On February 25-27, 2008 Resurgence hosted our National Conference titled Text & Context at Mars Hill Church's Ballard Campus. In this sixth session from the Conference, listen as John Piper explains how his preaching is informed by his shepherd, counseling and individual care.
On February 25-27, 2008 Resurgence hosted our National Conference titled Text & Context at Mars Hill Church's Ballard Campus. In this second session from the Conference, listen as CJ Mahaney encourages us to look for small graces in those around us.
Are you interested in women's ministry at your church?
I'd like to highlight some things against which we all need to guard ourselves in women's ministry.
So, if you want to ruin a women's ministry, here are 4 helpful tips.
1. Make women's ministry your first priority.
I'm not saying to forget your husband and kids. I'm just saying to think of them as less fulfilling than women's ministry. I had a time in my life when I would drive to church praying intently that the Lord would bless my ministry there, guard my words, and guide my responses. Then one day, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I never prayed the same as I drove toward my house. Women's ministry at church had assumed the place of God's Big Thing in my life. And yet I knew that my ministry to my husband and boys was even more important than my ministry at church. Why was I allowing myself to find fulfillment in one and drudgery in the other?
In May 2007, Resurgence had the opportunity to participate in and record the content from the first Gospel Coalition conference. In this breakout session from the conference, listen as Mike Bullmore talks about The Use of the Bible in Pastoral Counseling.
In this breakout session, Mike attempts to answer two primary questions:
What is the role of scripture in pastoral counseling?
THE LIMITS OF SUBMISSION TO MAN I have a vision of the Church as a people who are sojourners, strangers, exiles, refugees in this world (Heb. 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11; Phil 3:20). A happy, peaceful, loving people who swear allegiance to a foreign King, Jesus Christ and to no other. A people who reside in every nation but whose all-determining citizenship is in heaven, from which we await our King and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a vision of the church as the freest of all peoples in the world. Free from fear and greed because the Kingdom to which we belong cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28), and because our true fatherland is heaven (Heb. 11:16), and the city of our destiny has God for its builder and maker (Heb. 11:10). I see the church as a free people because our minds are not conformed to this age but are transformed by the mercies of God, so that we are not enslaved by fashion or fad or any other form of covetousness. I have a vision of the church with strong desires not shaped by the persuaders of this but shaped by the messages coming from the fatherland. O for a church with a single and radical allegiance to the King who said, "My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).
Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Therefore, everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord aims daily to know and do the will of God. If we do not make it our aim to do the will of God heartily and consistently as the angels do it in heaven, then we probably do not belong to Christ. For Jesus himself said, "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matt. 12:50). The family resemblance of all the people of God is not the perfect performance of God's will, but the persistent purpose to do it. The mark of the child of God is not that he always hits the bull's-eye, but that he aims at the targets appointed by the Father. The great aim of the church is to do God's will on earth the way it's done in heaven.
For many of us life is a constant struggle on the one hand to know what God's will is and on the other hand to maintain a happy confidence that God will overcome all the obstacles that would prevent our doing it. In Genesis 24:1-9 there is an incident from Abraham's life that shows how he discovered God's will and kept his confidence strong that God would enable him to do it. And I believe that the reason God put this story in the Bible is that we might learn how to know God's will and be encouraged to trust in God's power to get it done.
Psalm 10 beings with the words, "Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you always hide yourself in times of trouble?" It beings with a complaint, with a doubt or question. There are many such doubts expressed in this psalm and in other passages of Scripture. As we read these words we should consider, for our own lives if it is appropriate to express doubt oneself or to allow one's children and teenagers to express their doubts.
I have three sons who are all in their twenties now. They began expressing questions and doubts about all sorts of things before they were five years old. All children express questions and doubts and at times these doubts are about the Lord and about Biblical faith. This is an issue with which anyone who has ever been involved with young people needs to wrestle.
What is your bottom line? What are your goals? What do you want from life? What do you want for your children? Perhaps you desire personal happiness for you and for your children. Or maybe you long for financial security so you can pay the bills and see your children well educated without a lifetime of debt. Perhaps your goal is a good name or good character, success in your line of work, success for your children in school, in their careers, or in developing their gifts.
There is a youth subculture – a subculture with its own mores, ethics, and language. No wonder adults have communication miscues with adolescents. Verbal communication with adolescents is not only infrequent but often strained and difficult. How do adolescents communicate? What are some principles one should use when communicating with adolescents? How do we listen to and interpret the verbal and non-verbal clues? What might these clues be communicating? How do we listen?
It was the amiable character of our blessed Redeemer, that "he went about doing good," this great motive, which animated all his actions, brought him to the house of his friend Lazarus, at Bethany, and directed his behavior there. Though it was a season of recess from public labor, our Lord brought the sentiments and the pious cares of a preacher of righteousness into the parlor of a friend; and there his doctrine dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew, as the little happy circle that were then surrounding him. Mary, the sister of Lazarus, with great delight made one amongst them; she seated herself at the feet of Jesus, in the posture of an humble disciple; and we have a great deal of reason to believe, that Martha, his other sister, would gladly have been with her there; but domestic cares pressed hard upon her, and "she was cumbered with much serving," being, perhaps, too solicitous to prepare a sumptuous entertainment for her heavenly master and the train that attended him. Happy are they, who in a crowd of business do not lose something of the spirituality of their minds, and of the composure and sweetness of their tempers. This good woman comes to our Lord with too impatient a complaint; insinuating some little reflection, not only on Mary, but on himself too. "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her, therefore, that she help me." Our Lord, willing to take all opportunities of suggesting useful thoughts, answers her in these words, of which the text is a part, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful; and Mary, has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Alas, Martha! The concerns of the soul are of so much greater importance than those of the body, that I cannot blame your sister on this occasion: I rather recommend her to your imitation, and caution you, and all my other friends, to be much on your guard, that in the midst of your worldly cares, you do not lose sight of what much better deserves your attention.
