On our way...

Our family is on our way to Seattle! We spent the night in Grants Pass, OR with our favorite tattoo artist Jeff Gogue and his family and now we're getting ready to finish out the drive.

I will be attending the Resurgence Cooperative's Text and Context conference this week along with a few of the Acts29 Church Planting Boot Camp sessions. We're looking forward to visiting friends we made during our last trip up to Seattle, visiting Mars Hill Church, and hanging out in the beautiful city of Seattle.

For those who are interested, the Resurgence will be live-casting the sessions from the Text and Context conference.

Here is the schedule for the conference:

Pre-Conference

Sunday - February 24, 2008	1:30 pm	Pre-Conference Check-In
	2:00 – 3:30 pm	Pre-Conference Tracks Begin
		Mars Hill Church Immersion Track Location Title A Frelard Room Panel with Campus Pastors B Paradox Panel with Audio/Video/Satellite Productions C NMR or War Room Panel with teaching/counseling/small groups Pastors
	4:30 pm, 6:30 pm, 8:30 pm	Ballard Campus services
	5:00 pm	Wedgwood Campus services
	5:00 pm	Shoreline Campus services
Monday - February 25, 2008	8:00 am	Doors Open, pre-conference check-in continues
	9:00 am - 1:00 pm	Pre-Conference Continues Location Title Speaker Main Auditorium Biblical Stress Management Dr. Steve Crain
	10:00 am - noon	Location Title Speaker Paradox Room Building Missional Worship Bands Tim Smith & Joel Brown

Conference

Monday, February 25, 2008	1:00 pm	Conference Check-In
	2:00 pm	Session 1 – Mark Driscoll – Text & Context: Humble Incarnational Ministry
	4:00 pm	Session 2 – CJ Mahaney – Text & Context: Pastoral Character & Loving People
	5:20 pm	Dinner on your own
	7:00 pm	Session 3 – John Piper - Why I Trust the Scriptures
Tuesday, February 26, 2008	8:00 am	Doors Open
	9:00 am	Session 4 – Jim Gilmore – Context: Fear and Trembling in the Experience Economy
	10:45 am	Session 5 – Matt Chandler - Text & Context: Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World
	12:00 pm	Lunch at Ballard (provided)
	1:00 pm	Session 6 – John Piper - Text & Context: How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes my Pulpit Ministry
	2:45 pm	Resurgence Networking Break or the following options Time Location Title Speaker 2:45 pm Main Auditorium Session 7 Mark Driscoll - The Ox: Qualifications of a Church Planter (Acts 29 Session) 4:15 pm Main Auditorium Session 8 Matt Chandler - Vision of a Church Planter (Acts 29 Session) 4:15 pm Paradox Room Logos Software Workshop Exposition in HD: the World Premier of the Logos Discourse New Testament (optional)
	5:30 pm	Dinner on your own (Acts 29 assessed registrants will have dinner catered in the Paradox)
	7:00 pm	Session 9 – John Piper - Text: How Do I Distinguish Between Gospel and False Gospel?
	9:00 pm	Q & A with John Piper, Mark Driscoll & Matt Chandler
Wednesday, February 27, 2008	9:00 am	Door Open
	10:00 am	Session 10 – Jim Gilmore – Context: Decoding the Future, the Phoniness, and the Shifting Sands
	11:20 am	Q& A with Jim Gilmore
	12:00 pm	Lunch at Ballard (provided)
	1:00 pm	Session 11 – Mark Driscoll – Text & Context: Preaching Jesus Christ To Pagan Culture
	2:15 pm	Q & A with Mark Driscoll
End of Main Conference -- Post-Conference Sessions Begin
	3:00 pm	Session 12 – Jeff Vanderstelt - Biblical Missiology (Acts 29 Session)
	4:30 pm	Session 13 – Darrin Patrick - Leading the Mission (Acts 29 Session

Death Cab for Cutie in Humboldt

No ticket prices up yet on the CenterArts site.

Here's the scoop:

04.21.08

Van Duzer Theatre - Humboldt State University

Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA 95521
Venue Phone: (707) 826-3928

Website

w/ The Cave Singers

Tickets

Special ticket pre-sale available to DCFC fanclub members tomorrow (2/21) at www.dcfcunion.com

If you are not a fanclub member, tickets will go on sale at 10am on Saturday, February 23rd.

I probably won't hit this show, since it will be too expensive and I don't want to ruin the memory of seeing them play in Eureka (at the now defunct Club West) right after Transatlanticism came out and there were no OC fans in attendance. It was also one of the first dates I took my future wife on :)

Ahhh....the memories.

death cab for cutie

Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears- Vintage Jesus

Mark Driscoll has stepped back into the world of books with his new book Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions. Teaming up with Gerry Breshears, professor of theology and chairman of the Division of Biblical and Theological Studies at Western Seminary in Portland, OR, Driscoll aims to answer questions about who Jesus is and why we should still consider this man relevant and important.

Each chapter seeks to answer a specific question about Jesus.

• Chapter 1 Is Jesus the Only God?
• Chapter 2 How Human Was Jesus?
• Chapter 3 How Did People Know Jesus Was Coming?
• Chapter 4 Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?
• Chapter 5 Why Did Jesus' Mom Need to Be a Virgin?
• Chapter 6 What Did Jesus Accomplish on the Cross?
• Chapter 7 Did Jesus Rise from Death?
• Chapter 8 Where Is Jesus Today?
• Chapter 9 Why Should We Worship Jesus?
• Chapter 10 What Makes Jesus Superior to Other Saviors?
• Chapter 11 What Difference Has Jesus Made in History?
• Chapter 12 What Will Jesus Do upon His Return?

These questions are answered with insights from people such as Jesus himself, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Luther King Jr., Hugh Hefner, Jack Bauer, Fidel Castro, Oprah, Kanye West, Gandhi, Homer Simpson, Mike Tyson, Gil Grissom, and Madonna, along with some demons and a porn star.

You can take a look at the Intro and Chapter 1 at the Crossway site.

Mark's books are always insightful and theologically sharp, so I'm looking forward to reading this one. I'll be getting a copy of it at the Text/Context conference next week.

Visit the Vintage Jesus site.

Watch/listen to the "Vintage Jesus" sermon series from Mars Hill Church.

You can read an early review by Tim Challies and also an excellent article that Tim wrote today called "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Mark Driscoll?"

vintage jesus mark driscoll gerry breshears

Tim Keller- The Reason For God

Tim Keller's book The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is now available and shipping from various online shoppes (this is my preferred one). My copy should be here within the next week and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Here's a blurb from the "Reason for God" website:

Why does God allow suffering in the world?

How could a loving God send people to Hell?

Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive?

How can one religion be “right” and the others “wrong”?

Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God?

These are just a few of the questions and doubts even ardent believers wrestle with today. As the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts” skeptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. And in The Reason for God, he addresses each doubt and explains each reason.

Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and reasoning to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

The "Reason For God" website is also set up with various sermons and study materials, plus an intro video featuring a "Welcome" message from Keller.

Here are some reviews:

• Tim Challies
• Sally Lloyd-Jones (my 2nd favorite Lloyd-Jones)
• Spear of Phinehas

As always, Steve McCoy has a helpful compilation of Keller resources. Here is a page with the "Reason For God" sermons. I've listened to all these and they are very good.

Lastly, Newsweek profiled Tim Keller.

tim keller the reason for God

Organica:One Making-of Video

Here's a neat video showing the making of Dan Phelps' excellent Organica:One project.

Encyclopedia Asthmatica Volume 1

"We [being Asthmatic Kitty Records] are proud to present our first visual companion Encyclopedia Asthmatica Volume 1, a collection of distinctively Asthmatic Kitty visuals; the odd, the sublime, and the delectable."

Looks like fun!



Encyclopedia Asthmatica Volume 1 Trailer from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

More info here.

Pre-order here.

I don't know if you know this...

...but I'm kind of a big deal.

Because I am married to someone who is a big deal.

"Shake the world again" -Francis Schaeffer

The Bible reading plan that my wife and I are using this year has us currently in the Apostle Paul's majestic Epistle to the Romans. For supplemental reading today, I picked up Raymond Ortlund Jr.'s excellent book A Passion For God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans. Ortlund uses his own paraphrase for the whole book, writes down some very heartfelt and doctrinally sound prayers, and also includes loads of quotes that fit very well with the section he is highlighting.

Today I read his meditation on Romans 1:11-15 and it included an amazing poem written by Francis Schaeffer:

To eat, to breathe

to beget

Is this all there is

Chance configuration of atom against atom

    of god against god

I cannot believe it.

Come, Christian Triune God who lives,

Here am I

Shake the world again.

                                               Francis Schaeffer, 1960

The poem is originally from a 1960 issue of Christianity Today.

francis schaeffer ray ortlund jr. epistle to the romans