Are you Listening?

My good friend, Mike McKinley, over at the 9 Marks Blog has just posted a review of a helpful little book, called Listen Up I encourage you to give it a read and consider how it might be useful to you as you sit under the preaching of God's Word at your local church.

How to Listen to Sermons, Both Faithful and Heretical

by Michael Mckinley

Jesus tells us to be careful how we hear (Luke 8:18). Yet many Christians approach the Sunday sermon with little to no game-plan for listening well.


To address that problem, Christopher Ash has written an outstanding booklet: Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons.

The booklet is very accessible. It is short (only 31 pages), well designed, and written in an informal, catchy style. And the content is pure gold.

It is broken into several section. The first and longest part is devoted to seven ingredients for healthy sermon listening. They are:
Expect God to speak.
Admit God knows better than you.
Check the preacher says what the passage says.
Hear the sermon in church (as opposed to solely listening to sermons on the internet).
Be there week by week.
Do what the Bible says.
Do what the Bible says today -- and rejoice!
Each of these "ingredients" comes with practical examples and a list of "practical steps to take" at the end.

The second section deal with listening to "bad" sermons, particularly dull sermons, biblically inadequate sermons, and heretical sermons.

The final section reminds us that congregations often get the kind of preaching they tolerate and encourage, and then provides seven suggestions for encouraging good preaching,

I found this booklet very, very helpful. If you are a preacher who wants to train your people to listen well to God's Word, this is the booklet you want to use. If you are a regular hearer of God's Word, this booklet will give you a great perspective and a ton of practical strategies for improvement.

Radstock TV

Check out the series of video uplinks that have been posted by various Radstock pastors and church planters. Its amazing what is happening across the Radstock network, a chief focus of the videos is the work in India.

Kindergarten meet and greet

Tate got to visit his classroom today in preparation for his big day tomorrow. Here he is outside the building, sitting at his table, finding his locker, figuring out how to open his locker and shoving his backpack in! Good fun and he is excited.

On the bus

Here is the whole gang at the bus stop waiting eagerly. They were saying "We love school" with the exception of a few who really prefer summer!!
Unfortunately 2 had to walk back home as they weren't riding the bus today. So sad and so sweet!!

The First Day of school

Hard to believe we now have 3 children who are school age. Tate didn't get to have a "normal" day at Kindergarten today - we just went to visit his classroom and meet his teacher. He will ride the bus tomorrow - he has waited years for this moment so he is EXCITED! I am anticipating a huge tantrum from the 2 year old in our house as she is convinced she is getting on the bus tomorrow with the other 3. Mega coffee will be needed early to navigate the crisis!

Powerful video on Mission

John Piper narrates this powerful video. May it challenge you and may you see mission in a new light.

Exploring Christianity.

Last night we launched our in a 10 week series of Christianity Explored. We gathered a few people together at a local establishment on Main Street for a discussion of the claims of Christ in Mark's Gospel. We had a few technical problems but nothing that wasn't overcome and a great conversation. If last night was anything to go by, I am sure it will be a charged but fruitful time.

Comrades in Battle

This is a post earlier this month from a friend Tim Chester.

"Earlier this year we commemorated the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Normandy landings. One of the striking things, listening to the stories of those involved, was how they looked back on those times with such fondness. Although they faced the horrors of battle, the experience of comradeship and purpose was so intense that those months were the highlight of their lives. Though they involved just a small proportion of their lifetime, those events had defined their lives. They always were veterans of the Normandy campaign.

Today I came across this quote from 1465 from a French Knight called Jean de Brueil. It’s cited in Michael Frost’s book Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Hendrickson/Strand, 2006, 117-118 ). De Brueil wrote:



Battle is a joyous thing. We love each other so much in battle. If we see that our cause is just and our kinsmen fight boldly, tears come to our eyes. A sweet joy rises in our hearts, in the feeling of our honest loyalty to each other; and seeing our friend so bravely exposing his body to danger in order to fulfill the commandment of our Creator, we resolve to go forward and die or live with him on account of love. This brings such delight that anyone who has not felt it cannot say how wonderful it is. Do you think someone who feels this is afraid of death? Not in the least! He is so strengthened, so delighted, that he does not know where he is. Truly, he fears nothing in the world.

I think this represents an important dynamic that we need to capture in the church if we are to evangelize and disciple men – a sense of comradeship, of common purpose of battling together."

If we are fulfilling the commandments of our Creator shouldn't we feel this same strength and delight such that fear of death itself shall be over come.