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): Continue Reading »

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 Continue Reading »

Dr. Mike Bullmore delivered the annual Rom lectures on October 7-9, 2008 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on “The Heart of Preaching and the Preacher’s Heart.” Q & A followed each of his three outstanding lectures:

1. Session 1: The Functional Centrality of the Gospel in Preaching | 42:56
2. Session 1: Q & A (beginning with responses from an M.Div. student, a Ph.D. student, and Pastor Lee Eclov) | 58:32
3. Session 2: The Five Greatest Heart Challenges in Preaching | 41:18
4. Session 2: Q & A (beginning with responses from Andy Naselli and Dr. Dick Averbeck) | 42:24
5. Session 3: A Passion for the Gospel (Philippians 1) | 38:15
6. Session 3: Q & A | 36:03

I was humbled that Dr. Scharf asked me to respond to Mike’s second lecture. Continue Reading »

Yesterday morning, Mike Bullmore prefaced his sermon with an outstanding 135-second exhortation in light of the upcoming election on November 4.

An excerpt:

Let there be no loss of security, whoever is in office. . . . There’s no cause no matter what happens—ever—for those who belong to God to worry or complain or whine.

Listen to the whole thing (2:15 min.).

Here is a timely video by Mike Bullmore (one of the c. 130 videos mentioned in the last post). He answers the question, “How are we to interpret natural disasters? Are they necessarily a sign of God’s judgment?”

Josh Harris recently started a series of blog posts entitled “Preaching Notes” in which he’ll post PDFs of the notes that some preachers use while preaching. The lineup currently includes Mark Dever, Mike Bullmore, C. J. Mahaney, Ray Ortlund Jr., and Tim Keller.

Earlier this week he posted Mark Dever’s manuscript, and today he posted Mike Bullmore’s. Thanks to Josh for giving me the privilege of introducing my pastor!

My pastor, Dr. Mike Bullmore, is currently preaching through 1 Corinthians, and this morning he finished a sensitive, insightful, pastorally wise exposition of chapter 7.

1. Marriage in God’s World (April 13, 2008)
2. A Oneness That Glorifies God (1 Cor 7:1–7) (April 20, 2008)
3. Glorifying God in Challenging Marital Situations (1 Cor 7:8–16, 39–40) (April 27, 2008)
4. To Marry or Not to Marry: Singleness and the Glory of God (Part 1) (May 4, 2008)
5. To Marry or Not to Marry (Part 2) (May 18, 2008)

Today’s sermon (#5 above) is particularly outstanding. Its target audience is older teenagers and their parents, but it is especially applicable to singles in their 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. Bullmore gives two reminders followed by five statements summarizing biblical priorities in preparing for marriage. Highly recommended!

Mike Bullmore’s preaching is like a combination of John Piper and C. J. Mahaney! More of his MP3s are available here, here, and here.