Why We Should Preach Straight through Books of the Bible

Talbot professor and New Testament exegetical ninja Clint Arnold gives seven arguments in favor of  ”consecutive expository preaching”: It covers a wide range of topics. It enables you to treat hard topics without being second-guessed. It helps to insure that you preach the Scripture and not yourself. Contrary to popular perception, it doesn’t have to be boring and lacking in relevance. Also contrary to popular perception, it should... Read More

Silent Truth is Public Error

Although Micah veils his autobiographical information, his messages of judgment rest on the lofty ethical standards given to Israel on Sinai (Mic. 6:1-8), his message of hope on God’s unchanging faithfulness to Abraham. Rebuffed by his audience (2:6; 6:6-11), this flashing preacher lifted his almost solitary voice from the highest peaks of ethical standards above the clamorous masses. Even his prophecies of doom must be valued as I AM‘s... Read More

Biblical Disciple-Making – Catalytic Relationships

This is the fifth in a series of posts (intro; part 1; part 2; part 3) I’m writing about five keys to developing disciples of Jesus according to the Bible. Check those three for any further explanation. As always, feel free to argue or contribute in the comments. ——————————————————– The Concept: Christians need community if they are going to grow in discipleship. Thus this fourth element of biblical disciple-making:... Read More

“Victory is Never Won by the Multitudes”

Robert Coleman in The Master Plan of Evangelism, regarding the way that Jesus invested in a small group of people rather than the crowds, and how we should do the same in our discipleship: Yet, strangely enough, [this method] is scarcely comprehended in practice today. Most of the evangelistic efforts of the church begin with the multitudes…The result is our spectacular emphasis upon numbers of converts, candidates for baptism, and more members... Read More

Human Communication and Christian Worship

My brother, Christopher Faris, wrote a must-read piece on Christian congregational worship at his blog last week. It really is that good, and I’d like to think I’m hesitant to hand out such high praise (even for my own brother). Chris is currently a therapist, but he used to be a worship pastor and his undergrad degree is in Biblical Studies, so he’s constantly thinking about integration between psychology, theology, and Christian... Read More

Biblical Disciple-Making – Sending on Mission

This is the fourth in a series of posts (intro; part 1; part 2) I’m writing about five keys to developing disciples of Jesus according to the Bible. Check those three for any further explanation. As always, feel free to argue or contribute in the comments. ——————————————————– The Concept: I once heard a friend say that church can easily be like a college from which we never graduate: endless teaching that... Read More

Biblical Disciple-Making – Faithful Prayer

This is the third in a series of posts (intro; part 1) I’m writing about five keys to developing disciples of Jesus according to the Bible. Check those two for any further explanation. As always, feel free to argue or contribute in the comments. ——————————————————– The Concept: The Holy Spirit is a way better disciple-maker than you or I. The kind of person taking the time to read a post like this is probably... Read More

Biblical Disciple-Making – Preaching & Teaching God’s Word

This is the second in a series of posts I’m writing about five keys to developing disciples of Jesus according to the Bible. You can read the intro here. I’ll stick to this 3-fold layout for each post: the concept, the biblical witness, and the application. Hopefully the application will always be the longest section, because I want to brainstorm concrete ideas. Please feel free to argue or contribute in the comments. ——————————————————– The... Read More

Biblical Disciple-Making – Introduction

My church has a new vision statement: “Growing in Discipleship; Thriving in Community; Serving in the World.” I really like it. It’s compact but it still hits most of what the church is about, so it can serve as a nice set of guideposts as we think about how best to minister. We adopted that vision statement at the end of last year, which means that for the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to “grow... Read More