Chris Kidd

If it were not for hope, the heart would break.

One of the biggest challenges to any ancient faith is to adapt to modern circumstances and then, as circumstances change, to adapt again. American religious institutions are, as a rule, doing a poor job of listening to and learning from this millennial generation.

Greg Gilbert is continuing his series on church and music, this time including some challenging questions:

• Do you get bored when someone reads a longish passage of Scripture in your church? Do you start wishing they’d get on with the music?
• Do you need music playing in the background for the reading of Scripture to affect your emotions?
• Does a prayer seem too “plain” or “stark” to you if it doesn’t have music playing behind it?
• Do you feel depressed a few weeks after a worship conference because you haven’t felt close to God in a long time?
• Do you desperately look forward to the next conference you’re going to attend because you know that, finally, you’ll be able to feel close to God again?
• If you’re in a big church with great music, are you able to worship when you visit your parents’ small rural church?
• Do you ever feel worshipful in the middle of the week, at work, at school, etc. just because of thinking about God and his grace? Or does that only happen when the music’s playing?
• Do you tend to feel closer to God when you’re alone with your iPOD than you do when you’re gathered with God’s people in your church?
• Do you feel like you just can’t connect with other believers who haven’t had the same “worship experiences” that you have? Can you only connect with other believers who “know what it feels like to really worship?”
• Is your sense of spiritual well-being based more on feeling close to God, or knowing that you are close to God because of Jesus Christ?

• Greg Gilbert on the end of music in churches.
• Bob Kauflin responds with his musical experience and expertise.
  

Much of the audio from the A29 Bootcamp in Chicago is now online at the Acts 29 website:

• Church Planting Evangelism by Mark Dever
• Kingdom-Focused Church Planting by Ed Stetzer
• Leading the Mission in Church Planting by Darrin Patrick
• Preaching the Mission by Mark Driscoll
• Missional and Biblical Church Planting by Ed Stetzer

(Thanks to Justin Taylor)

One of the country's most senior bishops, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Revd. James Jones has written on the topic of sexuality, and his role in objecting to the appointment of the gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading in a his new book, A Fallible Church. He wrote:

The Bishop of Liverpool’s essay is online at the Liverpool diocesan website: Making Space for Truth and Grace.

Thanks to Maggi.

I think Jesus would rub me the wrong way. I think his gaze and his words would rip away my facade of being a nice guy. I think he would take me to a high mountain and show me all the kingdoms of suffering he sees and he would open my ears to all the cries of terror and pain he hears. Many of the voices would be those of children. Then he might walk me back to my favorite coffee place and sit beside me and just watch me sip at my really good coffee. I think I would feel at least awkward and probably very uncomfortable. I think I would want Jesus to get up and leave. And I am not trying to poop on myself here. I am actually wondering if Jesus and I would get along.

Derek Thomas reviews John Stott's The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor.

I couldn't help but wonder, What would have happened if Moses kept on walking? In other words, what is Moses saw the flames and smoke [of the burning bush] and thought to himself, "That's interesting, but what I really need to focus on right now is the flock." Would God have still called to him? Would he still have had his moment? Would God have visited him in another way? I do not know. I would like to think so. But I do not know. (pp. 93-94)

Our God is wildly infallible. Nothing is beyond his redemption. Nothing is beyond his restoration. Nothing is beyond his healing power. Not the bruises. Not the scars. Not the pain. (p. 106)

God is unbelievably stubborn in his concern for us. He does not give up. He does not give in. Indeed, God is very stubborn. If seen in a negative light, stubbornness is often synonymous with being inflexible and bullheaded. But God's unwillingness to yield - his stubbornness, if you will - is not haphazard. It's founded in his love - his firmly resolved, absolutely determined, unrelenting love. (p. 147)

Here are some lectures Carl Trueman delivered at Christian Heritage, Cambridge, UK:

The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 1
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 2
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 3 is missing
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 4
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 5
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 6
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 7
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 8
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 9
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 10
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 11
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 12
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 13
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 14
The Person and Work of Christ. Lecture 15

Thanks to Justin Taylor

"We don’t have to make ourselves holy. We already are, and we just don’t know it."

Timmy Brister has come up with the idea of reading the Puritans in 2008: the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge. You can see the schedule and books here.

I am going to have a think on this, but even if I don't take up the challenge fully I would like to spend some time reading some Puritans - particularly John Owen and Richard Baxter.