A Word on Blogs and Books

One of the few people who have inspired me to blog is Joe Thorn. I find his resourcefulness and pastoral insights helpful; his love for his family and the church is evident; his appreciation for culture and his down to earth honest approach to things is refreshing and encouraging for me personally. If you haven't read his stuff I highly recommend him to you now. He's given a needed caution to feeding on blogs more than books (and you know this is easy to fall into).

Many of us tend to rush through blog posts rather than give them the serious consideration which could yield better fruit. It’s just so easy to “read” online while rapidly clicking from one thing to the next, moving between multiple open tabs on our browsers, all while the latest episode of Parks and Recreation plays in the corner of the screen.

I encourage people to read blogs, selectively, considering them to be supplemental to our reading diet. Blogs are good, but books are better and more important. Good books are better than good blogs because they generally offer a more serious, sustained, carefully edited and reviewed work focused on a given subject. A book will lead you to slow down, properly ingesting and digesting the words and ideas. Books are, I believe, better teachers. Blogs teach as well. I love blogs! But I hope you are reading more than the stuff in your feed reader.

Ouch. But he nails it. Read the rest of it here.

5 Perspectives on the New Calvinism for New Calvinists

I'll never forget the first time I read Collin Hansen's book Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists. I enjoyed it so much. It was a breath of fresh air for me at the time because I had finally understood and embraced Reformed Theology and I discovered that I wasn't alone in my experience but had apparently been a part of a bigger phenomenon that has been happening in Evangelicalism for some time. A movement most of us know as the Young, Restless, Reformed (YRR) or the New Calvinism movement.
This has been a wonderful thing (and a horrible thing to some of you), and it's not without it's own issues. Issues I've seen firsthand, and some of them have already been brought up and stirred up a good deal of controversy with people getting bent out of shape over some of it. To be fair, some of the criticism seemed negative and cynical but some of it was valid and should be seriously considered. And the last time I checked, the Bible has much to commend to hearing and heeding from those who've gone ahead of us and have a lot of wisdom to offer. So I've collected 5 videos here that have been out for a while but are pure gold in what they're worth for what some of these men have to say. So take up and watch, and take notes.









While most of you probably recognize the other big names and might put more stock in what they have to say, I personally find Brian Dempsey's thoughts on this movement especially important and worth taking seriously.

A Simple Idea Using the ESV Study Bible

Sometimes the best things we're looking for are already under our noses. I've thumbed through a plethora of books over the years looking for the best resource to use for one-to-one discipleship. There's plenty of decent ones out there but I couldn't for the life of me find a resource as comprehensive and yet "user-friendly", in my opinion, as the ESV Study Bible. The essays and charts in the back (covering basic biblical doctrine, ethics, how we got the Bible, a brief church history overview, cults, world religions, and stuff on understanding how the New Testament handles the Old Testament) are top notch and ideal not only for reading on your own but for using in one-to-one discipleship. Even J. I. Packer (Christendom's own Gandalf as it were, and the theological editor of the best selling study bible) likened it to "having a catechist right there with you" (I paraphrase), teaching you the basics of Christian doctrine and living.

One night I met up with a buddy of mine who I had been discipling for a while and we decided to go through the Biblical Doctrine Overview section together. It's basically like a super concise version of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.
So we did and we would meet up once a week for about 2 hours, talk about "life stuff" and pray for each other in the first half, and then spend the rest of the time reading and discussing a section from the Biblical Doctrine Overview (which covers the Bible, the Trinity, the Attributes of God, Creation, Providence, Man, Sin, Salvation, Church, Last Things). He would read a paragraph and then I'd read another, we'd talk about it, and so on. Which was similar to how we do membership classes at my church and is a very simple model anyone could follow and replicate.

It ended up going beyond him and I. He eventually moved but ended up doing the same thing with his wife, a few relatives and friends of his. It was such a blessing and a huge encouragement for me to see some fruit come from our times together. It really was. It showed me that discipling doesn't have to be some huge over-the-top and grand project! I think there are too many classes and programs devoted to this endeavor that are helpful but could (and should) be done by all of us. David Platt has said it best, I think, on this issue:

It's not that sitting in lecture-style settings is not beneficial, but what if Christ has actually set us up to be the teachers? Think about it. What would be the most effective way for this new follower of Christ to learn to pray? To sign her up for a one-hour-a-week class on prayer? Or to invite her personally into your quiet time with God to teach her how to pray? Similarly, what would be the most effective way for this new follower of Christ to learn to study the Bible? To register her in the next available course on Bible study? Or to sit down with her and walk her through the steps of how you learned to study the Bible? This raises the bar in our own Christianity. (Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, p. 100)

So here's all you really need:

1. An ESV Study Bible. And if the person you're discipling doesn't own one you could either read through the articles together out of yours or (even better) go out and get them one! It's an investment!

2. People. Anyone who is hungry for more, even if it's not a new Christian (or even a Christian at all! The Spirit may already be well at work if a non-Christian is sincerely willing to do this!)

3. You. If you don't know a lot of this stuff already, forget it and don't do anything... NO! Bring another (preferably more mature Christian) into it, if you need to. But don't let your lack of theological expertise discourage you from doing this. Learn, grow and do life together! Watch what happens.

I'm not guaranteeing instant results and all kinds of excitement here. Discipleship is messy stuff. There's all kinds of sin and flesh junk to deal with, and this is only part of a bigger picture. Discipleship isn't limited to meeting up at Starbucks for an hour once a week, its a way of life for all of life. But we can't afford to leave all the discipling to classes, programs and seminars anymore. It's time for everyone to get in the game, so text that person, set a time and place, grab that ESV Study Bible and go!

Doctrinal Books vs. Devotional Books

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand." - C.S. Lewis