acting like teenage kids

never forget that the crowd running the show in Washington truly deeply believes that they are smarter than you and care more than you do about things.
from Drudge here is exhibit A in the condescension lalapalooza:

Energy Secretary Chu: A teaching moment (AP)
When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly [...]

the Ministry of Meekness

Continuing to read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we arrive on pages 95-97 at his description of the ministry of meekness that Christians owe to one another:
Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the [...]

spiritual leadership

John Piper’s article on spiritual leadership is a treasure trove of extremely valuable information.
I found this bit on marks of a good teacher especially interesting since I have spent a lot of time teaching.
9. Able to Teach
It is not surprising to me that some of the great leaders at Bethlehem Baptist Church have been men [...]

Teaching

Mark Driscoll has a post on the spiritual gift of teaching.

The Spiritual Gift of Teaching Defined
The gift of teaching is the God-given ability to understand and communicate biblical truth in a clear and relevant manner so that there is understanding and application.
People with the Gift of Teaching
Learning, researching, communicating, and illustrating truth are qualities that [...]

truth in love

Paul reminded the Ephesian church that only with truth would there be mature Christian unity and only if truth was spoken in love.
Truth cannot be ducked or minimized in any way, but it must be softened with compassion. It is not compassionate to downplay or minimize or disregard truth.
Dr. Mohler wrote about this the [...]

why doctrine?

via challies, here is John MacArthur talking about the importance of a sound doctrinal foundation prior to learning specific applications of scripture.
Of course, practical application is vital. I don’t want to minimize its importance. But if there is a deficiency in preaching today, it is that there’s too much relational, pseudopsychological, and thinly life-related content, [...]

James 3:1

James 3:1 says that not many of us should be teachers because we who teach will be judged more strictly. Teaching the word of God to the people of God is a huge responsibility and should be approached with an intense awareness of this responsibility and the constant need for assistance from the Holy [...]

theology in church?

Yesterday Todd Burus put up a post regarding his church’s general lack of receptivity to learning deeper theological points. let him explain what he means:
As someone who teaches frequently across several ages in the church, probably the largest complaint I have, or at least the complaint that I most frequently bother my poor wife [...]

church planting

Two interesting links that I ran across yesterday. Both of them are in this post by Reformissionary and the Dan Kimball article was also mentioned in this post by Chris Marlow.
The question I have is about church planting. Mark Driscoll talks at length about the Acts 29 church planting network here. it [...]

Questions at church?

I don’t watch the show Desperate Housewives so I only have a passing familiarity with it or its characters. But thanks to the Vision Navigator, I saw this clip and it struck a chord with me.
watch this right quick (excuse the mild expletive)

parenthetically, do you get the impression that this [...]

more on harsh language

Here is Doug Wilson’s response to the arguments put forward by Nathan Busenitz that I referenced earlier today.
Here is Doug’s response to Nathan’s third argument which was definitely the best one he had:
3. And last, Busenitz presents what he believes to be his most important argument — that Driscoll is privileging Old Testament examples over [...]

persuasion

Paul said that since we know what it means to fear God, we seek to persuade men. Then he said, “we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” In his earlier letter to the same group he said that he was willing to become whatever he needed to become so [...]

Is the church for evangelism?….continued even further

In a way this whole discussion seems weirdly artificial. All of our life as Christ followers is the gospel. Everything we do or say is because of the presence of God in us.
I am not a preacher (vocational pastor of a congregation). I am a lawyer who teaches (and yes I do [...]

a new book

Mark Driscoll has a new book out explaining difficult theological words. (words, by the way, that the ESV generally uses, which is one of the reasons that I use it.)
I wish that I could embed the video, but every time I hit “save” with the code on here, it disappears.

teaching

Instapundit gave a link to an article about Randy Pausch and his last lecture.
In the article, Charles Lipson talks about the fact that professor Pausch’s lecture was also a lesson in great teaching. Lipson makes the point that good teaching must impart the necessary substantive material. In addition:
The best teachers also [...]