📚A thread about writing and publishing for writers and aspiring writers📚 #writing #publishing 1/ I’ve been engaged in some form of writing on a regular basis for the last 10 years or so. Over the last 3-4 years I’ve had the world of publishing opened up to me. After publishing a few dozen articles, I recently published my first book. 2/

A small but important consideration for Christian authors. I find that authors will often make assertions that are somewhat specious or debatable and then they will append Scripture references in parentheses at the end of the statement that purportedly prove their assertion. 1/6 If you look up these references they often are saying something completely different than what the author suggests. This is a big problem, a) because it misrepresents the author’s argument as having support in Scripture when it doesn’t, and… 2/6

This morning at our church we will read as a congregation Thomas Cranmer's prayer for the communion liturgy before we take the Supper together. There was a time in England's history when the entire nation was encouraged to take this attitude toward their sin: 1/5 "Almighty God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
maker of all things, judge of all men:
We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness,
which we from time to time most grievously have committed,
by thought, word, and deed, against your divine Majesty, 2/5

I’m not a credible expert in anything except for the life and ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. That said, I want to offer a few words of advice with respect to how pastors can encourage loud, robust, and exuberant congregational singing in their churches. 1/10 Whenever we have a visiting speaker, he inevitably asks me how we were able to get our congregation to sing so well. Of course, a love for singing God’s praises is principally a work of God’s Spirit. That said, there are some practical things we do that I think help. 2/10

“Amazing Grace” was sung for the first time ever on this day 250 years ago in the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Olney, England.

Here’s some little known history about what happened the day the song was first sung. 1/11 Of course, “Amazing Grace” was composed by the Vicar of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, John Newton, the slave-trader turned evangelical preacher. He introduced the new hymn under the title “Faith’s Review and Expectation.” 2/11

A friendly critique…Instead of being a matter of emphasis, I think it would be better & safer to say it’s a matter of definitions. Hyper-Calvinists and Arminians define human responsibility & divine sovereignty incorrectly. That’s their error. 1/5

https://twitter.com/daneortlund/status/1599374370610171907

It’s not a matter of emphasis, it’s a matter of bad definitions. You can’t emphasize true biblical human responsibility enough. And you can’t emphasize true biblical divine sovereignty enough. What you can do is misunderstand them, misdefine them, and speak falsely of them. 2/5

A short thread on a problem I keep running into in conversations about missions strategy today.

I hear missiologists and missions strategists talk often about “apostolic” church planting, or “apostolic” missions, or the “apostolic” pattern. 1/9 And invariably, what is proposed as the “apostolic” pattern is a kind of itinerant missionary work that involves pioneer evangelism, the establishing of churches, quickly leaving those churches (usually in a very weak state), and moving to new fields for pioneer evangelism. 2/9

Was talking to some friends about the minor resurgence of interest in theonomy we’re seeing lately. It had me thinking about how movements like this get started & gain traction. There seems to be a characteristic formula that gives life to them & contributes to their growth. 1/14 So think things like Mark Driscoll’s brand of hyper masculinity that became so popular among a certain crowd, or the family integrated movement of 10 years ago, or in this case theonomy. How do they start and grow? 2/14

I make this appeal about once a year, so here I go again…Are there any wealthy persons or groups of wealthy people out there who would consider establishing a foundation to buy up church buildings from dying churches to make them available to new & existing healthy churches? 1/9

https://twitter.com/jonathanleeman/status/1545031363832778752

If I were in possession of several million dollars, no question, this is how I would use it. We could wish that it were different, but the reality is one of the means God has used throughout history to grow his kingdom is his church’s fruitful use of land and buildings. 2/9

My local church is currently in the process of seeking to identify, evaluate, and affirm more qualified elders. One of the things we look to assess in a man who would serve as a leader in the church has to do with how he thinks about conflict. 1/7 On the one hand, he should not be afraid of controversy and conflict. He doesn’t flee from a fight and avoid confrontation like the plague. 2/7

As I understand the terms, I would consider myself to be socially, culturally, & politically conservative. I’m an advocate for free market economics, I think Ronald Reagan was a great president, & I’m very concerned about the ideologies of the left taking over this country. 1/4 That said, I watched an entire hour of Fox News last night for the first time in probably ten years. It was like stepping into a completely different world. It was so bizarre. The people talking were cynical, arrogant, sanctimonious, derisive, and unpleasant in the extreme. 2/4

@joeycochran @JemarTisby @bethallisonbarr Hi Joey (if I may), I appreciate you engaging. To be clear, I’m quite familiar with the passage from Bloch that you quoted and see no conflict between his sentiments there and those of my article. @joeycochran @JemarTisby @bethallisonbarr As you are probably well aware…Bloch speaks pretty harshly of what he calls the “the satanic enemy of true history: the mania for making judgments.”

A short thread on complementarian/egalitarian dialogue…

I’ve noticed a common thread in some of the worst of 1980s/1990s complementarian literature and some of the contemporary egalitarian critiques of the same. 1/13 Both groups are often guilty of simply appealing to the cultural zeitgeist to establish their perspectives instead of making cogent, well-reasoned arguments. It often goes like this…2/13

A brief thread on “apostolic” missions and church planting... 1/6 Any approach to constructing an “apostolic pattern” for missions and church planting must take into account the fact that there are apostles other than Paul, most notably Peter and John, who planted themselves in one location & stayed & invested in that location for decades. 2/6

A 🧵 on a Christian view of western individualism.

I appreciate many contemporary Christian critiques of western individualism, especially when they are developed on the basis of Scripture. 1/11 But in our zeal to highlight the errors of individualism, we must also acknowledge that much that is foundational to western individualism, at least in its origins, finds its basis in distinctly Christian ideas. 2/11

Short 🧵 on cancel culture. Cancel culture is obviously the spirit of the age. Find a figure in history with a bad view on race, gender, etc. & proceed to cancel them. Or find someone in the public eye today who has some embarrassing episode in their past & then do the same. 1/6 What I find so sad is that many in the church are buying into cancel culture as well, as if it’s totally consistent with a Christian view of the world. “Christian” cancel culture is bad news for a lot of reasons. But I’ll just mention one big one. 2/6

🚨 Some exciting personal news! I just signed a contract with @HesedandEmet to prepare an edited volume of some of Charles Spurgeon’s best lectures and addresses on pastoral ministry. 1/5 The volume will include about 12-15 of his addresses taken largely from Spurgeon’s classic book “Lectures to My Students” and a lesser known work entitled “An All-Round Ministry.” 2/5

A 🧵 regarding an ironic omission from @MikeCosper's telling of “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.”

Like many, I have appreciated @CTmagazine's podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” It is full of rich lessons for all Christians, especially Christian leaders. 1/ The latest episode “The Things We Do To Women” has provoked a lot of discussion, particularly surrounding how Cosper paints Driscoll’s relationship to complementarian theology. In this thread, I don’t want to speak into that debate. 2/

Big personal update: I am writing a book! It is on Charles Spurgeon (surprise, surprise) and his understanding of the role of benevolence, mercy ministry, and social concern in the mission and ministry of the church. This is the first book of it's kind. 1/ Though biographies of Spurgeon abound, the most we have on Spurgeon's view of mercy ministry is a chapter here and there. My primary audience is pastors and thoughtful/interested church members, and secondarily historians and university/seminary students. 2/

A thread on Spurgeon and social justice...

1/ I’ve seen a number of tweets speculating about CHS's views on social justice. I’m actually about to complete my dissertation on this topic from @SEBTS. Spurgeon’s views are hard to summarize, but a few things can be clearly affirmed, 2/ Number One: Spurgeon was an outspoken advocate for the disenfranchised, the poor, and the oppressed of his day. For most of the Victorian era there was no system of social welfare, and therefore care for the needy usually fell to personal charity or organized philanthropy.