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Reading List 2012

January 10, 2012 in Building Theology, Resources, Uncategorized with 4 Comments

Last year, I did not read as much as I usually do. I guess that is part of what happens when you have two jobs. This year, I hope to find some more balance and read a lot more. So, here is my reading list so far (subject to minor changes and tweaks):

  • The Forgotten God, Francis Chan
  • Knowing God, J.I. Packer
  • The Whole Counsel of God, Richard C. Gamble
  • The Incomparable Christ, John Stott
  • Real Marriage, Mark Driscoll
  • Christless Christianity, Michael Scott Horton
  • The Meaning of the Pentateuch, John H. Sailhamer
  • Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
  • Note to Self, Joe Thorn
  • Bloodlines; Race, Cross, and Christian, Tim Keller

I know, it’s only ten books for now. But hey, gotta start somewhere? Right?

 

-Don-

Preping for Preaching

May 5, 2011 in Bible Study, Building Theology, Preaching Prep with 2 Comments

Tim_Keller

I am preparing my sermon for Monday, May 9th.  I have chosen the Scripture I will be preaching on, and I am in the process of studying it and tearing it apart. While doing so, I have decided to blog the process. Last fall and winter I was privileged to attend a preaching cohort at my church. We spent out time discussing a method in sermon writing designed by Tim Keller as laid out in The Journal of Biblical Counseling.*

Just a few things of note before I go on. One is, I have only written two sermons using this method.  Actually, I have only written one-and-a-half. This means I have a) not perfected it, and b) I have adapted it to fit my preaching style thus far, bad habits and everything. For those of you who have preached or are starting to preach, feel free to take notes, ask questions, and give pointers.

Two, I will be delivering the sermon on May 9th.  While I will be writing / blogging the process, you will not actually see the results until after I preach the sermon. I hope to record the sermon and make it available to you after I finish posting the articles. If you can, please download the sermon after I post it and offer up some critique. I would love to hear your feedback.

Finally, the passage I am preaching on is Galatians 1:6-12:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
(Galatians 1:6-12 ESV)

Keller tells us to first read the passage 5-10 times, and then break it down into it’s basic parts. You can do this by making the passage into an outline while determining why the author used certain connections and words. Tomorrow I will post my outline. If you have the time, I would welcome you to participate in this exercise and post your outline in the comments (I know, that is a tall order!).

Overall, let me know your initial thoughts on this passage. Also, if you have read any other great articles on preaching preperation, please, share them in the comments.

Thanks,

-Don-

*Volume 12, Issue 3, Spring 1994

Transform Your Bible Reading

April 6, 2011 in Bible Study, Building Theology, Resources with 5 Comments

transform

I came across a GREAT article on how to transform your Bible reading from the Resurgence the other day. The entire article (found here) is worth the read. I did, however, most enjoy the tips on how to read the ‘weird’ or ‘difficult’ parts of the Bible. As someone who loves perusing the Old Testament, I found the following tips very helpful:

  • How… do we read obscure Old Testament records of wayward Israelite kings or wicked priests? The answer from the perspective of biblical theology is this: We read them as stories increasingly heightening our longing for a true king, a final priest, one who will lead as these men were meant to—truly representing God to the people (king) and the people to God (priest).
  • How do we read genealogies? As testimonies to the grace of God to real individuals, carrying God’s promises down specific family lines in concrete ways, promises that are never derailed, and which ultimately come to fruition in Jesus.
  • How do we read Proverbs? As good news of wise help from another for stumbling disciples like you and me.

To be completely honest and transparent, genealogies kill me. A couple months ago I was reading 1 Chronicles and had a hard time. The first half of the book is almost entirely genealogies. I almost lost it when trying to read all the ancient Hebrew names.

What parts of the Bible do you find hard to read? Were any of them in the above list? Does this seem helpful to you?

Let me know in the comments.

-Don-

Minding Your P’s and Q’s

March 29, 2011 in Building Theology, Start Here with 1 Comment

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Theology is tricky.

Writing about it is even trickier.

I suppose this is true in writing about any subject. But when you write something down for public consumption it can be very hard to express what you mean, or to express it correctly.  You never know how your audience will read it and where their mind will put inflections or even how they will view punctuation.  Theology provides an even greater task of trying to figure out how to convey things to a pickier audience.

I have found while writing about forming theology (that’s right, not even theology itself, but just how to go about forming a good theology) I have to go back and constantly re-write things. The majority of my readers fall within two camps; they are either hyper-critical, or even more critical than those who are hyper-critical. I blame the anonymity of the Internet and people’s pride. This brings about a certain fear at times when it comes to writing about (or even talking about) theology and theological matters. It seems I have to mind my P’s and Q’s.

In one case, I have a certain amount of pride. I have spent a lot of time and money on learning about theology. I want to make sure my dollars and minutes were well spent. I fully acknowledged this as sin and I repent of it. On the other hand, this often comes from others who wish to demonstrate how much smarter (and holier) they are than me or other readers. They often forget our boasting is not supposed to be in ourselves (Gal. 6:14).

I am posting this for one reason. I am about to embark in a series of posts about building theology. Our tendency is to talk about how much we know and to allow all of our knowledge to stop at our heads. Many times this leads to pseudo intellects trolling my site.  In other cases it leads to people who are content in making asses of themselves while trying to show how much they know. Humility sometimes becomes an afterthought.  This is not the place for such people or attitudes. I want to teach people about Jesus. I want to give research advice and show great resources. This means I have no qualms with deleting the comments of those who believe they are more elect than others.

Don’t take what you learn on this site and let it stop at your head. Do not be afraid to ask questions or even to contest or add to something I am saying. Recommending corrections and suggestions are always welcome if they are done with humility.

Remember, even the great men of Scripture and church history often had questions at one time or another. They did not come out of the womb blessed with infinite wisdom.

Thanks for understanding.

-Don-

Your Theology Definitions

March 28, 2011 in Building Theology with 4 Comments

Thanks to everyone who took the challenge of defining Theology in under 140 characters. Some of the definitions were not from the comments on my site but instead came through email.  The email exchange became a bit of a friendly “one-up-man-ship” (thanks to the ability to “reply-all”) and it was good to see some of the definitions.  For your viewing enjoyment, here is the email transcript:

  • “The study of God.” That’s 17 characters. I dare anyone to do it in less. :-)
    -Demian
  • “The study of God” — there, Demian, I beat you because unlike you, I didn’t use a period. Ha!
    -Jonathan
  • “Study of God” Touché. ;-)
    -Demian
  • Boys, don’t be ridiculous. Just go with “God study” and be done with it. We are getting awfully close to the word, “theo-logy,” aren’t we? ;)
    -Daniel
  • I think Daniel won… can’t think of anything shorter than “God study.”
    -Jonathn

Of course, if I had to pick a comment from the site I liked best, it would have to be Matt’s:

as long as you have good theology, who cares how you define it… thats a joke… sorta.

Honestly, I would like to thank everyone for forcing me to think more and more about what theology actually means.  My main thought is how I can explain it separate from the word Doctrine, as my posts are going to be centered around these topics for relatively new Christians.

Thanks again and have a good week.

-Don-

 

Twitter Definition of Theology

March 24, 2011 in Building Theology with 10 Comments

Dictionary

I am in the process of writing some extensive posts on the building blocks of theology. One thing I want to do is really define theology.  Of course, when writing a post, it is easy to get extra wordy.  It can take a few paragraphs or pages to really get an accurate definition of a word. What I want is your definition in 140 characters (or less!).

So, here is the challenge, in a tweet sized comment to define theology.

Feel free to paraphrase a dictionary if you  must. Just make sure you tell me that is what you did. What I would really like to see is your own original definition.

On your mark, get set….

Go.

 

-Don-

 

 

Building Blocks

March 21, 2011 in Building Theology with 2 Comments

I am in the process of writing some insanely long posts on building a good theology (seriously, it could be a book). My main premise of these articles is to help new believers understand what theology is, why it is important, and how to go about the process of building one. What I am hoping is to discuss the following points:

  • Define theology
  • Explain the foundation of good theology
  • Explain why the study of theology is important
  • Define doctrine
  • Explain the need for good and consistent doctrine
  • Explain why this needs to move beyond the concepts and into practice (head to heart)

My hope is to communicate these points in a way that is understandable, yet not watered down. I am also hoping to have the entire “series” finished before posting it. All too often in the past I have committed to a series and not followed through. It drove me nuts. I was usually too easily distracted by something or someone else to follow through.  Well, dang it, I am turning over a new leaf!

Anyway. Just thought I would drop this little update.

Hope to have the ball rolling soon.

-Don-