Mumford on one of the best ways to hear a band live in the U.S. without going to their concert, Austin City Limits. Crank it up and enjoy! And get Babel.
Watch Mumford & Sons / Flogging Molly on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.
Thanks Ponyboy...
Audio is up for free download from the Sovereign Grace Pastors' Conference 2012. I've downloaded a handful. Go grab some. Here's the list of the speakers and talks. Go to the site to download them.
The general-session messages from our 2012 Pastors Conference are now online:
The breakout-session messages are also now available:
Another helpful list from Paul David Tripp's tremendous book, Dangerous Calling. We haven't had a day pass without at least one significant conversation between me and my wife, Molly, since we started reading this book. We talked about a few things from this list today (from pages 79-82 in the printed edition). This is for pastors and those who care for them, and it's about a better, more healthy way to keep Pastors from isolation.
A lot of helpful explanation of these points are in the book, so you should get it and read it. My wife read it in 1 1/2 days (she has her own copy) and God is using it mightily in our marriage. I can't recommend Dangerous Calling (Kindle) enough.
How To Create A Disciple-Making Culture In Your Church | Justin Buzzard
Six months ago, when our church plant was eight months old, I realized I had made a big mistake in church planting. I kept talking about discipleship and I was coaching others in how to make disciples, but I hadn’t done enough face-to-face modeling of what I meant when I told our church to make disciples. Thus, our church didn’t yet have the discipleship culture I wanted it to have.
So, I confessed my mistake and then prayerfully selected twelve men to disciple for six months in order to inject a strong disciple-making culture into our church. I created a discipleship process and then spent the last six months investing in these twelve men. It wasn’t perfect, but it was my best. I gave these men my heart, my best training, my time, my love, my prayers, my energy, etc.
12 Social Media Tips for Church Leaders
I'd like to tweak a few of Steve Fogg's points, but a lot of good stuff to think about as we engage in social media.
When Biography Shapes Theology | Greg Thornbury
This is at the very heart of faith, to marvel at that great cloud of witnesses who "were stoned, sawn in two, and killed with the sword...who went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated...of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Heb. 11:37-38).
Grace Filled Parenting | 3 Videos with Jeff Vanderstelt
Stream Sufjan Stevens new Christmas album, Silver & Gold, free. Buy it, FIVE albums (58 tracks), for $13.98. Grab the first 5 albums while you are at it (Songs for Christmas, $15.49) and you'll have his 100 song collection of Christmas music.
WINNER: Kevin Chen. Congrats! His guess of what water I was drinking was Costco brand, Kirkland. That was wrong. But Todd Gragg & Nate Downey were correct with "Nestle Pure Life." Good work guys! Thanks for your participation all! Hope you pick up the book. My copy came in the mail today and I ordered two more today to give away.
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UPDATE: WTS has Every Good Endeavor listed for 70% off today!
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TODAY ONLY, I'm giving away one copy of Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller. It's brand new, out today! From Dr. Keller's website...
In a work world that is increasingly competitive and insecure, people often have nagging questions: Why am I doing this work? Why is it so hard? And is there anything I can do about it?
Tim Keller, pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and New York Times bestselling author of The Reason for God, has taught and counseled students, young professionals, and senior leaders on the subject of work and calling for more than twenty years. Now he puts his insights into a book for readers everywhere, giving biblical perspectives on such pressing questions as:
• What is the purpose of work?
• How can I find meaning and serve customers in a cutthroat, bottom-line-oriented workplace?
• How can I use my skills in a vocation that has meaning and purpose?
• Can I stay true to my values and still advance in my field?
• How do I make the difficult choices that must be made in the course of a successful career?With deep insight and often surprising advice, Keller shows readers that biblical wisdom is immensely relevant to our questions about our work. In fact, the Christian view of work—that we work to serve others, not ourselves—can provide the foundation of a thriving professional and balanced personal life. Keller shows how excellence, integrity, discipline, creativity, and passion in the workplace can help others and even be considered acts of worship—not just of self-interest.
Another great resource from Tim Keller. Glad I have a copy (thanks to the good folks at Dutton) to give away to one of my readers here at Reformissionary. Here's how to enter for your chance to win.
1. Tweet (or post to Facebook if you aren't on Twitter, or do both!) without the quote marks: " GIVEAWAY of Tim Keller's new book, Every Good Endeavor. RT & comment at Reformissionary to enter: http://bit.ly/egeTK "
2. Comment below (so I can confirm you did step 1) with your real name and real email (kept private) and For Fun guess what brand of bottled water I just consumed before bed last night.
*I'll use random.org to pick the ONE winner sometime after 5pm today. I'll announce the winner on the blog & send out an email. May the odds be ever in your favor! And whether you win or not, this will be a great book to give away in our churches as our congregation needs gospel words on our work. So get a couple copies (Amazon | Kindle). I will be.
If you enjoy Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver-ish music, I think you should check out a Lo-fi Dream Folk album from Wickerbird (Blake Cowan). It's called The Crow Mother (bandcamp). Enjoying it very much the last couple of weeks. It's not studio-perfected music. It's gritty and more natural.
Happy Music Monday! One of my favorite albums right now, good for headphones and work, or great for cranking it up in our house, is Daphni: Jiaolong. It's from the same dude who makes music as Caribou. At the release party for Jiaolong he played a 7 1/2 hour DJ mix, all embedded here and downloadable.
So looking forward to Christmas and the release of Les Miserables with Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne, Sasha Baron Cohen, Amanda Seyfried & others. Looks amazing.
In Paul David Tripp's new, and excellent, and devastating, and grace-giving book, Dangerous Calling, the author lists 9 signs of a pastor losing his way. They are based on one particular pastor he talked to (which is why they are listed as referring to one person), but they are listed in order to help all pastors. Tripp goes into great detail to explain each in chapter 2, and I urge you to not only get this book, but read it carefully and prayerfully as a pastor (or maybe to better understand your pastor). These were hard to read for me personally, and will make for painful yet fruitful conversation with my wife later today. I'll list the 9 signs concerning Tripp's assessment of one pastor, but please go read more about them in Dangerous Calling with the authors application to us all. Also check out the DVD's.
Another quote from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. This one on pastors and our identity, where it might be and should be...
Blind to what was going on in my heart, I was proud, unapproachable, defensive, and all too comfortable. I was a pastor; I didn’t need what other people need. Now, I want to say again that at the conceptual, theological level, I would have argued that all of this was bunk. Being a pastor was my calling, not my identity. Child of the Most High God was my cross-purchased identity. Member of the body of Christ was my identity. Man in the middle of his own sanctification was my identity. Sinner and still in need of rescuing, transforming, empowering, and delivering grace was my identity. I didn’t realize that I looked horizontally for what I had already been given in Christ and that it was producing a harvest of bad fruit in my heart, in my ministry, and in my relationships. I had let my ministry become something that it should never be (my identity); I looked to it to give me what it never could (my inner sense of well-being).
Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (p. 25)
This is one of the greatest sports-related products ever invented. "The only club in your bag guaranteed to keep you out of the woods."
Here's a good reason for pastors to buy and read Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. I'd also recommend church members read this. It will open your eyes to what your pastor is going through, much of it you don't know.
This is a diagnostic book. It is written to help you take an honest look at yourself in the heart- and life-exposing mirror of the Word of God—to see things that are wrong and need correcting and to help you place yourself once again under the healing and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of the books that I have written, I found this one the hardest to write, not because of the writing process itself but because its pages expose the ugliness of my own heart and display how desperate my need for grace continues to be. It is not an exaggeration to say that I wept my way through writing some of the chapters. There were moments when I would go upstairs to share what I had written with Luella, the tears of conviction would come, and I would be unable to continue. But as I did my writing, it did not leave me feeling discouraged or hopeless but, rather, with a deeper hope in the gospel and a greater joy in ministry than I think I have ever known.
Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (p. 11) - still 80% with coupon code: PASTORS
Sixteen years ago today Bob Dole was trying to defeat Bill Clinton and become President of the United States. He failed. And I didn't vote. Why?
Sixteen years ago today my wife succeeded in giving birth to our firstborn, a sweet little girl. We named her Sarah Elizabeth McCoy. We were living in Lakewood, Colorado, a western suburb of Denver, right along the foothills. When Molly went into labor on the night of November 4th, we knew it would be a long night. She went through more than a half a day of labor before our little Sarah was born.
That little doll of a daughter is now sixteen, getting her driver's license, stressing over grades, making works of art, and bringing her parents great joy. We are very proud of her. She is a great gift from God.
A stunning video for "Lover of the Light" by Mumford & Sons, starring (also written & directed by) Idris Elba. I watched it three times and I feel like watching it again. I rarely get wound up by a music video like this. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. Pick up their album, Babel.
From Stephen J. Nichols' Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life & Thought we get this helpful chart of what are certain and no certain signs of genuine religious affections (p. 117)...
Handful of gems this month. See all 100. Here are my faves, the first half are the most highly recommended.
I have a copyright 1898 edition of John Broadus' On the Preparation & Delivery of Sermons. The first edition was printed in 1870. Broadus was professor of homiletics at SBTS in Louisville, KY and died in 1895. Here he lists and explains "helps" concerning freshness in preaching (pgs 146-149). "The basis of preaching and the truth preached must ever be the same. Yet there is a freshness in the treatment of old truths, and in discoursing on the unchangeable basis of God's Word, that is eminently desirable and should be maintained though life."
1. Study the Scriptures. Earnest and continued study both of the Bible in general, and of each text in particular, will greatly enhance and sustain a preacher's freshness. Let him...seek not mere novelties and fancies in interpretation, but the exact meaning of the inspired Word. No matter how often he has studied the book or the text before, let him keep on, and new thoughts will be suggested. A man cannot fail to keep fresh in his preaching who continues through life really and properly to study the Word of God.
2. Study Theology. Keep in touch with the great books, both general treatises and special discussions, on Systematic Theology. Doctrine -- real doctrine -- is needed as a novelty in much of the preaching of our times. By all means should a man reflect profoundly upon the commonplaces of religious truth. Vinet well said that the basis of eloquence is commonplace; and another has remarked that the pulpit often "makes the mistake of giving us common thoughts about deep things, when what we need would be deep thoughts about common things." We get these deep thoughts about common things only by penetrating and persevering reflection.
3. Study occasions. Here, again, we should not be directly seeking freshness in itself, but the reality of things. The best freshness is found by simply seeking real adaptation to the real occasion. Study the general condition of the congregation; reflect upon the special occurrences of religious interest, and upon any of secular interest that may furnish illustration or call for passing application or remark. Whenever you repeat a sermon on a new occasion adjust it in your study beforehand to the new conditions. A sermon that suits equally well all occasions does not thoroughly suit any one of them. This adaptation to circumstances often depends upon apparently slight matters.
4. Study individual cases. Physicians and lawyers may set us here a valuable lesson. The wise preacher will know people individually, and how to apply the truth to their special needs. He may thus have the advantage of the Romish confessional without its grave objections. Sometimes a hint in conversation will be a rich germ of suggestion. No man can keep fresh in the pulpit without keeping up both spiritual and social contact with people.
5. Study the age in which we live. Let the preacher strive to understand the strength and the weakness of the age -- its healthy tendencies and its diseases -- its illusions and its well-founded hopes. Particularly should he endeavor to discover and proclaim the true relations of Christianity to the age -- what it needs from Christianity, and what Christianity needs from it. Its currents of thought and sentiment, religious and irreligious -- its difficulties and yearnings -- its movements and changes -- demand the thoughtful attention of the gospel preacher. Yet he should let the fruits of his study and reflection appear not so much in formal discussions through set discourses, as in apt allusion and application here and there in his ordinary sermons. Thus he may be constantly showing how truly Christianity meets all real human wants; and thus he may restrain and fortify his hearers without perplexing them with plausible errors. Excellence in preaching, like the truly excellent in literature and art, must either take hold of things present, even transient things, and penetrate though them to permanent eternal principles; or, if it begins with general principles, it must always bring them to bear upon living characters and actual wants.
6. Study yourself. A man should continue through life to learn from his mistakes. Certainly the young preacher should do this, and even more imperatively the elder. Never fall into stereotyped methods of treating your subjects; cherish and cultivate a restless longing to preach better, and try frequent experiments in preaching differently. There is among preachers a deal of latent power which never gets itself developed. By all means should the inventive faculty be kept healthy and active. Some one has said, "Attention is the mother of invention." Fasten the mind on your subject by resolute effort of the will, and compel yourself to the task of analysis and association of ideas, which are the principal parts of invention. This may also be greatly stimulated by reading and conversation. And let us remember that our very best, our richest invention, is not achieved in preparing next Sunday's sermons, but in general reading, conversation, reflection, when the mind is quiet, throws off its accustomed burdens, and springs up elastic. All the labor and thought thus bestowed in cultivating and maintaining freshness will be richly repaid many times over in sustained power and usefulness in the pulpit.
I got a Tootsie Pop tonight from Halloween candy and the wrapper had the Indian shooting an arrow at a star on it. Most of you probably remember something about that as a kid. I looked it up and the history is interesting (via)...
Claim: A Tootsie Pop wrapper with a picture of an Indian shooting an arrow at a star on it can be redeemed with Tootsie Roll Industries for a free bag of candy.
FALSE
Origins: The rumor that Tootsie Pop wrappers featuring an Indian can be redeemed for free candy has dogged the Tootsie Roll company since shortly after the introduction of the chewy-centered lollipops in 1931. Although Tootsie Pops has never held any kind of promotion involving the collection or redemption of their wrappers, the "Indian wrapper" rumor has persisted for over sixty years. The story probably got its start because of the prevalence of contests and prizes connected with the packaging of children's products in the era when Tootsie Pops were first marketed. The slightly different packaging of each Tootsie Pop (about 30% of the wrappers include the Indian figure) could easily lead to tales about certain wrappers being "special." (Similar rumors about various brands of candy bars have circulated for decades as well.)Tootsie Roll Industries has received a steady stream of letters from consumers attempting to redeem their
Indian wrappers since the 1930s (nearly all of the letter writers expect free Tootsie Pops in return), and they now process about 150 letters per week. The company originally sent special letters expressing their regret to prize-seekers, then in 1982 they created their "Legend of the Indian Wrapper" to accompany those letters "with the hope that children's liking for a good story would help to assuage their disappointment." (Some individual store managers took it upon themselves to redeem Indian-bearing wrappers for free Tootsie Pops, but the exchange was not sanctioned by the Tootsie Roll company itself.)
