You've seen lots of videos for songs about bands on the road with crowds, backstage goofing off, etc. This is Delta Spirit's road song, "Golden State." It's not only a great son, it comes from one of the best live bands I've ever seen. I can't recommend their music enough: History From Below | Ode To Sunshine.
Thom Yorke, uh, dances and sings "Lotus Flower." Dude, The King of Limbs is a great Radiohead album. Buy it | Stream it FREE.
The great benefit of open-air preaching is that we get so many newcomers to hear the gospel who otherwise would never hear it. The gospel command is, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," but it is so little obeyed that one would imagine that it ran thus, "Go into your own place of worship and preach the gospel to the few creatures who will come inside."
Lectures to My Students, p 255 | Charles Spurgeon
No sort of defense is needed for preaching out of doors; but it would need very potent arguments to prove that a man had done his duty who has never preached beyond the walls of his meeting-house. A defense is required rather for services within building than for worship outside of them. Apologies are certainly wanted for architects who pile up brick and stone into the skies when there is so much need for preaching rooms among poor sinners down below.
Lectures to My Students, p 254 | Charles Spurgeon
It was as blessed day when Methodists and others began to proclaim Jesus in the open air; then were the gates of hell shaken, and the captives of the devil set free by hundreds and by thousands.
Once recommenced, the fruitful agency of field-preaching was not allowed to cease. Amid jeering crowds and showers of rotten eggs and filth, the immediate followers of the two great Methodists [Whitefield & Wesley] continued to storm village after village and town after town. Very varied were their adventures, but their success was generally great. One smiles often when reading incidents in their labours. A string of packhorses is so driven as to break up a congregation, and a fire-engine is brought out and played over the throng to achieve the same purpose. Hand-bells, old kettles, marrow-bones and cleavers, trumpets, drums, and entire bands of music were engaged to drown the preachers' voices. In one case the parish bull was let loose, and in others dogs were set to fight. The preachers needed to have faces set like flints, and so indeed they had. John Furz says: "As soon as I began to preach, a man came straight forward, and presented a gun at my face; swearing that he would blow my brains out, if I spake another word. However, I continued speaking, and he continued swearing, sometimes putting the muzzle of the gun to my mouth, sometimes against my ear. While we were singing the last hymn, he got behind me, fired the gun, and burn off part of my hair." After this, my brethren, we ought never to speak of petty interruptions and annoyances. The proximity of a blunderbuss in the hands of a son of Belial is not very conducive to collected through and clear utterance, but the experience of Furz was probably no worse than that of John Nelson, who coolly says, "But when I was in the middle of my discourse, one at the outside of the congregation threw a stone, which cut me on the head : however, that made the people give greater attention, especially when they saw the blood running down my face; so that all was quiet till I had done, and was singing a hymn."
Lectures to My Students | Charles Spurgeon
I've been given the chance, thanks to the fine folks at Dutton Books (@DuttonBooks) to GIVEAWAY TWO COPIES of Dr. Timothy Keller's newest book, King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus (Kindle | audio). It will be released on February 22nd. This is also the first book to have the Redeemer imprint, for books about faith and ministry in global culture. Pretty exciting stuff at full price, but you get the chance to WIN A FREE COPY!
Here's how it works...
STEP 1: Copy & share the following without the quote marks on Twitter (if you aren't on Twitter, use Facebook, or do BOTH!): "Want a FREE copy of King's Cross by Tim Keller? RT this & comment at Reformissionary to enter! http://bit.ly/g9eGgh "
STEP 2: Leave a comment below (so I can verify you did step 1). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners. For fun, guess the number of books (from my library) sitting on my desk right now. It's between 1-100.
I will randomly choose 2 winners in the late afternoon/early evening on Friday (18th).
GO! (And check out my page filled with other Tim Keller Resources)
Some helpful stuff for "reluctant evangelists," or any Christian! Here are 5 of them, but go read all "10 Commandments for Reluctant Evangelists." Would you change any? Add some? Delete some?
1. Shut the lid on your computer.
2. Get out among people. When Jesus saw the crowds he was moved with compassion.
3. Set aside a regular time/s each week to share the gospel. Don’t come home until you do.
7. Be accountable to someone to stay on track.
8. Spend time with people who share their faith and make disciples. Learn from them and catch their heart.
All the buzz this week has been about Albert Pujols and whether or not he will get a contract worth signing from the Cardinals before Spring Training. His set deadline for noon today is almost upon us and sources say talks are over, apparently meaning there will be no new contract and Pujols may play elsewhere next season (or move elsewhere this season? Can you say Cubs? C'mon!).
Whatever happens, with Pujols all over the news, this may be the perfect time to pick up Pujols: More Than The Game from my friends Scott Lamb and Tim Ellsworth. It gets beyond the money and stats to the man and his faith. Also check out the website, and follow @PujolsBio on Twitter.
I'm learning & growing to be the pastor of my family I've been called to be, and I'm enjoying leading them better in family worship and Bible reading. The recent Desiring God Pastor's Conference message by Joel Beeke on family worship was convicting and encouraging. You should check it out.
Right now we have five main resouces for family worship &/or Bible reading (singing resources aren't listed). For the most part our kids read Scripture in the morning and we use the other resouces at night. Let me know what resources you have found helpful in the comments below.
1. The Bible | Each of our kids has their own ESV Bible (compact Bible for my boys, my daughter has a prettier one). They are reading James every day in the mornings, sometimes on their own and sometimes with me and/or Molly.
2. ESV Study Bible | Same text with notes that help the family when we need a few interpretive helps on a passage. We have a copy permanently stationed in our living room for the kids to open if they need to check notes on their own. They don't do this much yet, but will get the hang of it.
3. The Story of God for Kids | Created by the good folks at Soma Communities in Tacoma, Washington. My family LOVES this. Well written and helpful notes for using it well, good questions to help it sink in. I have been reading it off my Kindle to them. Last night Elijah was peppering me with questions as he is piecing together the larger "Story of God" from the lessons blending together. Wonderful resource. Check out their other resources for adults and small groups.
4. Operation World: A Prayer Guide to the Nations | Eye-opening for our kids as they learn about the world and the needs of the world from a missionary perspective. They love to thumb through the pages and learn about a new country. We are putting little biographies of missionaries in their hands and they want to learn about those countries today. We want to teach them to pray BIG prayers to our BIG God for our BIG world. UPDATE: Commenter reminded me of Window on the World, an Operation World of sorts for younger kids. We have that and the kids like it a lot.
5. Four Holy Gospels | Just got this in the mail yesterday. It's the most beautiful Bible I've ever seen, with artwork by NYC artist Makoto Fujimura. Our family was able to meet Mako and attend the Crossway Books release event for the project. We now plan on using the Bible at least once a week (Sundays) to take turns reading aloud from a Gospel together before we leave the house to gather with our local church. It's nice to add a substantial piece like this into our family worship & Bible reading that will last through the years as a family treasure.
Check out Jared Wilson's post on how he creates Scriptural prayers for his people each month and how they end with a Trinitarian address, "We pray these things in Your Son, by Your Spirit, and for Your glory: Amen." Love this kind of stuff.
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New Tim Keller resources for you...
Here are the performances of Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, and then both of them backing Bob Dylan at the Grammys. Love it...
It is Valentine's Day and Radiohead loves you. 
The King of Limbs is what Radiohead is calling their new album. Pre-order it and download it this Saturday.
Digital download: $9 for MP3 or $14 for WAV uncompressed. Another option is the $48/$53 world's first (perhaps) "Newspaper Album"...
Radiohead's new record, The King Of Limbs, is presented here as the world's first* Newspaper Album, comprising:
- Two clear 10" vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve.
- A compact disc.
- Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.
- The Newspaper Album comes with a digital download that is compatible with all good digital media players.
- The Newspaper Album will be shipped on Monday 9th May 2011 you can, however, enjoy the download on Saturday 19th February 2011.
- Shipping is included in the prices shown.
- One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12" vinyl.
Love this new video preview for Sojourn Music's new duel EP release from Brooks Ritter and Jamie Barnes (I posted on it last week). It's beautifully done. (via) If you are looking for a church to be an example of leading in the arts and developing a community of artists without bailling on the gospel or deep theology, look to Sojourn & Sojourn Music.
If you haven't checked out the Puritan Reformed Journal (from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) before, I suggest you grab a subscription. The seminary gave me the two most recent copies at the Desiring God Pastors Conference and so far it's outstanding...
1. It's book size rather than magazine size. Great for shelving and referencing rather than sticking it in a magazine file. And it deserves book space.
2. It covers more categories than most theological journals.
The issues I have contain at least 3 articles in each category, often 4 or 5, at times even more. So that's 20+ articles plus reviews & endorsements. And because of the wide variety of articles and categories, this isn't just a journal for scholars. From Reformation 21: "I have increasingly been finding theological journals rather esoteric, philosophical and generally unhelfpul (with some exceptions, of course), but PRJ is a fine blend of confessional, experiential and practical theology."
3. The articles I've read so far are really strong.
For example, Joel Beeke's "The Age of the Spirit and Revival" was a big help for my current sermons on revival. Joe Thorn read and recommended to me for my studies "Preparationism as Taught by the Puritans" by Cor Harinck and "An Uncommon Union: Understanding Jonathan Edward's Experimental Calvinism" by William M. Schweitzer. I've yet to read "Samuel Davies: On of America's Greatest Revival Preachers" by John E. Skidmore or "Jonathan Edwards and A Divine and Supernatural Light" by Kevin C. Carr. Tons of great stuff just for my current series.
Yet revival only covers a small bit of the articles. There are articles on specific Scripture passages, comparing confessions of faith, concerning Jeremiah Burroughs on worship, considering the relevance of John Bunyan for today, on raising a spiritual family with Jonathan Edwards, on theological writing, and tons more.
*****
There is no theological journal I've seen that I've been this excited about. Themelios is another one I enjoy, it's free and has some great content. But I feel compelled to plug PRJ for putting together an outstanding offering to the church out of a rich, reformed, Puritan heritage. A subscription is $20 a year.
...Asahel Nettleton in America knew the importance of communities praying for each other. At Milton he urged the Christians to pray for revival but then added ' Whether you do or not, it is possible there may be one, for Christians in other places have agreed to pray for you'! This is a reminder than in our praying for revival we should never be parochial and long for the touch of God only for ourselves; we must pray for those churches that do not pray for themselves, as well as for those that do.
Brian Edwards, Revival: A People Saturated With God, p84
Check out the other books on revival I'm using for my current sermon series.
On February 22nd Sojourn Music (Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY) is releasing a dual EP with two Sojourn artists, Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter. It's 10 new songs available for download on the 22nd, 2 EPs of 5 songs each: The War (Ritter) and The Mercy Seat (Barnes). I've had it for a week and have listened multiple times through the whole thing. It's exactly what I've come to expect from Sojourn and these two great artists -- truth, beauty, creativity, worship. It's just great & already a family favorite.
Here's an interview of both artists (via) which includes a song from each EP. MJ Butterworth already has a review up, and check out the great artwork...
If you know The New Pornographers, this video will be hilarious & awesome. If you don't know them, it will be hilarious & awesome...and this song will probably win you over to their music. One of the best music videos I've seen in a long time. Some famous folks throughout and a fake movie trailer to start.
Here's the video for "Moves" from the excellent album, Together.
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