Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Tim Keller on Preaching and Ministry

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I love listening to Tim Keller preach or explain how he preaches and ministers in Manhattan. I don’t always agree with his exegetical steps, but I always learn from his penetrating insights and stimulating observations.

I recently listened to two thought-provoking lecture series that Keller presented at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary:

  1. Evangelism and Church Planting in Postmodern Cities (2003)
  2. Preaching to the Heart (2006)

The CDs (which aren’t cheap) include extensive PDF handouts.

Related:

  1. Preaching Christ in a postmodern world (a 22.4-hour D.Min. course)
  2. Preaching to the heart (two lectures in 2008)
  3. Three central emphases of Keller’s preaching
  4. Reason for God DVD and other related resources

Doctrinal Boundaries

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Dave Doran recalls six books or articles by evangelicals “about the need to formulate doctrinal boundaries” and “the question of separation”:

1. Carson, D. A. Love in Hard Places. Wheaton: Crossway, 2002.

2. Mohler Jr., R. Albert. “Reformist Evangelicalism: A Center without a Circumference.” Page 131–50 in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times. Edited by Michael S. Horton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2000.

3. Grudem, Wayne. “Why, When, and for What Should We Draw New Boundaries?” Page 339–70 in Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity. Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2003. [Read more…] about Doctrinal Boundaries

Making the Transition to Elder Governance

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This book just came out this month, and it looks like one that will serve some churches well:

Daniel Evans and Joseph Godwin Jr. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition. Eugene, OR: Resource, 2011. xvii + 120 pp.

Description:

When the leadership of Patterson Park Church looked for a book explaining the process of transitioning from a board-run church to an elder-led form of church government, a structure they had come to believe was more in line with Scripture, they found none. God honored their efforts and two of their elders decided a book still needed to be written. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition examines church government from a biblical and historical context and tells the story of Patterson Park’s transition. The authors are hopeful that God will use their experience to help others considering such a transition.

Table of contents: [Read more…] about Making the Transition to Elder Governance

Cultural Differences

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Christopher Catherwood, Church History: A Crash Course for the Curious (2nd ed.; Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 196:

I think it fair to say that the main difference between Fundamentalism and what we would now call historic Evangelicalism is as much cultural as anything else and is particularly an American phenomenon.

(It’s valuable to hear the perspectives of others—in this case a British evangelical historian who is the grandson of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)

Related: Cultural and Theological Conservatism

Twenty OT Prayers Appealing to God’s Concern for His Own Glory

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See them here, a table excerpted from Jim Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. (That two-page PDF is available only today through Thursday.)

Hamilton explains:

These prayers that appeal to God’s concern for his own glory show how the believing remnant in the old covenant responded to God’s pursuit of his own glory: they joined him in it. These OT saints adopted God’s priorities and based their prayers on what they understood to be of greatest concern to God himself–his reputation among the nations, the glory of his name, the revelation of the truth about who he is. Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Elijah, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Asaph, Asa, and Jehoshaphat all petition God on the basis of his concern for his own glory.

Incidentally, there is a massively important point of application here: this is how we, too, should pray. The perspective of the biblical authors is not merely to be studied but adopted, embraced, and lived.

These prayers appealing to God’s concern for his glory are applied to a variety of situations and employ a variety of expressions, and they had to be located the old fashioned way, which is still the best way to examine a biblical theme: by reading slowly through the OT, marking them as they appeared, and then gathering them all into one place. So this chart saves you a ton of work, but actually doing this kind of work for yourself is the best way to study the Bible because it demands that you read attentively, remember what you’ve read, correlate new information with what you’ve already seen, and assimilate the results into a coherent whole.

So in this table I list every prayer in the Old Testament that appeals to God’s concern for his own glory; at least, I think I got them all! If you find one that I missed I’d love to know about it.

See also Hamilton’s explanation on the 9Marks blog.

Heart > Mind

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John Piper, Taste and See: 140 Meditations (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2005), 28:

One profound biblical insight we need to know is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to think that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our heart, and then our mind bends reality to justify the desires and fears.

Reeves Recommends Reformation Reading

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The “Further reading” section of Michael Reeves’s The Unquenchable Flame: Introducing the Reformation (Nottingham, England: IVP, 2009) flags six resources as “must reads” (pp. 189–91, numbering added):

1. Every Christian should read Roland Bainton’s classic biography of Luther, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Abingdon, 1950). A rip-roaring bedtime page-turner.

2. And why not try reading some of Luther himself? You can find his great The Freedom of a Christian online . . . .

3. Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is a must. The title makes it sound scary; inside, it is easy to read and warm in style. If you can, get F. L. Battles’ two-volume translation of the 1559 edition (Westminster Press, 1960). [Read more…] about Reeves Recommends Reformation Reading