Make All Things New

Tim Keller – Preaching the Gospel from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Tim Keller – The City from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Tim Keller – Cultural Transformation from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

If you like Keller, be sure to read his book “The Prodigal God”… awesome!

One of the first books I was assigned to read for LAMPhilly training is Edmund Clowney’s Called to the Ministry In God’s sovereignty, I had heard some of these same principles a couple of years ago from Tim Keller (a student of Clowney’s). I am so thankful to find this small book and I commend it to you.

You can read some of the great quotes from the book over at Justin Buzzard’s blog and I am posting my short book report to encourage you to read Clowney!

Called to the Ministry
by Edmund Clowney
P & R Publishing (1964)

“What is Christ calling you to do?” This is the opening question in this small but immensely helpful book by Edmund Clowney. Does God still call people to ministry the same way he did in biblical times? Clowney systematically addresses these (and many other questions) with biblically based answers. In order to answer the opening question, Clowney writes, “We must first consider the Lord’s calling of every Christian, then we should examine what the New Testament says about the calling of the minister of the gospel.” (p. V)
According to Clowney, the first part of understanding God’s calling in one’s life is to be called a child of God. No one can be called to gospel ministry unless he is first called into relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Once called into fellowship with God through Christ, the Christian is called to follow Christ into service. Gospel ministry is a call for Christian to serve. An interesting paradox is now found. “The ‘Come!’ of Christ separates us from the world to his name; the ‘Go!’ of Christ sends us into the world in his name.” (p. 18) But how, specifically, is a Christian to put Christ on display through service? “[T]he calling of an individual in the church of Christ is determined by the gifts Christ has given him, by the ‘measure’ of the Spirit he has received.” (p. 27) That is, the Christian is supernaturally-equipped to for specific service within the church and within the world.
The second portion of this book focuses specifically on the calling to ministry. Clowney describes this calling as specific to the gifting given. Summed up, “The call of the Word of God to the gospel ministry comes to ALL those who have the gifts for such ministry.” (p. 79) These gifts are given to the individual by Christ for the purpose of building his church. The work is of Christ and for Christ from start to finish.
This book serves as more than just an excellent primer for anyone wrestling with a sense of calling into gospel ministry. I say “more than” because while Clowney’s book is brief in length, it is vast in its depth of wisdom. This wisdom comes from his focus on Jesus and the scriptures for the basis of his arguments. I found his arguments excellent and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
The way Clowney helped me to understand the calling to ministry was extremely helpful to me. Specifically, understanding that there are basically three aspects of calling to gospel ministry and it is not just some internal feeling you get (while that can be part of it). Calling to gospel ministry consists of an internal call, what I might term a “burden” for sharing the gospel. Another aspect would be the affirmation of the gifting for gospel ministry by leaders in your local church (who know you well). And finally, the circumstances or opportunities to test and grow the gifting you have.
These specific points have helped to confirm my calling to gospel ministry for the sake of Christ’s glorious name!

Keller spoke at a church planting conference called Urban Plant-life in late November. This stuff looks good!

1. Contextual Mission
2. Church and Culture
3. Gospel Renewal

(HT: Steve McCoy)

I read this from Tim Keller’s new book, The Prodigal God, this morning:

“What must we do, then, to be saved?  To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do, you may remain just an elder brother. To truly become a Christian we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too. We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness – the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord.  We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things.”  – Timothy Keller The Prodigal God (Dutton Books 2008) pp 77-78

Oh how often I do good things for wrong reasons! Father forgive me for my own self-salvation project and lead me into a deeper understanding of the gospel. Teach me that my record will never be good enough but that Christ’s record is perfect. And his record is mine, not through my earning it with good deeds but through faith given to me by you. Let that awe and amaze me daily, as it often doesn’t enough. And from that amazement and love, let good works flow in hopes of magnifying the beauty of Christ. Amen.

Amazon says they are shipping it on Nov. 3 but Westminster seems to have it available now.  What gives?

The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller is coming out in October. I pre-order my copy already (yeah, I am sick).

Worth reading is Alex Chediak’s interview with Keller regarding the forth coming book.