This past Spring I was privileged to be able to go the 2012 Together for the [Underestimated] Gospel conference. I heard various well-known speakers such as John Piper, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahanney, Matt Chandler, Mark Dever, etc. But my favorite sermon was “Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions” by David Platt, based out of Revelation 5, delivered on Wednesday, April 11th.
Ministry
Together for the [Underestimated] Gospel–David Platt, “Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions”
The following was my favorite message I heard at this years Together for the [Underestimated] Gospel conference. I recommend it to you either in video or audio form. In this message David Platt seeks to show how divine sovereignty is the fuel of death-defying missions.
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Church Discipline: The Practice of a Loving Church Taking Sin Seriously
Every semester I have this habit of overachieving on certain projects, not for the sake of spending tons of time on them or to assure that I get a good grade, but because I like to push myself in my study of God’s word. This last semester (Fall, 2011), one of the projects in which I overachieved was a paper I wrote on church discipline for a class on pastoral counseling. This was also the semester I got married, and so things were a bit busy to say the least. But I was still able to put together a pretty substantial work. My goal was to try and set forth a rather exhaustive “system” of church discipline that takes into account all of the relevant passages and answers every practical question of which I could possibly think. Continue reading
Preaching Relevance v. Relevant Preaching
Much of contemporary Christianity, specifically those in preaching ministry, seeks to be relevant. And there is nothing inherently wrong with doing so (attempting to be relevant or being relevant). But there is a fine line and some definitive boundaries that must be set. Namely, there is a huge difference between preaching relevance (noun) and relevant preaching (adjective; or “preaching relevantly”—adverb). In the former case, relevance defines the content of the message, the content of what is preached. In the latter, relevance describes how the content of the message (scriptural truth) is presented.
Theology v. Unity: Some Thoughts on Unity
Some recent events in the “world of Christianity” have provoked some thoughts in my mind. I will get to those thoughts in a moment, but first allow me to give some background.
Growing up I always felt that there was way too much division in the church. Now by “division” I mean both in local churches and the universal Church. I grew up with a very interesting “religious” background. Growing up I was shifted through vatrious denominations as I had parents who were really trying to figure things out for themselves. Experiencing so many “flavors” of Christianity (besides making me very discerning) made me very anti-denominationalistic. Further, my senior year of high school the church I was attended, a church my family was heavily involved in, had a split, a breakup, or whatever else you’d like to call it. This was a devastating time for me but also a time that God used for extreme spiritual growth in my life. I was very upset at the adults of that church for acting so unbiblical and immature (especially since the split wasn’t even over some doctrinal issue). But this frustration sparked in me a desire to search the scriptures to discover for myself what the church was really all about and what the church should look like biblically. I’ll stop there, because this is not intended to be a biography in anyway; but those two factors, my encounters with various denominations and beliefs growing up as well as the church split, had an extreme effect on my view of unity.
Kirk E. Miller 