The Gospel Coalition

Ligonier Ministries recently released the videos from their 2009 West Coast conference, “Is There Life After Death?” Here’s the description of the conference from the Ligonier website:

Many Christians reflect upon the purpose and consequences of Jesus’ resurrection only at Easter. This is distressing because the resurrection, as the event upon which Christianity stands or falls, should occupy first place in our thinking and living.

In Ligonier Ministries’ 2009 West Coast Conference held in Seattle, Wash., “Is There Life After Death?,” R.C. Sproul, Alistair Begg, and Michael Horton examine the significance of the resurrection of Christ for worship, preaching, apologetics, and other issues. A firm understanding of the resurrection is essential for confronting false teaching and looking forward to our life in the world to come.

Here are the videos from the conference:

• Alistair Begg, He Is Not There: The Significance of the Empty Tomb
• Michael Horton, Exalted to the Right Hand of God: The Resurrection and the Ascension
• Panel (Begg, Horton, and Sproul), Questions and Answers #1
• R. C. Sproul, Witnesses of the Resurrection: The Apostolic Message
• Michael Horton, Foolishness to the Greeks: Preaching the Resurrection Today
• Panel (Begg, Horton, and Sproul), Questions and Answers #2
• Jason Stellman, The Destiny of the Species
• Alistair Begg, In the Likeness of His Resurrection: The Bodily Resurrection of the Believer
• R. C. Sproul, He Is Risen! The Resurrection and Worship

Yesterday I pointed to the slaughter of Christians by militant Muslims in Nigeria. The New York Times has done a follow-up story noting how the death toll is rising.

[Photo attribution: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters]

J. D. Payne, the director of the Church Planting Center at Southern Seminary, writes:

I have been troubled by what I believe is a missiological malpractice among many church planters today. If we say we are Kingdom citizens living by a Kingdom Ethic, then that Ethic must govern all of life, including our church planting philosophies and methods.

Payne proposes 11 ethical guidelines for church planting. Here are the first four:

• Guideline #1:  Since the global need for the gospel is so great, unless God reveals otherwise, we will begin our ministry among people with the greatest need and with a high level of receptivity to the gospel.
• Guideline #2:  Since the world consists of four billion unbelievers, with two billion who have never heard the gospel, our strategy will involve the use of highly reproducible church planting methods.
• Guideline #3:  Since biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches, we will not prioritize transfer growth over conversion growth by designing ministries that will primarily attract believers.
• Guideline #4:  Since unity among churches in a geographical area is a powerful witness to the gospel, we will be concerned with other evangelical pastors laboring in the same area as our team, and will take the initiative to meet with them to share our calling, vision, and ethic.

See all 11 guidelines.

Read Payne’s full paper, “Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters: A Suggested Proposal,” which he presented at a meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society last year.

I just had opportunity to watch the video below. I was reminded of how thankful I am that this man is a Council member with The Gospel Coalition and a blogger on our blog network. Thabiti loves the work of the ministry and considers his pastorate a gift from God. Of course, once you see where First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman does baptisms you may find yourself saying, like me, “No wonder he loves his ministry!”

Seriously, we thank God for his under-shepherd Thabiti Anyabwile and hope you’ll have the chance to attend Together For the Gospel next month in Louisville so you, too, can sit under Pastor Thabiti’s teaching.

Thabiti Anyabwile – Study Tour from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

1 Corinthians 13 is a remarkable passage to use in order to investigate the motives and idols of our heart. How do we love? Is our love patient and kind or is it envious and boastful? What are we craving that prohibits us from loving others?

Sadly, I tend to read this passage without reflecting on the implications of the nature of how I love. It’s overly familiar to someone like me who has been in the church for a number of years. I read verse 4, “Love is patient” – ok, I must be more patient with others, my wife and children. Then, “Love is kind” – ok, I need to work on being kind. And on and on and on, until I’ve read the entire passage in a way that secures no possible change in my heart.

A perceptive reader, however, will read “love is patient” and then ponder, what does it mean for me not to be patient with others? It will mean a number of things, but at the very least it means that you value your own needs — perhaps idolizing them — in such a way that the needs of others become barriers to meeting your own. It means that you crave your time in such a way that you will lash out against those who threaten it. You will be easily offended (they are wasting my time!), irritable and resentful (see 13:5), and will respond to others, not in light of the Gospel, but in light of your momentary lusts of the heart.

An even more perceptive reader will read this passage in light of what Paul has already written to the Corinthians. He has rebuked them for not waiting for the poor among them to take the Lord’s Supper (chapter 11) and has urged them to care for one another as one body (chapter 12). I Corinthians 12:26 describes the church as one body where, “if one member suffers, all suffer together.” The tragedy of the impatient heart is that it idolizes its own needs and craves its own time to such an extent that it is unable to suffer with those who are suffering. To the impatient, Scriptures asks, “Do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” (1 Corinthians 11:22).

The Cove won an Oscar last night for best documentary. The film, no doubt worthy of the award, documents the calculated massacre of dolphins in a small seaside town in Japan. Here’s the trailer:

It seems good and right that the filmmakers and activists behind The Cove are bringing awareness of this senseless tragedy to the world. But I’m concerned about an even more alarming massacre reported over the weekend in The New York Times. According to the story, hundreds of Christians in Nigeria — most of which were women and children — were brutally slaughtered with machetes by militant Muslims. From the story:

Many appeared to have been cut down with machetes after being driven from homes set ablaze by attackers in the predawn darkness, said Shamaki Gad Peter of the League for Human Rights, a Nigerian group.

Mr. Yenlong said the attackers were “hoodlums, Fulani herdsmen” — Muslims from a neighboring state, Bauchi, who were going after Christian members of Plateau’s leading ethnic group, the Berom, in the villages of Ratt and Dogona Hauwa.

“They attacked those villages and killed well over 300 people, mostly women, children and the aged,” Mr. Yenlong said. “They killed them unprovoked. Innocent people were massacred.”

Witnesses, including Mr. Peter, spoke of bodies littering the streets of Ratt. One victim was less than 3 months old, he said.

“I’m seeing more than 20 corpses right now, women and children who have been killed,” said Mr. Peter. “Virtually every house has been burned down. Corpses of people are littered about. They were slaughtered with machetes. I can see the cuts on their head and neck.”

Let’s continue to raise awareness about the senseless slaughter of Christians in “coves” throughout the world. Christian filmmakers: there’s plenty of stories to be told.