Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

22 Mistakes Pastors Make in Practicing Church Discipline

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Jonathan Leeman, “Appendix: Mistakes Pastors Make in Practicing Discipline,” Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus (9Marks; Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 139–40:

Pastors sometimes make the following mistakes regarding formal church discipline.

  1. They fail to teach their congregation what church discipline is and why they should practice it.
  2. They fail to practice meaningful membership, which includes (1) teaching people what membership entails before they join; (2) encouraging casual attenders to join; (3) carefully interviewing everyone who wants to join; (4) giving regular oversight to all the flock; and (5) maintaining an up-to-date membership list that accurately reflects who is present at the weekly gathering. [Read more…] about 22 Mistakes Pastors Make in Practicing Church Discipline

Exegesis, Biblical Theology, Historical Theology, Systematic Theology, and Practical Theology: What the Categories on My Blog Mean

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This blog is now much better organized:

  • I used to label a blog post with one or more of some 200 categories (e.g., “D. A. Carson,” “Calvinism,” “preaching”).
  • But now I label a post with just one of six categories:
  1. Exegesis. What did authors intend their texts to mean? This includes hermeneutics. (Hermeneutics concerns principles of interpretation, and exegesis applies those principles.)
  2. Biblical Theology. How has God revealed his word historically and organically?
  3. Historical Theology. What have people thought about exegesis and theology?
  4. Systematic Theology. What does the whole Bible teach about certain topics? What is true about God and his universe?
  5. Practical Theology. How should humans respond to God’s revelation? This includes, for example, culture, ethics, evangelism, marriage and family, money, pastoral theology, politics, and worship.
  6. Other. This covers what doesn’t fit in the above categories.

My blog is called “Thoughts on Theology,” so those seem like the right categories. [Read more…] about Exegesis, Biblical Theology, Historical Theology, Systematic Theology, and Practical Theology: What the Categories on My Blog Mean

A Note to Those Who Follow My Blog via Email or Twitter

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If you follow my blog via email or Twitter, then you haven’t been receiving automatic updates since June 12. (If you subscribe via the RSS feed, then you shouldn’t have experienced a problem.) On June 12, I somehow included an unsupported character in a blog post that broke the feed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Many thanks to my webmaster, Phil Gons, for figuring this out and in the process redesigning the site with a new theme.

Here are links to the eleven blog posts I published between June 12 and July 6 (#10 is my favorite):

  1. Sale on Dispatches from the Front DVDs
  2. Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
  3. Covenant Eyes
  4. A New D. A. Carson Collection from Logos Bible Software
  5. Some Kevin DeYoung MP3s
  6. Voting as a Christian
  7. My Favorite Four Bible Atlases
  8. Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
  9. Free New Book Edited by Kevin Bauder
  10. Announcing Emma Elyse Naselli
  11. Why, Where, and How Do We Draw the Line?

Why, Where, and How Do We Draw the Line?

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The current issue of Tabletalk is on “Drawing the Line: Why Doctrine Matters.”

These two articles are particularly worth reading:

  1. DeYoung, Kevin. “Where and How Do We Draw the Line?” Tabletalk 36:7 (July 2012): 13–14. (Also on Kevin’s blog.)
  2. Trueman, Carl R. “Why Do We Draw the Line?” Tabletalk 36:7 (July 2012): 21–22.

DeYoung suggests and explains “seven steps we ought to pursue in establishing doctrinal boundaries”: [Read more…] about Why, Where, and How Do We Draw the Line?

Announcing Emma Elyse Naselli

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God has graciously given us our third daughter: Emma Elyse Naselli was born this morning!

(click image to enlarge)

About Her Name

Emma is from emunah (אֱמוּנָה), the Hebrew word for faithfulness.

Elyse is from eleos (ἔλεος), the Greek word for mercy. The Greek translation of the Old Testament typically uses this word (213 of 248 occurrences) to translate the Hebrew word chesed (חֶסֶד), which refers to loving loyalty or loyal love based on a committed relationship that results in kind deeds.

For the LORD is good and his love [KJV: “mercy”; Heb. chesed; Gk. eleos] endures forever;
his faithfulness [Heb. emunah] continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

The cadence of Emma Elyse fits with our other girls: a four-syllable name with the emphasis on one and four:

  1. Kara Marie
  2. Gloria Grace
  3. Emma Elyse

The Back-story

Emma Elyse’s name will constantly remind us of God’s mercy and faithfulness. Here’s part of the back-story, lightly edited from a blog post that Jenni wrote on February 1:

[Read more…] about Announcing Emma Elyse Naselli

Free New Book Edited by Kevin Bauder

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This book is available for free in PDF and Kindle formats:

Kevin T. Bauder, ed. Heart, Soul, Might: Meditations on Knowing and Loving God. Minneapolis: Central Seminary Press, 2012.

“It is a collection of poems, prayers, and essays in devotional theology or, if you prefer, theological devotion” (p. iii).

The authors are the faculty of Central Seminary in Minneapolis. More info here.

There are 38 articles: [Read more…] about Free New Book Edited by Kevin Bauder

Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

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The front matter of Robert H. Gundry’s A Survey of the New Testament (4th ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003) lists Todd Bolen’s Pictorial Library of Bible Lands in his “permissions and credits.”

I looked into it, and I recently obtained a complete set of the newest edition of Todd Bolen’s Pictorial Library of Bible Lands (18 vols.). It released in May 2012, and it’s selling now for $389. [Read more…] about Pictorial Library of Bible Lands