Archive for July, 2009

James 5:13-20 Sermon Audio

Here is the audio from the sermon I preached last Sunday – my first ever on a Sunday morning.
The sermon was based on James 5:13-20 and the title of the was “The Prayer of a Righteous Person”
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
(Direct download here. Right click, then “Save As”)
If you would like to see [...]

John Stott Endorses Twitter (kind of…)

Consider this quote from his masterpiece on preaching, “Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today“:
“Consider the time and trouble we give to composing a message we want to send by cable [read: "Twitter"]: because the number of words is severely limited, we go over it again and again, changing a word here, adding or [...]

Sermon Prep: James 5:13-20

I’m preaching this week – my first time here at AEMMC. I have my thoughts and ideas loosely together but I always love to hear from the gallery. So have at it. Write about the entire text, one verse, of a section of verses.
Here is the text:
James 5:13-20 (ESV)
13Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. [...]

“Fair-minded Criticism Is One of Life’s Best Pleasures”

(HT: Justin Taylor)
David Powlison’s article, “Does the Shoe Fit?” (Journal of Biblical Counseling [Spring 2002]: 2-14) is probably the best piece I’ve seen on how to think about criticism. (The article is not online, but is available on the JBC CD-ROM.) Here’s an excerpt:
“Fair-minded criticism is one of life’s best pleasures, an acquired taste well [...]

The Way Forward

 
(part 3 of a miniseries on the emerging church – see part 1 and part 2)
Unfortunately, both sides (Emerging and mainstream) suffer from rejecting the other. Some of the old guard resists new life, ensuring the continuation of their own slow death. The emerging generation discounts the contribution of the previous generation – largely on [...]

Songs of Mourning and Celebration

Written at the rear of the sanctuary during the song service for Peter Dyck (March 29, 2009):
It is a tradition among our people to gather and sing on the evening of someone’s death. Songs are sung in both German and English from old, worn black (German) or green (English) hymnals that have inhabited our pews [...]

What is the Emerging Church?

The “EC” (Emerging Church) is not a denomination. It has no creed or doctrinal statement. It has no charter or by-laws. It has no president or board of directors.
The “EC” is a term used to describe a movement that is already happening – or, in some cases, has already happened. The “EC” is the church [...]

“Faith Undone”: A Tabloid Treatment of the Emerging Church

I was given a book recently called “Faith Undone: The emerging church – a new reformation or an end-time deception” by Roger Oakland. This is an “anti” book. By that I mean its sole purpose is to tell you, with a good amount of hyperbole, about the many, many things the author is against.  In [...]

Liveblogging the EMMC NatCon – Post Index

Part 1 – The”Emerging Church” issue
Part 2 – The “Emerging Church” response
Part 3 – Day summary
Part 4 – A few words about Glen Soderholm
Part 5 – A few words about David MacFarlane
There will be more spin-off posts based on these so stay tuned.
Michael Krahn (michael.krahn@gmail.com) is a husband, father, Pastor, writer, and recording artist [...]

John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional”

John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but pretty close. The point is, he has taken the time to investigate and, as usual, comes out ahead of guys like MacArthur in showing some balance and compassion where its [...]