T4A | Tullian Tchividjian - Session 2

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Tullian delievered a great message on Law & Gospel at Together for Adoption 2011 Conference. Rather than redo work others have done, I commend to you the notes of a new friend of mine, Aaron Armstrong (author of Awaiting a Savior). Here are a couple of my favorite quotes I took on Twitter from Tullian's talk...

"It's a lie that grace is dangerous and needs to be kept in check."

"It's silly that we have to put the word 'radical' before Grace, as if there's some other kind."

"There is nothing more radically unbalanced than grace."

I'm excited about Tullian's new book coming out October 31st, Jesus + Nothing = Everything. Order it now.

T4A | Friday Morning Song Set

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I very much enjoyed the song choice this morning, so I asked th worship leader, Jimmy McNeal, for the set list. Here you go...

"Your Great Name" - The People's Church
"From the Inside Out" - Hillsong
"You Alone Can Rescue" - Matt Redman
"How Great Thou Art" -hymn (Arron Ivey version)
"Let Your Kingdom Come" - Aaron Ivey

T4A | Darrin Patrick - Session 1

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Darrin's definition of the Gospel...

The gospel is the good news that the Eternal God entered our sinful world as the Eternal Son of God, Jesus, and lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father

(Jesus) died as a sacrifice in the place of sinners, rose triumphantly from death as a sign of sin’s defeat and the Father’s acceptance of his Son’s atoning sacrifice, establishing righteousness for those who had no righteousness of their own.  

Other quotes...

If you don't nail the gospel definition, social justice will distract you from the gospel.

If you don't do justice in your neighborhood, don't do it in your city. 

Darrin makes four main point to help frame our discussion about the church’s role in social justice.

1. The church is called, first and foremost, to proclaim the gospel.

2. You must not use social justice to avoid the offense of the cross.

3. Churches should plant other churches.

The best thing you can do to encourage social justice is plant other churches.

4. The “institutional” church must equip individuals who will become the “organic” church. 

Together for Adoption | Main Sessions & Giveaway

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Molly and I are flying to Phoenix for the 2011 Together for Adoption Conference tomorrow morning, Lord-willing and the winds die down. I know many of you can't go but are interested in following along. So I encourage you to stick around for live-blogging here at Reformissionary. Follow me on Twitter for a lot of instant updates and pics and who knows what else. I also encourage you to follow other featured bloggers at T4A for a wide variety of experiences of and discussions about the conference. The official hashtag for all the stuff on Twitter is #t4aCon and official conference twitter account is @t4aCon.


You'll hear about a ton of different breakout sessions from different bloggers as well as these top-notch general sessions. You won't want to miss what these guys are saying...
Darrin Patrick: The Church and Social Justice
Tullian Tchividjian: Surprised by Adoption
Dan Cruver: Adoption and the God Who Gives
Bryan Loritts: The Church as the Theater of Transracial Adoption
Jeff Vanderstelt: Gospel-Motivation for Missional Living
Tim Chester: Relaxing in Trinitarian Love

GIVEAWAY

Ok, so for those of you who can't go, I'm doing another giveaway of 5 copies of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (edited & written in part by Dan Cruver). I love the book, and I want to get it in your hands. So, here's how you can enter for a chance at one of the copies. All three steps are required, and easy.
1. "LIKE" the T4A Facebook page.
2. TWEET (and/or post on Facebook wall), without the quote marks: " Win a FREE copy of Reclaiming Adoption! RT this & comment at Reformissionary to win: http://bit.ly/nW95S8 #t4aCon "
3. COMMENT BELOW (so I can verify you did steps 1 & 2). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners.

For fun, and since the World Series begins tonight, share your World Series winner in your comment. Texas Rangers or the St. Louis Cardinals? Also feel free to give your predictions on how many games it will take to win (sports SINthusiast Joe Thorn, just tell us your favorite color). I'm calling it for the Rangers in 5.
I will randomly choose 5 winners on Saturday, the last day of the Together for Adoption 2011 Conference. 

Tim Keller | "Gospel Polemics, Part 3"

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Tim Keller has been writing about Gospel polemics. His first post he gave some introductory thoughts. Last post Dr. Keller listed 3 rules for Gospel polemics. This post he gives three more. Here are all six...

  1. Carson’s Rule—You don’t have to follow Matthew 18 before publishing polemics.
  2. Murray’s Rule—You must take full responsibility for even unwitting misrepresentation of someone’s views.
  3. Alexander’s Rule—Never attribute an opinion to your opponent that he himself does not own.
  4. Gillespie’s Rule A – Take your opponents’ views in total, not selectively. 
  5. Gillespie’s Rule B – Represent and engage your opponents’ position in its very strongest form, not in a weak ‘straw man’ form.
  6. Calvin’s Rule – Seek to persuade, not antagonize, but watch your motives! 

Go read all three posts: Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3

Best of 2011: Albums I'm Considering

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Tim Casteel asked me a great question in a comment on a recent post: "I'd be interested to know: what else is on your potential 'best albums of 2011' list?" 

There are a bunch that will get my consideration and I can't list them all, nor recall all of them. I expect some to pop up high on the list that just haven't come to mind as I post this. I give each album a good, fresh listen as I work on my list. So don't quote me when my list comes out in December and there are some new names high on the list and listed albums not on the list. :) Here are some I expect to compete for the top albums, in alphabetical order.

What isn't on my list that should be?

Bifrost Arts - The Third Record

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IsaacIf you aren't a fan of Bifrost Arts (and brainchild, Isaac Wardell), I hope you will remedy that. Come O Spirit! is amazing, and their Christmas album, Salvation is Created, is maybe my favorite Christmas album. I gave it high marks in my review. They are making great, historically based worship music, and I want them to make more! Here's how we all can help them make more through their Kickstarter campaign...

Bifrost Arts has had a very full year!

Between a conference, a new curriculum, lots of new songs, and new liturgical materials, we've barely had time to catch our breaths. We're so encouraged by the ways that God has grown this project of ours into something larger than we could have foreseen four years ago, when we began.

Now, after a two-year hiatus since our last full-length, Bifrost Arts is excited to announce that a new record is fully underway. Our plan is to gather together some of our favorite singers and musicians from past records, as well as a whole host of new talent to converge in the recording studio this winter, to record another full-length record.

For the last two years, we've been writing an compiling new church music, trying it out in our congregations, as well as demoing the new material. The theme of the record is the Lamb of God. Many of the songs are are about death and resurrection, about communion, and about suffering and redemption. Folks who have attended Bifrost Arts events in the last two years will recognize some of them from our hymn-sings.

Please consider giving generously to this project so that we can continue our work of writing, producing, and performing new sacred music for our churches and for our communities.

(You can email bifrostarts@gmail.com with questions about the details of the project, and the recording budget.)

Go support these great artists as they produce more music to bless the church.

A True Work of Art

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Joe Thorn told me about this great video about art from David Murray. You should keep up with David's blog: HeadHeartHand. Joe has a post going up about it, which I haven't seen. He predicted that after watching the video I'd post on it first. Sorry Joe. 

At the end of the video, which you should watch in full, where he discribes some pieces of art and shares glimpses into their meaning at the Grand Rapids Artprize Festival, David says this: 

"Some beautiful pieces with some really moving messages. What heights? What depths? What hopes? What fears? Exploring our un-creation and calling us to re-creation. And that's really all art can do. It can call. It can summons. It can point. It can raise questions. But it can never be the answer. Jesus Christ alone is the answer. When we find him we stop asking 'What's next?' He is God's hand reaching down to our hand. His peace calms our confusion. And it's only through Christ that we can do all things. Jesus Christ is the answer. He can take our darkness and chaos and transform them into beautiful light and order. And that is a true work of art." (visit David's post)

The Field: Looping State of Mind

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The Field: Looping State of Mind came out today. When it started streaming free online recently I got my first listen and loved it. I just picked it up today and I'm listening as I do some work. It breathes wonderful, danceable, non-concentration breaking, atmospheric soundscapes. It fills up the room. I think you will like it a lot. Don't believe me? Ask Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound, CokeMachineGlow, and others.

I surprised many by choosing Four Tet's There Is Love In You as my album of year last year over Arcade Fire: The Suburbs and The National: High Violet. This year The Field is already making a strong argument for my best album of 2011. 

Looping

Review of Courageous & Christian Art

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White Horse Inn posts a review from Anthony Parisi on the Courageous movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I resonate with the reviewer's take on the state of Christians and this kind of "art." If you have seen the movie, what are your thoughts on the review? Even if you haven't seen the movie, does the review reflect your concerns about how some Christians do art? Here's a teaser...

While surely produced with good intentions, Courageous is likely to further entrench the misguided culture wars and bring harm to the Christian witness in the world.

Cheap Kindle Books 10.5.11

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Some good Kindle books for cheap right now...

Tim Keller | Exploring the Mysteries of the Gospel

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From Tim Keller's forward to JD Greear's new book, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (via)...

It is one thing to understand the gospel but is quite another to experience the gospel in such a way that it fundamentally changes us and becomes the source of our identity and security. It is one thing to grasp the essence of the gospel but it quite another to think out its implications for all of life. We all struggle to explore the mysteries of the gospel on a regular basis, but we should strive to dive into it and allow its message to influence our thinking daily.

Read the rest, buy the book.

Tim Keller | "Gospel Polemics, Part 2"

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Tim Keller discusses 3 rules for Gospel Polemics in his new post that "will help us neither avoid polemics nor engage in them in a spiritually destructive way." Here are the rules, but go read his explanations.

1. Carson’s Rule – You don’t have to follow Matthew 18 before publishing polemics
2. Murray’s Rule – You must take full responsibility for even unwitting misrepresentation of someone’s views
3. Alexander’s Rule – Never attribute an opinion to your opponent that he himself does not own

Read "Gospel Polemics, Part 2," or start with "Gospel Polemics, Part 1."