The Soul-Shaping Reality of the Gospel: An Interview with David Wells

As I usually like to do early in the week, I refer my readers to the latest issue of Tabletalk, Ligonier Ministries monthly devotional (see my post for Jan.3, 2011). This week I am not going to reference one of the main feature articles, though the one I read Sunday before church was good. Instead I point you to this written interview which the editor did with David F. Wells, senior research professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and one of my favorite modern authors (No Place for Truth, The Courage to be Protestant, etc.). Wells is known for his keen insights into and evaluation of today’s church as influenced by modern culture. This little interview brings out these strengths as well. And at the beginning he mentions a new book by J.I.Packer and Gary Parrett which calls the church back to catechizing her youth – yes, catechizing! I will have more on that book in another post.

Here’s a sample to get you going:

TT: Besides the Bible, what has been the most influential book you have read this past year?

DW: Most politicians answer a slightly different question from the one they have been asked, and so may I do so, too? The book I would love to see become the year’s most influential is J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett’s Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way. It argues that our churches should be catechizing because this kind of teaching, especially of our young, preserves doctrine. Biblical doctrine is what makes the church the church. We are stumbling in passing on the doctrinal core of the faith, and that goes to the heart of the church’s weakness today.

TT: Looking at the lay of the evangelical land, what do you see as the largest threat to the church?

DW: Every study on the internal life of the churches shows that they are becoming increasingly less literate biblically. With that, our ability to judge where our culture is intruding upon our souls is diminished. A church that is merely mimicking the culture, rather than offering a biblical alternative to it, is on its way to oblivion. That, in fact, has happened in many Western countries, where no more than two to five percent go to any kind of church at all on Sunday morning. The situation in Europe today could be where we ourselves are headed in the years to come.

Follow the link below to read the brief but beneficial article.

The Soul-Shaping Reality of the Gospel: An Interview with David Wells by David Wells | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

Calling All Sheep: This is What We Are!

David Murray, a Scotsman who is now living and laboring in America, is Professor of OT and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI. He has a fine blog, “Head, Heart, Hand”, to which he posts. He is especially interested in and writes about Biblical leadership, not just in the church but in the home and workplace as well.  I have now included a link to his blog under my “blogroll” heading and encourage you to make use of his resources.

Just recently he posted this summary of the nature of sheep, based on his own experience with sheep in the Scottish Highlands. I believe you will find things new as well as old here, but always revealing concerning our nature as God’s people. And pastors, he followed this post up with one on the work of shepherds based on the nature of sheep. I encourage you (sheep too!) to read this one as well.

Here is how he begins his article:

Throughout Scripture, sinners in general, and God’s people in particular, are described as sheep. And those God sends to lead them are equally frequently called shepherds. Today we will look at the character of the sheep, and tomorrow at the character of the shepherd. We start with the sheep because the key to leading as a shepherd is in understanding the nature of sheep.

I pastored for 12 years in the Scottish Highlands. During that time, I was surrounded by sheep: sheep on the roads, sheep on the mountains, sheep on the beeches, sheep in my yard. O, yes, and sometimes sheep in the shepherds’ fields. My study on the Isle of Lewis was 12 inches away from a field full of sheep. Sometimes at night I would look up from my computer and see many pairs of luminous green eyes staring at me through my window! I got to know sheep pretty well. What did I learn?

Murray then proceeds to give 12 points about sheep. They are painfully true; but then they show why we need and why we have such a wonderful Shepherd. Follow the link below to read the rest.

 

Sheep: “This time it’s personal” – Head Heart Hand.