Grace Baptist Church

GBC Preaching Workshop - Week 2

TimBrister — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:56:16 +0000

This week’s preaching workshop focuses on presuppositions to faithful biblical preaching and the cultivation of a thesis statement during sermon development. For best viewing, click play and then pause the video to allow the video to buffer throughout so that you can view without hiccups. To view last week’s introduction, click here.

GBC Preaching Workshop 2 from Grace Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Why One Group and One Place: Community Group Q&A (PDF)

TimBrister — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:00:59 +0000

This evening, I followed up with addressing two questions that have been asked: (1) Is it okay for me to attend various community groups? and (2) Can we have various host homes for the same community group? Regarding these questions, I sought to address with biblical considerations, current realities, and specific reasons why the pastors and elders recommend Grace Community Groups meet in the same place and members commit to one particular community group.

I have made the PowerPoint presentation available to download as a PDF document. To download it, click below:

“Why One Group and One Place? Grace Community Groups Q&A“

Preaching Workshop: Week 1

TimBrister — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:04:45 +0000

This past Monday night, Pastor Tom Ascol began an eight-week workshop on preaching for men of Grace. I happened to have my handy HD Kodak Zi6 with me, but I unfortunately ran out of memory! In any case, I was able to capture about one hour’s worth of his introductory lecture. In the future, I hope to be able to record the lectures in their entirety and post them here as well. If you have any problem viewing this video, let me know in the comments (hint: click play and then pause it, allowing the video to render/buffer long enough to outpace your viewing to prevent hiccups.

In this introduction, Pastor Tom addresses some basic hermeneutical principles that guide biblical preaching. Our hope is that making these videos available will prove to be a great resource for others who could not participate in our meetings on Monday night. Enjoy!

GBC Preaching Workshop Week 1 from Grace Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Resources on Union with Christ

TimBrister — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:59:33 +0000

In my last post, I mentioned a great little resource on union with Christ from the writings of John Flavel. There are a couple of other books worth checking out, though they are a little more academic in nature (and more costly!). In any case, the place where you can find nearly every resource related to the doctrine of union with Christ is on this blogpost by Phil Gons. There you will find everything from books, articles, essays, chapters, and even conference papers! Be sure to check it out.

A couple of other books that I recently picked up that might be of some interest to you are:

Mark A. Garcia, Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin’s Theology (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press), 2008.

Maurice Roberts, Union and Communion with Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 2008.

Book Recommendation: The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety

TimBrister — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:24:03 +0000

During the “Ask the Pastor” time of discussion during Bible Study, the question of union with Christ was raised, at which time I mentioned a helpful little book called The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ by J. Stephen Yuille. Dr. Yuille has mined the woks of John Flavel and presented a powerful summary of this fundamental doctrine from one of the most eminent Puritans of the 17th century, John Flavel.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

1.   The Covenant of Redemption
2.   The Basis of Union with Christ
3.   The Nature of Union with Christ
4.   The Act of Union with Christ
5.   The Blessings of Union with Christ
6.   The Fruit of Union with Christ
7.   The Evidence of Union with Christ
8.   The Suffering of Union with Christ
9.   The Joy of Union with Christ
10. The Practice of Union with Christ
11. The Hope of Union with Christ

Union with Christ was a central theological motif for John Calvin and many who followed in his train, not the least was such men as John Flavel and James P. Boyce. In the introduction, Yuille provides a probing quote by Flavel in which he asks:

How transcendently glorious is the advancement of believers, by their union with the Lord of glory? This also is an admirable and astonishing mystery; it is the highest dignity of which our nature is capable, to be hypostatically united; and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable is to be mystically united to this Lord of glory; to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. O what is this! Christian, dost thou know and believe all this, and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ? (4, emphasis original)

In a follow-up post, I refer to the research compiling a comprehensive listing of books and articles related to “union with Christ.”

Word on the Street

TimBrister — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:22:51 +0000

David Fairchild, an elder of Kaleo Church (San Diego, CA), recently posted a couple of street videos asking people such questions as “What Is the Gospel?” and “Who confident are you that you are going to heaven?” I am posting these videos for two reasons: (1) this should be a sober reminder of how desperate our world needs the gospel and (2) what would folks in our city and neighborhoods say in response to these questions?

1. Assurance & Heaven

Street Survey 1 from David Fairchild on Vimeo.

2. What Is the Gospel?

Street Survey 2 from David Fairchild on Vimeo.

Why Weekly? Q&A About Grace Community Groups (PDF)

TimBrister — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:52:30 +0000

It is our goal to make as much of our materials and resources available to you, and in keeping with that goal, I am providing a downloadable PDF of this evening’s discussion on the question “Why Weekly?: A Q&A Discusion for Grace Community Groups.” This short presentation simply covers biblical considerations, current realities, and six practical reasons for transitioning to weekly community groups. If the presentation was recorded, I will also link to the MP3 from this evening.

To downlaod the document, click below:

* Why Weekly? - A Q&A Discussion for Grace Community Groups *

Nuts and Bolts of a Great Commission Vision (PDF)

TimBrister — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:38:12 +0000

As promised, I want to share with you the PowerPoint slides in a PDF document for you to download for further review, prayer, and reflection. The nuts and bolts of this Great Commission vision is a project in the making; nevertheless, this document gives you a pretty good idea of where the pastors and elders of Grace have been thinking and praying for the past 6-8 months to better facilitate the Great Commission with a strategy and structure for our church scattered and sent on mission for the glory of God.

To download the document, simply click here:

“The Nuts and Bolts of a Great Commission Vision of Grace Baptist Church“

Short-Term Missions Blog Series via Desiring God

TimBrister — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:46:23 +0000

The Desiring God blog recently completed a short blog series on short-term missions. In light of upcoming mission opportunities, these posts would be particularly helpful for those preparing to go overseas as part of a short-term missions team. Here they are:

Rethinking Short-Term Missions
The Effect of Short-Term Missions on Poverty
We Need Them at Least as Much as They Need Us
Teaching as a Short-Term Missions Strategy
The Importance of Doing Missions as Servants

The Kingdom, the Community, and You, Part 3

TimBrister — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:51:48 +0000

This week, I have been writing about a kingdom hermeneutic–a way to interpret and shape life according to Christ who is our King and the kingdom’s advance in and through our lives. In Part 1, I focused on the preeminence of the King and how His kingdom should prioritize our thinking, inflame passionate affections, and pattern our living. In Part 2, I turned our attention to how pursuing the kingdom causes us to embrace a kingdom-ethic where we are considering others more highly than ourselves. Christ-like community takes shape when kingdom-focused disciples are embracing their identity and purpose together to pray and live out, “Your kingdom come.”

In this third and final part, I want to think about us, and in particular some points of application as it pertains to parts 1 and 2. This is crucial because we can have many “amen” moments in affirming theological principles without ever experiencing any “oh me” moments–times when we are confronted with realities requiring repentance. We are always susceptible to reverting back to our own little kingdom’s where we are king and the world revolves around us–our wants, our needs, our perspectives, our priorities, etc. When Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” we should not forget that this is a present command; in other words, repentance is required regularly not only for the advance of the kingdom but its presence as well.

There are questions we ought continually to ask ourselves, especially when it comes to the direction of our lives or our church. Are we thinking of the kingdom of God first or ourselves? Are we trying to advance our agenda or God’s agenda? When it comes to others, are we looking to take advantage of what they can do for us or taking the advantage of the opportunity to do much in blessing them?

Kingdom confrontations are going to happen. In each of us are preferences, traditions, felt needs, and a sense of entitlement, all of which serve as filters to our worldview and influence the decisions we make. They are not all bad, but we must recognize that there will be times when, if we are humbly submitted to the rule and reign of Jesus in our lives, areas will be exposed where we are rivaling or even rebelling inwardly against the very thing we are praying for!

I am convinced that God has great things in store for Grace Baptist Church, but in order for us to fully embrace all of what He will do through His church, we must cultivate a passion for the kingdom, a priority to serve others, and a daily practice of repentance as we together seek to glorify Him through radically-devoted, gospel-saturated, kingdom-advancing lives. When we have God’s perspective for our church, we think little of ourselves, more of others, and always for the glory of Jesus through the building of His church!