Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Confront and Engage

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Carl R. Trueman, Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow  (2nd ed.; Fearn, Scotland: Focus, 2011), 8–9:

[W]ere I to write the book today, it would be different in certain respects. . . . I would want to modify, or at least off-set, my promotion of biblical theological teaching and preaching by emphasizing the need for the preacher to confront and engage his hearers. ‘Hey, I bet you never saw Jesus in this text before,’ is not an adequate application of the Bible; and yet too many so-called redemptive historical preachers and teachers in the Vos (or perhaps, to be charitable and not to impute the sins of the followers to the founder) pseudo-Vos tradition, consider their job to be done when they produced a nice, neat, dry-as-dust lecture on a passage which does just that and no more.

Two Kinds of Preaching

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Guest post by Mark Rogers

Parsons Cooke:

There are two ways of handling divine truth. The one uses it as a mere subject of discourse, the mere theme of a beautiful and splendid oration, the mere block of marble on which the sculptor displays his art. The other uses it as a sharp threshing instrument having teeth, to produce the broken and contrite heart. Let one propose to himself the true end of preaching — not the charming of his hearers by the beauty of his discourses, not the convincing of them that he is a splendid preacher, but the awakening in their minds of views and feelings answering to the truths which he utters; then let him employ whatever arts of eloquence, whatever powers of persuasion, whatever resources of learning, whatever impulses of genius, may pertain to him, to secure this single end. Then his splendid gifts, if he has them, assume a new lustre from the heavenly spirit and aim of their application. In such preaching, the wisdom of God and the power of God come forth. Such a ministry is in the highest degree eloquent, speaking as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified. – Recollections of Rev. E.D. Griffin, or, Incidents Illustrating His Character, 141.

Edward Dorr Griffin:

Let your chief attention be directed to your style and address, and the soul of your conversation has evaporated. Let your attention be engrossed by your subject or by an earnest desire to impart instruction or pleasure to those around you, and you are a different man….

The operation which takes place in a Christian church by the power of truth and the divine Spirit, is wholly different from that which took place in a Roman forum by the influence of Cicero’s elequence…. Pelagians may do the same in the pulpit: but Calvinists know that here the victory is to be won, ‘not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord’; and they rely on the energy of truth in the hands of the Spirit to produce, not natural and transient effects, but supernatural and permanent transformations of heart and life.  – “A Sermon on the Art of Preaching,: Delivered Before the Pastoral Association of Massachusetts, in Boston, May 25, 1825,” (Boston, T. R. Marvin, 1825), 6-7.

A Good Bible-Story Book with Thousands of Pictures

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I recently finished reading all 215 stories in this book to my three-year-old daughter:

Doug Mauss, ed. The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story.  Illustrated by Sergio Cariello. Colorado Springs, CO: Cook, 2010. 748 pp. Audiobook, 10.2-hours.

Thoughts:

  1. I was skeptical at first how a comic-book approach like this would work, but the book responsibly presents the Bible’s storyline chronologically. It’s divided into 215 short stories spanning Genesis to Revelation.
  2. It’s attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. My daughter loves it! She daily asked me, “Daddy, would you please read God’s Redemptive Story to me tonight?!” And after each story ended, she would immediately ask, “Would you read another one?!” She was riveted to the pages as we worked our way through the Bible’s storyline. I’d estimate that it took us about 15–20 hours to read together, and she enjoyed every minute of it. [Read more…] about A Good Bible-Story Book with Thousands of Pictures

How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith

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Jack Hyles, “The Invitation Time,” chapter 27 in The Hyles Church Manual (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord, 1968), 279–82 (numbering added; this chapter reprints most of ch. 7 in Hyles’s Let’s Build an Evangelistic Church):

After observing for nearly twenty-two years the preaching of hundreds of preachers across America, I have come to the conclusion that many of us need intensive help in the conducting of a public invitation. Many wonderful gospel messages can be rendered ineffective by a weak invitation.

On the other hand, many average preachers can be rewarded greatly with the use of an effective, pungent, public invitation. Though in many places a public invitation is seldom used and even considered out of date, it is still true that the greatest soul-winning churches utilize an effective, spiritual, Spirit-filled, powerful invitation as their greatest means of evangelism. May we look at a few practical pointers concerning the invitation.

1. Starting the Invitation

  1. Do not reveal the closing of the sermon. When the sermon reaches a high point or a climax, then would be a good time to close abruptly. Even if the sermon is not completed, sometimes God may lead one to close prematurely in order to start the invitation from a high spiritual plane. This also prevents the unsaved from “digging in,” so to speak, before the invitation is given. [Read more…] about How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith

Interracial Marriage: Oppose, Tolerate, or Celebrate?

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I’ve been a member of churches that oppose interracial marriage. I have friends who have received counsel in those churches from pastors—pastors who refuse to perform an interracial wedding—to break off an interracial dating relationship primarily because of a person’s ethnicity.

I vividly recall when Bob Jones University dropped their ban against interracial dating in 2000 and apologized in 2008.

Nor do I forget the first time I taught an MDiv course at an extension site of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2007 composed entirely of black students—all older than I. When the dean introduced me to the class, he mentioned that I earned an MA and PhD from Bob Jones University. Then he walked out of the classroom. The stares felt like glares, and I don’t blame them. I had to dig myself out of a big hole (which, by God’s grace, I think I finally escaped).

So at least for me based on my limited experience, this issue is still fresh.

In John Piper’s new book, his chapter on interracial (or better: inter-ethnic*) marriage argues “from Scripture and experience that interracial marriage is not only permitted by God but is a positive good in our day. It is not just to be tolerated, but celebrated” (p. 203):

John Piper. Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 

*See Piper’s appendix 1 for why the term ethnicity is better than race (pp. 234–40).

The book is even more interesting to me since Piper grew up across the street from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Watch him talk about it in this gripping 17-minute documentary:

Piper tells his story in chapter 1, and a big part of it is interracial marriage (pp. 35–37):

The perceived wrongness of interracial marriage had been for me one of the unshakeable reasons why segregation was right. (p. 35)

Here’s the outline of chapter 15 (“Interracial Marriage,” pp. 203–15, numbering added) with some excerpts: [Read more…] about Interracial Marriage: Oppose, Tolerate, or Celebrate?

Mediums

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Chapter 8 of this book is entitled “Mediums”:

John Dyer. From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011. [endorsements]

“The message is the content we transmit from our minds to our audience, while everything that surrounds those words can be considered a medium.” Mediums may include “an email, a handwritten note, a phone call, a Facebook wall post, or any other tool we use to communicate” (p. 117).

Dyer makes three arguments about mediums (pp. 117–31):

  1. “Mediums communicate meaning.” This is evident “in the way we use various communication mediums: formality, difficulty, and speed.”
  2. “Mediums create culture (and cultural divides).”
  3. “Mediums shape thinking.” Two examples: printing press and photography.

Related: Among other things, John Dyer maintains the extraordinarily useful “Best Commentaries” site.

Equipping Counselors

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This book releases today:

Robert W. Kellemen. Equipping Counselors for Your Church: The 4E Ministry Training Strategy. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2011.

It’s endorsed by Paul Tripp, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Ed Welch, and several others.

Kellemen’s 4 E’s:

  1. Envisioning God’s Ministry
  2. Enlisting God’s Ministers for Ministry
  3. Equipping Godly Ministers for Ministry
  4. Empowering/Employing Godly Ministers for Ministry

More info (including a video and endorsements) here.