My pastor, Mike Bullmore, began his sermon last Sunday with a brief update regarding a conference he ministered at the previous week in Toronto. The conference MP3s are available for free, and here’s what Mike contributed:

1. The Functional Centrality of the Gospel
2. Panel with Q&A: Bullmore, Martin and guests
3. The Gospel and Pastoral Character
4. Panel with Q&A: Bullmore, Symons, Boot, Martin, and guests
5. The Gospel and Pastoral Labor
6. Panel with Q&A: Bullmore, Martin and guests
7. The Gospel and Pastoral Hope
8. Panel with Q&A: Bullmore, Martin, Symons, and guests

Two of my mentors are teaming up for a one-day conference in Ontario next month. Details here.

Tony Reinke: “Audio and PDFs from the 2009 Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors Conference (April 6-8) are now available for download.”

This includes the following seminar by Mike Bullmore: “The Pastor and Preaching: How to Start a Sermon, End a Sermon, and Prepare the Middle of a Sermon” (MP3 | PDF).

Yesterday my family visited CrossWay Community Church in Milwaukee for second time since our church planted it a little over a year ago. If you or people you know live near the high school building where they’re meeting, I’d commend this gospel-centered assembly to you.

The preaching pastor, Jason Dahlman, is a good friend. (The picture below is old; he and his wife now have three children!) Jason and I first met in Dr. Carson’s Advanced Greek Grammar class in spring 2007, and Jason is now finishing his PhD dissertation under Doug Sweeney at TEDS on Puritan preaching. Jason is unusually humble and gifted—a dynamic combination. He’s probably the finest young preacher I’ve ever heard. (Sermons are available here.)

They are still a young, small church (if I remember correctly, their assembly started off around 40 people, and about one year later they are running about 90-120). More information about them is available here, including a 4.5-minute video that they prepared last year.

This morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, finished his sermon series on 1 Corinthians with a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16 entitled “What We Should Do with Our Money” (8.6 MB; 37:48 long). Mike hit a home run with this one. It’s an excellent example of how to preach on giving. He approaches it with just the right tone and spirit, and he avoids the errors of both legalism (e.g., “Christians must give exactly 10% of their gross income or else they are robbing God!”) and libertinism (e.g., “Christians are not required to tithe” with the implication that giving is optional).

Here’s a brief overview/paraphrase of the sermon (which, of course, does not adequately convey how Mike preached it): (more…)

Last Sunday morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, included a bulletin insert with twenty-six book recommendations and brief comments. I’ve published it here with Mike’s kind permission, and I’ve updated it in several ways:

1. combined it into one list: The bulletin insert has two sides. One recommends old standards: “If you are relatively new to CrossWay, these resources are selected with you in mind as they represent values that are foundational and particularly dear to us.” I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by these books. The other side highlights new additions to the CrossWay bookstore.
2. added ten more books from a similar, previous bulletin insert: Again, I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by books under the category “Old Standards.”
3. added bibliographic information (e.g., author, subtitles, publisher, year)
4. added book covers
5. arranged the books in alphabetical order
6. added some comments in brackets (more…)