Grace Renewal - Dr. Stephen Um from Gospel Alliance New England on Vimeo.

Check out the LEAD site for video and audio of sessions from Ray Ortlund, Matt Chandler, Jared Wilson and others. 

Panel Discussion - Lead 2011 Panel from Gospel Alliance New England on Vimeo.

If you're on the go, you can download the audio from the panel discussion here.

In the coming days we'll video from Stephen Um's breakout session, as well as links to the other audio from the conference. 

Over at The Economist, an article entitled "How Luther Went Viral" suggests that the phenomena of social media may not be all that new. In fact, the writer claims that the Protestant Reformation is a prime example of a pre-modern movement using technology and social networks to accomplish its end. Much of the article attempts to draw parallels between the Reformation and the Arab Spring, pushing the reader to think about the nature of movements, protest, relationships, technology, etc. Here's the concluding paragraph of the article: 

Modern society tends to regard itself as somehow better than previous ones, and technological advance reinforces that sense of superiority. But history teaches us that there is nothing new under the sun. Robert Darnton, an historian at Harvard University, who has studied information-sharing networks in pre-revolutionary France, argues that “the marvels of communication technology in the present have produced a false consciousness about the past—even a sense that communication has no history, or had nothing of importance to consider before the days of television and the internet.” Social media are not unprecedented: rather, they are the continuation of a long tradition. Modern digital networks may be able to do it more quickly, but even 500 years ago the sharing of media could play a supporting role in precipitating a revolution. Today’s social-media systems do not just connect us to each other: they also link us to the past.

You can read the whole thing here.

Stephen Um recently presented a breakout session at November's Plant New England conference. The audio, which is just over an hour and includes Q&A, has recently been made available online. In the breakout session, Dr. Um addresses issues of contextualization for ministry that will be applicable for Christians, whether ministers or laypersons, in all contexts. We hope that this resource will benefit you as you think not only about the content of the gospel, but also the ways in which it can be winsomely and effectively communicated in various settings. You can download the audio directly here.

Here's a choice excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian's new book: Jesus + Nothing = Everything. The book is a great introduction to the radical nature of the gospel of grace, serving as a tenacious gospel remedy for hearts that lean toward "performancism" (read: all):

In our bones, we know that God hates unrighteous ‘bad’ works; we’re not nearly so convinced that he hates self-righteous ‘good’ works just as much, if not more. In fact, the most dangerous thing that can happen to you is that you become proud of your obedience.

In his excellent book A More Radical Gospel, the late Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde writes: 

Our misdeeds are not the real root of the problem. They are just what the tradition called actual sins. There is a much more serious problem, what the tradition called original sin. It is much more subtle and inevitably hidden from us. The relationship is broken by the presumption of our ethical behavior, our morality, our good deeds, our insistence on doing it ourselves. The relation is broken because these too turn us quite simply against grace. . . . The Almighty God desires simply to be known as the giver of the gift of absolute grace. To this we say 'no.' We say, rather, that we intend to make it on our own, that grace is 'too cheap.' Then the relationship is destroyed just as surely as it was by our immortality.

Our ‘good works’ can become the very thing that gives us so much self-comfort and self-approval, this very thing we find so killingly attractive. Self-righteousness is our attempt to provide our own righteousness apart from his. God hates it because he loves us. And because self-righteousness can lead only to the robbery of freedom (47). 

Christian Scholarship in the Secular Academy from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Over at the Books & Culture blog Tony Reinke has some helpful thoughts on theological convictions that should undergird and spur on our approach to literacy and reading. Here are three ways that the Christian faith might encourage us to be thoughtful readers and literacy advocates in a post-literate culture: 

First, I've found that we can gauge our literary tastes with Scripture. Is Scripture sweet to me like honeycomb dripping directly into the mouth (Psalms 19:10, 119:103)? This taste transition from Scripture-as-broccoli (necessity) to Scripture-as-honey (pleasure) is nothing less than a divine work of grace. To find spiritual delight in the prose, the poetry, the promises, and even the warnings of Scripture is at the pinnacle of God's purpose for literacy.

Second, the Savior's glory transforms literacy. When we see the knowledge of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, we read the Bible differently (2 Cor. 3:14-16). And we read everything differently. God's illuminating grace makes it possible for us to see what reflects our Creator and Savior in the starlight of creation and on the pages of great literature. The gospel provides us with new literary awareness.

Third, in the search for meaning, books trump images. It is no small challenge for a language-centered people to live faithfully in an image-saturated culture. Adam and Eve turned from the command of God when they saw the beautiful fruit. Ancient Israel chucked the earrings of adornment into a fire to craft a golden statue. And when the ear, the organ of language reception in an oral society, is exchanged for eye candy, things always go badly for God's people. The same is true today. This sacred history can help motivate us to develop our literacy.

For more theological reflections and practical suggestions on being a thoughtful reader, check out Reinke's new book Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Look for a forthcoming review on the CGC blog. 

A recent op-ed from David Brooks over at the New York Times points up the foolishness of denying human sinfulness and corruptibility, and would seem to suggest that coming to terms with it may be a key to living well, or at least honestly with ourselves and one another. He uses the recent scandal at Penn State University, along with the media's reaction to said scandal, to ask his readers if we really have the right to feel superior to the morally fallen. His answer? 

People are really good at self-deception. We attend to the facts we like and suppress the ones we don’t. We inflate our own virtues and predict we will behave more nobly than we actually do. ...In centuries past, people built moral systems that acknowledged this weakness. These systems emphasized our sinfulness. They reminded people of the evil within themselves. Life was seen as an inner struggle against the selfish forces inside. These vocabularies made people aware of how their weaknesses manifested themselves and how to exercise discipline over them. These systems gave people categories with which to process savagery and scripts to follow when they confronted it. They helped people make moral judgments and hold people responsible amidst our frailties.

But we’re not Puritans anymore. We live in a society oriented around our inner wonderfulness. So when something atrocious happens, people look for some artificial, outside force that must have caused it — like the culture of college football, or some other favorite bogey. People look for laws that can be changed so it never happens again.

Commentators ruthlessly vilify all involved from the island of their own innocence. Everyone gets to proudly ask: “How could they have let this happen?” The proper question is: How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive. That was the proper question after Abu Ghraib, Madoff, the Wall Street follies and a thousand other scandals. But it’s a question this society has a hard time asking because the most seductive evasion is the one that leads us to deny the underside of our own nature.

Brooks' question, "How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive," is almost a set-up for the gospel, which both forces us to face the ugly realities of our sin (non-evasive), consider them truthfully (non-self-deceptive), and offers hope for overcoming these twisted "natural tendencies" through the power of Christ's death and resurrection, along with his continuing work in our lives through his Spirit.

Sure, the gospel is an answer to Brooks' question that requires the introduction of faith into the conversation, but dismissing outrightly its legitimacy as an explanation for human sinfulness, and an instrument for real change and renewal in an individual's life, seems disingenuous. When the unfounded moral superiority that Brooks decries is backed up by a kind of uncritical, worldview-superiority that is unwilling to admit any alternatives, we will soon find ourselves with no grounds from which to address corruption and injustice that we so readily see in others, but appear unable to see in ourselves.

(Another interesting piece that approaches what we might call "sin," which is based on more definite research, recently appeared in New Scientist: "The Underhand Ape: Why Corruption is Normal"). 

In the past we have pointed you to unsung but vital resources like S. G. De Graaf's Promise and Deliverance, or audio of the late Meredith Kline's classes. These are the kinds of gems that you'll find if you're reading the footnotes of your favorite modern day gospel-centered authors. Another under appreciated, even if oft cited, author is Richard Lovelace, who taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for many years. Lovelace's primary contribution is a rich theology of personal and corporate renewal in the gospel. His work has been extremely influential on the likes of Tim Keller, Jerry Bridges, Stephen Um, and others.

Two books comprise the bulk of his published material: Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal is a hefty systematic-esque treatment of gospel renewal dynamics, while Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth is a slimmer, more digestible approach to the same material. The primary purpose of this post is to point you to some rarely accessed audio resources made available by the C.S. Lewis Institute that feature Lovelace covering much of this material in a lecture setting. Nearly six hours in total, the recordings show Lovelace's grasp on the movement of God in history, the movement of God in our day, the dynamics of both personal and corporate revival, as well as a lengthy section on laying the foundation for church renewal. You can access the files here. The C.S. Lewis Institute also has extensive audio from the likes of Edmund Clowney, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and J.I. Packer. 

In any case, whether you encounter Lovelace's work via his books or this audio, you are sure to be driven to a deeper understanding of the necessity of the gospel for all of your Christian life. Enjoy! 

We continue in our Sermon Sketches series which today follows Stephen Um into his new sermon series: Encountering God. The series will track through the Old Testament, keying in on important characters and episodes where people encounter God. Throughout, attention is given to both the micro context of each text, as well as the macro context of how the texts fit into the larger "one-story-plotline" of the Bible. This week's sermon was taken from Genesis 3: 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Encountering God:

Exile and Homecoming 

Genesis 3:1-24

• Introduction 
  • Up to this point in the Scriptures, Adam and Eve have had only one counselor speaking into their lives: God 
  • Human beings are "revelation receivers," and at this point in the narrative another counselor enters the picture 
  • The serpent is working with the same facts but interprets them differently in an attempt to woo Adam and Eve. 
• The Reason for the Fall 
  • If anyone is to be considered more accountable for the Fall, it would be Adam 
    • He is the the federal representative of all humanity, and the one who received the initial command. 
  • At the heart of the Fall is a deep rooted suspicion of God 
    • We ultimately want to reign our own lives.
  • There is a creational order that the Fall turns upside-down.
    • We were originally intended to worship God and rule over creation. With the Fall this is twisted: humanity now worships and is ruled by creation. 
    • Choice itself because a means of binding enslavement (Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice). 
  • The human heart was the target of the serpent's attack. 
    • The word play between naked (v.25) and crafty (v.23) in the original language bears this out. 
    • Eve was both the first moral conformist and self-liberator:
      • By adding requirements to God's original command she makes him stingier and stricter. 
        • Though God is a God of abundance, Eve adds "touch" (v.3) as a new restrictive requirement. 
      • By dropping the covenantal name of God (Yahweh) and lessening the intensity of punishment she makes him softer. 
  • We are all looking for life-sustaining functionality, but often times would rather engage in attempts at self-salvation to attain it. 
• The Result of the Fall 
  • Breakdown on every front is what comes as a result of the Fall:
    • Psychological (v.7a)
    • Horizontal/Relational - our relationships to one another (v.7b, 15)
    • Vertical/Theological - our relationship to God (v.8, 10)
    • Creational - our relationship to the created order itself (v.17)
    • Vocational - our relationship to work (v.19) 
  • When God was no longer at the center of humanity's life, the result was chaos. 
  • When God is placed at the center, the result is harmony. 
• The Remedy (or Reversal) of the Fall 
  • There are a number of important gospel themes that run through this text: 
    • v.15 - the overcoming of death 
    • v. 21 - the covering of shame 
    • v. 23 - the implied longing for homecoming that results from exile 
  • Pulling the thread in v.21, we are forced to ask, "How will our shame be covered?"
    • Shame is not the same as guilt, it references something external, the way others perceive us. 
    • The death of the animal in v.21 introduces the concept that death is important in providing life. 
    • When we trace this through the scriptures, we find that there is an ultimate Lamb who comes to die, and in doing so covers our shame with his righteousness. 
  • Following v.23, "How will we get back home?" 
    • We have been shut out of paradise and we cannot go through the flaming swords on our own. 
    • The only way to be brought back home is for an ultimate insider to come outside, to absorb our "outsider-ness," and go through the flaming swords on our behalf, that we might be made insiders. 
    • Christ does this for us. As the Second Adam, he fulfills all that the first Adam failed to do. 
    • Through him we are welcomed back home, given a new center, and even a new perspective on the law itself. 
  • Jesus is the one who provides us access, a way to get back home.