Andy Naselli

Carson on the Rich Man and Lazarus

May 29, 2009 by Andy Naselli

I just uploaded a new MP3 to the D. A. Carson archive:

“The Rich Man and Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31) | MP3 | preached on May 17, 2009 at College Church in Wheaton, IL

Chris Anderson on Mark Driscoll

May 28, 2009 by Andy Naselli

Chris Anderson’s thoughtful evaluation is worth more than two cents.

Particularly convicting:

The struggle to make much of Christ rather than self is a struggle for every preacher; we’re all prone to say “Behold me telling you to behold the Lamb of God.”

Update: Cf. Dave Doran’s “A Few More Pennies on Mark Driscoll.”

A New Church-Planting Blog by Eric True

May 26, 2009 by Andy Naselli

My brother-in-law, Eric True, just started a church-planting blog as he prepares to plant Grace Bible Church of Rancho. If you know of anyone who lives in or near Rancho Cucamonga, California, please spread the word about this church plant scheduled for fall 2010.

Cf. my post in September 2007: “A Future Church Plant Worth Supporting.”

A Shrewd Observation by Sherlock Holmes

May 25, 2009 by Andy Naselli

Jenni and I are enjoying listening to The Complete Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes dramatized by BBC (64 CDs, 48 hours, and featuring a full cast), and we found the following statement particularly striking when we heard it last night:

It’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all.

-Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an agnostic

How to “sustain meaningful discourse without resorting to name-calling or cowardly equivocation”

May 21, 2009 by Andy Naselli

Kevin DeYoung‘s “Defining Discourse Down” in First Things is superb. I benefitted from it even more after re-reading it this evening.

This part hurts the most:

We are all proud. Because I’m proud I get hurt when people disagree with me strongly. Because I’m proud I feel the need to give thirteen qualifications before I make an argument, not usually because I’m a swell guy but because I love for people to love me and loathe for them to dislike or misunderstand me. Because I’m proud I hedge my criticisms so that I won’t have to publicly repent and recant when I go too far and get something wrong. Because we’re proud, protectors of self more than lovers of truth, we often don’t discuss things with candor or with verve.

Read the whole thing—esp. the last four paragraphs.