The National: Trouble Will Find Me | One of the best albums of this year. Rare to get something this good and this cheap in the year it's released, so don't miss it.
The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You | Why say no when it feels so good to say yes?
Nirvana: Nevermind | If you don't know why you should own this, well I don't have enough space to list the reasons why. So nevermind.
The Black Crowes: Shake Your Money Maker | If you don't know why you should own this, well I don't know if I want to even try to explain how good it is. It's hard to handle.
I loved the book by Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling (Kindle | WTS). I listened to his TGC talk via the TGC podcast yesterday, "Dangerous Calling," and it was wonderfully convicting. It's still pursuing me. I don't quite like how he handles the issue of sermon prep, though I agree with him in theory.
Check it out if you are a pastor, a pastor's wife, or if you need to know what your pastor may be going through. And if you are a pastor, don't just listen for you. Listen for the sake of your wife. It's in your face, but it's good.
Live stream The Gray Havens 1 hour Kickstarter Kick-Off show tonight at 7pm (central). I'll remind you via Twitter & other social media later on as well. You can still get their Where Eyes Don't Go EP for FREE. And check out their new Kickstarter campaign and video describing what's in the works for The Gray Havens.
We're a songwriting and recording collective dedicated to writing new hymns and restoring old, taking old hymn texts and poems and writing new music and melodies for them.
With your help, we can create our next, very special album series together! Remember: Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding platform (we need to reach our goal).
The "Firm Foundation" series will be a two-album collection of Sunday School hymns with new arrangements and lyrics. Our fresh approach to these songs will give them greater theological depth and clarity and a modern musical feel. Great care is also being taken to preserve most of the original melodies.
I've been listening to their other albums and I really dig them. This is a project worth supporting. In order to help them get the word out on this Kickstarter campaign, I'm giving away 5 sets of their two albums for download: Restoration Project and Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope. Even if you don't want the albums, please consider sharing the link that their project might get fully supported.
1. Post to Twitter, Facebook, etc this without the arrows --> Restoration Project is remaking hymns. Get their 2 albums FREE. RT & comment here to enter: http://bit.ly/resproj <--
2. Comment below so I know you did step one. And for fun share your favorite Sunday School hymn.
I'll use random.org to choose five winners at the end of the week. May the odds be ever in your favor!
As a pastor I spend most of my money on books I want to read and reference. But I'm always on the lookout for solid books that are geared for those without a theological education. It's too rare to find a book that can be of significant value for both, like Jesus On Every Page (book website). This is a helpful resource.
Dr. David Murray is a growing voice in evangelicalism, and I'm glad to see it. You can read him at Head Heart Hand blog. More...
Dr. David Murray, president of HeadHeartHand, is the Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He live in Grand Rapids with his wife, Shona, and four children.
At just about 200 pages (plus study questions, and the very helpful Scripture and Subject indexes) Dr. Murray gives us an accessible and simple book on seeing Jesus in the pages of the Old Testament. I very much enjoyed the first four chapters where Murray explains how he went from someone who saw the Old Testament as a bit of an embarrassment who used the New Testament to bring contrast and relief to discovering Jesus everywhere in the OT. He talks about finding direction to read the OT this way from Jesus, Peter, Paul and John in the New Testament. I think there are many in our churches who need to take this journey with Dr. Murray.
As a pastor who preaches from the Old Testament somewhat regularly, I recognized myself in David's journey as well. In some ways I still struggle. I feel a lot better about preaching from the New Testament than the Old. I need this reminder too. David quotes a gem from Gleason Archer, a wonderful and eye-opening statement:
How can Christian pastors hope to feed their flock on a well-balanced spiritual diet if they completely neglect the 39 books of Holy Scripture on which Jesus and all the New Testament authors received their own spiritual nourishment?
Provocative. I'm encouraged to dig in and help my people dig in to the OT. Here's the outline of the main section of the book. Murray gives us 10 ways we can find Jesus in the Old Testament:
Christ's Planet (Jesus in Creation)
Christ's People (Jesus in OT Characters)
Christ's Presence (Jesus in OT Appearances)
Christ's Precepts (Jesus in OT Law)
Christ's Past (Jesus in OT History)
Christ's Prophets
Christ's Pictures (Jesus in OT Types)
Christ's Promises (Jesus in OT Covenants)
Christ's Proverbs
Christ's Poets
Throughout these chapters you find an abundance of insights, lists, points, word pictures, etc. He covers the OT broadly, but in more detail than you might think. You don't make your way through these chapters thinking that Dr. Murray is a top-notch scholar, though he obviously is. You read realizing Dr. Murray is speaking of the King and Savior he knows deeply and devotionally. And reading Jesus On Every Page should be a devotional experience for the reader.
Tim Challies explains this book well by writing that David Murray "focuses less on the stories and more on the story; less on the heroes and more on the Hero." If you want an introduction to each book of the Old Testament, a theology of the Old Testament, or something else, you need to look elsewhere for other excellent books. The real strengths of this book are its big picture view of the Old Testament and the accessibility of this book for all Christians and not just scholars or pastors.
Another way to look at Jesus On Every Page is as an introduction to Christology. It's not quite marketed that way, but it works. It works well. It's will serve as an introduction to Jesus in a way many haven't seen. Good on Dr. Murray for offering it to us.
I recommend Jesus On Every Page. The cover alone made me want the book! And the content was just what I hoped it would be. How many of our people will have so much of Scripture "unlocked" beyond the moralistic OT teaching they've heard or the assumptions they have of the OT through this book? Get your copy, and give some away. It's a resource I'm glad to keep on my shelf for future reference and to encourage my church to pick up. Here's where you can get yours: Amazon | Kindle | WTS.
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I'm also offering a free copy of Jesus On Every Page to my readers. Simple.
1. Tweet or share on Facebook --> Check out the new book from David Murray, Jesus On Every Page http://bit.ly/Xeverypg <-- and then...
2. Comment below (be sure to input your real name and email so I can notify a winner) with your favorite OT book and why (keep it short). I'll use random.org to choose a winner from the comments below after the weekend.
My brother, Scott McCoy, took a "Back To School" photo that has gotten some buzz and was actually interviewed by CNN. It's not my sense of humor, but it's exactly what I would expect from Scott. And it's a well-executed. CNN/HLN is supposed to run it soon, maybe on a morning show. Pretty cool.
New album from Okkervil River, The Silver Gymnasium(Amazon, out 9/3), is streaming free right now. This is one of my favorite bands working. Some of the best songwriting around from frontman Will Sheff. I'm halfway through the stream right now and it's really good so far.
Get a taste of the new album from Sheff's open mic night. Or just listen here to open track, "It Was My Season"...
Heyo! It's a super-happy Music Monday here at Reformissionary because I have stuff to give away to some of my readers.
Stephen Miller (Twitter) is worship leader at The Journey church in St. Louis, where Darrin Patrick is pastor. He has written a new book, Worship Leaders, We Are Not Rock Stars (Kindle) and put out a new worship album, All Hail The King. The album includes new worship songs as well as reworked Hymns like "Crown Him With Many Crowns." I've been listening to the album and enjoying it a lot. His new albums and previous album, Hymns, is on regular rotation in my house.
I have 5 of the Worship Leaders, We Are Not Rock Stars eBooks (epub, mobi, or PDF) to give away today that each include a free download of the album.
Here's how you enter to win a FREE eBook that includes a free download of the album...
1. Tweet (or post to Facebook if you aren't on Twitter, or do both!) without the quote marks: " Get Stephen Miller's new worship album & book FREE. RT & comment at Reformissionary to enter: http://bit.ly/14xLgfb "
2. Comment below (so I can confirm you did step 1) with your real name and real email (kept private) and FOR FUN in your comment let me know a neglected old hymn that you love and wish would get consideration from Stephen or someone else for a future worship album.
*I'll use random.org to pick the 5 winners tonight, and I'll announce the winners on the blog & send out emails. May the odds be ever in your favor!
...the pop-culture view that the suburbs are the place where the American Dream goes to die has an amusing flip side: That culture owes a huge amount of its inspirational vitality to hating the very place where many of its artists grew up and its audience lives. As both these movies and so many other novels, films, TV shows, music and plays over the years have proved, there’s nothing like suburban boredom to generate dramatic excitement.
Always looking for good podcasts. The new podcast 5 Minutes in Church History from Stephen Nichols has my attention two episodes in. From the website,
Dr. Nichols is research professor of Christianity and culture at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pa., where he has taught since 1997. He is also a visiting professor at Reformation Bible College and a lecturer in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
As the title of the podcast makes clear, these are short history bursts, very much lessons from church history and not merely "here's 5 minutes of historical facts." I dig that. And I think my readers will too. Check out and subscribe to 5 Minutes in Church History.
