From Jonathan Dodson of Austin City Life. This is great advice to work through at Grace Ann Arbor and beyond.

• Don’t forget to ask the pagans! If you are fundraising, remember that God used the pagan king Cyrus to fund the rebuilding of an entire city. He can definitely handle your church planting needs. Most pagans know more about your city than you do, and some of them love it more than you.
• Spend more time with people and less time with books in the first year of church planting. Learn your city, know its lostness, love your city, re-learn how to share the gospel in your context. Fall in love with your target people. The more you know and love them, the better your witness to the gospel will be, including your preaching.
• Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Gospel in your Context. Don’t do this from the armchair, do it from anecdotes (conversations) and cultural exegesis (spending time in pockets of resistance or indifference).
• Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Church in your Context. Anecdotes and exegesis. Learn the history of hypocrisy in your city or town so that you can apologize and distance yourself from mockeries of the Church. What do people think of when they think “church”?  Have they ever gone to one? Why did they stop?
• Don’t spend ungodly amounts of money or time on developing your first website. It will all change anyway, several times. You should be with people, not websites and blogs (!). Here are two good, inexpensive web solutions for early stage church planting: Church Root & Clover Sites.

From SojournKids.com, children’s ministry at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY where I will, Lord Willing, get assessed for the Acts 29 Network in the fall.

Father’s Day Sojourn Kids Music by Bill Bell

Male singer and guitarist: “Hi, I’m Mr. (First name)”

Female singer: “I’m Ms. (First name)”

Guitarist/other instrumentalist: “I’m Mr. (First name)”

Male Singer/Guitarist: Does anyone know what holiday we celebrate this month?  That’s right, Father’s Day.  Father’s Day is a day that our whole country celebrates daddies.  Dads are the ones who protect their families and care for them in hard times.  When you fall and scrape your knee, it might be your daddy who picks you up and holds you while you cry.  Can you tell of other times where your daddy cared for you in hard or painful times? (take 2 or 3 stories)  Well, God the Father is like that, but even more so.  He cares for us perfectly and is always there when things are good or bad.  This song tells about this Father, who cares for all his children every moment of every day.

1. “Sovereign One” Words and Music by Zach Jones (c) 2004 Sovereign Grace Music

Female Singer: Do you all know the ultimate way that God showed his love for us?  By sending his Son to die for us.  “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were sinners Christ died for us.”  God the Father did something really loving when he sent his Son to die for sinners like you and me.  And by doing this, he invites sinners to call him Father for all of eternity—that’s a long time!  Let’s sing this song to help us remember: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were sinners Christ died for us.”

2. “Romans 5:8 (NIV) Scripture Memory Song,” Music by Mark Altrogge
As Recored on “A Ransom For Many,” Hide The Word, Volume 2 © Forever Grateful Music

Male Singer/Guitarist: Some of you may have daddies that you see every day.  Some of you don’t have a daddy who’s around very much.  Some of you may not have a daddy at all.  Whether your dad is around a lot or not, no dad is perfect because every dad is a sinner just like I am and just like you are.  Because we all sin, we fail not only to love each other perfectly, but also to love God perfectly.  When we or daddies or mommies or whoever should show love all the time, we fail and show anger or meanness or rudeness or disrespect.  But God the Father has a love that is unending.  For those that believe in him, he never turns his back, never fails, never leaves, never lets go.  His love lasts forever.

3. “Your Love” Words and music by Bob Kauflin (c) 2004 Sovereign Grace Praise

Guitarist or other instrumentalist: We are going to pray. . . fold your hands and be still and talk to God. Let’s pray.

Thank you, God, for sending your Son to die on the cross so that all who believe in you can call you our heavenly Father.  And thank you for letting us see what your love and care is like through our daddies here on earth.  Help us to honor our fathers. Please show special grace to our dads as they love us.  Help them to trust in Jesus alone for salvation and hope. God, help our dads to teach us about you every day.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

4.  “His Love Will Last Forever,” Words and Music by Chandi Plummer
© 2009 Chandi Plummer/Sojourn Music

Another helpful post from Mike Gilbert-Smith

We are having a useful ongoing conversation with our elders on the last of those: how to fence the table at communion. There was an earlier discussion on this blog with useful comments.

One resource I’ve found helpful in recommending to our elders to read came out of a Sovereign Grace church plant and is very useful.

It, in turn, provides the following further reading list

• Dennis Gunderson, Your Child’s Profession of Faith. Amityville, N.Y., Calvary Press, 1994.
• “Childhood Conversion” by Jim Elliff
• Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology. Leicester, England, InterVarsity Press, 1994. On baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
• “Why Can’t I Have a Snack Like Everyone Else?” by David Michael
• Donald Whitney, How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? Colorado Springs, NavPress, 1994.
• John T. McNeill, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapters 14, 15 & 17. Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1960

As presented by D. A. Carson via Colin Adams via Andy Naselli

Introduction

I have visited many parts of the world in which the challenges to the 21st-century pulpit look rather different. So part of the purpose of the rest of this essay is modest: to stimulate thinking that will help others flesh out this list and modify it for different cultural locations.

Six challenges that DAC fleshes out

1. Multiculturalism
2. Rising Biblical Illiteracy
3. Shifting Epistemology
4. Integration
5. Pace of Change
6. Modeling and Mentoring

Concluding Reflections

Preachers cannot responsibly ignore these things, for they stand between the speaking God and the listening people—people who are not empty ciphers but culturally located men and women who must be addressed where they are, even if our hope and prayer is that they will not remain where they are, but begin by God’s grace the march down the King’s highway, the narrow road that leads to life.

Our motivation to understand and address people in the 21st century is not to domesticate the gospel by constant appeal to cultural analysis, but to prove effective ambassadors of the Sovereign whose Word we announce. For one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15). It is precisely because we are anchored in eternity that we are so utterly resolved, like Paul, to address lost men and women who must one day meet their God.

From Jared Kennedy at SojournKids.com

At Sojourn, our dedication service is a time we set aside to celebrate the children that God has given us.  Member families from our church community come to go public with their desire to bring up new children by God’s grace and according to his instructions.

Our service is simply called a Dedication. Some churches think about it as a baby dedication, but it is better called a Parent Dedication. This is not a water baptism, but it is a heavy thing–serious business for the parents involved. The dedication is a covenant–a holy commitment made between the parents, God, and our church community. It is serious business for our church as well. We don’t believe that God made children the responsibility of the nuclear family in isolation. Church and home are co-champions of God’s ways for our kids. Every member of Sojourn is responsible for these kids. We need each other. These parents need our encouragement, accountability, and our prayers. These kids need our love, nurture, and our gospel examples.

In the service itself, we call for the following committments from our parents and our church membership:

The Parent’s Commitment

Parents, do you profess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and affirm the promises of God made to you and your children in his Word.  If so say  “We do.”

Will you promise to God and this church community to live gospel-changed lives before your children?  Will you promise to discipline them and show them grace?  Will you instruct them by word and example in the truth of God’s Word and in the way of salvation through Jesus Christ?  Will you promise to pray for them and teach them to pray?  Will you promise to nurture them within the body of believers to the end that they become citizens in Christ’s kingdom?  If so, say, “We will with God’s help.”

The Church’s Commitment:

Sojourn, will you promise in the presence of God and one another to live gospel-changed lives before these children and to pray that they will in turn be changed by the gospel?  Will you love and pray for these children—encouraging them and helping to nurture them in the faith?  Will you assist these parents in fulfilling their biblical responsibilities, hold them accountable by confronting sin, pray for them, and spur them on toward love and good deeds?  If so, please read the following:

With joy and thanksgiving,
As Christ’s church,
With God’s help,
We promise to love, encourage, and support you
As you follow Christ and parent your children.

We have parents write up a paragraph about their child for the ceremony, which we publish in a keepsake booklet. You can check out the complete dedication booklet for our April 2009 service here.

This coming Fall, we hope to offer a two-week “foundations” class on Wednesday nights that introduces our parents to the covenant commitment they are making at the baby dedication, introduces our philosophy of student and family ministry, and teaches some basic parenting principles for  parents of newborns.  This class will be an experiement for us.  We got the idea from Kingsland Baptist Church’s (Katy, TX) “legacy milestones” philosophy, and we will be adapting some material from Bethlehem Baptist Church’s (Minneapolis, MN) “foundation builders” classes.  Maybe I’ll report back later with regard to how it goes.

Amazingly thorough collection maintained by Andy Naselli, Carson’s full-time research assistant.

Tony Reinke’s 15 Tools for Exegetical Research

1. Commentaries. What commentaries are available on my passage? I’ll begin with the most obvious. If you are a pastor you should have several biblical commentaries at hand. Technical exegetical commentaries are a great resource to better understand the original languages. Expositional and devotional commentaries will also help out. For example, on the epistle to the Ephesians I would consult Peter O’Brien (exegetical), Martyn Lloyd-Jones (expositional), and John Stott (devotional). BestCommentaries is an excellent website to find the best commentaries.
2. Grammar and syntax. What grammatical and syntactical particularities exist in my passage? I have just enough Greek to find my way around the more technical NT commentaries. But I have also discovered that Greek textbooks can provide a lot of help when studying a particular passage. Daniel Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics references thousands of NT passages, pointing to a host of grammatical anomalies that I might otherwise overlook.
3. Biblical theology. Where along the continuum of God’s unfolding plan of redemption does my passage sit? Very often in exegetical preparation I consult the scriptural indexes to the works of Geerhardus Vos, and especially his classic work Biblical Theology. Vos will help you see the development of Scripture. It’s rarely possible to understand a text of scripture without first understanding where it fits in the biblical storyline. This is the work of biblical theology.
4. Systematic theology. Does this passage play an important role in defining a particular doctrine? Consult the scriptural index in Calvin’s Institutes, Wayne Grudem, John Murray,Herman Bavinck, Concise Reformed Dogmatics, John Frame’s The Doctrine of God and The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. Every couple of months or so I watch this video by Dr Derek Thomas to be reminded that when systematic theology is done well, you can preach it. Keep one eye on systematic theology as you study scripture verse by verse, and you may be surprised at how much doctrinal ground you can cover from the pulpit.
5. Creeds. Does my passage supply the biblical support for a particular doctrine defined and defended in the classic reformed confessions? Here I will consult the scriptural index of Reformed Confessions Harmonized by Beeke and Ferguson. I am surprised at the tonnage of biblical references underpinning the reformed confessions. Identify how your text has been used in church history. This discovery may shed light on the historical importance of your text, or open up new topical avenues for further study.
6. Apologetics. Does my passage help defend the Christian faith or the Church’s engagement of a fallen world? In seeking to engage non-Christian thought with scripture, it is useful to know which passages are most helpful in the dialogues and discussions. When studying a passage take a look at the scriptural index in books by guys like Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bahnsen, and Scott Oliphint and check if your text has been used and how.
7. Biblical counseling. Does this passage play an important role in any of my biblical counseling resources? Consult the scriptural index in CCEF books along with an electronic search of the CD-Rom version of The Journal of Biblical Counseling 1977-2005. In my research I heavily weigh any references to my text in solid biblical counseling resources. Guys like Powlison, Paul and Tedd Tripp, and Jay Adams will hold your hand and help you understand certain texts in light of marriage, parenting, specific sin struggles, and idols of the heart.
8. Ethics. Does this passage play a role in the study of biblical ethics? Consult the index in Joachim Douma, John Frame’s Doctrine of the Christian Life, and John Murray’s Principles of Conduct. What contemporary ethical issues does this passage address? Euthanasia, abortion, stem cell research, divorce, capitol punishment, pornography, corporate greed, etc.
9. Spurgeon. What did Spurgeon say about this text? While Spurgeon is no model of careful exegesis, he is wise, applicable, cross-centered, and quotable. You can find a list of his sermons arranged by biblical text here. And you can buy the complete works of Spurgeon on CD-Rom for about $20. Apart from flowers for your wife, there is no better reason to slap down an Andrew Jackson.
10. The Puritans. Have any of the primary Puritan authors preached on this passage? Consult Robert P. Martin’s A Guide to the Puritans and the PCA website of Puritan resources. Because of their trusted exegetical integrity, and because their complete works include a detailed scriptural index, I will individually consult the Works of John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and Thomas Manton. I consult about a dozen Puritans, a list of which can be found in my Puritan Study series I developed a while back.
11. Jonathan Edwards. Where has Edwards developed my text in his theology, books, and sermons? The new Works of Edwards Online website produced by Yale make a search of scriptural references a breeze (note the “Scripture Lookup” feature). And the resource is completely free. Try it for yourself.
12. Single-topic books. Is my text referenced in a topical book or monograph in my library? Here is where flipping through the scriptural index in any number of topical books will come in handy. Flip through the index in books by J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, D.A. Carson, John Piper, John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges, John Stott, etc. I think Knowing God by J.I. Packer could be quoted in half of all the sermons you could preach. Collect 10-30 topical books you really appreciate and use them in researching a particular text.
13. Audio messages. Are audio messages available from respected preachers on my text? A wonderful, but often-untapped resource for exegetical research, are the thousands of free MP3 audio files available online. The Gospel Coalition has a wonderful collection of sermons all organized by scripture reference. As you are likely aware men like John MacArthur and John Piper have produced a wealth of sermons that are easy to locate. Occasionally you will find some gems at SermonAudio or Monergism.
14. Christian classics. What did Augustine or Chrysostom say about my text? Check out the Christian Classics Ethereal Library website. You can run a nifty little scriptural passage search of all their resources here. Always worth a look.
15. Google. For fun, throw a “hail Mary” and run a search string on your particular passage. You will not always find exegetical gems—but sometimes you will. Google search your text, say, “John 1:1-18” and see what you find. Also try the same search string in Google Books. It’s impossible to know what you will find—or if what you find will be worthy of your time to read—but it’s worth a shot.

Andy Naselli posted about the master Scripture index that he created for the New Studies in Biblical Theology series edited by D. A. Carson. It’s an amazing resource. Wow.

Wise words from Michael McKinley, who replanted Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, VA, via the 9Marks Blog. As I also am not Spurgeon, and am seeking to plant a church, this advice is of great value.

1. Preach God’s word — It really is as powerful and effective as it says it is.  I knew this intellectually and theologically, but now I know it experientially.  As a church planter there are temptations to  spend your time doing all other kinds of things (publicity, planning, etc), but your #1 priority is preaching the word.  As a sending church, you can set this expectation up front with your church planter.  Don’t put pressure on him (and help him not to pressure himself!) to do other things.
2. Mission — The point of planting a church is the extension of the gospel in the world (and with it, God’s glory).  We don’t need more institutional churches, America is littered with them.  What we need more gospel witnesses.  And so the goal of church planting is mission, not programs.  Tim Chester put words to my experience in this talk.  God is the great missions director.  So we didn’t have a particular strategy for mission in Loudoun County; we’ve simply prayed and began to do a few things and then walked through the doors that God has opened for us.  And he has been faithful.
3. Take Care of Your Family — Everyone will love you for killing yourself for them.  No one will applaud you for taking care of your wife.  Beware your heart.  A sending church can help with accountability and connection so that the planter isn’t out there alone.
4. Develop Leaders — With all of the outreach and assimilation work to be done, it can be easy to forget to take time to develop leaders.  But if the church grows, you’ll need them.  A sending church can make this process easier by sending leaders with the planter.
5. Stay Patient and Realistic — Too many guys beat themselves up over the fact that growth seems to happen slowly.  Be realistic!  You’re not Spurgeon, and that’s OK.  The best case scenario for 99% of us is that we are faithful to the gospel, God in his kindness lets us see some real and enduring fruit from our labors, and we don’t do anything that disgraces the gospel.  That’s a win.

From Jared Kennedy at SojournKids.com

Here are some bullets from Steve Wright of InQuest Ministries and Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC.  What do you think?

• Ministry that seeks to make Christ above all else beautiful and that declares an uncompromising Gospel to those who do not know Christ (Galatians 1:6-9).
• Ministry that is measured by lasting disciples rather than attendance campaigns and focuses on the glory of our matchless Savior (John 15:1-15).
• Ministry that truly partners with parents and seeks as a priority the task of resourcing, training, and involving parents as the primary disciplers of their children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
• Ministry that prioritizes and champions equally the two institutions that are God-given: the Family and the Church (Acts 2:42-47).
• Ministry that seeks men who are biblically qualified pastors rather than charming activity directors (1 Timothy 3:1-7).
• A ministry environment that is healthy for a student pastor and his family; an environment where pastors will desire to stay long past today’s destructive low tenures (Matthew 10:10).
• Ministry that seeks to mentor students for adulthood, marriage, and family rather than seeking to develop lifelong youth group attendees (1 Corinthians 13:11).
• Ministry that invites, expects and teaches the biblical responsibility of older generations to invest in those younger in the faith (2 Timothy 2:2).

All I can say is Amen.