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Godly Manhood
Owen Strachan just summarized and linked to an insightful message by Bruce Ware that I commend to you: An Essential Talk by Bruce Ware on Godly Manhood As I read his points, I was struck by two thoughts: 1. I hope women (including me!) don’t warp these excellent points into LAW to thrust on our husbands and criticize them, even just silently to ourselves. 2. I wonder how I could be an encourager and helper to Fred in regards to such things? (Oh, and I also thought to myself: “What an excellent grid for a woman to think through what she is praying for and looking for in a potential…
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Disappointed with Your Church?
Kevin DeYoung has a great three-part series on his blog addressing disappointment in the church: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Consider just a few summary lines from the posts and then do check them out! Part 1: How should church members respond when they feel unloved, unsupported, or like outsiders in their church? And how should church leaders respond when they are criticized for being unconcerned or the church is faulted for being unloving? Part 2 (for leaders): Do we have some mechanism for personally knowing our sheep? Do we have some way of knowing when people are not showing up at church? Are we confronting cliquishness in…
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How to “Blow Up” a Church (And Its Opposite)
HT: Challies.com for this link to a brief, but insightful, article by Chuck Lawless: Seven Sure Fire Ways to Blow Up a Church (It begins, “I served as a church pastor for 14 years, have now served for 12 years as a church consultant and have watched hundreds of students begin their local church ministries during my 14 years as a seminary professor. Based on my observations from these various vantage points, here’s what I would do if I wanted to ‘blow up’ a church …”) Worth the read! Oh, and I LOVED LOVED LOVED Pastor Thabiti’s recap of this year’s Together for the Gospel: Home from T4G If…
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Defend the Bible the Way You Would Defend a Lion
Tim Challies quoting Max McLean: “The Bible is its own evangelist. I came to faith because I was deeply affected by the words of the Bible. The famous British preacher Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he responded to criticisms of the Bible. “Very easy,” he responded. “I defend the Bible the same way I defend a lion. I simply let it out of its cage.” That quote captures our vision for this book and for the growth of ministries that are committed to the passionate, articulate, and powerful reading of Scripture. Isn’t it time to let the Bible out of the cage, or (to borrow from the title of…
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Great Reads from David Murray
I enjoyed so many of his posts, that I’m temped to just link to David Murray’s blog and say, “Read backwards for awhile!” But just to tempt you by the titles, here are some favorites from just the past week or so: – Two Essential Traits of Great Leaders – “To Do” (Today) or Tomorrow — Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow – Successful Ministry? Or Happy Marriage? I could keep going, but I have to scoot now. So just go backwards and read for awhile! 🙂 Blessed Saturday to you, Tara B.
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When All Else Fails — Pray the Gospel
Practical Shepherding is staying strong as one of the few blogs I read on a regular basis. This wise and experienced pastor is ministering to many other pastors, I am sure. But as a sheep, I love it too! Not only because it (hopefully) helps me to be a better sheep (and help / encourage / pray for my leaders), but also because the lessons are so often transferable to situations in my own lay-person life. Take this post: What Can I Pray When Praying with the Sick in the Hospital? Yes, this is great advice for pastors. But isn’t it great advice for ALL Christians? I mean, how many…
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But I Don’t Want to Act in a Loving Manner …
We are continuing through Paul Miller’s A Praying Life in our women’s study and I’m glad we are. My prayer life truly has changed throughout the course of our time together. I am definitely listening more to God and sharing more of my heart with Him as I go throughout my day. (The subtitle, “Connecting With God in a Distracting World” is a great one—very accurate.) Plus, I just know that if it weren’t for the study, I would never actually FINISH the book. (I start a lot of books but don’t finish all of them.) In addition to the substance of the study, it’s also been good to be…
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What Did You Expect?
I just snatched Paul Tripp’s latest book (What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage) from WTS for practically FREE by redeeming my Challies Friends of the Blog WTS credit before their huge sale ends (a hardcover book that I wanted to buy anyway for only $8.99!). Combine that sale with my $10 Challies credit so I’m just covering like $2 in media mail shipping?! Hooray! What a deal. Just wanted to be sure you knew about it too … 🙂
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Every Human Wish or Dream That is Injected into the Christian Community is a Hindrance to Genuine Community
I awoke this morning thinking about some real-life situations in my real-life Christian community. And then I was encouraged by this Bonhoeffer quote (from Life Together): “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a…
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Would you like to be a published author?
If you’ve ever thought about publishing a book, Tim Challies has an exciting announcement for you: Announcing Cruciform Press Proposals and manuscripts are invited! I encourage you to check it out. The men involved in the creation of this company sound top-notch. And of course, we’re huge Challies.com fans around here. Blessings to you as you seek to serve through the written word! Yours, Tara B.
