Category Archives: church

Time Magazine noticed us

everybody is buzzing about number 3 on Time Magazine’s Top Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now. here, let them explain: Calvinism is back, and not just musically. John Calvin’s 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism’s buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism’s … Continue reading

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contending and contextualizing

The church must both contend for truth and must contextualize truth to be effective in evangelism. Compare II Timothy 1:14 to I Corinthians 9:22. Hunter Beaumont’s diagnosis of the current evangelical moment is that we are over-contextualizing and under-contending: But … Continue reading

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church planting

As some of you know, Julie and I are in the very beginning stages of working with Bryan and Lindsey Payne to plant a Harvest Bible Chapel here in Austin, Texas. Our Facebook group is here if you want to … Continue reading

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yesterday

Yesterday we went to Origins Church. It is a church plant that only began having public worship services last September. They meet in a Holiday Inn meeting room which was nice. Meeting in that location lessens the setup and takedown … Continue reading

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James MacDonald's blog

James MacDonald is the senior pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago. He is currently in California undergoing radiation treatments for prostate cancer, but he is still updating his blog. he recently did a video post on songs that Harvest … Continue reading

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gospel centered preaching

here is Matt Chandler talking about gospel centered preaching as opposed to silly irreverent myths [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YzI7b92L8&hl=en&fs=1] p.s. I am trying to remember where I saw this and will update with a link when I remember

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generations

baptist 21 is publishing a series of articles by a guest poster, Steven A. McKinion, who is a theology professor at Southeastern Seminary. Professor McKinion is describing the heirs of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. He talks … Continue reading

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yesterday

we went to church at Austin City Life yesterday. About 80-100 of us crowded into the Hideout Theater. Turns out it was the last Sunday in that venue and next week the church will meet at the Parish on 6th … Continue reading

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missing the moment

The third of the reactions posted by Timmy Brister that I found particularly interesting is a longer read that gets to the heart of why I think this fight matters and why it is even occurring. An article at Baptist … Continue reading

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friends ride in

Timmy Brister has posted a round up of reactions to the Baptist Press article on Mark Driscoll. I found three of them to be particularly interesting. First, Ed Stetzer writes that Friday is for Friends and he says, in part: … Continue reading

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more fighting

I think that the leadership of the SBC is really misunderstanding the moment we are in historically, culturally, theologically. Here is the Baptist Press article about Mark Driscoll. Here is a response from Southeastern Seminary that just had a conference … Continue reading

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sink or faucet

are you a sink or faucet? Trevin Wax wants to know. Hat tip to Justin Taylor.

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Relevance

Joe Thorn has a quote from John Piper regarding relevance that says: As a preacher, I think a lot about relevance. That is, why should anyone listen to what I have to say? Why should anybody care? Relevance is an … Continue reading

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Francis Chan on the Church

I am reading Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. I am more than halfway finished with it and I will be posting more about it once I have finished it. I can already see that it is going to have to … Continue reading

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another helpful reminder

here is another helpful reminder from Kevin DeYoung. What’s more, lots of the people who came to church over the weekend did more than just attend. They taught Sunday school, handed out bulletins, played the guitar, stacked chairs, and held … Continue reading

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McDonald's cappucino and football

Kevin DeYoung reminds us that Jesus came for Grimace and Hamburglar too with this video: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg87E1tjTOE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] Kevin adds: I mention all of this because so much that passes for spirituality these days is nothing more than middle class, 20something coffee … Continue reading

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why church membership

why is it important to require people to “join” a church and become a “member”? Isn’t “membership” an outdated term/concept? Joe Thorn has posted some thoughts as well as an outline for his membership class. Excellent stuff. We do church … Continue reading

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willing to be hated?

Randy Alcorn asks if you are willing to be hated for what you believe. Here are some excerpts, but you have to go read the rest. especially the quote from D.L. Moody. I have heard it before, but it is … Continue reading

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congratulations to John MacArthur

John MacArthur is celebrating 40 years at Grace Community Church this weekend. Congratulations to him and thanks to God who has enabled and empowered John to do what he has done so well for so long. John MacArthur’s New Testament … Continue reading

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Moralistic therapeutic deism

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism–the New American Religion. If that isn’t a fair name for our prevailing cultural belief system, then I don’t know what is. this is an article from 2005 that I just found courtesy of Chris Turner who I … Continue reading

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moving day

january 28th was Pulpit Magazine’s moving day. they are now integrated with the shepherd’s fellowship website. Go check it out and update your blogroll/bookmarks.

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ten conclusions about preaching

if you have been following Adrian Warnock’s blog over the last month, you have seen his round up of old posts regarding preaching. These have been excellent. He has now summarized ten conclusions about preaching. Here are a few of … Continue reading

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"contextualizing" is not a dirty word

Todd Burus has done some homework regarding biblical examples of contextualizing. Go take a look. here is a bit of his work, but you have to go read the rest to see his argument and evidence: A rough definition of … Continue reading

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worshipping a figment of our own heart

Since I read Dr. Roger Olson’s article attempting to relieve God of responsibility for the I35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis Minnesota a quote posted by Todd Bumgarner from John Calvin a couple of days prior to that has been echoing … Continue reading

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our culture's effect on our faith

Al Mohler is hitting on a very sensitive topic with this post. It is a more complete picture of the effect than the slice that I was looking at in my comments to this post. I said the following: Number … Continue reading

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