Eight Things I’m Pretty Stoked About
There's lots going on these days. It's keeping me too busy to write much of substance lately. But, here's a little glimpse into a few of the things that have got me pretty excited right now (in no particular order).
- The Lord keeps adding to our number. We ran out of chairs again yesterday in our Sunday morning service. I'll need to ask the school to begin to set more out for us. Several people have indicated that they're interested in becoming members and sticking around. How encouraging!
- We've had some pretty awesome visitors lately. Over the past two weeks we've been blessed to fellowship with saints from sister churches in Toronto, as well as those who've travelled from Saskatchewan, BC, and England.
- It's been such a blessing to witness the prayerfulness and enthusiasm of Paul McDonald as he begins his ministry at GFC. It's contagious and I can't wait to see how God is going to use Paul in our midst.
- I'm excited to begin our evening series on the spiritual disciplines. I anticipate it will be a special time in the life of our church as we learn to pursue God even more earnestly.
- I'm really looking forward to our new small groups starting up in just a few weeks. Those are always used of God to do great things in the life of our church.
- I haven't preached the past two Sundays. It has been a blessed break and I'm thankful for it -- but man, I'm excited to get back into the pulpit! Especially since I've been studying 1 Peter for a while now. I'm praying that the ministry in this next series will be out of the overflow of all that God's doing in my heart as I prepare for it.
- I'm playing hockey again this winter for the first time in a while. Man oh man, I've missed it. I just hope I don't stink as bad as I'm anticipating I will. I'm pretty excited to have some guys from church joining me on the team this year as well. We're hoping God opens some good doors for evangelism.
- We are starting a new Fighter Verse schedule this week. For the first time we're trying to match our memory verses with the teaching schedule in such a way that our memorization will help each week by reminding us of what we've just heard on Sunday and what we've been learning together. I'm excited to give it a try and see how it works!
The Sufficiency & Centrality of the Gospel
Looking Back
Looking back over the last few years of my life, there has been really only one significant doctrinal change so far as I can see. And even that doctrinal change hasn't been a change of mind so much as a change of priority.
The biggest change in my theological worldview has been an increasing awareness of the expansiveness of the gospel and its ultimate sufficiency. But rather than reflecting here on being gospel-centred (there are lots of other places you can read about that), I thought I would simply identify a few of the key events God has used to help me realize the ongoing significance and relevance of the gospel for all of life.
1. The Toronto Pastors Conference 2010
The keynote messages preach by Mike Bullmore were especially used of God to help me see the sufficiency of the gospel for all of life.
- Download all the messages here for free (video & audio)
2. Preaching through 1 Timothy
Preaching through the book of 1 Timothy taught me to see just how 'gospel-centred' the apostle Paul was in his approach to pastoring. Throughout the book he insists that Timothy protect the right doctrine of the gospel of Jesus because it alone is what changes lives. No matter what pastoral problems the Ephesian church was facing, Timothy's charge was one and the same: protect the gospel, because that's why the church is there, that's what saves sinners and teaches them how to live in a way that is pleasing to God.
- Here is a post I wrote when I was studying to preach the book on 'the answer to everything'
- Here is the series of sermons I preached on 1 Timothy
3. Sitting Under the Faithful Preaching of a Faithful Preacher
One of the incalculable blessings of being in a church where more than one pastor preaches is the blessing of sitting under the ministry of another man as he teaches the word. For the 13 years or so before planting GFC I sat under the ministry of Pastor Paul Martin. While there are many things which mark his ministry, none is more prominent in my view than this: he is a man faithful to preach the word. What the word says, he says. The effect of sitting under that week-by-week, month-by-month, year-by-year can only be known in eternity. But over the last few years in particular, I have been profoundly affected by the bigness and the omnipracticality of the gospel as Paul preaches. I hope, by God's grace, to be able to replicate that for our people in our church plant.
- Check out Paul's messages online
- If you're looking for a good church on the west side of Toronto, you'll want to check out Grace Fellowship Church (Rexdale)
Looking Forward
I pray that this trajectory of growth in understanding the gospel in new and dynamic ways through all of Scripture will continue. I also pray that my ministry will continue to grow, like the apostle Paul's, to be one that is rooted and grounded in the gospel. The truth of the good news of what God has done for us in Christ must be the guiding principle for all my decisions, words, and actions as a pastor.
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** This is written as part of the series 30 for 30: Reflections on Life at My 30th Birthday **
The Primacy of Preaching
Yesterday I was blessed to be able to spend some time with some friends listening to a series of lectures by Don Carson on the Primacy of Expository Preaching. There was much to challenge me--and the others too, I trust.
Before teaching on the primacy of expository preaching, DAC taught for a while on the importance that the Bible (especially the New Testament) places on preaching. Sometimes I think that people think of preaching as something that we can take or leave. We treat it like it's a product of modernity and may well have seen it's last days of usefulness.
The New Testament has another view, however. DAC roots the priority of the spoken word in the nature of God--the fact that he is a God who speaks, and that is his nature. But then he listed a whole list of texts worth looking up and meditating on (in their respective contexts) which clearly show the New Testament's emphasis on preaching.
Since I wanted to do the work of looking the texts up anyway, I thought that I may as well make the list available to you as well. You can view all the texts by simply clicking here. Here is a great reminder that the priority we give to preaching is not cultural but biblical. It is good to be reminded of even the basics from time-to-time.
It's easy to see why reading and meditating on such a list would be important for a preacher or a pastor like myself. My question, though, is this: What does the average church member stand to gain from thinking about the biblical priority of preaching? How would it / could it affect you and your mindset as you go to church or serve in your church?
Full ’26 Questions’ Series Now Available
Last Autumn at GFC we embarked on a journey. We endeavoured to ask and answer 26 of the most crucial questions that Christians should be asking--and should know the answers to. Basically, it was a sneaky (read: not boring) way to teach our people sytematic theology.
We taught this series on Sunday evenings, with various men from our church leadership and mentoring program teaching each week. Each week we were given a handout outlining the question that would be answered that week. Those outlines have now been put into a single booklet, which you can download below.
It's a 61 page systematic theology. It's simple, it's short, we believe it's accurate, and it's as comprehensive as we could be for a short series on Sunday evenings. Best of all, it's free. If you're looking for materials for introduction to the Christian faith or something similar, this could be very helpful.
Our 26 questions cover everything from Creation to the end of the world, even to eternity future. You can even click here to view and download the audio messages from the series so you can listen and read along with the notes. Click the image to download the booklet itself.
Here's a listing of the 26 Questions that you should be asking (and we attempt to answer):
- How Can I Know What is True?
- Who is God?
- How Many Gods are There?
- Where Did the World Come From?
- Does Prayer Matter?
- Are There Other Spiritual Beings?
- Why Did God Create Us? What is Our Purpose?
- Who is In Control Here?
- Is There a Difference Between Men & Women?
- What is Sin and What Difference Does it Make?
- Who is Jesus?
- Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
- Where is Jesus Now?
- What is the Gospel?
- What Does it Mean to Be Born Again?
- What is Justification?
- What is Sanctification?
- Will I Make It?
- Who Is the Holy Spirit?
- What is the Church?
- What is Baptism?
- What is the Lord’s Supper?
- Where Do I Fit in the Church?
- What Will Happen at the End of Time?
- What Happens When I Die?
- What is the ‘After-Life’?
TPF 2008-2009: Free Download of All the Sermons for Pastors
The Toronto Pastors Fellowship has come to a close for another season, and the Toronto Pastors Conference is just about to get rolling!
While the TPF page has a media library where you can download all the free sermons and papers for pastors, it can at times be cumbersome to have to download so many files. So I thought I'd put them all in one place for you.
Now, just download the zip file below, open it up and you've got MP3 files of all the messages + the Q&A sessions, all the PDFs of the papers, and all the PDF files of all the book reviews that were distributed this year. All in all, it's a phenomenal resource.
With messages from men like Dr Michael Haykin, Dr Pierre Constant, Dr Darryl Dash, Pastors Tim Kerr, Carl Muller, Stephen Kring, and Paul Martin, and über-blogger extraordinaire, Tim Challies, this is great link to pass along to any pastor friends you may have.
Enjoy!
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