Bibles

*UPDATE* - I do have a friend.

A friend of mine asked me what bible(s) we use for the discipleship of our boys. I have posted this information in the past but I will post it again for your reference. I would highly recommend both of these books. Unlike many children's bibles which simply point out the moral lessons of Scripture, each of these books gets to the heart of Scripture. One reveals how the bible is tied together from the sin of the garden to the Revelation of John. The other shows the common thread of Jesus running throughout the Old and New Testaments. On a side note - the illustrations in each are pretty spectacular!

We have used both for about two years now and recommend them to everyone who has children or will have children or once was a child.

Soon to be vacating

Our family is beginning to get in packing mode for our upcoming vacation to the south. We will be flying out on Saturday for a 10 day trip to St. Louis and beyond. As I think about our vacation many things come to mind about what I want to do and things I want my family to do with me.

Yesterday I stumbled across a series of posts on C.J. Mahaney's blog. The title of the series is "Leadership + Family Vacations." In these posts he discusses the role of the father/husband while on family vacation. He writes about seven lessons he has learned in his history of family vacations. The father must be the one setting the example in the following seven things.

1. A Servant Heart
2. A Tone-Setting Attitude
3. An Awareness of Indwelling Sin
4. Studying Your Family
5. Skillful Surprises
6. Intentionally Together
7. Gratefulness to God

He concludes by saying-

Fathers, I hope some of the lessons I have learned over the years and the mistakes I’ve made and sins I’ve committed on vacation somehow serve you and make a difference in your vacation experience. Before you this summer is a sweet opportunity from God to deepen relationships between family members and create memories that your children will never forget, memories that will outlive you.

You can rest when you get home.

Dads and husbands - serve your families well on vacation. It doesn't matter where you go or what you do - point your family toward Christ. That will be my goal for our upcoming vacation. Pray for me to lead my family to our Lord and Savior during our vacation.

I would encourage you read the entire article here (it's a .pdf).
Or check out Mahaney's blog here.

Dwell Conference

It's June and the summer vacation months are upon us. If you travel and like to listen as you drive, let me encourage you to listen to something that may spur you on toward godliness.

The Acts 29 Network recently posted the audio from their Dwell Conference. I would highly recommend you listen to the posted conference sessions by these very engaging pastors. I promise that an hour of audio from this conference will be much better than an hour of your mixed tape of Sinead O'Connor, Randy Travis, Lionel Richie, Menudo and The Best of Quiet Riot.

Enjoy.

Church Member Meeting

Here is an interesting video clip from a member meeting at Covenant Life Church. I know none of us deal with these same issues of choices for the education of our children but I thought you may be interested in hearing/seeing this. If you don't want to watch the video I will sum it up for you - we should be primarily devoted to the gospel of Jesus Christ - over and above educational choices we make for our children.

Meetings

I don't know if this is because of the influences of their father being a pastor or if it is a part of being American - but our boys set up a meeting of the minds today. We were loading the trucks with concrete to begin building the new rail system around Front Room Proper when Ezra (the foreman) decided we needed to circle up for a meeting. During the meeting we discussed what trucks would be loaded first and where the tracks would be set for the train that is expected to come through Hallway County (to the southeast of Dining Room Estates). I was a bit disappointed that the financial aspects of the deal were not a part of this meeting but I am certain this was noted in the minutes and it will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

Thank you for your cooperation during the planning phase of this project.
*for those of you wondering - this meeting took place on the same floor from the noise making in the previous post.

Close your eyes...we're praying!

I have been reading D.A. Carson's book The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians. If you are or have been involved in ministry in a church, this is a must-read.
In the section on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Carson asks, "What then does it mean today to resolve "to know nothing...except Jesus Christ and him crucified"? How do we apply this in our churches. He gives a few examples but the one below caused me to think about our own church.

We have become so performance-oriented that it is hard to see how compromised we are. Consider one small example. In many of our churches, prayers in morning services now function, large measure, as the time to change the set in the sanctuary. The people of the congregation bow their heads and close their eyes and when they look up a minute later, why, the singers are in place or the drama group is ready to perform. It is all so smooth. It is also profane. Nominally we are in prayer together addressing the King of heaven, the sovereign Lord. In reality, some of us are doing that while others are rushing on tiptoes around the "stage" and others, with their eyes closed, are busy wondering what new and happy configuration will confront them when it is time to take a peek.

Has the smoothness of the performance become more important to us than the fear of the Lord?...Have professional competence and smooth showmanship become more valuable than sober reckoning over what it means to focus on Christ crucified?

Does this resonate with you and your theatre church?

Worship problems

Recently there have been a few issues for discussion at our church about worship (through music). Some of the discussions have not been easy. I decided to begin reading through Worship by the Book. I bought this book a few years ago and never started reading it until now. This morning I read chapter 4 - "Reformed Worship in the Global City" by Timothy Keller. It was extremely helpful in many areas and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has thought through the purpose of worship (through music). Keller moves through historical traditions of worship as well as contemporary practices. He provides a few outlines of the services at Redeemer Presbyterian Church and gives rationale for each element in the service.

Although this has not really been part of the discussion at Trinity Church I found Keller's section on contemporary and historic worship insightful. In this section he lists the problems in strictly promoting one or the other.

Problems in promoting strictly contemporary worship:
First, some popular music does have severe limitations for corporate worship.
Second, when we ignore historic tradition, we break our solidarity with Christians of the past. Part of the richness of our identity as Christians is that we are saved into a historic people.
Finally, any corporate worship that is strictly contemporary will become dated very quickly. When [someone] says we should "plug in" to contemporary culture, which contemporary culture does he mean? White, black, Latino, urban, suburban, "Boomer," or "Gen X" contemporary culture?

Problems in promoting strictly traditional, historical worship:
First, historical worship advocates cannot really dodge the charge of cultural elitism. Much of high culture music takes a great deal of instruction to appreciate, so that, especially in the United States, a strong emphasis on such music and art will probably only appeal to college-educated elites.
Second, any proponent of "historic" corporate worship will have to answer the questions, "Whose history?" Much of what is called "traditional" worship is very rooted in northern European culture.

What say ye? What are your thoughts? Would you add any "problems" to his list?

Children Desiring God

I am in Minneapolis at The Children Desiring God Conference. The speakers are John Piper, Wayne Grudem and C.J. Mahaney. John Piper spoke last night and it knocked my socks off. This morning Grudem spoke on the 10 gifts of God in the gospel. It knocked my shirt off. Tonight is Mahaney so I have my belt on tight.

Listen to conference audio here and listen to Piper's message from last night here.

Unified Leaders

I am currently reading a book (I have yet to post it here) about unity among leaders in the church. In the beginning pages of the book the author states that he had to settle on three components in order to have a unified leadership team. They are:

1. Doctrinal purity
2. Sincere and warm friendships
3. Philosophical purity

What do you think? Are there any others? Are these too many? What say ye?