Gospel Centered Resources

Books and Articles

Jonathan Dodson,  Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“How Missional is Your Church”

Tim Keller, “The Centrality of the Gospel”

“The Gospel: Key to Change”

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

D.A. Carson, “The Biblical Gospel”

Jerry Bridges, “Gospel-Driven Sanctification”

Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible

C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing

Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice

The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World

Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel

Bob Thune, The Gospel Centered Life

Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community

Tim Chester, You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero: Living the Cross and the Resurrection

Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions

Blogs and Ministries

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ The Gospel Coalition

http://www.t4g.org/ Together for the Gospel

http://www.9marks.org/ The 9 Marks

http://www.togetherforadoption.org/ Together for Adoption

http://www.desiringgod.org/ Desiring God

http://sovereigngraceministries.com/ Sovereign Grace Ministries

http://www.acts29network.org/ Acts 29

http://theresurgence.com/ The Resurgence

http://www.thecrowdedhouse.org/ The Crowded House

http://timchester.wordpress.com/ Tim Chester

http://creationproject.wordpress.com/ Jonathan Dodson

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/ Justin Taylor

http://www.worshipmatters.com/ Bob Kauflin

http://www.challies.com/ Tim Challies

Week #15 – December 10th

Last week of regular class. You turned in your teaching spreadsheet, and I gave you a copy of one I made up a while ago. Hope you keep re-working that one.

This week we talked about success, discouragement and other things you’ll face in ministry. We also hit key questions again, so it was more interactive.

Here’s the powerpoint with my notes.

Here’s the audio:

I distributed a few good resources:

• David Powlison’s articles on Breaking Pornography Addiction part 1 and part 2.
• “Mapping your Private World” by Gordon MacDonald on Journaling.
• Jonathan Dodson’s Fight Club booklet, and here’s a blog to expand the concepts.

Week #14 – December 3rd

I only gave out one handout this week, and have no published notes because we took time to hit your list of youth ministry questions. We wanted to see that our theology of youth ministry and  philosophy of ministry actually make a difference when we talk about people who seem unwilling to change, etc.

Here’s the audio: part1 and part2

Here’s the handout of Counsel Questions from David Powlison and Paul David Tripp.

Week #13 – November 26

Your assignment – eat turkey! (and don’t forget to show love to your family and reach out to those who are in need, just like Jesus did).

Week #12 – November 19th

Alright, this week we spent time considering the meaning of pain and trials in our lives and the lives of those that we serve. We also invested time in thinking through how we spend our time.

Here are the lecture notes: Pain and trials, Time and Frog eating.

Here are the lectures: part 1, part 2, part 3

Here’s a handout on time management adapted from Mark Driscoll

Philosophy of Ministry paper

 Remember, the rough draft is due this week (regardless of what the syllabus says…), the paper is due Dec. 3rd.  Here’s a .pdf copy.

Questions that should have been in your syllabus:

• What is the goal of youth ministry, and what are the means you will employ to attain that goal?
• When it comes to youth ministry what are the foundational /relevant Biblical passages and principles?  How should your ministry be impacted by these?
• What is your plan to detect, develop and deploy leaders?  What is their role?
• How do you relate to those in authority over you (pastors, parents, other)?  How and when should you implement change when it may not align with their philosophy of ministry?

Other questions that you should consider:

Week #11 – Nov. 12th

This week we talked about what we need to know and what causes the gospel community to implode.

Here’s my powerpoint and notes

Here’s the audio from the session: part1 and part2

Week #8 – October 22nd

Midterm! Woooooooooo hoooooooo! Man, you’ve gotta love midterms.  We spent a bunch of time taking that test last week, and I am in the process of grading them.  I am sure you all did well (right? didn’t you?)

We did spend some time working on “How the gospel makes us family” and the implications for youth ministry.

• Here are my notes.
• Here is the audio of the lecture.

Hey, don’t grow weary, even with all of the test taking and papers that keep rolling in.

How is your soul and how are you feeding it?

This morning I was struck by this quote, “Faith feeds on the Word of God. Without a steady diet it get weaker and weaker. If you are dissatisfied with your Christian courage and joy and purity of heart, check the way you are feeding your faith.” (John Piper, Taste and See, p. 197) Piper goes on to compare our feeding on the word to our feeding of our physical bodies.  That made me think of an interview with Matt Chandler where he talks about caring for his own soul.

• What are you doing to keep your soul healthy?
• What affects your soul negatively?
• What practices do you need to implement to keep it healthy?

Week#7 – October 15th

Wow, we are halfway through the semester, can you believe it?  You’ve transformed before my eyes from  this “awkwardly quiet” group, to a group of friends that I am proud of and excited to meet with.  Thanks for investing so much in this class – I hope you are being challenged and learning a lot.

So Midterm, eh? As I said – open note and open book.  As you know – that’s a lot of pages to cover.  You’ll need to look over this info, and organize it in such a way that you can find it.  Don’t forget to bring: Oestericher’s book, Keller’s book, copies of the notes I’ve handed out, your notes, your bible, and something to write with.

And bummer of all bummers – we are planning to accomplish more than a midterm this week, so plan on staying after the test and working hard.  I just want to give you your money’s worth!

Here are the notes from this last week:

Here’s the audio files:

• Part 1
• Part 2

Here are links to the handouts:

• Keller’s Sermon Prep worksheet
• Our Youth Ministry’s Goal Setting/tracking tool – Report Card.
• An example of our leadership team’s agenda.
• Chapter 5 of Tim Chester’s book, You Can Change, entitled “What Truth’s Do You Need To Turn To.”

PS. If you’ve read this far, don’t forget the extra credit for the exam – “A Prayer for Exams”