Ligonier Ministries and Salem Communication have teamed up to give away R.C. Sproul’s most popular and enduring series The Holiness of God.
This classic can help you better understand the biblical picture of God’s awesome character and why it is so foundational to God-centered, God-honoring theology and Christian living. In The Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul demonstrates that encountering God’s holy presence is a terrifying experience. Dr. Sproul argues that this struggle is nonetheless necessary because it is the only way to cure our propensity to trust in ourselves and our own righteousness for salvation.
The download comes as six audio files and a study guide. You also gain entry into a contest for a FREE trip for two to the March 2011 Ligonier National Conference in Orlando, FL. But hurry, offer ends August 31, 2010.
If you prefer, you can also purchase and read R.C. Sproul’s classic book The Holiness of God.
Get your free The Holiness of God audio here.
There are numerous critiques of the modern seeker-sensitive, purpose driven church-growth techniques that have turned pastors into CEOs. As mega-churches continue to grow and churches seek to implement best practices from the business world, the humble shepherd pastor is more difficult to find every day. But don’t for a moment that this message is only about seeker-sensitive mega-churches. There is concern in the young, restless, and reformed camp as well.
Carl Trueman sounds a wake-up call for pastors today at the Ref21 blog.
What was interesting was that this person was a member at one of the flagship Reformed evangelical churches in the US where the pastor is seen as one of the great hopes for the spread of gospel churches in the post-Christian world. In fact, this church member had actually tried to speak to this pastor about the issue, but had not been able to get an appointment. The church leader was simply too busy, with countless external demands on his time; and now, presumably protected by a praetorian guard of personal assistants and associate pastors, he was essentially as unavailable to the masses in his large congregation as the average rock star is to the punters who buy his concert tickets.
Here are a few questions to think about as you read the rest of Carl Trueman’s Life Together – or Maybe Not. Does your pastor know you? Is he accessible? Does he shepherd you? Pastor, how would you answer these questions about yourself?
Image Credit: paullew on Flickr.
Russell Moore looks at the Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally:
A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve heard the gospel, right there in the nation’s capital.
The news media pronounces him the new leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America’s Christian conservatives have no problem with that.
Russell Moore’s God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck is a must read.
If you have 3 hours, you can watch the rally via C-SPAN’s archives.
Image Credit: asterix611 on Flickr.
Update: Also read Erik Raymond’s Evangelical Polygamy: The Conservative Honeymoon with Glenn Beck.
This past Sunday Tullian Tchividjian wrote about a united Coral Ridge as they eliminated different worship services. Why? Tullian explains:
You see, when we separate people according to something as trivial as musical preferences, we evidence a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the gospel. We’re not only feeding toxic tribalism; we’re also saying the gospel can’t successfully bring these two different groups together. It’s a declaration of doubt about the unifying power of God’s gospel. Generational appeal in worship is an admission that the gospel is powerless to join together what man has separated.
Building the church on stylistic preferences or age appeal (whether old or young) is just as contrary to the reconciling effect of the gospel as building it on class, race, or gender distinctions. In a recent interview J. I. Packer said, “If worship services are so fixed that what’s being offered fits the expectations, the hopes, even the prejudices, of any one of these groups as opposed to the others, I don’t believe the worship style glorifies God.” One of the leading ways the church can testify to God’s unifying power before our segregated world is to establish and maintain congregations and worship services that transcend cultural barriers, including age and musical styles.
What a thought! The church united in worship of our Lord and Savior. Let it be. Oh, I pray that more churches would see the truth in this.
I encourage you to read the entire article We Are One.
