The Gospel Coalition

There are several new additions at TGC Reviews – the book review site of The Gospel Coalition. Here are the highlights:

Interviews:

Justin Taylor, Collin Hansen, Kevin DeYoung, and I recently discussed the importance and practice of writing well. Why should Christians write well? What does good writing look like? How do you improve, and how do you find the time?

Reviews:

Christians should not “chase cool.” No one will disagree with that, right? But there are a lot of Christians who look cool – is anything wrong with that? Brooklyn hipster Kristen Scharold gives an honest assessment of Brett McCracken’s Hipster Christianity (Baker, 2010), which looks at the phenomena of chic Christians. Kristen attends Resurrection Presbyterian Church, one of the “Christian hipster churches” that McCracken profiles in his book.

Just what is Evangelicalism? It’s becoming harder to define without giving in a number of qualifying statements. Something New, Something Old: Evangelicals points to Christopher Catherwood’s new book, The Evangelicals (Crossway, 2010), which takes a shot at profiling the movement, also pointing to Mark Noll’s influential The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Eerdmans, 1994).

Think worship wars have gone away? T. David Gordon ensures that the waves will not remain settled much longer in Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns (P&R, 2010) – reviewed by Todd Pruitt.

For our readers, there probably are not two topics more dear than the Gospel and the glory of God. Chet Daniels reviews The Gospel Centred Life (The Good Book Co., 2009), by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester (Just a heads-up, be on the lookout for our review of The Gospel Centred Family and Church) and Nick Roark reviews The Glory of God (Crossway, 2010), edited by Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson.

Also, don’t miss Franklin Payne’s review of Wired for Intimacy (IVP, 2009), by William Struthers, on the problem of pornography and the male brain.

Don Carson preached on five Psalms at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia in August 2010:

1. Psalm 1
2. Psalm 2
3. Psalm 40
4. Psalm 48
5. Psalm 110

I’ve always felt like I’m the odd one out . . . like everyone else is on the inside and I’m standing there, tapping on the window pleading in a whiny-sounding voice, “Hey, guys . . . I’m out here . . . can I come in, too, pleeeaaase?”

When I was a child I had a terrifying recurring dream, especially when I was fevered. In it I was standing on a dark stage and I was completely alone. I was aware of the fact that I was alone and had no place to hide. The isolation was horrifying. Five decades later, that dream still affects me.

Then, when I was a teen, Petula Clark recorded a song called “The In Crowd.” In the song she boasted, “I’m in with the in crowd, I go where the in crowd goes . . . I know what the in crowd knows.” Well, needless to say, most of us never really hung out with the “in crowd.” Most of us relate more to tapping on the window, hoping to be let in. But even if you’re one of those popular people who always found yourself “in,” you know that sense of belonging doesn’t last for long, because there is always another group that’s more in than yours. We weren’t meant to find our identity in the “in crowd” or the cool, loser “out crowd,” or in the “isolated, I-don’t-give-a-rip” crowd. We are meant to find our identity in Christ. Continue

Expositional preaching for high school students? Are you crazy?

Expositional preaching—moving sequentially through a book of the Bible, seeking to discover the main point of the text, and making that the main point of the message—can’t work for high school students . . . can it? Don’t they need something more attention-grabbing, flashy, and topical?

Responding to this thinking, which dominates youth ministry circles, I’ve come up with a list: Top Reasons for Expository Preaching in High School Ministry. I should note that my conviction regarding expository preaching extends to the whole church. I am here simply expanding that conviction to include the smaller gatherings of the church’s young people. So why expositional preaching for high school students? Continue

We just added a PDF of this recent book by D. A. Carson to his bibliography:

From the Resurrection to His Return: Living Faithfully in the Last Days. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2010.

It’s a lightly edited sermon manuscript on 2 Timothy 3:1–4:8.

It’s not long—only 48 small pages with large print.

Related:

(1) Sermons by D. A. Carson on 2 Timothy

(2) Justin Taylor, “Imitate Me”

(3) TGC hosts PDFs of seven other books by D. A. Carson:

1. Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life (Crossway, 1993)
2. Holy Sonnets of the Twentieth Century (Baker, 1994)
3. For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, Vol. 1. (Crossway, 1998)
4. For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, Vol. 2. (Crossway, 1999)
5. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Crossway, 2000)
6. Love in Hard Places (Crossway, 2002)
7. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (Crossway, 2008)

The lastest refresh of The Gospel Coalition homepage includes several changes revealing a new editorial direction. While we continue to host several blogs, the homepage now features an assortment of news stories, commentary, videos, profiles, interviews, and more. We’re devoting our editorial energies to publishing in-depth cultural analysis, hosting vigorous and edifying discussion over key topics, and identifying stories about the advance of the gospel worldwide. Readers will also notice what we expect to be one of the most popular new features. The “Right Now” section in the homepage’s top right corner highlights the most recent articles, events, and posts making news.

This refreshed homepage also signals TGC’s desire to include a variety of voices and perspectives that share our theological confession and vision for ministry. We’ll introduce a number of new contributors with varied experiences. And we invite anyone else to participate by commenting on articles, sharing them through Facebook and Twitter, and telling us your own stories of God’s extraordinary grace shown to sinners.

Through this new site, The Gospel Coalition aims to offer discerning, thoughtful content covering all aspects of Christian life even as we engage the world around us. Above all, we celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15). By God’s grace the gospel is “bearing fruit and growing” around the world today (Col. 1:6). We’re excited and grateful for the opportunity to proclaim that good news to the glory of God.

You can hardly exaggerate the effects of the burgeoning social revolution among 20-somethings today. The New York Times Magazine turned its attention this month to what sociologists and psychologists variously call delayed adulthood, extended adolescence, or merely a newly discovered life stage between 18 and the mid-20s. Writer Robin Marantz Henig observes:

It’s happening all over, in all sorts of families, not just young people moving back home but also young people taking longer to reach adulthood overall. It’s a development that predates the current economic doldrums, and no one knows yet what the impact will be—on the prospects of the young men and women; on the parents on whom so many of them depend; on society, built on the expectation of an orderly progression in which kids finish school, grow up, start careers, make a family and eventually retire to live on pensions supported by the next crop of kids who finish school, grow up, start careers, make a family and on and on. The traditional cycle seems to have gone off course, as young people remain untethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life.

Myriad factors combine to create this new dynamic. The competitive job market demands a college or even graduate degree for many entry-level positions. Social stigmas against premarital sex have largely disappeared, removing a strong incentive for marriage. Birth-control pills reduce the likelihood of unplanned pregnancies. And women who want to have children feel little pressure to begin before age 30 if they can afford to pay for reproductive assistance made possible by new technologies. Continue

The Gospel Coalition council members Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris sat down with Francis Chan and asked why he resigned as senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, and what he plans to do next. Brushing aside the planned discussion topic, Driscoll took charge of the conversation and says to Chan, “Everybody thinks you’re cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. You’ve got a good church going on and you hit the eject button and now you’re an international man of Fu Manchu mystery. What is going on? What are you thinking? And what’s going to happen to your church?” See how Chan responds.

A What’s Next for Francis Chan? Conversation with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris from Ben Peays on Vimeo.

“Some people come to Italy for an audience with the Pope. As for me, I’d prefer to meet with the Sorelle Evangeliche (Gospel Sisters),” I declared, entering the home of Cristiana Gavagni and Annamaria Mazzari, a.k.a. the “Gospel Nuns.” Known among evangelicals throughout Italy, these sisters have a ministry of itinerant evangelism in which they encourage congregations to pursue gospel-centered outreach. Their message is simple: “Choose Christ and him alone.”

While traveling through Tuscany in July, I had the privilege of visiting with the sisters in their apartment. Their amazing story of God’s grace has gained attention throughout Europe over the last few years, so much that a docudrama about them is being produced. After 15 pages of handwritten notes and a bowl of gelato that still makes my mouth water, here is what I learned. Continue

Whatever happened to the Reformed cultural agenda, led by such distinguished theologians as Carl F. H. Henry and Francis Schaeffer? I posed this question to Greg Thornbury, vice president for spiritual life and dean of the school of theology and missions at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Described by David Dockery as “perhaps the brightest young theologian in Baptist life today,” Thornbury takes aim at Fox News, the Religious Right, and others he believes hijacked the robust cultural program articulated by Henry, Schaeffer, and other forebears.