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So we’re getting involved in a church here in Dahlonega named Christ Family Church. It’s quite phenomenal to find a church we can call home after coming back to Georgia. While we attended some nice ones in Lawrenceville, one of them was too focused on tradition and the other was too focused on its members (although it was trying to change that and become more missional). In Dahlonega, CFC is solidly biblical and missional. Just because they’re so concise, here are the vision and distinctions of the church:

Missional

We focus our times together on building up believers and encouraging one another to take the Good News of salvation into the community, region, and world.

Family-Integrated

We place high value on the health of families, and our corporate meetings are multi- generational in that children remain together with families in the meetings to allow and encourage families to function and grow together.

Covenant Membership

Covenant membership involves all members’ commitment to be subject to one another for the sake of the integrity and spiritual growth of the Church. It is both a solemn and joyful matter—a deep agreement between regenerated believers that welcomes discipline for the sake of the greater good of sanctification.

Expositional Preaching

We, in our corporate presentation of Bible texts, will deal exegetically with each passage, taking as our main point for the sermon the main point of the text and attending to each issue presented in that text.

Reformed Southern Baptist

God, with absolute sovereignty, accomplishes the salvation of his people by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone. He uses his people as His means of spreading the gospel of eternal salvation; we, therefore, being Southern Baptists, cooperate with other churches in supporting mission efforts worldwide.

Plurality of Elders

Elders are the scripturally mandated positions of leadership in the Church. Biblically qualified leaders are shepherds, guiding the body towards accomplishing congregationally selected goals and adhering to Scriptural values; thus, the church is led by the Holy Spirit and guided by multiple elders.

Gospel-Centered Counseling

We acknowledge the Bible as the chief authority on healthy, fulfilled living. As such, pastoral counseling is first and foremost the application of Biblical truth to guide us through our lives.

Those who know me or have read old posts in this blog know that many of those topics have been addressed in this blog, especially the last one.

I posted this back on October 15th on my old blog. Still interesting, so I moved it over here.

This past weekend my pastor preached on Abraham and Isaac. Yesterday I again heard a preacher speak on it – this time Paige Patterson at the Real Evangelism Conference at Southeastern. This has got me thinking about that story.

This passage in Genesis 22 is quite obviously a christophany. Isaac represents all of humanity / the elect (depending on your Calvinistic persuasion), Abraham represents the wrath of God, and the voice from heaven is Jesus (often refered to in the New Testament as the angel of the Lord), who offers a substitute for us.

Something interesting that Dr. Patterson pointed out was the ram. His horns were tangled in the ticket, just as Jesus later had a crown of thorns. I found that quite interesting. Comments? Questions? Bueller?

I read an interesting article today about preaching. It’s entitled “The Truth About Expository Preaching” and asks some interesting questions: How do you define expository preaching? Do you think the term “expository preaching” is applied too broadly? What forms can an expository sermon take? (Sequential and logical.) What are some examples of logical orders? Is there any problem for the listener when we present the most logical order but move through the Scripture out of sequence? To what extent is an expositor obligated to unpack all the elements of a passage–the verb tenses, shades of meaning, and so on?

He asked many more questions, too. I find it these are very important questions we should ask when listening and especially when preaching a message from God’s Word.

One very interesting point I like is his “3 A.M. Test.” Can the preacher be awakened at 3am (however unhappily) and concisely state what his sermon will be for the coming week? This is one thing that I think is done exceptionally well at Journey. Jimmy’s (and the other pastor’s, when they preach) take-away points are exceptionally clear and concise.

I pulled this one out from years ago. Justin Taylor over at theologica.blogspot.com wrote a review in June of 2005 of Joel Osteen. It includes some quotes with his interview with Larry King. Check it out.