By Greg Gibson
Why Many Young Christians Are Becoming Calvinists
“Here are the two most important things you need to know about the rise of the New Calvinism: it’s not new and it’s not about Calvin…’Please God, don’t let the young, restless, and reformed movement be another historically ignorant, self-absorbed, cooler-than-thou fad.’…I’m praying: ‘Please God, don’t let the New Calvinism ever, ever be about the New Calvinism.’…But if the New Calvinism is to continue as a work of God, which I think it has been, it must continue to be about God. Young Christians have been drawn to Calvinism not because they were looking for Calvin or an ‘ism,’ but because they were drawn to a vision of a massive, glorious, fall-down-before-Him-as-though-dead kind of God who loves us because He wants to. The influence of Calvinism is growing because its God is transcendent and its theology is true. In a day when ‘be better’ moralism passes for preaching, self-help banality passes for counseling, and ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ music passes for worship in some churches, more and more people are finding comfort in a God who is anything but comfortable. The paradox of Calvinism is that we feel better by feeling worse about ourselves, we do more for God by seeing how He’s done everything for us, and we give love away more freely when we discover that we have been saved by free grace…What draws people to Reformed theology is the belief that God is the center of the universe and we are not, that we are worse sinners than we imagine and God is a greater Savior than we ever thought possible, that the Lord is our righteousness and the Lord alone is our boast. The attraction of the New Calvinism is not Calvin, but the God Calvin saw.” Why I Am a Calvinist by Kevin DeYoung
The Virgin Lips Movement
“…a sizable number of younger evangelical couples are saving their first kiss for their wedding ceremony. In a culture where casual sex is the norm, some Tennesseans have taken the purity pledge to a whole new level, through a practice that some teens refer to as the ‘Virgin Lips Movement.’” True Lips Wait by Al Mohler
China House Church Preacher Training
“Each student, by the end of the year, has to be ready to preach (without notes) a one-hour sermon on each of the 66 books of the Bible. This sermon is to include an outline of the content of the book, and contemporary application to the individual, the church and the nation of China.” Preaching Curriculum by Peter Mead
The Postmodern Preaching Fad: Contextualization or Proclamation?
“Expository preaching…doesn’t fluctuate with culture…First of all, you have to understand that when you talk about a postmodern culture, that’s an academic assessment of the culture. The average Joe doesn’t have any idea what that means. All he knows is he’s pretty much free to think and do whatever he wants. That’s how postmodernism filters down to the guy in the pew. It’s not a philosophy—it’s a lifestyle…But all this goes completely against the grain of his conscience and his reason, and ultimately what he knows to be true. The unbeliever’s conscience is a reality, and even reason tells him that there have to be some absolutes. The bottom line is that expository preaching confronts the amorality of postmodernism with an authoritative message of absolute truth. It’s not a question of debating. It’s not a question of trying to find some way to sneak that in. It’s an issue of confronting this kind of thinking with the absolute authority of Scripture and then letting the Spirit of God make the application to the heart…In my own preaching, my objective is not to court the postmodern mind. My objective is to confront it—to hit it stone cold in the face with truth…I didn’t need to give an intricate philosophical defense, because this is exactly what Scripture says, and there is no need to defend it. You just proclaim it. See these guys were struck by the fact that what they heard was an absolute authoritative statement of a worldview that takes on postmodernism, without having to fuddle around and make all kinds of philosophical and rational arguments, and without having to answer every objection that arises…Paul says, if I speak to Jews I speak a certain way, and if I speak to Gentiles I speak a certain way. But that’s only at the point of entry. That has nothing to say about the style. In other words, people today are used to watching sitcoms on TV, but that doesn’t demand that you preach in a narrative style…Rather than trying to take the Bible and bring it into the modern day, I try to take the modern day and bring it back to the Bible…This stuff about culture shaping preaching is taking the Bible and redefining it in modern terms. My goal is to take modern culture and the people of that culture and redefine them in biblical terms so that they are living back in the Scriptures.” (Greg: If postmodernism is the current philosophy, what were the previous philosophies? Did preachers have to adjust their preaching for those philosophies? Is postmodernism the first and only philosophy for which evangelicals must adjust their preaching? Will preachers have to adjust their preaching for the next fad philosophy? What’s wrong with this picture? Faithful preaching adjusts the hearers, not the preacher.) Expository Preaching in a Postmodern Culture by John MacArthur
Legalism, Guilt, and Gospel Grace
“Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God.” All of Grace by Jerry Bridges
How John Stott Prepares a Sermon
“IV. Arrange your material to serve the dominant thought. A. Chisel and shape your material. Ruthlessly discard all material which is irrelevant to the dominant thought. Subordinate the remaining material to the dominant thought by using that material to illuminate and reinforce the dominant thought.” (Greg: Many preachers struggle to identify the major theme of the passage. Those who preach from short passages often over-emphasize a passing thought, like a theological doctrine, by making it the main theme. The cure for this is “Big Picture Preaching” from long passages, instead of short passages.) How Stott Prepares a Sermon by Colin Adams
S. Lewis Johnson Sermons Free Online
“Through the years, I have listened to the preaching of S. Lewis Johnson more than any other preacher” (Dr. John MacArthur). “Dr. S. Lewis Johnson was the greatest expository preacher of the 2nd half of the 20th century” (Dr. Bruce Waltke). Read and hear Dr. Johnson’s sermons here: The SLJ Institute by S. Lewis Johnson
10 People a Pastor Should Fear
“7. The guy on the theological hobbyhorse. His spiritual energy revolves around the rapture, paedocommunion, Calvinism or Arminianism, evolution, what-have-you and he thinks yours should too. These are distractions especially tempting for nerd pastors like me.” 10 People a Pastor Should Fear by Jared Wilson
How to Be a Friend of Sinners
8 practical ideas to befriend sinners to help them out of sin. Simplified Missional Living by Jonathan Dodson
The Top 5 Mistakes When Evangelizing Children
“1. Oversimplifying the Gospel of Christ
2. Coercing a Profession of Faith
3. Assuming the Reality of Regeneration
4. Assuring the Child of Salvation
5. Rushing the Ordinance of Baptism”
Evangelizing Children Part 1 and Part II by Grace Community Church
9 Reasons Why Christ Ascended
“…I began to realize how little Christians think about or emphasize the ascension today…Ask for contribution from the congregation to answer the question: “What are the most significant events of Jesus’ life or aspects of His work for us?” Answers will do doubt include such things as His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection. Sadly, I have yet to hear anyone mention the ascension…” The Importance of the Ascension of Christ by Keith Throop
Discontent Charismatics and Christ’s Sufficiency
“…during my time as a Charismatic, it seems that this higher level of expectation always resulted in a quest for more. We needed a greater happenings, more miraculous signs (not that anything I witnessed ever really qualified as such), more healing, more deliverance, more prophecies, generally a greater move of God. Whatever was existent never seemed to be enough. Since I served on the worship team for four years (keyboards/vocals), the expectation was that we would serve as the catalyst to make this happen, to “usher in the presence of God”, as was stated so many Sundays…Yes we really did need more of God in our lives and looked for it in external manifestations in order to affect an internal change. It seems to me there remained a continual state of dissatisfaction that only more could fill…and all instruction is for the purpose of completing every person in complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28). We who claim Christ as Savior have been made complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). That means He is all sufficient. What further are we looking for?…So we have sufficiency of the Spirit, sufficiency of Christ, sufficiency of the Word. What’s Missing? I contend that the insufficiency resides with us. We are what is missing. It seems to me that if we have the everything we need sufficient for life and godliness, as 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, that the more we are seeking may not be found in greater external manifestations but a greater capacity for divine connectedness. So maybe that means more surrender, more worship, more learning, more kneeling, more prayer, more giving, and more service. We can’t get anymore of something we already have but I am assured each day that the Spirit can always have more of us…” A Theology of More by Lisa Robinson
Who Is Better Qualified to Counsel: Psychologists or Christians?
“The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus.” Bonhoeffer on the Difference Between the Counsel of Psychology and Christianity by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Should You Confess All Your Sins Publicly?
“Students were lined up at microphones to ‘confess’ before whole auditoriums of people a lot of things that were very lurid and not in keeping with the cautions of Ephesians 5.3,4. What is there about the confession of sin that requires private shameful acts to be confessed before audiences of both genders, not bound by close relationship to the one confessing? That smacks of the courtroom, not Christian fellowship. Or to think of another scenario: many of us have heard of congregations which try to take church discipline seriously by requiring not-yet-married couples,discovered to be promiscuous, to make open confession before the whole congregation with which they have been associated…I would add that the old practice of private confession to a priest–now making something of a comeback among Catholics–was so beset with priestly indiscretions that it became one of the best arguments for clerical marriage. Another Perspective on Confessing Sins Publicly by Ken Stewart
How NOT to Evangelize
“The controlled conversation technique is something new in evangelism and represents a real break-through in soul-winning…He gives not only the words, but the actions and gestures that need to go along with them.” (Greg: Where did Christ and the apostles ever evangelize like that? Guaranteed to fill the church with unregenerate hypocrites who will soon apostatize. Christ is glorified in disciples, not decisions.) Soul Winning Made Easy by Tim Challies
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