The lesson of theological liberalism is clear—embarrassment is the gateway drug for theological accommodation and denial.

Be sure of this: it will not stop with the air conditioning of hell.

- Al Mohler, “Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens“,

Here is a summary of the messages from the SBFC-SW 2009, as well as a collection of photos from the conference and a video I took of the attendees singing “Be Thou My Vision”.

“Devotional Psalm (Psalm 130)” – Pastor Jeff Young

“Preaching Christ from the Old Testament” – Pastor Fred Malone

“Preaching Christ from the New Testament” – Pastor Tom Ascol

“Redemptive-Historical Preaching: Pros and Cons” – Pastor Steve Garrick

“Summary of Founders Ministries” – Pastor Tom Ascol

“The Lost Element of Theology in Preaching” – Pastor Fred Malone

“Q&A Session (Moderated by Larry Vincent)” – Pastor Earl Blackburn, Pastor Tom Ascol, Pastor Steve Garrick and Pastor Fred Malone

“A Critique of Contemporary Models of Preaching” – Pastor Tom Ascol

“Preaching Christ to the Christian” – Pastor Fred Malone

“Preaching Christ to the Natural Man” – Pastor Tom Ascol

“Unction in Preaching” – preached by Pastor Earl Blackburn

Sermon Poetry – “Lord Keep Me from Deficiency”
Preacher – Pastor Tom Ascol

Lord keep me from deficiency
Help me to preach theology
To tell of you, my Father Sweet
My kind and sovereign King

Lord keep me from deficiency
From apastoral mockery
In loving all your children sweet
And shepherding Your Flock

Lord keep me from deficiency
And help me in expositing
To preach Your Truth with clarity
A herald of Your Word

Lord keep me from deficiency
So sinners might your glory see
In Christ the Light our hearts are free
In Christ our souls are saved

Lord keep me from deficiency
With praying, reading, listening
To know Your Word, to know Your sheep
So I can preach the Word

Sermon Poetry – “We’re Preaching the Scriptures”
Preacher – Fred Malone

The preaching of God is stupidity to all the world and the people therein
A message proclaimed to a people in need, to a people all rotting in sin
It’s Grace of our God that He’s given to us all a message by which we are saved
We’re preaching our Savior, we’re preaching a Cross, we’re preaching the study of God

We’re preaching the whole of the Scriptures to sinners, the counsel of God as revealed
We’re teaching of Jesus, our Crucified Savior, the Son who the Father has sent
We’re preaching the Gospel, that Good Revelation, so sinners might glory in Christ
We’re preaching the Gospel, that Kind Revelation, so Christians might comfort in Christ

We’re sinners forgiven, our sins washed by Jesus, we’re living to glorify Him
We’re telling a message to worshipping sinners, that outside of Christ they are lost
But thanks to the Father, our Crucified Savior was sent to so that sinners might live
This news we are preaching, through all of the Scriptures, theology of God above

A Proposed Form of Preaching

1.)  Preach Meaning of the Text

2.)  Summarize Theological Core Idea

3.)  Expound and Prove this Idea

1. Via analogy of Scripture
2. Show how this idea fits with the character of God, salvation, redemption, etc.
3. This allows our hearers to see how this passage and its applications stem from your salvation

4.)  Apply this idea considering your hearer’s spiritual state (among other criteria)

“Finally, I worry that a movement built on megachurches, megaconferences, and megaleaders, does the church a disservice in one very important way that is often missed amid all the pizzazz and excitement: it creates the idea that church life is always going to be big, loud, and exhilarating and thus gives church members and ministerial candidates unrealistic expectations of the normal Christian life.  In the real world, many, perhaps most,  of us worship and work in churches of 100 people or less; life is not loud and exciting; big things do not happen every Sunday;  budgets are incredibly tight and barely provide enough for a pastor’s modest salary; each Lord’s Day we go through the same routines of worship services, of hearing the gospel proclaimed, of taking the Lord’s Supper, of teaching Sunday School; perhaps several times a year we do leaflet drops in the neighbourhood with very few results; at Christmas time we carol sing in the high street and hand out invitations to church and maybe two or three people actually come along as a result; but no matter — we keep going, giving, and praying as we can; we try to be faithful in the little entrusted to us.  It’s boring, it’s routine, and it’s the same, year in, year out.   Therefore, in a world where excitement, celebrity, and cultural power are the ideal, it is tempting amidst the circumstances of ordinary church life to forget that this, the routine of the ordinary, the boring, the plodding, is actually the norm for church life and has been so throughout most places for most of the history of the church; that mega-whatevers are the exception, not the rule; and that the church has survived throughout the ages not just – or even primarily – because of the high profile firework displays of the great and the good, but because of the day to day faithfulness of the mundane, anonymous, non-descript  people who constitute most of the church, and who do the grunt work and the tedious jobs that need to be done [emphasis added].  History does not generally record their names; but the likelihood is that you worship in a church which owes everything, humanly speaking, to such people.”

- Carl Trueman

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about the conquer the highest peak. As he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

- Dr. Robert Jastrow (from “God and the Astronomers“, quoted from Grace and Truth to You)

“You see, in the room will be future pastors and missionaries and counselors and women’s ministry leaders. They’ve been called out by God to minister to people they’ve not met yet. And that’s what theology is about. It’s not about quarreling about words, or setting up partisan divisions. Theology is helping a shellshocked widow clean up after a suicide. Theology is about crying with a teenage boy who’s body is shaking with crystal meth. Theology drives you to rock orphans in India, singing “Jesus Loves Me” while you pray they learn what that means. Theology is hugging an animist African’s neck while you tell him Jesus can protect him from the spirits he fears…or hugging a self-righteous Southern Baptist American’s neck while you tell him he doesn’t fear those demonic spirits nearly enough.”

- Russell D. Moore (“Will the Devil Be in My Classroom Today?“)

Rediscovering Paul – An Introduction to His World, Letters and Theology. By David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves and E. Randolph Richards. InterVarsity Press, 2007.
329 pages. Hardback.

“Rediscovering Paul”, a book written by David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves and E. Randolph Richards is (for the most part) a successful attempt to provide an introductory text that gives a fair overview of Paul, his writings and his theology; giving special consideration to those topics in light of Paul’s world as he lived it. (pgs. 15-16)

Particularly, the authors strive to present a Paul that in many respects runs contrary to the preconceived notions of the students whom they teach. All three are deans of respected Universities in the Bible Belt, and all combat “Western”, Americanized misguided perceptions of Paul and his letters.

These preconceived notions of Paul (presumably the notions of the authors’ students) are at the forefront of the authors’ minds as they explore who Paul really was. For instance, one of the authors states that as he thought about who Paul was, he “…began to question if my Western, domesticated, middle-class perception of Paul was the real Paul. Had my culture superimposed its values over the biblical Paul? (p. 14)”. In some respects, this statement smacks of the same tired critiques of “the West” that have recently been offered up by those in the Emergent Movement. Yet perhaps such critiques are needed, especially those directed at church-goers.

It must be said that all three of the authors are obviously well-read and well-studied. To their credit, they have learned the ideas and writings of men throughout church history whom they disagree with, yet they present the material in a fair and thoughtful way. In the chapter entitled “Paul’s Conversion, Call and Chronology”, the authors give a substantial amount of thought and ink to dealing with the “New Perspective on Paul” contention that Paul’s “conversion” was not along the lines of the traditional Lutheran type of salvific conversion, but rather it was more along the lines of a re-focusing of his “Jewishness” to include the Gentiles as well. While the authors seem to disagree with the “New Perspective”, they do so in a balanced and somewhat refreshing way (pgs. 90-94).

Additionally, the authors do a fair job of defending the primary issues of Christian Orthodoxy. In defending the creation of the Canon, they state that “Sometimes it is necessary to question the ‘establishment,’ as Martin Luther did; however, the verdict even on Luther’s actions was determined by the church over an extended period of time. (p. 293)”. They perceptively ask the rhetorical question: “Why do we think we have the right to question a decision accepted by millions of Christians worldwide over two thousand years? (p. 293)”. While the authors are not shy about asking some hard questions of themselves, their students and their readers, they do well to not go too far and leave the walls of Orthodoxy itself.

Yet, “Rediscovering Paul” is not without its weaknesses. While the authors aimed to have a “…finished product that was relatively seamless, speaking with one voice while still drawing on the expertise of each author (p. 16)”, the book does not read as seamlessly as the authors would have liked. In the discussion on the book of Romans, much effort is given to explaining chapters one through eleven, yet chapters twelve through sixteen, the “application” part of Romans, is only given a terse two page summary. This abruptness is somewhat disconcerting, especially when viewed in concert with the long (and somewhat tedious) discussion regarding letter writing in Paul’s day (pgs. 54-82).

While many will find things in this book that will challenge them, make them uncomfortable and perhaps even anger them; the authors deal with the question of who Paul was with a necessary honesty and openness that their students and their readers would do well to follow.

Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk) has a great post today on whether the SBC is “getting it”.

Here’s the real gem of the post:

What’s still not there? It’s the Gospel stupid. Not buildings, programs and methods. That will help, more or less, but it won’t get to the core of the SBC’s problem: vast numbers of people who don’t know the gospel, preach the gospel, teach the gospel, believe the gospel or see a need to shape the integrity of the church around the gospel.

If the SBC decides that blaming Calvinists, printing more literature, more conferences and promoting more bureaucrat designed solutions isn’t the answer, it will have made enormous progress. When it figures out that the centrality of the Gospel and the core implications that come from the Gospel are what’s missing across the SBC landscape, real hope will dawn.

I thank God for all the faithful people working to make the Gospel, once again, the central focus of the cooperative, evangelistic, mission-centered ministry of Southern Baptists. Don’t quit!

-Michael Spencer

The Desiring God Blog announced a very interesting evening of lectures by D.A. Carson and John Piper on what it means to be a Pastor-Theologian.

More info can be found here.