• Equipper Verse

  One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4).

• Recent Comments

  • Chip Van Emmerik on from one illegal immigrant to another
  • Mike on a case of theological amnesia
  • Champ on Is doctrine really important? (part two)
  • Mike on Is doctrine really important? (part two)
  • Champ Thornton on Telling Stories
  • Don Johnson on Telling Stories
  • Jon Trainer on o sacred head now wounded
  • Jon Trainer on on beauty in harmony
  • Danny Adkins on o sacred head now wounded
  • Danny Adkins on on beauty in harmony

• Blogroll

  • Albert Mohler
  • Desiring God
  • Ligonier
  • Of First Importance
  • Paul Tripp Ministries
  • Peacemakers
  • Reformation21
  • Together for the Gospel

• Friends

  • Bob McCabe
  • Dan Eads
  • Rob Howell

• Websites

  • 9Marks
  • Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
  • Biblical Theology Briefings
  • Daily Lloyd-Jones
  • Desiring God
  • Enjoying God Ministries
  • Faith Comes by Hearing
  • Gospel Prism (Virtual M.Div.)
  • New Hope Online
  • The Gospel Coalition
  • Theology Network
  • Two Ways to Live

• Categories

  • biblical studies
  • biography
  • blogdom
  • book reviews
  • church
  • culture
  • ethics
  • fun stuff
  • hermeneutics
  • homiletics
  • mission
  • poetry
  • politics
  • theology

• Archives

  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • January 2009
  • November 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008

“The Ingrown Church Leader: God’s Call to Faith and Repentance” (summary)
What is an “ingrown church”? Jack Miller includes the following descriptors: a church that due to a lack of zeal for outreach (p 17) is immobilized (p 16) and not turned toward the world (p 15). Even though this kind of inward-facing church may [...]

Yesterday our Sunday School class covered the entire Sermon on the Mount. We spent the first 25 minutes going over the background and flow of thought or structure of this most famous of Jesus’ sermons. Then, since Matthew 5-7 is a sermon, we spent the final 25 minutes watching/listening to it as a sermon on [...]

John R. W. Stott makes the following statement in the final chapter on the topic of conversion in Christian Missions in the Modern World, “We can assert without any fear of contradiction that all the converted are regenerate and all the regenerate are converted.”  Having already established the biblical necessity of conversion despite a modern [...]

“A spasm of the ganglions,” thus does one mid-nineteenth century Cornish priest define conversion, according to John R. W. Stott in his work Christian Missions in the Modern World (p. 110).  Needless to say, that is not a very high view of a biblical doctrine, but Stott contends there are reasons for such disdain to [...]

After reflecting upon Stott’s chapter on “salvation,” I’ll venture a few observations.
1. While I agree with Stott’s critique of the physical, psychological, and liberation views on salvation, I question one of the planks in his argument. Stott attacks the view common among liberation theologians that the exodus of the Hebrews from the oppression of Egypt [...]

In his chapter on the topic of “salvation,” John Stott began by evaluating three less-than-fully-biblical views of salvation: salvation as physical health, as psychological wholeness, and socio-political liberation.
The last two sections of the chapter deal with how liberation theology approaches the Scriptures (“the hermeneutical question”) and what the Bible actually teaches about salvation and liberation.
What’s [...]

After a week off, we are renewing our discussion of John Stott’s book, Christian Mission in the Modern World (IVP: 1975). The first three chapters (out of five) addressed the topics of “mission,” “evangelism,” and “dialogue.” The final chapter will cover “conversion,” but this week we’re going to consider Stott’s treatment of the term, “salvation.”
First, [...]

John Stott concludes his chapter on dialogue in Christian Missions in the Modern World with three illustrations of dialogue in action. They include dialogue with Hindus, Moslems, and with the unreached masses of industrial Great Britain in the mid-1960s.
In each of these examples Stott builds his case around a missionary to a particular culture [...]

We continue our summary of the contents of John Stott’s Christian Mission in the Modern World. Having made the case against dialogue, Stott walks across the aisle in an effort to build up the defendant he has just ravaged.
Before introducing us to the marks of true dialogue, Stott invokes a unique word to describe [...]

How about a pic of a young John Stott? We were all there at some point in time. You can already see it in his eyes can’t you? He must be thinking, “Now if I can just get those silly Catholics to sit down at a table with me and chat,” or [...]

For the last couple of weeks Champ and I have been reviewing John R. W. Stott’s book Christian Mission in the Modern World (IVP, 1975). Having hit the themes of mission and evangelism, the focus this week is on dialogue. To summarize our conclusions: 1) mission primarily involves the proclamation of the [...]

A tract strategically placed on the sink counter (or worse) at a highway rest stop. Leading three kids to pray a sinner’s prayer through the screen door while their parents are away and unaware of the door-to-door visit. Forty-five minute long invitations designed to get someone, anyone forward. Shouting at bar patrons [...]

The second half of John Stott’s chapter on “Evangelism” (in Christian Mission in the Modern World) sets forward the content of the good news we are to proclaim. “In a single word, God’s good news is Jesus. . . . Jesus Christ is the heart and soul of the gospel.” (Acts 8:35; Romans 1:1-4) “But [...]

Last week, we began a series of posts based on John R. W. Stott’s book, “Christian Mission in the Modern World.” Stott’s book has five chapters, each one addressing a key word related to mission(s)—mission, evangelism, dialogue, salvation, conversion. Last week, Jon reviewed the first chapter (mission—part 1, part 2, and part 3), and this [...]

In the wider discussion of the relationship between Gospel proclamation and social action, there are two general schools of thought. In his book, Paradigms in Conflict, missiologist David Hesselgrave calls these two approaches (1) “holism” and (2) “prioritism.”
In an article on the Lausanne Pulse.com website, Evvy Campbell describes holism this way:
Holistic mission can be defined [...]

keep looking »