March Madness

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March Madness is upon us.  I love it.  Love NCAA basketball.  Here are my pics.

Elite Eight: Duke, Iowa, Pitt, UCLA, IL, NC, Villanova, Florida

Final Four: Duke, Pitt, IL (my team, baby), and Villanova

Duke vs. Villanova >> Villanova wins

Keller: Informational vs Experiential Preaching

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The "informational" view of preaching conceives of preaching as changing people's lives afterthe sermon. They listen to the sermon, take notes, and then apply the Biblical principles during the week. But this assumes that our main problem is a lack of compliance to Biblical principles, when (as we saw above) all our problems are actually due to a lack of joy and belief in the gospel. Our real problem is that Jesus' salvation is not as real to our hearts as the significance and security our idols promise us. If that’s our real problem, then the purpose of preaching is to make Christ so real to the heart that in the sermon people have an experience of his grace, and the false saviors that drive us lose their power and grip on us on the spot. That’s the "experiential" view of preaching (Jonathan Edwards.)

Tim Keller in "Ministering in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers, Part II"
Other Tim Keller Resources

Derek Webb-Donald Miller Chat

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PiercingDon't miss the Derek Webb and Donald Miller online chat tomorrow night. 

Joining the conversation is a sure ticket to becoming a theological liberal repackaged with a goatee.  If you are a girl, it will take a pretty significant piercing to equal goatee status.  Yes!  You can be a liberal too!  Try throwing something into your eyebrow, tongue, nose, or lower lip.  You didn't know liberalism was this easy, did you?  Lucky I'm here for you.

Saturday Night Herald

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>> Ed Stetzer's thoughts on interpreting culture.

Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone’s house. It’s just were they live.

>> You can "steal" several weeks of Bob Hyatt's slides for Sunday morning Powerpoint.  Nice resource.

>> Some of you need a good discussion board on Christians and the arts, and thankfully IAM in NYC now has a discussion board.  It's pretty new, but could be a great board with a few more active posters.  If you are into writing, painting, photography, sculpting, whatever, then check it out.  But it could also be very valuable for any Christian learning about the arts.

>> Molten Meditation is an interesting idea, and pretty well done.

>> My daughter was reflecting yesterday...

Keller: Ministry in Global Cities Pt. III

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Tim Keller continues his thoughts on ministry in world cities with his newly released article "Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers Part III."

City-center churches should have as equal as possible emphases on: a)welcoming, attracting, and engaging secular/non-Christian people; b) character change through deep community and small groups; c) holistically serving the city (and especially the poor) in both word and deed; d) producing cultural leaders who integrate faith and work in society; and e) routinely multiplying itself into new churches with the same vision. There are many churches that major on one or two of these but the breadth, balance, and blend of these commitments is rare in a church. Nevertheless, this balance is crucial for ministry in city centers.

Here are the links to Part I and Part II, and Part IV is coming soon.  Also stop by my Tim Keller Resource page.

Blog Driscoll's New Book

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

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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.