Importance of Example

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Here is a sad comment from a student. He was discussing his call to ministry and wrote:

“when I felt God calling me to ministry I was truly ignorant about how to live the life, because I can’t say that anybody truly set a good example for me growing up.”

This is far too common. We need for the church to be the church and for pastors to lead well with teaching and example (1 Tim 4:16). This is also a reminder of why we need not just good examples out there somewhere but faithful churches and faithful pastors in every place. May God give us grace to provide examples to the young men coming behind us.

Douglas Bond Books on Sale

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If you have read much on this blog, you will know that we are big fans of Douglas Bond. So, I wanted to pass on the news that there is a Christmas sale going on for his books. These would make great Christmas gifts. By following the label at the bottom of this post you can see our comments on the Bond books we have read.

I have also had the opportunity to read several chapters from the forthcoming sequel to Guns of Thunder in the Faith & Freedom Trilogy, and it looks really good. The story shifts back to Scotland and the rest of the family which remained there. This moving back and forth between continents is helpful in showing what was going on in both places during this time period. Our view of history tends to be isolated, and this helps correct that problem. We will be eagerly awaiting the publication of this volume.

Studying Romans

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Each year in the SBC a certain book of the Bible is chosen to be the focus of the “January Bible Study.” Churches are not required to do this, but it does provide a good way to encourage careful study of various books. This year the study focuses on Romans, and this Saturday I will meet with a group of pastors to study through the book in preparation for them teaching their churches.

I have written a brief article on “The Opportunity of Studying Romans” to encourage pastors and others undertaking this study. Romans has had such a significant impact on the church historically and this brief article traces some of this in the stories of Augustine, Luther and Wesley. Gordon Fee has written, “This letter is arguably the most influential book in Christian history, perhaps in the history of Western civilization.”

May the Lord be pleased to bless these studies going on around the country to the good of His church.

Sermon on Rom 8:18-30

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I meant to post this last week but failed to in the midst of other things. Last Sunday Lee Tankersley, one of our pastors currently on sabbatical, was back with us and preached on Romans 8:18-30 in our ongoing series through Romans. Here you can read the text and find a link to the audio. It was an excellent sermon on a variety of levels. It is a good example or preaching pastorally. Sermons ought to expound a biblical text and be rooted in sound exegesis. However, exegesis is the engine and not the destination of the sermon. Some times in reaction against shallow preaching, people tend to think bare exegesis is the goal. Bare exegesis is better than nothing of course, but the goal is to explain what a text means so that people can follow and then to apply that well to a specific congregation. This sermon is a good example of this.

"Month of Man"

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This past Monday night I spoke to a group of guys here at Union on the topic of manhood. Some students had organized “The Month of Man” (“official” website) for some humorous celebration of manhood and also to call on themselves and others seriously to pursue maturity in manhood. I applaud their efforts and was honored to speak at the event.

You can see the rough notes of my address here as well as a link to the audio. This is not a sermon, but more of a “sit down chat”. Somewhere I came across an author saying every young man needs an older man who regularly gets in his face about growing up and becoming a man. That is basically what I have tried to do here.

One of the real needs in the church is for us to encourage, help and challenge our young men to resist the culture’s call to perpetual immaturity and encourage them instead to pursue maturity.

ETS Annual Meeting

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I travelled to San Diego today for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society meeting followed by the Society for Biblical Literature meeting. I have various responsibilities over the next week so I expect blogging will be rare.

Guns for General Washington

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Guns for General Washington, Seymour Reit
(Gulliver Books, 1990), pb. 142 pp.
Ages 7 and up

This book tells the story of Henry Knox’s daring mission to cross 300 miles of forest bring 183 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to George Washington’s army in Boston. This is a significant event in the early part of the Revolutionary War, a mission which many thought was impossible. This book tells the story from the perspective of Knox’s 19 year old brother Will.

This is one my boys (ages 11, 9 and 7) read on their own. They all said they learned more about Henry Knox and this mission. I was glad for this since Knox is often ignored even though he was one of Washington’s closest advisors and eventually served as the first Secretary of War. Nathan also mentioned that perseverance was highlighted often.

My two older boys both said the story was a bit slow though. Matthew said, “Don’t expect action-packed in spite of what it says on the front cover.” Jonathan, however, enjoyed the book more.

So, it was a worthwhile book for them to read. I think it simply did not live up to some of their favorites; and, even kids can be disappointed by overstated PR. 🙂

Amend ETS Article Online

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I have commented here previously about the effort to amend the doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society. Following the “ETS” label at the bottom of this post will take you to the previous posts. Denny Burk and I have been working on this and have written an article to explain our concern, proposal and rationale. The ETS Annual Meeting will begin next week and our proposal is to be read to the members. The proposal would not be voted on until next year.

Below I have slightly reworded Denny’s announcement about this article being made available.

In order to get the word out about this amendment, Denny and I have written an article that was published this fall in the Criswell Theological Review. The title of the article is “Inerrancy Is Not Enough: A Proposal to Amend the Doctrinal Basis of The Evangelical Theological Society.” The editor of CTR has allowed us to post a free copy of the article on the journal’s website, and you can now download and read our rationale for the amendment. Even though the article relates most directly to voting members of the ETS, the issues we raise here are relevant to anyone who is concerned about the shape of contemporary American evangelicalism.
Denny Burk and Ray Van Neste, “Inerrancy Is Not Enough: A Proposal to Amend the Doctrinal Basis of The Evangelical Theological Society” Criswell Theological Review n.s. 5 (2007): 69-80.
[For more information, visit the website www.AmendETS.com.]
[For information on how to subscribe to CTR, visit www.CriswellJournal.com.]

The Sign of the Beaver

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The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare
(Random House, 1983), pb., 135 pp.
Ages 6-13

This is pretty good book set in the frontier of Maine in colonial America. The main character, 12 year old Matt, along with his father has gone out to their newly purchased land in Maine to build a house and plant their crops. Then the father leaves his son with the home and crops to retrieve the rest of the family. On his own the boy must work hard, deal with visitors and Indian encounters. When his father’s return is delayed he faces difficult choices regarding survival, friendship, loyalty and perseverance.

The key value of the book, in my opinion, is the portrayal of responsibility and perseverance. The story is adventurous in places but slow in other places. The value of books emerges in the story when an Indian chief wants Matt to teach his grandson to read. The value of good stories is particularly highlighted. The boy even realizes along the way that the best stories he has are Bible stories. However, there are also less positive takes on the faith in the book.

This book has won numerous awards, but I was not so overwhelmed. In the end, it is a worthwhile read though not a “favorite.” It provides a good portrayal of frontier life in this era.

Survey Article Online

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The 2007 Bibles and Bible Reference Survey Article which I mentioned in the previous post is now available online here. Due to space I was not able to say a lot about each book, but I aim to give an overall feel for what has come out in the past year in each area and which books might be helpful in specific ways.