A couple years ago I had a phone conversation with a guy I’ve never met and, in this life, almost certainly never will. He said things I’d heard before, but which, for some reason, took root like they hadn’t before. He talked about the tendency of American Christian men—particularly Baptists, and even more particularly Baptists from conservative circles in the South—to think we’re doing our job if we’re providing and coming home at night and taking our family to church. He made the point that we need to be actively—proactively—discipling our wives and our families, not just being good guys.

Darrin Patrick, church planting pastor in St. Louis, pushes that conversation a step further, offering some sober words for men regarding our responsibility to disciple other men and embrace active leadership in our churches to advance the proclamation of Christ’s Kingdom.

Lots of preachers talk about the centrality of the gospel in every aspect of the life of a Christian. But not everyone who talks about it actually explains how this is true and how it fleshes out.

Certainly, not everything that needs to be said can be said in an hour, but Tim Keller gives us a healthy push in that direction in this talk.

One resource that was on my mind much in preparing for yesterday’s sermon is Operation World, which is an extraordinarily useful guide to the state of missions across the globe. I haven’t seen this new edition, but I’ve been looking forward to it coming out so I can peruse the latest data.

Use it, and you’ll be introduced to people groups you’ve never heard of, and which themselves have never heard the name of Jesus. It’s a great way to lead your family in prayer for the nations. Christianity Today has a nice story on the new edition here.

And if you thought the two slides were helpful, you can download the whole “State of the Gospel” presentation here. Many more resources—maps and slides—available through the Southern Baptist International Missions Board for purchase or as a free download.

Last Saturday evening’s parenting forum addressed questions including:

• How our children’s ministry curriculum focuses primarily on the gospel, not conforming behavior
• How our elders lead parents and children to move towards baptism, church membership, and the Lord’s Supper
• How to explain difficult theological concepts in the gospel to young children
• What resources are helpful in that work
• How to encourage children to respond to the gospel without pressuring them
• How we should shepherd older children who’ve made a profession of faith, but whose lives give little evidence of biblical conversion

With Josh Turley’s help, DVDs of the forum will be available for checkout in the library this Sunday. If you need a copy to keep, or to pass on to family or friends, touch base with Josh or me.

Also, many of the helpful resources we discussed are listed and linked in a recent post on Juan’s blog.

Here’s a good word on ambition. The best part:

One great measure of our humility is whether we can be ambitious for someone else’s agenda.

It works for all of us, but I’m convicted by it as a pastor who’s fortunate enough to serve in a church led by a plurality of elders. And its particularly convicting for an associate pastor.

Bruce Ashford of Southeastern Seminary has written a useful series of blogposts on what watching a movie as a Christian looks like. He argues that we can’t be satisfied with ourselves if we merely avoid overt, offensive content. We also have to discern how the movie shapes the way we see our world. Does it help us see human culture as God sees it, or does it distort our judgment?

Here’s how Ashford wraps up the series:

The point of this series has been to demonstrate that Hollywood screenwriters have worldviews, compose their films from within those worldviews, and convey messages through those same films. These films both reflect and shape the socio-cultural context within which we live and minister, conveying messages about God, man, salvation, morality, and many other significant topics. Together with popular music and television the movies form an arena of discourse in our communities.

In light of this, those of us who are Christians (1) are obliged to watch movies with wisdom and discernment, being aware of the messages and moods conveyed on film; (2) recognize the power of movies as both reflections and shapers of our socio-cultural context; and (3) recognize that movies often provide an opportunity for us to discuss with others the hope that is within us.

It’s in six parts. The first is here.

I’m just starting to dig into William Farley’s Gospel-Powered Parenting, but it looks like a terrific tool to help us bring the gospel to bear in our families. Farley’s point is one that evangelical Christians desperately need to recover: “The goal of Christian parenting is heart transformation” (43). Far too often, our goal is transferring morality. And moralism kills the gospel.

Farley argues that parents can substitute many things for the gospel: techniques, therapy, and even . . . religion (50-51). In their place, he proposes seven ways the gospel affects parents (46-48). The gospel . . .

• Teaches Christian parents to fear God.
• Motivates parents to lead by example.
• Centers families in their male servant leaders.
• Teaches and motivates parents to discipline their children.
• Motivates parents to teach their children.
• Motivates parents to lavish their children with love and affection.
• Is the solution for inadequate parents.

Statistics from Pastor Juan’s sermon on the idolatry of sexual reminder were a chilling reminder to me of how early young people are being confronted with sexual images, messages, and choices.

We plan to offer additional teaching and resources in months to come to help you disciple your kids, but Todd Terry sent me this helpful link to some resources that may come in handy right now.

Christianity Today recently published its annual list of the previous year’s “10 Most Redeeming Films.” I’ve only seen the top 2 of the top 10, and none of “the ones that got away” on page 2. Though I’m not a big animation guy, I liked both of the ones I saw, and I really liked The Blind Side.

But were they redeeming?

Here’s how CT defines redeeming films:

What do we mean by “redeeming”? We mean movies that include stories of redemption—sometimes blatantly, sometimes less so. Several of our films have characters who are redeemers themselves; all of them have characters who experience redemption to some degree—some quite clearly, some more subtly. Some are “feel-good” movies that leave a smile on your face; some are a bit more uncomfortable to watch. But the redemptive element is there in all of these films.

Now, I don’t have a beef with movies that tell stories about people who turn their lives around or people who help others do so. I am concerned that we not misunderstand real, biblical, redemption, and I’m also concerned that CT hasn’t really helped us.

Here’s what I mean. Look at their definition. Do you see any problems with it? The one that leaps out to me is that their definition of “redeeming films” never clearly defines, well, . . . redemption. It assumes we already know, and I’m not sure we do. Frankly, I don’t see evidence that they do. The definition that’s implied certainly isn’t biblical redemption. Instead, it seems simply to refer to people getting their lives turned around.

Like I said, I’ve only seen two of the movies in the whole list, but they were the top two, and neither presented an explicitly biblical picture of redemption. By that I mean, the gospel wasn’t present. Was a form of redemption present? Sure, but ultimately, those movies presented a picture of people’s lives changing for the better wholly apart from the gospel.

I’m not arguing that we should only watch movies that present the gospel—certainly not. I am arguing that we, as consumers of media and art, need to be discerning as to what’s genuinely redemptive and what’s not.

Now, you might push back and point out characters in the Bible who redeem or experience redemption, without an immediate, explicit explanation of the gospel present in the text. And that’s true. But remember, when we talk about those stories and people, we need to be really careful that we not moralize their stories (“be like Moses/Joseph/Daniel”). Instead, we need to teach our families and our friends that these are stories of imperfect redeemers who point us to the only fully-sufficient Redeemer. We need to tell these little stories in the context of the big biblical story—the proclamation of the glory of God in the redemption of Christ.

These stories ultimately point us an over-arching story about God. They’re not a handy set of “how-to make your life better” parables. Recognizing that difference is the crossroads between a gospel that saves and a religion that damns. If we watch “redeeming films,” we need to remember that a person turning his life around is only good news, ultimately, if the gospel accomplishes the change. Otherwise, we’re cheering on an external reformation that only hides the symptoms of our depravity.

Give up on your dream of a kingdom with yourself at the center, that is. See Paul Tripp make the argument for marriage as a means to kill idols here.