I was interested to read no lesser person than Phillip Jensen confirming that preaching is more than sermons …

What, then, is the essence of preaching? It is not related to the number of people we speak to, nor is it related to our ability to communicate. The essence of preaching is passing on the message as we have received it – that it what it means to speak the very oracles of God …

Sermons and preaching are not synonymous … Biblical preaching is about communicating God’s thoughts and not our own. And so we preach biblically whenever and wherever we declare the word of God to each other. In fact, sometimes there may even be more preaching happening over morning tea than from the pulpit, if dozens of conversations revolve around sharing God’s word of encouragement and rebuke with one another. Sermons, in other words, are a subset of a larger activity – the activity of proclaiming God’s word to one another, and from one generation to the next. Preaching is an activity that all are called on to perform.

It’s a quote from Jensen’s new book, written with Paul Grimmond, entitled The Archer and the Arrow: Preaching the Very Words of God which is published tomorrow (1 September). Ironically the rest of the book is on preparing and delivering sermons.

Available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

Here are four reasons why Jonathan Dodson is excited about the GCM Collective conference …

(1) Practioner-tested Missional Community Training

(2) Top Notch Theological Reflection on Mission

(3) The Collective Experience

(4) The Centrality of the Gospel in Mission

Read the full article here.

I have been posting a number of excerpts from the Good Book Company’s new booklet Experiencing God: Finding true passion, joy, peace and rest in Christ. This fourth study focuses on Experiencing Joy and relates to Philippians 1 v 12-30 and 4 v 4-13.

The Big Idea

Valuing Christ leads to an experience of joy that transcends the circumstances of life.

Summary

Paul is in prison (1 v 13) and some Christians are stirring up trouble for him (v 17). But Paul still experiences joy because he message of Jesus is being preached. Paul values Jesus above all things – even life itself (v 21-23). So his joy transcends circumstances.

The goal of Paul’s ministry is that other people might experience this joy. This does not mean he wants people to have an easy life or that he avoids confrontation. He wants people to have joy in Christ – so much joy in Christ that they are willing to suffer for him.

Paul commands us to have joy. We can do this by remembering the all-surpassing value of Christ and all that He has done for us. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (3 v 8).

Available here from the Good Book Company (US) and from the Good Book Company (UK)

More quotes from Francis Chan’s The Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, David C. Cook, 2009.

Available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.

“I don’t believe God wants me (or any of His children) to live in a way that makes sense from the world’s perspective, a way I know I can ‘manage’. I believe he is calling me – and all of us – to depend on him for living in a way that cannot be mimicked or forged. He wants us to walk in step with his Spirit rather than depend solely on the raw talent and knowledge he’s given us.” (143)

“God wants the praise for what we do in our lives. But if we never pray audacious, courageous prayers, how can he answer them? If we never follow him to positions where we need him, how can he show up and make his presence known?” (150)

No matter where you live and what your days look like, you have the choice each day to depend on yourself, to live safely, and to try to control your life. Or you can live as you were created to live – as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, as a person dependent on him, desperate for God the Spirit to show up and make a difference. When you begin living a life characterized by walking with the Spirit, that is when people will begin to look not to you but to our Father in heaven and give him the praise.” (156)

“A few months ago I was speaking at a summer camp, and I was speaking to one of the organizations there that sponsors children. This volunteer told me about a 16-year-old girl there at the camp who sponsors 14 children, on her own. I was astonished by this. Fourteen children (at about $30 a month for each child) is a lot of money for a high school student to come up with. I talked to this girl and asked her how she did it. She told me that she works year-round and she works three jobs in the summertime to pay for the child support. While other teenagers are saving for a car, she’s saving lives! Instead of spending her hard-earned money on herself and her future, she gives it to these 14 children because she believes God loves them just as much as he loves her. My prayer is that churchgoers will not dissuade her from this calling.” (163-164)

“Instead of thinking and telling people they are crazy when they feel like the Spirit is leading them into something that doesn’t necessarily make sense to us, we should join them in the discernment process. Instead of discouraging people, we should pray for more insight and boldness. Instead of deadening people to the Spirit’s leading with our words and our actions, we should celebrate and join the Spirit’s movements in and through them!” (165)

A review of A Reader’s Greek New Testament, eds. Richard J. Goodrich and Albert L. Lukaszewski, 2nd Edition, Zondervan, 2007.

Available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

Maybe like me you studied NT Greek at college, but never really kept it up. Now when you pick up your Greek NT your progress is so slow it hardly seems worth it. Or you need something to help you refresh your lost knowledge. Enter A Reader’s Greek New Testament. I’m excited to get my hands on this great resource. The key thing about it in my mind is this: Every word used fewer that 30 times in the NT is translated in footnotes below the text while every word used more than 30 times is in a glossary at the end. This means you can read the NT without having constantly to look up words in a Greek lexicon. It’s not the same as an interlinear which inevitably discourages you from reading the Greek itself, but you are never far from the information you lack. It’s one of those simple ideas that when you meet it, you wonder why no-one else has ever done it.

A Reader’s Greek New Testament uses the Greek text behind the TNIV with footnotes comparing it with UBS4. It also claims to use a new Greek font that is easier to read. It comes in Italian duo-tone (i.e. fake leather) finished off with gold leaf and a marker ribbon. One key test that it passes is that it lies flat when open on a table – an important feature of any reference book.

My one small complaint is this. I would have gone for thicker paper. It’s not too bad, not as bad as most study Bibles whose pages are so hard to turn I usually give up. It seems to be designed (with its duo-tone cover) to be carried around, possibly to church gatherings. Please don’t take your Greek NT to church gatherings. Why would you do that? To critique the exegesis of the preacher? You should be trembling before God’s word. No, this should sit on your desk. In which case it does not need to be so thin. So instead let’s have pages which are easier to turn so we can look up cross-references quickly.

But this is a small quibble. Overall this is a great resources for those of us who’ve forgotten much of their Greek and for learners who want to learn by doing, i.e. by reading the text itself.

You can look at a sample here.

Here’s the full conference schedule for the GCM Collective conference in October.

This, the first GCM Conference, will be held 28-30 October in Austin, TX. It will bring bringing together church planters, pastors, and leaders to collaborate on the practice of missional communities. You will get to hear from, meet and interact with leaders who are daily practitioners, living in gospel communities on mission in their cities. This is a unique experience that will present the why, what and how-to of starting, leading and multiplying missional communities. Interactive plenary sessions, breakouts and unique training experiences will fill our days both on-site and off.

Big church, small church, multi-site or neighborhood this event is for every church that seeks to effectively expand the gospel in their context. The speakers are Ed Stetzer, Steve Timmis, Jeff Vanderstelt, Caesar Kalinowski, David Fairchild, Drew Goodmanson and Jonathan Dodson.

Throughout this week and next I am posting a number of excerpts from the Good Book Company’s new booklet Experiencing God: Finding true passion, joy, peace and rest in Christ. The third study focuses on experiencing peace and relates to Mark 4 v 35 – 5 v 43.

The Big Idea

We can move from an experience of agitation and anxiety to an experience of comfort and calm through faith in God’s care.

Summary

The four stories in the passage begin with:

• an agitated sea
• an agitated man
• an anxious woman
• an anxious father

They all end up at peace. The sea is calmed (v 39). The man is in his right mind (5 v 15). Jesus says to the woman: “Go in peace” (5 v 34). The father receives his daughter back from the dead (5 v 41-42). In the process we see the complete authority of Jesus over the natural world, the spirit world, sickness and death. But not everyone is at peace. The disciples are terrified when the see the power of Jesus over the storm because they lack faith (4 v 40-41). The people of the Gerasenes are terrified when they see the power of Jesus over the demon-possessed man (15 v 15). The choice throughout these four stories is between fear and faith (4 v 40-41; 5 v 15, 33-34, 36). An experience of Jesus brings an experience of peace if we have faith in Jesus. The “punchline” is 5 v 36: “Don’t be afraid; just believe”.

Available here from the Good Book Company (US) and from the Good Book Company (UK)

Over the next couple of weeks I am posting a number of excerpts from the Good Book Company’s new booklet Experiencing God: Finding true passion, joy, peace and rest in Christ. The second study focuses on Experiencing Love and relates to Luke 7 v36-50.

The Big Idea

A deeper understanding of God’s grace to us in Christ produces love in our hearts for God and other people

Summary

Jesus is a guest at the house of a Pharisee named Simon, when a notoriously sinful woman bursts in to anoint Jesus’ feet. Simon interprets the response of Jesus to the woman as a sign that Jesus is not a prophet, since He does not seem to recognise her background. But Jesus sees the heart of the woman and the heart of Simon. In the heart of the woman He sees genuine love arising from her understanding of God’s grace in Jesus. In Simon He sees little love because Simon has little sense of his need and therefore little sense of God’s mercy. The message of Jesus is that a deeper understanding of God’s grace to us in Christ produces an experience of love in our hearts. Our love – or our lack of love – reveals our understanding of God’s grace. “Her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little” (v47).

Available here from the Good Book Company (US) and from the Good Book Company (UK)

More quotes from Francis Chan’s The Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, David C. Cook, 2009.

Available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

“I think a lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life. God cares more about our response to his Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions. It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It’s safer to commit to following him someday instead of this day. To be honest I believe part of the desire to ‘know God’s will for my life’ is birthed in fear and results in paralysis.” (120)

God wants to listen to his Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and as stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane. My hope is that instead of searching for ‘God’s will for my life,’ each of us would learn to seek hard after ‘the Spirit’s leading in my life today.’” (120)

“The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow him to the cross, to true Life.” (122)

In Philippians 1 Paul says he is sure he will survive his imprisonment “and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith” (25). It is an intriguing glimpse into how Paul saw the goal of his ministry. His goal was to make people happy, to bring them joy. This, of course, we much more than merely enjoying happy circumstances. Paul himself expresses joy in the midst of persecution, imprisonment and opposition (12-18). This joy is joy in Christ. And for Paul this ministry begins with his own joy in Christ. He himself says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (21) “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all tings.” (3:8) Our aim is to treasure Christ above everything so we naturally and sincerely extol Christ to our communities so that they might find joy in Christ. Then as they treasure Christ, they too will extol Christ to a lost world so that other join us in treasuring Christ.

We might express this through the following diagram …

The exciting thing is that when we extol Christ we do so to oursevles as well as to other so we nurture our own treausing of Christ. In the same way when our communities  extol Christ they do so one another and to us so together we extol Christ the more. These “feedback loops” create virtuous circles.

Consider again our simpler diagram. It highlights our starting point and therefore our main task as leaders: to treasure Christ. My main task is to nurture my own joy in Christ. Everything else flows from this point.