Ortlund & Bond on the Psalms

Posted by on

This week at Union the Psalms Project continues with chapels on Wednesday and Friday (10am). On Wednesday Dr. Ray Ortlund will preach from Psalm 1 on the place of the Word in worship. His wife, Jani, will be with him and she will be speaking to ladies at 3pm on the topic, “Fearlessly Feminine: Boldly Embracing God’s Plan for Womanhood.” Dr. Ortlund was a favorite professor of mine when I was at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville and writes the blog “Christ is Deeper Still.”

On Friday we will have Douglas Bond author of numerous books, including the Crown & Covenant Trilogy, the Faith & Freedom Trilogy & Mr. Pipes Series. I have previously reviewed many of his books at my children’s literature blog. Mr. Bond will be speaking on the topic, “Biblical Poetry in a Post-Biblical, Post-Poetry World.” At 3pm Mr. Bond will continue the conversation by speaking further on how the Psalms should shape our hymns.

Both of these are wonderful opportunities. I am excited about the opportunity of hosting the Ortlunds and Douglas Bond here at Union.

Pulpit Plagiarism Illustrated

Posted by on

It has been sometime since I commented on this, though I continue to get emails from church members who have discovered that this is what their pastors are doing.
I was just informed of this amazing video (from this post and my friend Jrazz) illustrating two speakers who are telling the same story as personal experience. This sort of example comes down to a simple issue of integrity.

Erskine Psalm Conference

Posted by on

I had a great time the last part of this week at the Psalmody conference at Erskine. The plenary lectures by John Witvliet, Terry Johnson, Mark Ross and Robby Bell were excellent. Witvliet in an address similar to the one given earlier at Union argued for the formative use of the Psalms. Johnson gave a strong survey of Psalm singing in the history of the church showing how the singing of the Psalms was common in the church until more recently (since the Civil war). Mark Ross gave a compelling and inspiring argument for the use of the Psalms in our singing from a theological perspective. Robby Bell, who has recently endured much personal suffering, lectured on the place of the laments.

Johnson and Ross specifically argued clearly that we should sing complete psalms (rather than just snippets) and the whole Psalter. It is certainly true that the overall movement of the Psalm needs to be seen to fully appreciate the message of the psalm.

I was pleased to hear that the lectures will be posted at the school’s site soon. When they are available I will post the link.

I also had two wonderful opportunities to talk with Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, certainly one of the giants in the land in regards to the history of worship practices in the church. One evening I had the opportunity to sit with Dr. and Mrs. Old, Terry Johnson, and James Hering at the Old’s guest house for a couple of hours discussing psalm singing. Johnson and Old were kind enough to think with me about how to introduce this practice to Baptist churches (James Grant has done this at his church and will be sharing his insights at Union on May 5). We also discussed Dr. Old’s forthcoming visit to Southern Seminary to deliver the Mullins lectures. For any near Louisville this will be a great opportunity. Dr. Old also mentioned that he will be giving an additional lecture on leading the church in prayer. I would love to hear this myself. In our tradition the idea of preparation or careful thinking about leading the congregation is very rare.

Psalms and Children

Posted by on

At my other blog I have commented recently on “The Psalms Project” that I am a part of at Union this semester. It started very well last week with an address from John Witvliet the Director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, whose Worship Renewal Grant is funding this project.

I mention Dr. Witvliet’s address at this blog because it is rich in application in training children. Dr. Witvliet uses training his children as an example of how the Psalms teach us to relate to God properly. Then, his argument that the Psalms are “formative speech”- speech that teaches us how to speak, think, relate and feel- is a strong encouragement for us to be leading our children in memorizing Scripture and to expose them to Scripture so consistently that it shapes our speaking and thinking.

I encourage you to listen to the full address. Dr. Witvliet is good speaker so it is also an enjoyable listen.

Psalms Project Update

Posted by on

The Psalms Project got started in a wonderful way with Dr. John Witvliet yesterday. The audio should be available soon (you can check here). Dr. Witvliet made the point that the Psalms teach us the language we need to relate with God much as parents do as we teach our children to say “Thank you,” “Please,” “Excuse me,” and “I am sorry.” We must learn to say these basic things (and they don’t come naturally!) in order to have decent human relationships. We also need to learn to say these things to God and the Psalms give us language for this. I really encourage you to listen to the audio.

Then, tomorrow, Dr. Craig Blaising will continue the discussion with a talk titled, “The Psalms in Early Christian Worship”. Drawing from his work on the recent Ancient Christian Commentary Series volume on Psalms 1-50 he will discuss how early church leaders taught their people to pray the Psalms.

Update: the Witvliet audio is now available.

Hymns & Children

Posted by on

I have some catching up to do with commenting on books, but various things are conspiring against this at the moment!
So, I thought I would post this video to make the point of the value of teaching substantive hymns to our children. At our church teaching hymns to our children is a part of the curriculum, and then of course many parents do this as well.
This video is of a young boy in the church who stopped by our house one evening with his grandmother. On the way out he decided to use our little piano to play and sing some of his favorite hymns. We only captured this one verse.

Charles Williams on Pastoral Ministry

Posted by on

I am currently preparing for the Founders’ Day Address at Union this Friday where my topic will be Charles Bray Williams who taught at Union from 1926 to 1939. He had previously served as founding professor of Biblical Greek at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1905-1919), President of Howard College (now Samford; 1919-1921) and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Mercer University (1921-25). He is best known for his translation of the New Testament, The New Testament Translation in the Language of the People (1937).
I have enjoyed deeply learning more about this fascinating man and all his labors. He was a good example of the combination of scholar and pastor. For now, I simply want to point out one comment from his daughter’s biography of him. She states that he,

believed strongly in a pastor’s knowing personally every member in his church, and he had a very active plan of visitation of every family in their home every few weeks.

People often say no one has ever followed Baxter in systematic visitation of his members. This is simply not true (as a variety of historical examples show). And here is one example from the 1940’s in Southern Baptist life even!

A Sermon Listener’s Guide

Posted by on

Eric Smith at Shepherd of the Sheep has recently posted a Sermon Listener’s Guide he prepared for his people. I think this is a very valuable tool so I have pasted in his questions here. I encourage you to read his full post on how he has been talking to his people about the place of preaching in the life of a Christian. He also has a link to this guide in form ready for printing.

I hope to make use of this guide with my family.

A Sermon Listener’s Guide

What was the biblical text of the sermon?

Do I better understand this passage now than I did before?

What was the main point or main points of the sermon?

How did this message teach me about Christ and the Gospel?

What truths do I need to believe because of this sermon?

What application points were made in this sermon?

What further personal application can I make for myself?

What actions am I called to take this week because of this sermon?

How did this sermon rebuke me or convict me of sin?

How did this sermon bring me joy and hope?

What questions do I still have about the biblical text or the sermon?

How will this message impact my praying this week?

Was I able to receive this word with gladness and a clear conscience, or is there some sin or distraction in my life that robbed me of the joy of hearing God speak to me?