9 Marks

9Marks Workshop (Portland) Audio Is Up

Had the privilege of attending this workshop last week with some folks from our church. The audio from each of the sessions is now available for download, but only for 60 days (after that you’ll have to contact Hinson Baptist Church to get it). It really was a terrific conference with a lot of content, but also an abundance of opportunities to talk with the speakers and gain much wisdom.

9Marks Workshop Audio.

Enjoy!

Helpful Evangelism Resources

Here are the resources I referenced in this past Sunday’s sermon on evangelism in case you’re interested in learning more:

Also helpful are:

Preach the Gospel Out of Love for God

Love for God is the only sufficient motive for evangelism. Self-love will give way to self-centeredness; love for the lost will fail with those whom we cannot love, and when difficulties seem unsurmountable [sic], only a deep love for God will keep us following his way, declaring his Gospel, when human resources fail. Only our love for God – and, more important, his love for us – will keep us from the dangers which beset us. When the desire for popularity with men, or for success in human terms, tempts us to water down the Gospel, to make it palatable, then only if we love God will we stand fast by his truth and his ways.

– John Cheeseman, as quoted in Mark Dever’s The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, pp. 100-101.

Designer Religions and Smorgasbord Faiths

This inattention to belief fits our culture’s impatience with detail. In society today, beliefs have been domesticated. We no longer fight about them. We don’t really argue about them. We may not even care about them anymore. After all, we think, so many beliefs are merely passing fashions or momentary expressions of individual wants or desires. Americans create designer religions and smorgasbord faiths – “Oh, I’ll take a little of this from Hinduism, a little of this from Christianity, a little of this from my grandmother (I don’t remember what she was)” – and put it all together as their own individual, unique religion. Today people believe to be true simply what they desire to be true.

– Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, p. 58.

Mark Dever – Unhealthy Churches

Unhealthy churches cause few problems for the healthiest Christians; but they are cruel taxes on the growth of the youngest and weakest Christians. They prey on those who don’t understand Scripture well. They mislead spiritual children. They even take the curious hopes of non-Christians that there might be another way to live, and seem to deny it. Bad churches are terribly effective anti-missionary forces.

– Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, p. 13.

9 Ways to Continue Theological Development When Time Is Tight

Michael McKinley at the 9 Marks blog shares his notes from a recent discussion on the topic involving himself, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence:

  1. Build it into the things you’re already doing. (QT, sermon prep, discipling, etc.)
  2. Stop wasting so much time on the internet. (pick just 2 or 3 blogs to read, and look at them once a week; stop wasting time updating your Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpcae pages, etc.)
  3. Always have a book nearby. (capture the spare moments)
  4. Build time for reading and reflection into your schedule. (you’ll be amazed how much time is freed up if you do #2! But beware, a pastor’s schedule abhors a vacuum, so if you don’t block out the time, something else will fill it in.)
  5. Have a plan. (if you aim at nothing you’re sure to hit it.)
  6. Read primary sources, not commentary. (you don’t have time to waste on the commentators. Read the Bible and the people who have written important theology. You can do it. You don’t need a PhD to read Luther, Calvin, Augustine, Edwards, Grudem, Frame, etc)
  7. Don’t do it alone. (cultivate a theological conversation among your leaders. They will correct your idiosyncrasies and keep you accountable. It will also create a culture of theological seriousness in your church, which will benefit everyone.)
  8. Let the Scriptures, not our culture, set the agenda. (Trying to keep up with our culture’s agenda is a chasing after the wind. On the other hand, if the Scriptures set the agenda, you’ll be ready for anything the cultures blows at you.)
  9. Church History and Historical Theology are the pastors Cliff Notes to theology. (Other people, smarter than me, have already faced the stuff I face and have figured a lot of things out. I can stand on their shoulders and look like a genius! The cultural package may have changed, but there’s nothing new under the sun.)

Click here for the full article.

Recommended Audio from 9 Marks

While I was painting the deck yesterday, I took the opportunity to knock out three interviews by Mark Dever for 9 Marks…all three of which were well done and very compelling. These – as well as many others – are available for free download.