Musings of a Former Fundamentalist (IFB) Renewed by Reformed Theology
I recently downloaded Desiring God by John Piper as an audio book for free from ChristianAudio.com. My friend Shaun Tabatt (of Bible Geek Gone Wild) explains how to download the book for yourself.
It’s one of Piper’s books that is especially worth grappling with. I’m looking forward to listening to it on my drive to and from work each morning. Be sure to take advantage of the offer before the end of November!
I am blessed to be a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church, where my pastor is John Piper. His sermons and writings have made a lasting impact in my walk with Christ. He is a very humble man, even though he is an evangelical leader with an ever-growing influence. Desiring God is the ministry our church started to help spread pastor John’s writings and books. And for the past several years they’ve held a national conference here in Minneapolis.
I haven’t yet attended one, largely because it conflicts with my job schedule and I can’t afford it. But with Desiring God’s policy to spread sermons in print, audio and video formats for free, I get to enjoy them anyway. Here’s a run down on this year’s conference. I haven’t started listening yet, but I’m planning on downloading and listening to all the messages.
- The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12 by Sinclair Ferguson
- Panel Discussion – Piper, Driscoll, and Ferguson
- Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing? by Bob Kauflin
- How Sharp the Edge? Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words by Mark Driscoll
- The Life-Shaping Power of Story: God’s and Ours by Dan Taylor
- Panel Discussion – Piper, Tripp, Kauflin, and Taylor
- War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake by Paul Tripp
- Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross by John Piper
If you did attend the conference, share your thoughts with us. In the meantime, I think I’ll start with Bob Kauflin’s message. I have great respect for his wisdom and insights, and he has written some of the best and richest songs I’ve ever heard.
Recently we’ve been debating the idea of whether certain doctrines should be considered fundamental or essential, and others merely secondary. Most Christians and even fundamentalists do admit that there are essential doctrines that are more important than others. However, as my last installment of my church’s elder confession of faith shows, this doesn’t mean other doctrines are not important.
With these thoughts on my mind, I was surprised to find a recent discussion of this very topic from my church’s most recent conference. At the 2008 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, they had a panel discussion on a variety of topics. One of the questions was “What makes a doctrine essential?” John Piper and D.A. Carson did a good job discussing that question. I took the conference video (available for download), and tried to cut it down to just this question: unfortunately, during the last 2 minutes, the audio and video are a little out of sync, but not too much.
Update: I should also note that I thought Carson’s warning about “being prophetic from the margins” was similar to my contention that majoring on the minors belittles the Gospel. Also, if anyone can’t view the video online, or download the original video, they can read the transcript.