I just launched a George Whitefield Resources page. As I searched the internet I found various, helpful resources in various places. I hope this page will serve you well by trying to bring all the links and books and journals and letters to one place. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Lee Gatiss has edited George Whitefield's original 57 published sermons into two large volumes (976 pgs, Crossway). You can get the hardcover set for $40+ from WTS or $33+ from Amazon...OR $9.99 FOR KINDLE! That's a deal! From Crossway...
Gatiss includes careful and extensive footnotes detailing the historical and theological background to Whitefield’s preaching, which puts the man and his messages into context for a new generation of readers. The text has also been updated for the twenty-first century with modern grammar, spelling, and punctuation - revised in a manner that leaves Whitefield’s distinct voice intact and coherent for today’s reader.
From George Whitefield's A Collection of Hymns for Social Worship...
A Hymn to the Holy Ghost
(Extracted from the Ordination-Office.)
COME HOLY GHOST, our Souls inspire,
And lighten with Celestial Fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost the sev’nfold Gifts impart.
Thy blessed Unction from above
Is Comfort, Life, and Fire of Love,
Enable with perpetual Light
The Dullness of our blinded Sight.
Anoint and cheer our soiled Face,
With the Abundance of thy Grace.
Keep far our Foes, give Peace at Home!
Where thou art Guide no Ill can come.
Teach us to know the FATHER, SON,
And thee, of both to be, but One;
That through the Ages all along
This, this may be our endless Song;Praise GOD, from whom all Blessings flow,
Praise Him all Creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host,
Praise FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST.
The Vespers have a new official music video for "Lawdy," off one of my family's favorite albums of year: The Fourth Wall.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that George Whitefield was "the most neglected man in the whole of church history. The ignorance concerning him is appalling" (pg 105 here). He's one of the great dead guys that I am spending some time studying. This page exists to bring together various Whitefield Resources: journals, sermons, letters, biographies, websites, etc. My hope is to create a resource page of every known good Whitefield resource for my readers. Thank you for sharing it through social media, linking to it on your website or blog, etc. If you find resources I'm missing, please email them to me so I can add them.
UPDATE 9.12.12 | Not sure for how long, but The Sermons of George Whitefield (2 Vols, 976 pages, ed. Lee Gattis, footnoted, modern grammar) is $9.99 for Kindle.
In Print...
NEVER REPRINTED: Sermons of George Whitefield (via Quinta Press)
Whitefield/Wesley Exchange...
Tons of photos, sketches, artwork, locations, etc., from Quinta Press...
I lot of music stuff on the blog this week. Can't help it. It's all too good. Two more music posts today. First, The Avett Brothers play Kimmel with two new songs from The Carpenter (released today). Love getting quality live recordings from the Kimmel stage. First, "Live & Die," then "Febraury Seven."
More great $2 Tuesday deals from The Good Book Company this week. A couple gems...
Some fantastic bands have new albums out today. I've already picked up the first two. Here are some I think you should think about checking out & picking up...
One of the great discoveries from my time just prior to and during Soma School was the Story of God, or Story-Formed Way, that Soma teaches. It was, for me, life-changing. It's something we are working through at Doxa starting in a few weeks.
Set to themes and teachings in the Story-Formed Way, Soma has offered for some time now The Story Volume 1 at "name your price" rates, meaning donation or free. I'm excited to share with my readers that The Story Volume 2 is now out, and is also for donation or free! I've just started listening to it and I'm already loving this album and the way it triggers in me a love for God's Story.
I embedded it below so you can listen to it here and click to download and/or share it. Would love to see many others embed this on their blogs so this gospel-saturated Story can be in the hands of many others.
Stream the new Band of Horses album, Mirage Rock, for free. You can buy it September 18th.
New song from Mumford & Sons, "I Will Wait," with footage from their Red Rocks concert (a beautiful venue in the Denver area). This is exactly why Mumford & Sons fans love Mumford & Sons. (HT) Babel comes out on September 25th. Sigh No More is $7.99. Crank it UP!!
A whole bunch of good albums are streaming free at the moment. May I suggest you try out The Dandelion War. I'm quite interested in that one. You should know that I consider Grizzly, Avett, XX to be must-listens. But try out some of the new names you see. I've listened in part or in whole to all of these and they are worth checking out...
Another attempt at mass internet evangelism toward atheism via CNN & Richard Dawkins. We need to be aware...it's game on with this stuff. We need to beware not to react as mere culture warriors, but have answers for the hope that's within us. If you missed the Bill Nye video, it's worth checking out too.
John Piper on George Whitefield again, on the acting of preaching as "real acting" (bold is mine)...
If a woman has a role in a movie, say, the mother of child in a burning house, and as the cameras are focused on her, she is screaming to the firemen and pointing to the window in the second floor, we all say she is acting. But if a house is on fire in your neighborhood, and you see a mother screaming to the firemen and pointing to the window in the second floor, nobody says she’s acting. Why not? They look exactly the same.
It’s because there really is a child up there in the fire. This woman really is the child’s mother. There is real danger that the child could die. Everything is real. And that’s the way it was for Whitefield. The new birth had opened his eyes to what was real, and to the magnitude of what was real: God, creation, humanity, sin, Satan, divine justice and wrath, heaven, hell, incarnation, the perfections of Christ, his death, atonement, redemption, propitiation, resurrection, the Holy Spirit, saving grace, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation with God, peace, sanctification, love, the second coming of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth, everlasting joy. These were real. Overwhelmingly real to him. He had been born again. He had eyes to see.
When he warned of wrath, and pleaded for people to escape, and lifted up Christ, he wasn’t play-acting. He was calling down the kind of emotions and actions that correspond with such realities. That’s what preaching does. It seeks to exalt Christ, and describe sin, and offer salvation, and persuade sinners with emotions and words and actions that correspond to the weight of these realities.
If you see these realities with the eyes of your heart, and if you feel the weight of them, you will know that such preaching is not play-acting. The house is burning. There are people trapped on the second floor. We love them. And there is a way of escape.
Read or listen to the rest of Piper's powerful talk on Whitefield. A great example and explanation of what preaching should be like. I don't think we do this well, not nearly well enough. Maybe this kind of preaching would change the face of Christianity in America and the western world today. Maybe it's not just the *how* of preaching but the *where* that would enact this change.
What do you think?
From J.C. Ryle's "George Whitefield & His Ministry" as a brief bio in the front of Select Sermons of George Whitefield (also found here), we get a picture of his open-air preaching and the church culture that pushed him toward it (bold in the text is mine)...
Two months after this Whitefield began the practice of open-air preaching in London, on April 27, 1739. The circumstances under which this happened were curious. He had gone to Islington to preach for the vicar, his friend Mr. Stonehouse. In the midst of the prayer the churchwardens came to him and demanded his licence for preaching in the diocese of London. Whitefield, of course, had not got this licence any more than any clergyman not regularly officiating in the diocese has at this day. The upshot of the matter was, that being forbidden by the churchwardens to preach in the pulpit, he went outside after the communion-service, and preached in the churchyard. ‘And,’ says he, ‘God was pleased to assist me in preaching, and so wonderfully to affect the hearers, that I believe we could have gone singing hymns to prison. Let not the adversaries say, I have thrust myself out of their synagogues. No; they have thrust me out.’
From that day forward he became a constant field-preacher, whenever weather and the season of the year made it possible. Two days afterwards on Sunday, April 29th, he records: ‘I preached in Moorfields to an exceeding great multitude. Being weakened by my morning’s preaching, I refreshed myself in the afternoon by a little sleep, and at five went and preached at Kennington Common, about two miles from London, when no less that thirty thousand people were supposed to be present.’ Henceforth, wherever there were large open spaces round London, wherever there were large bands of idle, godless, Sabbath-breaking people gathered together, in Hackney Fields, Mary-le-bonne Fields, May Fair, Smithfield, Blackheath, Moorfields, and Kennington Common, there went Whitefield and lifted up his voice for Christ.
FOOTNOTE: The reader will remember that all this happened when London was comparatively a small place. Most of the open places where Whitefield preached are now covered with buildings. Kennington Oval and Blackheath alone remain open at this day.
The gospel so proclaimed was listened to and greedily received by hundreds who never dreamed of going to a place of worship. The cause of pure religion was advanced, and souls were plucked from the hand of Satan, like brands from the burning. But it was going much too fast for the Church of those days. The clergy, with a few honourable exceptions, refused entirely to countenance this strange preacher. In the true spirit of the dog in the manger, they neither liked to go after the semi-heathen masses of population themselves, nor liked any one else to do the work for them. The consequence was, that the ministrations of Whitefield in the pulpits of the Church of England from this time almost entirely ceased. He loved the Church in which he had been ordained; he gloried in her Articles; he used her Prayer-book with pleasure. But the Church did not love him, and so lost the use of his services. The plain truth is, that the Church of England of that day was not ready for a man like Whitefield. The Church was too much asleep to understand him, and was vexed at a man who would not keep still and let the devil alone.
Check out the new website of Beau Crosseto that includes other authors like JR Woodward (he posted on it today), James Choung, and others. What is Release the APE? I'm glad you asked...
Release the APE is all about activating the Apostolic, Prophetic, and Evangelistic vocations into the world. We are committed to telling real time APE stories, sharing thoughts that shape the APE, and encouraging believers to live into APE vocations so that all the potential for God movements can be unleashed everywhere.
You may know A.P.E.S.T. from Alan Hirsch's books & teaching. That's where the APE comes from. Who should read the blog? Here's their list
I align with several camps: I'm baptist. I'm reformed. I'm missional. Etc. This looks like a good site for the missional camp to engage, so I'll be reading. Would love to know what you think about their site as the first couple of posts have gone up: "Release the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic" Part 1 & Part 2. Also check them out on Twitter, Facebook.
The xx: Coexist is out next Tuesday, but streaming in full and free on Reformissionary today. Enjoy! By the way, it's great as an audio backdrop for work, reading, etc.
Tuesday is when new albums come out, and here are some worth checking out this week...
Animal Collective: Centipede Hz | Their 2009 album, Merriweather Post Pavilion ($5 right now!), earned the #2 album of 2009 spot for me. It's getting good reviews.
Two Gallants: The Bloom & The Blight | Forgot about this one too! Loved it while it was streaming. Now buying it. It's like Jack White & Nirvana & The Black Keys created a band.
Deerhoof: Breakup Song | Some of the quirkiest music out there. It won't be your favorite album for reading a book, but these guys are clever and interesting and cool. You are getting an experience with this album. And the reviews are good too.
Stars: The North | Hip indie band. Catchy and fun!
Cat Power: Sun | Her 2006 album, The Greatest ($5), is an enduring favorite of mine and it was my #7 album of 2006. Solid reviews and a new edge to her music.
Lecrae: Gravity | If you haven't found Lecrae yet, you should. Christian rap & hip-hop, the way it should be done. Stream it free here if you need an introduction.
Derek Webb: Ctrl | Oops! Forgot one. Check it.
I'm very excited to have Center Church by Dr. Timothy Keller in my library. It's nearly 400 pages and is packed full of good stuff. It's hard to describe how "packed full" it is until you see it. You can see pieces of it here...
Check out some of the praise it's receiving...
I'm not exaggerating when I say that Center Church is my favorite book Tim Keller has written thus far.
- Scotty Smith, Christ Community ChurchThis is not simply curriculum content; it is exactly the kind of life-giving, generative gospel theology our churches need.
- Stephen Um, CityLife Presbyterian Church, BostonThis book will help you if you are serious about seeing your city transformed by the gospel of grace.
- Darrin Patrick, Vice President of the Acts 29 NetworkIn Center Church, one of the great missionary statesmen of our times lays out a vision of the church vigorous enough to transform entire cities through its agency of the gospel.
- Alan Hirsch, Founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network
Watch this video. Note that Keller says, "Things that work in cities often we find work outside of cities as well." This is more than a book for city-center church planting, and as I have said several times, the best books on the church (regardless of where you are located) are urban church books.
Buy Center Church at 35% off (or 34% off at Amazon, if you prefer).
