A La Carte (10/20)

I’m doing a one-day trip to Grand Rapids on Friday in order to spend some time with the good people at Zondervan. Since I’ll be Grand Rapids through the evening, I figured I’d drop in at the Young & Reformed [2] conference where Kevin DeYoung and Mike Wittmer will be speaking. Is anyone else planning on being there?

Receiving the Baton [3] - Bob Kauflin has penned a really good article for Tabletalk. He sees that he is running the final laps of his race here on earth and this has made him start thinking about passing the baton. He writes, “Last year I gave a message on transferring ministry responsibility to the next generation. In my preparation, I came across some principles for passing the baton in a relay race that are surprisingly relevant for young leaders.”

Getting Songs to Band Members [4] - Speaking of Bob, he’s also answering a question at his blog, and an important one since so many people skirt the law in this area. He’s simply telling how a worship leader can share new songs with his band members in a way that is fully legal.

Sexual Detox: A Review [5] - Here is a kind review of my book Sexual Detox. He concludes “I commend Sexual Detox to you and the Christian men in your life.  Add it to your arsenal in your fight against the power of porn.”

The Darkest Experience [6] - Randy Alcorn tells about the most difficult experience of his life. “I would have to say that the most difficult experience I've ever had came out of the time in 1989 and 1990 when I was involved in civil disobedience at abortion clinics. I was arrested seven times at nine different prolife interventions--we called them rescues--intervening for unborn children. They were peaceful and non-violent, and we were not raising our voices or yelling at women, and certainly not using inappropriate language.”

Will Physical Books Be Gone in 5 Years? [7] - That’s a question CNN asks. I think it’s near-impossible that they’ll be gone in 5 years, but it may well be that by then the pendulum has swung in favor of the e-book and the dominance of print will be coming to an end.

1 Timothy 6:4 and Blogging [8] - Dane Ortlund has a really good post here looking at blogging and craving controversy. “At the end of a long day one guy looks at porn, another blasts away the emergents or traditionalists or Arminians or Calvinists or cultural transformationists or two-kingdom people or multi-site advocates or single-service advocates or gospel tweeters or gospel tweet avoiders or presuppositionalists or evidentialists or charismatics or cessationists or 24-hour day creationists or framework folks or ESV-ers or NIV-ers… . Is not the dynamic of the heart, at root, the same?”

10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me [9] - Brady Boyd offers a few lessons he’s learned through ministry.

The Known Universe - This is a great video (despite a bit of big bang kind of talk) that gives a glimpse of what we know about the universe. The heavens truly do declare the glory of God. And if they don’t do that, then they have no real purpose, do they?

Let me always remember that it is not the amount of religious knowledge which I have, but the amount which I use, that determines my religious position and character. —Alexander Maclaren