Blog Driscoll's New Book

in

UPDATE: They already have more than 75 requests.  The offer is closed.
_____

Confessions_1 Don't miss this opportunity to get Mark Driscoll's new book for free.  If you will blog review Confessions of a Reformission Rev. (here's mine) Zondervan will send you a free copy.  Only the first 75 bloggers who email them get the book, so get on it!  From Mark Driscoll's blog...

If you are a blogger and are willing to write a review of the book, Zondervan will send a free copy to the first seventy-five bloggers who ask. Your review does not need to be favorable and this may be a good way for some of you to take a good whack at me free of charge.

Go to Driscoll's blog for more info.

Crash-lash

in

Crash_1Roger Ebert has a curious article on "The Fury of the Crash-lash."  It seems that calling "Crash" a better movie, which Ebert does, is considered more than a little homophobic.  He gives a helpful response.

The nature of the attacks on "Crash" by the supporters of "Brokeback Mountain" seem to proceed from the other position: "Brokeback" is better not only because of its artistry but because of its subject matter, and those who disagree hate homosexuals. Its supporters could vote for it in good conscience, vote for it and feel they had made a progressive move, vote for it and not feel that there was any stain on their liberal credentials for shunning what "Crash" had to offer.

Salukis Win MVC

in

Salukis_1Let's give it up for my alma mater!  The Southern Illinois Salukis won the MVC basketball tournament and are now heading to the NCAA tournament. Go Dawgs!  On a related note, an SIU cheerleader fell on her head and was carried off on a stretcher.

Waldo As students, my friends and I would go to every home game.  My roommate would dress up like the "Where's Waldo" guy and walk around the stadium.  Then we would hold up a sign saying "Where's Waldo?"  College fun is the best.

FYI, I met my wife, got married, and became a Christian at SIU.  Good times.

Things I Feel Like Saying...

in

Last night Joe Thorn and I were able to go out to dinner with each other, and more importantly our hot wives.  It was a pretty expensive place, but we were able to handle about half of the bill with a gift certificate.  Wow, it was good.  We talked for about 3 1/2 hours.  I hope everyone has friends you like to be with for long dinners and conversation.  "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God." Ecclesiastes 2:24

I've been thinking for a while about posting mini-reviews of some of Tim Keller's articles and sermons that are available online.  Then I can link each mini-review to the article/sermon on my Tim Keller Resource page.  I want to do this 1. Because I want to keep wrestling with his ideas, and 2. Because I want to continue to help others find Keller's stuff.  Might be fun.  We'll see if I get anywhere with the idea.

Yesterday I broke my pinky toe on my left foot.  Second time I've done that.  I keep forgetting to walk around door-jams.  Now I'm in a good deal of pain and will be for at least a few weeks.  Bummer.  You know 1 Corinthians 12 is so much easier to understand when you lose use of your little toe.  You realize how even the smallest parts of the body are so crucial.

A few weeks ago our 5 year old was running through the house (he sometimes calls himself "Dash" from The Incredibles) and ran into the vacuum.  It's pretty normal for our kids to crash and burn as they run through the house.  But he was obviously in some pain.  So I grabbed him up and put him on my bed.  He was bleeding pretty bad and he basically sliced the whole tip off one of his toes.  The tip was dangling and I looked at Molly and said, "I think it's going to fall off."  My son heard and responded with all seriousness and blubbering, "OH, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"  I think he takes 1 Corinthians 12 even more seriously than me.

Our cat was declawed this past Monday.  We got him back Wednesday, and he reopened a toe wound (sheesh, what's going on with toes in our house).  So he had to go back to the vet for a day and a half to keep him from reopening more wounds. 

Two days ago I went to the doctor for the second time in 5 weeks because I've had a cough going on 4 months now.  About 4 days a week I cough hard enough to give myself a massive headache.  I've been on antibiotics and Claritin, now I'm on an asthma inhaler.  I don't think it's working, but still have almost two weeks left to see if it has an effect.  The doctor also had me go in for a chest x-ray at the hospital.  I'll hear back about that soon, I suppose.  What a week.

Amos Lee's self-titled CD is amazing.  I'll probably post more on it someday.

My wife made orange chicken for lunch today with a chopped salad (I LOVE chopped salads) with some sort of orange vinaigrette dressing and it rocked like a hurricane.  Dang, she is awesome.

Okay, that's enough.

Choices

in

I was leaving the house today while my family was sitting at the kitchen table coloring.  I said, "Goodbye, I love you!"  My 9 year old daughter called back first, "I love you. Make good choices."  Besides being the funniest thing I've heard in a while, it was actually very good advice.

Pastoring and Planting

in , ,

I'm re-listening through some of Keller's online sermons and talks.  You can find them on my Tim Keller Resources page.  Whether you are pastoring (like me), planting a church or a church leader, Tim Keller's talk on church planting, "Why to Plant Churches," is very helpful.   I really like how he explains the value of new churches, not only as a way of effective evangelism, but also as a way to strengthen established churches in the area.  Check it out.

Last.fm

in

TurndownthesuckI noticed last.fm a few days ago via Joe Thorn.  Now Joe has a post up on it.  It's a free music player that plays according to your musical preferences.  So for example, I tell it I like Rogue Wave, Wilco, and The Avett Brothers and it plays music from these guys as well as from groups and singers who are in the genre ranges of the ones I like.  Pretty cool. 

You can skip songs you don't like (even block them so they won't be played again) and mark the ones you really like.  There is much more to the site than this, but this should be reason enough to check it out.

Story About Tim Keller in NYT

in , , ,

In today's New York Times there is a story about Tim Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian called "Preaching the Word and Quoting the Voice".  Great stuff.  Some excerpts...

Dr. Keller "has grasped the strategic significance of the city, of theurban culture and the need to engage that very diverse culture at every level," he said. "Our culture is urban-driven."

[...]

Observing Dr. Keller's professorial pose on stage, it is easy to understand his appeal. While he hardly shrinks from difficult Christian truths, he sounds different from many of the shrill evangelical voices in the public sphere. "A big part is he preaches on such an intellectual level," said Suzanne Perron, 37, a fashion designer who is one of many who had stopped going to church before she discovered Redeemer several years ago. "You can go to Redeemer and you can not be a Christian and listen to that sermon and be completely engaged."

[...]

An important lesson that Dr. Keller said he had tried to convey to other pastors is that the hard sell rarely works in the city. Becoming a Christian in a place like New York, he said, is more often the product not of one decision but of many little decisions.

"One decision might be Christianity is more relevant than I think," he said. "Or, here's two Christians that I don't think are idiots."

[...]

His church's main goal, Dr. Keller said, is to teach pastors how to truly love the city, rather than fear its worldly influences. Unlike many evangelicals, Dr. Keller advocates an indirect approach to change.

"If you seek power before service, you'll neither get power, nor serve," he said. "If you seek to serve people more than to gain power, you will not only serve people, you will gain influence. That's very much the way Jesus did it."

Tim's son, Jonathan, has commented on the article...

Redeemer does not aspire to fame. In fact, Redeemer did not want the article done but the journalist was going to do it whether or not Redeemer helped him to write it. And what better way to make sure there are less errors in reporting than to participate? So there it is in the Times. Hopefully it does not have an harmful repercussions. Redeemer is happy to fly under the radar of the majority.

For more from Keller, visit my list of Tim Keller resources.

(HT on the NYT article: Chris Giammona)

New Acts29 Boot Camp Audio

in ,

New Acts29 Boot Camp audio (Feb 2006) is now online.  I haven't listened to any of it yet, but I can already highly recommend Driscoll's Reverse Engineering Your Life and Daniel Montgomery's workshop, The Functional Centrality of the Gospel.  I know Daniel (pastor of Sojourn in Louisville, KY) and we talked over lunch at the Dallas Acts29 Boot Camp about the gospel.  I'll go out on a limb and say his talk should rock. 

Jesus Kegs for the Thirsty

in ,

Christ planned to attract people to himself through the transformed lives of his people.  It's understandable that we feel chafed by what media giants say about us and the things we care about, and that we crave the chance to tell our own side of the story.  It's as if the world's ballpark is ringed with billboards, and we rankle because we should have a billboard too.  But if someone should actually see our billboard, and be intrigued, and walk into the door of a church, he would find that he had joined a community that was just creating another billboard.

[...]

Culture is not a monolithic power we must defeat.  It is the battering weather conditions that people, harassed and helpless, endure.  We are sent out into the storm like a St. Bernard with a keg around our neck, to comfort, reach, and rescue those who are thirsting, most of all, for Jesus Christ.

Frederica Mathewes-Green in "Loving the Storm-Drenched," (now online) Christianity Today, March 2006, p 39.  Pick up a copy.

Coppenger and Blue Like Jazz

in ,

Joe Thorn has a great response to Mark Coppenger's all too typical (and not all that thoughtful) take on Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz.

I have to say I am disappointed with the review. Not because it iscritical of BLJ, but because it seemed to superfically critique the book. It often boiled down to judging Miller’s motives, rather than engaging his ideas.

Look, I am less interested in defending Miller, and more interested in a real interaction with another’s words. Like with everyone I read Miller says things that I don’t like. But he also says some things that are true and very timely. Maybe there isn’t just a faddish love for the book; maybe there is also a faddish reaction against it.

If you have not read the book or heard the critque be sure to give each a try. Just be discerning with both.

Listen to Coppenger's talk.

Driscoll: Church, Gospel & Culture

in , , , , ,

From Kevin Cawley, the audio from the first Acts29 Boot Camp has been resurrected.

I consistently get emails in response to my Missional Ecclesiology readers guide asking if I'm aware of any sermons/conference lectures that treat these issues in a systematic fashion. Beyond the excellent A29 Boot Camp sessions (2005) and the (forthcoming) A29 2006 Boot Camp sessions, the only real source I'm aware of is, to my knowledge, no longer accessible on the internet. It is an old (the first?) church planting boot camp at Mars Hill. I got another email today asking the same question, and so I decided to upload these sessions in hope that others will benefit from them as I have.

The sessions below are some of the best comprehensive teaching I have heard on the theological foundation of the church and a practical implementation of a missional ecclesiology. I downloaded these sometime in late 2000 or early 2001...

Church, Gospel, & Culture part 1
Church, Gospel, & Culture part 2
Church, Gospel, & Culture part 3
Church, Gospel, & Culture part 4
Church, Gospel, & Culture part 5
Church, Gospel, & Culture part 6

See You At The Pole

in ,

Great story about a former stripper turned married mom who has a ministry to strippers and pays for lap dances in order to tell the strippers about Christ.

"I understand the culture of these girls. They respect that," saidVeitch, whose work has received national and international media coverage.

In a posting on the ministry's Web site, Veitch said she was a successful Las Vegas stripper but inwardly feared that her lifestyle was a ticket to hell.

She began attending church, became a Christian, went to beauty school and got married. A year ago, she began reaching out to sex industry workers.

She has an ally in Matt Brown, her pastor at Sandals Church of Riverside. The 1,700-member Southern Baptist congregation is contributing $50,000 to her ministry this year.

Spurgeon on Church Planting

in , , ,

My buddy Kevin Cawley has a great Spurgeon quote up today.  It's helpful for church planters, but should be just as encouraging for any Christian and church.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” John 12:32

Come, ye workers, beencouraged. You fear that you cannot draw a congregation. Try the preaching of a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour; for this is the greatest “draw” that was ever yet manifested among men. What drew you to Christ but Christ? What draws you to Him now but His own blessed self? If you have been drawn to religion by anything else, you will soon be drawn away from it; but Jesus has held you, and will hold you even to the end. Why, then, doubt His power to draw others? Go with the name of Jesus to those who have hitherto been stubborn, and see if it does not draw them.
 
No sort of man is beyond this drawing power. Old and young, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, depraved or amiable — all men shall feel the attractive force. Jesus is the one magnet. Let us not think of any other. Music will not draw to Jesus, neither will eloquence, logic, ceremonial, or noise. Jesus Himself must draw men to Himself; and Jesus is quite equal to the work in every case. Be not tempted by the quackeries of the day; but as workers for the Lord work in His own way, and draw with the Lord’s own cords. Draw to Christ, and draw by Christ, for then Christ will draw by you. 

American Idol-aters

in

If you are an American Idol-ater like my wife and me, you probably noticed the voice and sass of Mandisa.  She was the one ripped on my Simon who said they would need a bigger stage, but then they showed her later forgiving him because of Jesus.  She said, "I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you." 

Well Mandisa worked at LifeWay (SBC resources) and now sings at some Beth Moore stuff.  Read about her at BP.