Week in Review – Oct 17, 2014

This week in books and resources, Mez McConnell posted a review of Barry Cooper’s book, Can I Really Trust the Bible? that is a must read. Owen Strachan pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of Michael Horton’s new book Ordinary (he was more generous than I would have been).  Gene Getz’s Building Up One Another is free for Kindle. WTS Books has John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life for $3 a copy. This makes a great giveaway for discipleship. Christian Audio has Who Am I? by Jerry Bridges as a free download. It’s read by Alistair Begg. How can you go wrong? Ligonier is giving away access to the video and audio of their recent conference on The Truth of the Cross.  Finally, CBD has Kittel’s famous 10 volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament for only $99 for this weekend only.

Events in the news and culture were buzzing this week, especially for the Church. Mark Driscoll announced his resignation from Mars Hill Church, despite their recent (mainly) positive review of his recent ministry.  The mayor of Houston issued a subpoena for local pastors’ sermons regarding sexual ethics. Russell Moore explain why pastors shouldn’t just hand them over.  Albert Mohler explained by the recent Vatican synod on family was a major transformation of Roman Catholicism. The threat of Ebola remained in the new as well, with two cases now appearing in the United States.

In the areas of christian living and theology, Jay Skylar explained what he experienced after ten years of studying Leviticus (and why you should read it more often). Eric Bancroft explained how you can love your neighbor by praying for their church. Erik Raymond was especially helpful this week as he posted on why he makes his children read the Bible and how he explains ISIS to them.

Starting things off with church and ministry, Jason Helopoulos gave us 20 ways to be refreshing to your local church.  H.B Charles, Jr. released a new episode of his podcast On Preaching. This one deals with how one can prepare himself to preach. Adrian Reynolds gave pastors a nudge toward praying thoughtfully in public worship.  Tim Brister explained what happened to the young, restless, and reformed in the SBC over the last 15 years.

This week, we end with Trip Lee’s fantastic new single from his upcoming album, Rise.  If hip-hop isn’t your thing, consider the (largely correct) explanation of the lyrics at the Rap Genius site.