Corporate Prayer in the Local Church

Over the last month or so our church has been really trying to focus on prayer. We did 24 hours of prayer to start it all off, and have been attempting 40 Days of Prayer as well. Our pastors have been teaching on the practicalities of prayer as well as the importance of giving God absolute praise and honor for his interceding on our behalf. Right before we started this whole thing 9Marks distributed a 9Marks eJournal for January/February. Oddly enough, it focused on corporate prayer in the local church. I wanted to make this eJournal available because I greatly respect the heart of 9Marks and their mission to equip local churches for the glory of God. For instance, this is their mission statement:

We believe the local church is the focal point of God's plan for displaying his glory to the nations. Our vision is simple: Churches that reflect the character of God.

First, I have to say that I do not agree with EVERYTHING in the journal, but I was motivated and challenged by a lot of it. Some of the ideas and convictions held in this eJournal will probably bug you if you are really set in your ways, but that just means it's probably good for you.

Second, there is a lot of stuff in this eJournal so be prepared for a long read. It is basically a small pamphlet so be forewarned if you plan to read the whole thing. You may need to read a bit, and then come back to it later. You can also subscribe to the eJounral at www.9marks.com.

I hope that this gives you some new ideas! Enjoy!

Click here to read the PDF version.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 5)

At last, Part 5 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. We've reached the end, and I hope that it was a beneficial for you as it was for me. The title of the final message is Ten Cautions & Encouragements for Preachers.

I feel that I must remind each of you, in light of Mark's ability to speak, to please take all that you hear with a grain of salt. It can be far too easy to jump on board with someone who is well spoken without taking time to think and pray over the things that they have said. While I agree with almost all of what Mark has said, as a preacher and teacher you must personally discern what is most useful for your flock in particular. What is lacking in your church? What is strong in your church? Is the gospel being preached every Sunday in one way, shape, or form? What I gleaned most from this series was the importance of the message during Sunday worship. (And any other days where there is a teaching.) It would be a very sad thing to have a preacher/teacher who thought that, since most people apparently forget everything they've heard, that their time speaking was a waste of time, or ineffective. It may be that the very reason the teaching is ineffective is because of the low view of it in the church. Who knows? Please don't misunderstand. I am not trying to promote a high view of the preacher, but rather a high view of the spoken word of God. In any case, I hope you've enjoyed the series, and gained some tools for your 'Preacher's Toolbox'. Maybe I'll try to do similar 'Series Posts' like this in the future.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 4)

We have come to Part 4 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. How quickly the days fly by! The title of this message is Historical Lessons on Preaching.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 3)

Here is Part 3 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. The title of this message is Epistemological and Hermeneutical Implications on Preaching.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 2)

As promised here is Part 2 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. The title of this message is Reflections on the Narrative Preaching Trend.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 1)

For the next five days I wanted to feature Mark Driscoll's 'Preaching and Teaching' Series that was given at the Acts 29 Regional Conference. I haven't watched these videos in a long time, but I remember that they were very thought provoking. If I remember correctly, this was more of an informative teaching about different aspects of preaching/teaching and was fairly unbiased. If you have never heard Mark speak you are definitely in for a treat. Enjoy Part 1 of 5! The title of this message is Current Perspectives on Preaching. (Keep in mind, the video is LONG and may take some time to load.)

If you would like a sermon note summary of this teaching, or if the video does not load correctly, please click here.


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I want to thank Mark for doing these teachings as well as the Resurgence for posting these videos on their site for the benefit of the church.

Meet the Puritans Review

When I attended the Desiring God conference last fall I could not believe the amount of books that were in the conference bookstore. Thankfully, we arrived early enough to see the bookstore completely stocked and so we were able to walk around and take our time deciding how we wanted to liquidate our bank accounts.

After picking up all of the books that I wanted to purchase (they really need shopping carts at these conferences), I checked out and carried the 200 lbs of books I purchased to each session and then back to our hotel. The next day I went back to the bookstore to see if I had missed anything worth reading. At the end of one of the tables was a pile of large blue books. For those of us who love reading, a large book is almost always appetizing! This large book was Meet the Puritans.

I must commend Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson for the amount of effort and care that they put into this book. What a tremendous undertaking this must have been! At a mere 839 pages (plus an extensive glossary) this is a comprehensive beginner's guide for anyone interested in the lives of the Puritans. This is not a general overview of Puritan theology, piety, etc., but it is rather the individual biographies of various Puritans throughout Europe and North America. Each biography is relatively short but incredibly informative. You will not walk away with the feeling that you haven't learned anything, that's for sure! The biographies are in alphabetical order and are seperated into three sections: English Puritanism, Scottish Divines, and Dutch Further-Reformation Divines. Each biography also contains a list of modern reprints of that particular Puritan's works. This is simply a great resource. The works of the Puritans range from the purely theological to the utterly practical. You want a guide to parenting? It's in this book.

The English Puritanism portion is the bulk of the reading, while the Scottish and Dutch sections are written in as appendixes. Why they are appendixes I do not know, because for me the book didn't end until I had read every single biography as well as the final appendix containing a concluding paragraph written by none other than J.I. Packer.

As I mentioned before, the book also contains a well written glossary that, for those of us who are unfamiliar with terms such as antinomianism, neonomianism, etc., was very helpful indeed. I even found myself reading the glossary for fun, which definitely says something!

Most would recommend that a book of this size should NOT be read from front to back. I would disagree. The format is such that you really can meet a few puritans everyday and not get burned out. I started reading this book in November and finished it in February. Piece of cake. I must admit that during the Dutch section I started to feel that my Puritan high was running low, but that is to be expected with any book that contains close to 1,000 pages.

In summary, I loved this book. It was money well spent, and I would probably buy it again if something happened to my current copy. If your only view of the Puritans is your high school history class, please buy this book. The Puritans are often treated as strict, careless, hard-hearted, and anti-sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. These men loved their flock, loved the gospel, and loved their wives. Most of these guys had 8 kids! They loved Christ, and spent their lives teaching and preaching the glory of salvation. Their ability to connect theology with practice was incomparable, and it is something that many of us can learn from. These men knew God, and I am so thankful that we can reap the fruit of their devotion in books like these.

Buy This Book

You Know You're A Calvinist If...

This is just hilarious. Seriously, I laughed out loud at work. If you can't laugh at this than you are probably pathologically serious. Seek help now. That's all I've got to say. For more poking fun at Calvinists, click the link below...

Help! I’m Going Hyper!