The Cripplegate | for a new generation of non-conformists

February 22, 2012

Ten Reasons to Download Sermons and get the Desiring God App

by Josh Thiessen

Technology has changed the way that we live as Christians, and it continually surprises me how technology evolves, particularly how we interact with sermons. In just the past few years, it has gone from a person being able to throw tapes or CDs into their car all the way to having instant access to every sermon a pastor has ever preached on your phone.

Since high school, I have enjoyed listening to sermons while I work around the house, workout or drive. It has been a significant source of encouragement and edification, which is why I was so excited last week when Desiring God introduced their new app.

This application gives instant access to all of John Piper’s sermons and Desiring God conferences. Already this week, I have listened to Piper’s biographies of John Owen and JC Ryle. Both have encouraged me and motivated me to excellence and faithfulness in ministry.

in Preaching with 4 Comments

February 21, 2012

An open letter to the members of Grace Church

by Jesse Johnson

It can be emotionally challenging to be a member of Grace Church.

Every year 100 or so new seminary students arrive, and most make Grace Church their home. They jump into ministry, they bring their families, and they become part of your lives. Then a few years later, they leave.

Friendships that were forged and families that were knit together have their relationships altered, as the graduates head off to new ministries. Bible study shepherds and small group leaders scatter. A few months later, a new crop of seminary students arrive and the cycle begins again. It’s as if the lay people of Grace are on a platform, and many of the pastors and seminary students are on a train.

in Shepherding with 19 Comments

February 20, 2012

Old News is Good News: 4 Reasons to Preach the Old(er) Testament

by Clint Archer

A pastor asked me what I was preaching in church. I said “Luke in the morning and Micah in the evening.” He was flabbergast. He admitted that if he announced any OT book, his church would empty until he was back into the NT.

I am blessed to preach at a church which offers an evening service in addition to the morning services.

I’ve tried to make it my practice to take the morning to preach expositionally through the New Testament, and the evening for the Old(er) Testament.

This gives our people a full-orbed notion of the redemption plan. It also builds biblical literacy. For example, we just completed Ecclesiastes, and are plunging into a series on the minor prophet Nahum.

There are four reasons I can think of to pay concerted attention to the OT…

in Preaching with 18 Comments

February 17, 2012

Christian Ministry and Conformity to the World

by Mike Riccardi

If someone were to ask an Evangelical if there was any particular 19th-century Anglican that he admired, I’d venture to say that the name that would be most readily supplied is J. C. Ryle. And that is not at all without cause. Ryle’s work on discipleship and Christian living has represented a remarkable service to Christ’s Church.

But another 19th-century Anglican who I wish was a household name in Evangelical Christianity is Charles Bridges. My acquaintance with Bridges comes chiefly in the form of his classic work, The Christian Ministry. It is a wonderful manual of pastoral ministry that I would recommend wholeheartedly to anyone interested in shepherding Christ’s flock.

Particularly helpful was a section he wrote on “Conformity to the World,” and its relationship to the Christian ministry. It’s no secret that many celebrity pastors in contemporary evangelicalism—and, sadly, the many non-celebrity pastors they’re influencing—employ conformity to the world as the modus operandi of their ministries. With a shallow, and rather twisted, interpretation of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, these men embrace—with their actions if not with their confession—the philosophy of ministry that Christians must become like the world to win the world.

in Evangelicalism with 27 Comments

February 16, 2012

Is Psychology the 67th Book of the Bible?

by Matt Waymeyer

All truth is God’s truth, or so the saying goes. The problem with this seemingly axiomatic assertion is not simply its ambiguity, but the way it serves as a means to justify using extra-biblical sources (such as psychology) to deal with spiritual issues. This is especially common among integrationists in the field of Christian counseling. The view of integrationism is that only when Scripture and psychology are integrated—brought together into a unified whole—is one able to engage in a truly effective counseling ministry. This view is really an assault on the idea that Scripture alone is sufficient for spiritual growth.

Psychology as General Revelation

But how exactly does this relate to the idea that all truth is God’s truth? The integrationist argument goes something like this: Because God has made Himself known through two channels—special revelation (the propositional truth recorded in scripture) and general revelation (the non-propositional truth deposited by God in the created order of things)—man has a mandate from his Creator to investigate and discover truths through means such as psychological research, the findings of which should be accepted as having their origin in God. Scripture alone, then, is not sufficient, but rather, as John H. Coe asserts, “Only when all forms of revelation are taken together can we speak of the sufficiency of revelation.” Put simply, all truth is God’s truth and should be embraced as such whether it be found in Scripture (special revelation) or in psychological research (general revelation).

in Theology with 16 Comments

February 15, 2012

Chandler is baffled and appalled

by Jesse Johnson

I have stayed really far away from the elephant room boondoggle because there is such a thing as beating a dead elephant. But last week this tweet from Matt Chandler made the rounds on-line: