Read it even if the topic doesn't tickle your toes at the moment. Very helpful on the Gospel, "religion," and repentance.
Find more Keller stuff at my Tim Keller Resource page.
Faith brings and gives Christ to you with all his possessions. Love gives you to your neighbor with all your possessions.
Martin Luther, in Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol 1, pg 34.
Love for our neighbors...like love for ourselves, involves something vastly more significant than the meeting of individual needs. It involves God's reaching out in us and through us to build a kingdom, a sphere of rulership, in which his will is done in the fallen world as it is in the sinless heavens; in which cruelty and disorder and the distortion caused by sin are supplanted by love, order and righteousness. Loving obedience to God produces much more than individual goodness, respectability and the alleviation of suffering. It builds the kingdom of heaven.
Richard F. Lovelace in Renewal as a Way of Life, p. 40.
Challies has posts with content from the Desiring God conference messages (mostly relaying content in his own words) of Tim Keller...
There has to be a lifelong process of realizing the wonder of thegospel. Religion gives you control which is why it's so popular. Religion is "I obey, therefore I'm accepted." The gospel is "I'm accepted, therefore I obey."
...and Mark Driscoll...
John Calvin was not just a contender but a contextualizer, so we must redeem what it means to be a true Calvinist. When persecution happened in Europe, people flocked to Geneva. Calvin trained them and then sent them out to share the gospel. If you are a true Calvinist you are not just a contender, but also a contextualizer.
9Marks Ministries (Mark Dever) has a new set of articles up about the "missional" church (see left side of their homepage). Jonathan Leeman's article, "What in the World is the Missional Church?," is most prominent and includes history, quotes and thoughts from Guder to Stetzer. You may find his article and others at 9Marks worth reading, and at least an honest attempt of baptist reformed types who desire to understand "missional."
An obvious problem with Leeman's article is that he didn't even mention Tim Keller. Keller is a reformed conservative (as is 9Marks & Dever) and so discussing Keller should have been essential, and maybe even central to this article. On top of that, missional thinkers admit they owe much to Keller's writings, sermons, conference messages and local church example. So in my mind, regardless of some of the thoughtful things Leeman says, missing Keller is missing "missional." It's disappointing.
D.J. Chuang puts his life in danger when he posts "Why I Like Keller More Than Piper." Okay, not really. It has little to do with comparing the two. But it's a good post on the reasons why D.J. (I think he speaks for many) likes Keller a lot. Here's his points, but please read his whole post for his quotes and explanations.
