With gratefulness to God we celebrate the 489th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his famous 95 Theses, calling for reformation in the church.  The young Augustinian monk put his life on the line and we now know that a great Reformation was begun -- a reformation that would lead to a recovery of Gospel and truth.

We should remember that the Reformation was also, in one sense, a band of brothers -- men brought into friendship and fellowship by a common commitment to Reformation truth -- the Gospel of Christ.

Thus, they were Together for the Gospel -- Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria.  May we follow in their faithful example.

It is indeed a day to celebrate and an anniversary to remember.  Happy Reformation Day 2006.

C.J. came to Southern Seminary and Boyce College this week and took the campus by storm.  You can download or listen to his excellent messages here.  As always, C.J. brought his heart and passion to the proclamation of biblical truth.  I was so glad to introduce this dear friend to the Southern Seminary family.

Of course, the big question of the week was this -- What will C.J. wear?  I did not worry about it, but my dear friend was concerned that he be a good guest.  Frankly, I thought I would have to sneak into a funeral in Maryland to see C.J. in a coat and tie.

Nope.  He appeared in Alumni Chapel in sartorial splendor.  Here is proof.  What a friend.  What a preacher. What a servant.  What else can I say?

Enjoy the messages.  I can assure you that we did.

I can only hope and pray that my students will come to know friends in ministry like I have come to know in Mark, Lig, and C.J.. 

Thanks C.J.!  And thanks to Bob Kauflin for leading us in God-centered worship through music during the week.  What a gift to have Bob and C.J. together.  There is something magnificant about the way Bob leads from the piano. 

Photo credits: Top photo, Andrew Rawls.  Bottom photo, John Gill.

"I do not think for a moment that the church should aspire to become irrelevant. There is always a need for Christians to speak the gospel into their own context. Rather, my concern is with the ever present danger of over-contextualizing. Consider what happens to a church that is always trying to appeal to an increasingly post-Christian culture. Almost inevitably, the church itself becomes post- Christian. This is what happened to the liberal church during the twentieth century, and it is what is happening to the evangelical church right now. As James Montgomery Boice has argued, evangelicals are accepting the world’s wisdom, embracing the world’s theology, adopting the world’s agenda, and employing the world’s methods. In theology a revision of evangelical doctrine is now underway that seeks to bring Christianity more in line with postmodern thought. The obvious difficulty is that in a post-Christian culture, a church that tries too hard to be relevant may in the process lose its very identity as the church. Rather than confronting the world the church gets co-opted by. It no longer stands a city on a hill, but sinks to the level of the surrounding culture."

Philip Graham Ryken, City on a Hill: Reclaiming the Biblical Pattern for the Church in the 21st Century (Moody Press, 2003), 22.

As I prepare to do another 9Marks interview with David Wells while I'm up at Gordon-Conwell this week, I'm looking through his latest book, Above All Earthly Pow'rs again.  What a good book!  David makes a statement early in the book about the centrality of the Word in the weekly congregational setting which is worth pulling out and considering.

How central was God's Word to your service this past Sunday?  How central was it in the sermon?

Here's what David says:  “This Word of God is the means by which God accomplishes his saving work in his people, and this is a work that no evangelist and no preacher can do.  This is why the dearth of serious, sustained biblical preaching in the Church today is a serious matter.  When the Church loses the Word of God it loses the very means by which God does his work.  In its absence, therefore, a script is being written, however unwittingly, for the Church’s undoing, not in one cataclysmic moment, but in a slow, inexorable slide made up of piece by tiny piece of daily dereliction.” David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs (2005), p. 9.

I confess that I am sometimes, too often, impatient. 

I further confess that as I have meditated on it, it becomes clear to me that this is not a nice, junior kind of sin (at least not in me).  It is a disguise for the sin of pride, the ugliest of all sins, and the most direct rejection of God's authority and of a humble joy in His provision for me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let me give you a little of my thinking.

I'm sitting in a meeting.  I'm sitting there for hours.  The meeting would be no different if I were not there.  I might think, or even say to someone, something negative about the meeting, or about "our" needing to be there.  (Note, this "our" is a cover; I'm thinking of myself.) 

Now, let me question my impatient self at this point.  Self, just how important does a meeting need to be before you should spend your time on it.  Just how crucial does my role have to be, and how frequently, in order for me to not experience the temptation to impatience. 

I know that I have to exercise wisdom and be a good steward of time.  But look at how much more you're (I'm) getting at these meetings than I deserve.  I deserve Hell!  Yet here at this meeting, I'm being cared for.  It's not raining on me.  My chair is comfortable.  There's stuff to drink.  And yet, I think that somehow it should take less of my time.  As if I deserve more interesting fare for spending MY time; as if I DESERVE anything for the expenditure of my time!  My response to such situations should be patience.  My tendency is to be patient in situations I like.  And that's no patience!  Patience is endurance through things that challenge us, and it is rooted in humility, as surely as my impatience is rooted in pride.

I leave you to examine your own impatience.  I know that this is one way pride has tried to assume an "acceptable" disguise in my own life, and I'm trying to unmask it.  Pray for me.

I regularly read First Things.   I don't read all of it.  I look at all of it.  I read bits.  One bit I read in the Aug/Sept 2006 number was Robert Louis Wilken's moving piece on the late Jaroslav Pelikan.  I'm a fan of Robert Shaw.  (His "Amazing Grace" CD is one of my favorite hymn CD's.)  I'm an even bigger fan of Bach's "Passions" (St. Matthew; St. John), and I had recently been re-listening to them, when I ran across this note of a conversation Wilkens had had with Pelikan just this past Spring:

“As we [Wilkens and Pelikan] talked about Bach, he told me a story about the conductor Robert Shaw.  On several occasions Shaw had invited Pelikan to give a theological lecture in connection with the performance of a great religious choral work at Carnegie Hall in New York.  On the evening Shaw conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, before he lifted his baton to begin the performance, he addressed the audience.  He said that for some in the audience this evening, this will be the first time you will hear the St. Matthew Passion;  for others, it will be the last time.  Then he turned to the orchestra and choir to begin the opening chorus.”

Mortality does have a way of concentrating our attention.

Thanks C.J., for your report on the DGM conference. I can't wait to listen to all the messages. And thanks to you, Mark, for your sobering counsel to Thabiti, which is surely good counsel to us all. Speaking of which, you are so faithful to tell the truth, kindly but clearly, whether the crowds like it or not. You are a true and faithful teacher to us all in this way.

You did so recently at important event. John Wilson of Books and Culture gives this brief account of the J.I. Packer 80th Birthday celebration at Beeson Divinity School last week. There, Mark, bravely and kindly expressed his concerns about Packer's endorsement of ECT, and gave the best presentation on Packer, justification and ECT that I've ever read. When the book comes out folks, that one address will be worth the price. We are indebted to you (again), Mark.

What a privilege it was this past weekend to gather with the congregation and elders of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman to install Thabiti Anyabwile as their new senior pastor!  The congregation and elders are a sweet, faith-full group of brothers and sisters who have spent 3 years looking for a main preaching elder/senior pastor.  And now God has wonderfully led them to Thabiti.

One concern I expressed which I'll share with you because I think it applies to many Christians, and especially to ministers, is with the danger of popularity.  I preached from Mark 1:29-34, noting that Jesus was powerful, popular and puzzling.  Considering Jesus' popularity, I exhorted Thabiti to

"Learn from these early days of Jesus’ ministry.  He was popular.  As yet, he appeared to pose no threat to others whose ministries he criticized (Pharisees, Sadducees).  He was popular.  People spoke well of Him, and surged to hear Him.  And yet, popularity is not to be trusted.  Popularity is to be received more as a test than a gift.  It is remarkable in these early months that Jesus resisted the temptations that beset Him.  We think of the Temptations in the wilderness, but there were temptations in the crowds as well.  He was a compassionate man.  He saw the needs that He was meeting.  Did He never feel tempted to think that the universally popular ministry of helping peoples’ physical needs could be His way of blessing the sinful, cursed children of Adam, rather than to endure the painful cross?"

Pray for wisdom and faithfulness for Thabiti, and for ourselves, to God's glory.  May God teach us how to beware of the temptations in the crowds.

Mark, Lig and Al—since I was the only one who was able to attend the Desiring God conference, “Above All Earthly Powers,” I thought I would do a brief post relating my experience. Brief, because I would have to type all day to adequately recount all I learned and enjoyed at this great event. I wish you guys could have been there.

As much as I appreciated the content of the excellent messages, the highlight for me was the time I spent with my very good friends Jeff Purswell (Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College) and Joshua Harris (my favorite Senior Pastor). Conferences provide unique and all-too-rare opportunities for priorities that pastors can easily neglect, such as deepening friendships, unhurried discussions about doctrine, and strategic planning for the church. I have discovered that when I am away at a conference, and removed from the daily demands and responsibilities of ministry, I tend to think more creatively and evaluate more effectively.

Therefore, it has been my practice over the past 30 years to take my pastoral team to at least one conference or class at Reformed Theological Seminary each year, for the purpose of learning and deepening our friendship. (BTW, If you want to hear some entertaining stories, ask Don Carson about what it was like to have the Covenant Life pastoral team attend his classes, with me in the back row.) During these trips, we’ve heard great preaching and teaching. But we’ve also used our meal times (and late evenings) for discussion and application. We look into our hearts, we encourage and correct each other, and we contemplate the future together. We laugh much, think much, and eat much—all to the glory of God.

So I would encourage all pastors to build into their schedule and church budget at least one conference a year for you and your pastoral team. And if you are leading a church alone (you have my deepest respect) I would encourage you to attend at least one conference a year with a pastor(s) from another church. As I look back and consider all the wonderful memories and momentous conversations I’ve had at conferences with my friends, I am simply amazed.

Now, I’m not a conference “live blogger,” so I won’t even attempt to give a comprehensive overview of the exceptional content from this past weekend.  I think the messages will be online in just a few days, and CD’s will be available from Desiring God Ministries in the near future.

As you would expect, the conference was a feast of outstanding preaching; but I want to highlight a few moments that stood out to me. Particularly moving were Don Carson and John Piper’s comments to and care for the pastors of smaller churches during one of the panel sessions. There were two panel sessions that were both effectively led by Justin Taylor. In response to a question from Justin, Don and John wisely seized the opportunity to encourage pastors of smaller churches and those who labor faithfully but seem to see little fruit. Don’s tears as he described his father’s faithful pastoral ministry for decades in a rural setting were deeply moving. You could feel the deep effect of his words and his tears upon the souls of all pastors present, but especially those who are faithfully and heroically serving in obscurity. More importantly, you could feel the pleasure of God.

And one other moment that stood out was John Piper’s opening remarks before his message at the final session. John addressed those present who are a part of the emerging church movement and communicated his fatherly concern for them. Since it is clear (and was made clear throughout the conference) that serious doctrinal deficiencies exist in the emerging church, John wanted to communicate his care for those present with whom we disagree. John didn’t want the conference to simply be a series of critiques. Instead, he wanted to persuade and provide the doctrinal discernment that appears to be absent from this movement. And he wanted them to know how much he loved them—even with all his concerns. Again, I felt the pleasure of God.

Then, before he began his message, John made one more comment regarding observations he had previously shared about Mark Driscoll. Earlier in the conference, at the end of a panel session, John had informed us that he had received much criticism for inviting Mark Driscoll to speak at the conference. He explained why he invited Mark and what he appreciated about Mark’s message. He went on to express a concern he had regarding the content of Mark’s message. Though I would have expressed this concern to Mark privately and personally before expressing it publically, I have no doubt that his motive was to serve Mark and those present at the conference. John's critique and concern was related to Mark’s clever comments about culture throughout his message. After the panel session, someone had approached John and observed that John had a tendency to be similarly clever in his comments about the academic world. So before he preached the final session, John acknowledged the accuracy of this observation and correction and its application to his preaching. It was humble for John to inform us of this private conversation and its corrective content. I believe that long after the messages of this conference are forgotten, John’s compelling example of humility will not be forgotten. It will continue to inspire us all to true greatness—to walk humbly before God and with those we have the privilege to serve. Once again, I felt God’s pleasure.

Well, my son Chad just came and asked me if we were going to lunch, like we do each Monday. Immediately and with great joy I informed him that we were. So it’s time for this post to end. I have something much more important to do. Although I am deeply grateful for what I experienced with my friends at this conference, there is nothing that compares to returning home to the arms of the wife I missed so terribly, the son I love so deeply, the hugs of my daughters and sons-in-law, the kisses of my grandchildren, and the encouragement of the local church I love the most.

I look forward to applying all I’ve learned so that by the grace of God I might grow in godliness, serve more effectively, reach out to the lost more consistently and hopefully bring some pleasure to God, who in the mystery of his mercy killed His Son for me.