Merold Westphal Lectures for free download

This appears to be a class on Philosophical Hermeneutics (PH517) at Fuller Seminary taught by none-other than Dr. Merold Westphal. Dr. Westphal is not someone with whom I agree, but he is someone I am lucky to get a chance to listen to and learn from. I would encourage you all to download these lectures, because I have no idea how long they'll be up. It appears a student recorded the lectures with his personal recorder and then put the syllabus and lectures up on his blog.

Just found this over at the AOmin blog. This is a paper presented to Presbyterian students over at Westminster Seminary on how reformed baptists can still hold covenant theology.

TREN Database

TREN.com is the Theological Research Exchange Network, which, in practical terms, means it's a place for you to get (theological...duh) master's theses and doctoral dissertations. After you sign up, you'll even find some free resources. The interface is a bit clunky, but it works.

There are a couple of benefits of going to a place like TREN when you need to read that unpublished paper. 1) It's easier to deal with a website than it is to deal with the individual university library, 2) you might get lucky and find they have already scanned it, which means you can start reading it right away.

They are a bit more expensive than I would like, but hey, I'm not aware of any other options. To get a paper copy it's $0.15 per page, microfiche $3-5 per document, and pdf costs vary.

I'm not entirely sure what I would do with microfiche anymore...

For the City: Book Review

I am not a church planter. I am not an elder of a church. I believe this should be said at the outset, lest anyone give my opinion more credit than it deserves. However, I do have a teaching ministry at my church, and the joy and heartache of shepherding a small group of people. All of that to say: I was really excited to read this book and see how I could grow or change to further impact the people I am currently leading.

Darrin Patrick and Matt Carter wrote For the City which reads like an introduction to missional ecclesiology. They drive the point home over and over that they are calling for pastors and church planters to be a church that is for their city. They define this as being a church that

speaks the truth of the gospel and is not afraid to uphold a biblical worldview and moral standard. Such a church proclaims the truths of Scripture with passion, clarity, and boldness. At the same time, though, this is a church that commits itself to seeking the shalom, the flourishing of the city. This means seeking the shalom of the people they live in community with, living sacrificially and using their gifts, time, and money to seek the peace and prosperity of their neighbors. (26)

Their passion for the masses found in cities is understandable, laudable, and frankly should be on our hearts more and more, but to actually be in a city is not necessary to appropriate and grow from what they have written in this book (as they acknowledge, cf., 26). Anyone, in any church context can be challenged by what this.

These pastors are pleading for Christians to stop seeing their church as a “holy huddle” and instead to be entranced with the God-given mission of reaching the lost and seeing God's peace and grace overflow to those around them. We are called to do the same job that the prophets and the apostles did, call people to repent and live their lives under the rule of their king. If you are swept away by this vision, this will not be the only book you read. It was not meant to be. But if you believe there must be something more than a stale, inward focus for your church, then I think there are few places that would be as good as a place to start.

The chapter I appreciated most was written by Darrin Patrick on communities. As a small group leader, I know how easy it is to make the bible study the end-all and be-all of your small group event. But most leaders who develop small groups would say there is more to it than that. We all know that a small group is made to be an opportunity for people to practice the “one anothers” actually with one another. Patrick challenges us to see these groups as possible church plants that are radically oriented towards the radical proclamation of the gospel to a lost world. He argues that it is precisely when we stop focusing on ourselves and begin to focus on helping a lost and hurting world that we will actually begin to do the one anothers that we've been trying to do. It is only when we as Christians are brought to the “end” of ourselves that we begin relying on God and he most powerfully works through us.

The one thing I wish they would have spent more time on is how they see the role of partnerships with groups that do not believe the gospel. I'm not against that completely, but to see how the gospel is the one unifying factor in this whole book (as it should be) and to understand what it means to go from dead to alive in Christ, to know that everything else pales by comparison, how are we to understand partnering with groups that do not hold the gospel? The chapter on Equipping touches on this and other “sticky” spots as they seek the well-being of their cities. What is clear is that those partnerships were not taken lightly and without much thought, but I was still left unsure how I would make those same decisions.

This book will challenge you to question your interaction with your city and how you view the role of your church. You might not be left without questions, but you will certainly be blessed by how God has revealed his heart to bring people to himself as seen in these two churches. 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Reformation Day Media

This is a little inane, but why not?

You can enjoy the movie Luther this reformation with your friends. Just don't forget the Diet of Worms chip dip!

Monergism.com and Free eBooks

There are quite a few places I troll to find free (and good) resources. One of them is monergism.com, a great reformed site (and don't forget the bookstore). They have a bunch of amazing theology resources, including an extensive mp3 archive full of some incredible teaching. If you are going on a long car ride, I heartily suggest downloading a longer-than-necessary playlist and let the miles just fly by.

They also have a bunch of free ebooks in both .mobi and .epub formats. Authors range from Augustine to Van Til. Their bookstore has more ebooks, the most beneficial of which are the massive omnibus editions that compile everything you ought to know about ________. These can range from heady topics like Justification to more general things like Calvinism. Because there are typically about 8-12 full length books in each omnibus, they do charge a bit for them, but to have all of those resources together is worth a few bucks.

Keller on Preaching

Here are the various distillations of Tim Keller's series on preaching called Preaching to the Heart.

Most familiar with Keller on this topic will think of the 6 part series he gave at Gordon-Conwell. GC only sells CD's, so if you are interested in listening to them, you'll have to wait for them to ship it (not to mention having to pay for it *gasp*). Luke Simmons, a church planter in the Phoenix area says they are so good they would be worth 10x the cost (currently $25). Another church planter, Pete Williamson, agrees that paying for them in a world of free messages is still worth it.

For those not willing to spend money, there is a shorter, two-message version available for free. If that littler series whets your appetite, then I've been told that all of these messages are based on the D.Min class, Preaching Christ in a Post-Modern World, that Keller taught with Edmund Clowney, over at Covenant. Here is the 189pg syllabus for the class

***Update***
It appears the syllabus is actually for a class Keller taught at RTS and not at Covenant. While I'm sure there will be much in over-lapping content, the syllabus may not match up with the lectures exactly..

***Update 2***
I found a source required by Keller on page 12 of the syllabus: Keller, Tim; "Preaching to the Secular Mind" The Journal of Biblical Counseling 14:1 (Fall 1995), 54-62.