DashHouse

Workshop on Biblical Exposition

Last year I attended a Workshop on Biblical Exposition put on by Simeon Trust. I compared it to the first week of my D.Min. in preaching and said:

I had a similar experience this week - almost as good in some ways, but a lot cheaper. I attended a Workshop on Biblical Exposition put on by the Charles Simeon Trust. The workshop includes instruction, small group practice, and model expositions (sample sermons that put these into practice).

Worth checking out if you ever get the chance to attend one.

Next year we're hosting one at Richview from March 25-27. It's not too soon to register. Find out more here. Well worth attending.

Unpacking Forgiveness

I don't think that there are many issues that come up more often than forgiveness. I sense this every time I preach about it. I can sense that I'm talking about an issue that is real for every person who is present.

Learning how to forgive isn't easy. Hurts often run deep; some situations that demand forgiveness are almost unspeakable. How does one forgive when the offense is so great, and the wound is so deep? To make things even more complicated, people who teach about forgiveness often offer conflicting answers. Not only is forgiveness difficult, but it's also frequently misunderstood.

more at my book blog

Carson on social justice and the gospel

D.A. Carson spoke last week on some trends within the church, including this one (via):

Don said that the Gospel plus caring for the poor was an inseparable couplet. He cautioned that if the gospel was merely assumed (and not clearly articulated), our passion for social justice would overshadow the gospel. While we are not intentionally exalting social concern over the gospel, people learn what we are excited about (gospel over caring for the poor). Carson warned, "Our passion must first be the gospel and not assume it to be understood." He continued, "We must be careful to keep the gospel central and not turn our responses to the gospel as the main target."

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Not caring about social justice is perhaps proof that we haven't understood the gospel. The remedy, therefore, isn't social justice; it's to go back to the root cause and really understand the gospel.

Please pray for the Stauffers

From New Lumps:

Last night at about 4:45 our precious 14 year-old daughter Emily was attacked and killed as she was out for a walk. We don't know a lot of details, but we know that two young men came upon the scene right away, but it was too late for Emily.

Please pray for this pastor and his family in Alberta.

Stetzer and Sweet on the emerging church

Ed Stetzer has written a good piece on the emerging church from a missiological perspective. I appreciate Ed's approach. It's well researched. Ed is honest, but he doesn't appear to have an axe to grind.

You can read some of Ed's background or download the issue that contains Ed's article, and reactions to it, in PDF.

I was surprised to read this quote by Len Sweet about Emergent. "So far, [Sweet] asserts—rather than reach back into 2000 years of Church history, Emergent stopped at the 'liberal turn' wherein the Gospel became all social and no gospel." Sweet emailed Stetzer:

The emerging church has become another form of social gospel. And the problem with every social gospel is that it becomes all social and no gospel. All social justice and no social gospel. It is embarrassing that evangelicals have discovered and embraced liberation theology after it destroyed the main line, old line, side line, off line, flat line church.

Agree or not, it's certainly worth exploring this issue. It's not the first time I've heard this statement from someone who has been a friend to the emerging church. Wounds of a friend?

Check out more at Ed Stetzer's site.

A Bigger Miracle of Grace

One New Year, a large, affluent church invited some mission churches to join them for a Communion service. They came, mostly from the slums. One man who came was a thief who had served seven years in jail. By coincidence he ended up kneeling for Communion beside the judge who had sentenced him. Neither seemed to notice.

After the service, the judge asked the pastor, "Did you notice who was kneeling beside me?" "Yes," the pastor said, "but I didn't think you noticed."

"What a miracle of grace," the judge said. "An amazing miracle of grace." The pastor nodded.

"You think I'm talking about him, don't you?" said the judge. "I'm talking about me. He has a history of crime. It makes sense that a criminal would recognize his need for grace."

"But I went to private school. I have a good career. I've been going to church my entire life. I pray every night. I used to look down on people like that. It's only by grace that I've seen that I'm just as big a sinner as he is. In fact, I'm probably worse because I think I'm better."

"Kneeling beside him this morning I realized: I am a bigger miracle of grace."

(adapted from Kent Hughes, Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ)

Curtain Call

Josiah and I had a great time at the Jays game last night. Seats right above the Yankees dugout, a game ball tossed to Josiah from a Yankees player, and Leafs backup goalie Curtis Joseph a few rows ahead of us - not even a Yankees grand slam in the tenth inning could wreck that.

One of the best moments on field was when Jays manager Cito Gaston yanked Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett at the start of the ninth inning before he had thrown a pitch. Why not make the switch between innings? Because Gaston wanted the crowd to have a chance to applaud Burnett, who may have played his last game with the Jays. The Star reports:

Jays manager Cito Gaston put aside baseball's etiquette for a moment to make it happen....

But at the start of the ninth, Burnett again walked to the mound. He warmed up for a moment. Then, before he could throw a pitch, Gaston came out to replace him.

As he began the short walk to the dugout, the love-in kicked off. First, the cheers swelled. Burnett, in his usual pose – staring straight at the ground – looked up tentatively. Then he waved a few times. The noise got louder. He pumped his fist. After he sat down, the fans began to chant his name. Burnett came out for the curtain call, tipping his cap. He looked carefully around, as if trying to embed the memory.

Nice moment and classy move in what turned out to be a good game, despite the loss.

The solution is not to change the gospel

Tim Keller on the temptation to move away from a gospel that deals with individual sin (from the 2007 Gospel Coalition conference):

Why is it we don't have people living the lives they ought to live? Why do we see people over here culturally withdrawn and being really negative and narrow? "The solution is, let's change the gospel." No! But that's what's happening.

Almost every month in evangelical publications and publishing houses you'll see people who say, "The gospel is no longer 'You're saved through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ appeasing the wrath of God.' The gospel is just the kingdom. The gospel is that God is renewing the world, and he's going to reweave the world in peace and justice. And now you need to join this community and be agents of peace and justice. You need to change your life. You need to be a disciple. It's both faith and obedience. That's what connects you to God."

I can't imagine with that gospel that anybody's going to write a hymn that goes like this: "My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee." It's just not going to happen. It's actually another kind of legalism.

The problem is that the gospel is individualistic. it is! It does say, "You are an individual sinner. You've opposed a holy God. You've personally offended him. Here's the provision for it."

Keller goes on to explain how the gospel leads to engagement with the culture. If you haven't listened to this message, it's worth it. You can find the MP3 here.

A cup running over

I've posted this before, but it's probably worth reading every few months. It's written by Dallas Willard in The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching.

There is no substitute for simple satisfaction in the Word of God, in the presence of God. That affects all your actions...

The preacher who does not minister in that satisfaction is on dangerous ground. Those who have experienced moral failure are those who have failed to live a deeply satisfied life in Christ, almost without exception...The surest guarantee against failure is to be so at peace and satisfied with God that when wrongdoing presents itself it isn't even interesting. That is how we stay out of temptation.

We are long on devices and programs. We have too many of them, and they get in the way. What we really need are preachers who can stand in simplicity and manifest and declare the richness of Christ in life. There isn't anything on earth that begins to compete with that for human benefit and human interest.

Preachers like that are at peace. They are not struggling to make things happen.

I encourage pastors to have substantial times every week when they do nothing but enjoy God.

Henri Nouwen said the main obstacle to love for God is service for God. Service must come out of his strength and life flowing through us into receptive lives. Take an hour, sit in a comfortable place in silence, and do nothing but rest. If you go to sleep, that's okay. We have to stop trying too hard. There may be a few pastors for whom that is not the problem, but for most of us it is.

There is a place for effort, but it never earns anything and must never take the place of God with us. Our efforts are to make room for him in our lives.

Prodigal son

A remarkable story:

CALIFORNIA - A moment before beginning his dinner, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.

It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization in the West Bank, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian.

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