Check out Ray Ortlund’s post, “I Remember When.” It is not simple nostalgia but a warning about “chronological snobbery” (to use C S Lewis’s term). There is much to contemplate in the post. Here is just one excerpt: I remember when churches were not commodities but communities. I grew up in a spiritual neighborhood, where …
The last two weeks in Sunday School at our church I have taught on the Fall and the resulting spread of sin. It is always good and challenging for me to study these texts again. The audio of the lessons are online (recorded last semester). In the first session I aim to walk through Genesis …
I mentioned previously that my family has begun to sing Psalm 128 at our dinner table. It has been very enjoyable and a great blessing in various ways. We have begun including other psalms. Recently, we ate dinner at a fast food restaurant in order to go on to a store for some errands. I …
I have recently read Julia Duin’s Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do about It and I hope to post some thoughts from it. For now, I wanted to post this quote from Eugene Peterson. As usual, when talking about pastoral ministry, he is so good! In a day when hard-edged …
Dr. Ryken’s address this morning, “The Psalms as Lyric Poems for Private Worship,” was wonderful. He essentially argued that to appreciate and benefit from the Psalms we need to appreciate them as poetry (appropriate for National Poetry Month!). He accurately noted how our approach today is so often to try to flatten out the imagery …
Our Psalms Project continues this week with a visit to chapel on Friday by Dr. Leland Ryken, professor of English at Wheaton College. Dr. Ryken is known for his works on the Bible as literature like the ESV Literary Study Bible. His chapel address is titled “The Psalms as Lyric Poems for Private Worship.” I …
Several weeks ago now Dr. Craig Blaising was in Union’s chapel as a part of our Psalms Project. He gave a wonderful address titled “The Psalms in Early Christian Worship.” Blaising basically demonstrated how the early church fathers sought to teach their people to pray from the Psalms. Drawing from his work on the recently …
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I am excited to see James Renihan’s dissertation now available in book form! The full title is Edification and Beauty: The Practical Ecclesiology of the English Particular Baptists, 1675-1705. In the past I have only been able to access this for brief periods of time through interlibrary loan. Here is my blurb on the back …
The latest 9 Marks ejournal is now available (in pdf as well). Below is the table of contents with links. This is a great resource for younger and older pastors. The article that most caught my eye is Leeman’s “Love the Church More than Its Health.” I have too often had pastors want to tell …