John MacArthur has recently given two Q&A’s where the questions centered on the church. The first Q&A deals mostly with John’s history of Grace Community Church, what he faced when he first came and how he approached ministry and how it became the church it is today.
The second Q&A covers John’s theology of the church. What is the church? What is worship? Why is the church centered around the preaching of the Word of God? What is John’s approach to application? How does John prepare for Sunday?
The video for this Thursday Theology is the first message from David Platt’s Secret Church series on The Body of Christ.
Christ the Center discusses what it means to be a truly Reformed church, and even talks about whether Reformed Baptists (like me) are truly “reformed”.
John Piper gathers a group of men who have a heart for the church to talk about various issues facing the church: Bryan Chapell, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer, Danny Akin, Tyler Jones and Mark Driscoll.
There were some messages that stood out to me. Piper always is a treat to listen to and learn from.
As much as I have been struggling with Driscoll lately, his message “Mission Idolatry” was good stuff, much of the material drawn from G.K. Beale’s book We Become What We Worship, but applied to church and missions.
Ed Stetzer’s message “Keys to Understanding the Church” and the Kingdom does a good job of examining how many church plants and missional (I’m really getting sick of this term) movements have derailed from the purpose of the church.
Waynes 3 classes on the Power of the church considers the Power of the church in spiritual warfare, the powerful promotion of the Gospel, and the power entrusted to it regarding church discipline.
The class on church discipline is particularly noteworthy. Grudem provides very considered anecdotal evidence that God not only has his hand in disciplining those believers who are harming the church, but also that God honors a churches decision to discipline a member, often supporting the church when the sinning member tries to run to another church who may not know about the discipline. Fascinating food for thought.
The Power of the Church mp3 pt. 1 >>>
As to be expected, this years Shepherds’ Conference was great, and it focused on the prime responsibilities of the church which are being clouded by a wide array of church growth strategies. I was fortunate enough to listen to a few sessions through the live feed, which was real treat.
The concern of this conference is to examine and challenge the contemporary church’s lopsided attention to meeting the culture at the expense of the universality of the transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
MacArthur kicks off with a look at what a church is, and compares today’s church growth movement with God’s church growth movement recorded in the church in Acts. An excellent, and even fearful, look at how God designed the church to function.
Rick Holland picked up the baton and examined lessons we need to learn from Nadab and Abihu, that those who approach God in leadership must approach God as a holy God. Phil Johnson looked at how Jesus and Paul engaged the culture in light of contemporary evangelicals focusing on trying to find ground for conversation and not confrontation as the New Testament outlines.
Steve Lawson brought out the big stick and hammered home the power and sufficiency of Scripture, and reinforced the truth that preachers are nothing without the power of Scripture at work behind them.
MacArthur did a Q&A.
Al Mohler trumpets the concern that we have lost the concept that Scripture is a matter of life and death, and have traded it for something far less and profane. He looks at what true preaching entails, as exemplified by Ezra. A true preacher must engage in exposition (read the text and explain it), and then apply that to the people. He focuses his message on Deuteronomy 4, and calls preachers to the urgency that exists for the church to recover true preaching as a matter of life and death.
MacArthur delivered two messages which his elders said were the two most important messages he preached the previous year. The first looked at Jesus’ words that pointed to the end of Judaism, which had deteriorated into a completely ungodly system. He concluded the conference by looking at the word ‘dulas’ in the New Testament which should be correctly translated ‘slave’, and shows how we have lost meaning by softening that term with the terms ‘servant’ or ‘bondservant,’ which according to MacArthur, is a tragedy in Bible translation.
This is a very important conference for church leaders to listen to carefully and examine their ministries under it’s light. The ramifications of missing the mark in ministry is not something to be taken lightly.
What is the Gospel Coalition? At the heart of this coalition is this question posed by D. A. Carson, “What can we do to promote a robust, gospel-centered evangelical center in our increasingly diverse country, particularly for the arising generation?”
Mark Driscoll has written briefly about it on his blog here. Also information and conference blogging notes at Buzzard Blog.
The conference consists of 20 pastors/theologians, 5 general messages, and 12 workshops. Some of the speakers include Don Carson, Tim Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Ray Ortlund, Phil Ryken, Michael Lawrence, and Mike Bullmore.
Iain Murray and Mark Dever discuss these issues drawing from Murray’s extensive knowledge of the history of the church.
A number of excellent interviews and discussions at 9 Marks on church leadership, elders, polity, ecclesiology. Any church leader would benefit tremendously from these discussions.
Elders, Deacons and Church Leadership>>>
Roundtable Discussion on the Church>>>
Membership & Congregationalism>>>
9 Marks, formerly the Center for Church Reform, is specifically geared to helping pastors and church leaders apply a Biblical model to church. Run by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. and Matt Schumacher, this site offers excellent interviews with guests are free for download. Highly recommended resource for church leaders.
Faith by Hearing 