April 5, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Preaching | Resources
C.J. Mahaney recently preached three sermons at Solid Rock Church that touch on surprising parts of Scripture. You can listen to them below, or check out his older sermons.
A Surprising Punch Line, on Luke 18:9-14
A Surprising Command, on James 1:1-4
A Surprising Prayer, on Psalm 88:1-18
March 15, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Books | Resources
The Gospel Story for Kids is a new church and family curriculum designed to help ground children in the gospel through using Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation, all in the ESV translation. The program is designed by Marty Machowski, a family life pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
This group of resources includes elements for church children’s ministry settings as well as for families:
- The Gospel Story for Kids Sunday school curriculum, which is being rolled out now and is already being used in over 200 churches, includes 156 stories (78 Old Testament and 78 New Testament) as well activities, coloring pages, and Scripture memory verses.
- The Gospel Story Bible is an illustrated children’s storybook Bible that can be used both in the Sunday school classroom and at home.
- Two family-friendly devotionals, Long Story Short and Old Story New, are great for using at home.
The goal of this program is ultimately to teach children the Bible while helping them to catch a glimpse of the gospel in each story. It is designed so that children who begin the program at age three will be able to complete the gospel story from Genesis to Revelation three times by age twelve.
Check out www.GospelStoryforKids.com to learn more about the curriculum, buy existing products, and keep up with news about forthcoming products.
February 27, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Resources
Our February Sale ends at midnight on Wednesday, so take this opportunity to stock up on discounted resources.
Some books are up to 20% off, Sovereign Grace CDs are $6, MP3 download sets and single songs are 20% off, and audio messages are 50% off. Also, we are offering boxes of 100 song sampler CDs at 50% off.
Check out some featured resources that are on sale this month, and visit www.SovereignGraceStore.com to take advantage of those deals and many more.
February 1, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Resources
Our annual February Sale is back, and many of the items at our store are discounted. Some books are up to 20% off, Sovereign Grace CDs are $6, MP3 download sets and single songs are 20% off, and audio messages are 50% off. Also, we are offering boxes of 100 song sampler CDs at 50% off. Here are a few deals to take note of:
You can take advantage of sales on these items and many more at www.SovereignGraceStore.com. All sales continue while supplies last.
October 12, 2011 by
Tony Reinke
Categories: Resources
Tim Kerr, the pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Toronto, recently wrote a trio of blog posts on the role of intercessory prayer in pastoral ministry. His series appeared on the Desiring God website and you can read all three of the posts here:
Tim is also the author of the free 196-page ebook Take Words with You: A Manual for Intercession (2010), a useful tool for intercessory prayers that echo Scripture.
September 7, 2011 by
Tony Reinke
Categories: Pastors College | Resources
We’re marking the launch of the new Pastors College class by introducing you to a few visiting professors from recent years. Last week we shared an interview with Dr. Andreas Köstenberger. Today we meet another intriguing professor, Dr. John D. Woodbridge.
Day-by-day, Dr. Woodbridge serves as the research professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he has taught since 1970. In the past, among many things, he has served as a senior editor at Christianity Today.
As impressive as details are themselves, they comprise only a slice of a very interesting life. Here are a few other facts I’ve learned about this man over the years:
- Woodbridge has lectured on French history, in French, at the Sorbonne in Paris.
- Woodbridge taught himself to play the piano and in 1965 he wrote a score he titled "Sans Vous" ("Without You"). The score was ostensibly stolen by a composer and used in the 1983 TV mini-series "The Winds of War." The theme song sounded oddly familiar to Woodbridge when he heard it. In 1991 a federal jury in L.A. determined that the composer had in fact plagiarized his song. High praise! He still composes (but not regularly).
- Woodbridge is a descendant of Jonathan Edwards.
- His grandmother was a first cousin to Woodrow Wilson and introduced Woodrow to his first wife.
- His father, Charles, served on the faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary in the very early days and taught church history.
- His father was a personal friend of J. Gresham Machen and served as one of Machen's trial lawyers. In his will, Machen left Charles with money and his personal copy of the trial records.
- His father led a World War II hero to the Lord. As thanks, the officer gave him Hitler's personal pistol, taken from the Fuhrer's apartment in Munich. With Maurice Possley, a Pulitzer winning journalist, Woodbridge wrote and recently released the book Hitler in the Crosshairs: A G.I.'s Story of Faith and Courage about the soldier who had accepted the suicidal mission to take out Hitler in his Munich apartment. The pistol given to Charles was later stolen from the Woodbridge family home in Savannah, Georgia, was sold around, and is presently in a private collection in California.
The Woodhouse family history is remarkable as Dr. Woodbridge’s gifts as a historian himself. We are grateful to have his experience and expertise in the Pastors College once again when he teaches Church History 2 (May 15–18).
A few years back we took the opportunity between classes to discuss matters of the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture — one area of his expertise (among many!). He is the author of three valuable books on this topic:
In the studio we asked him:
- What threats to Scripture most concern you today?
- What are the pastoral implications of the doctrine of inspiration of Scripture?
- Describe for us how inerrancy has been debated in church history.
- Who are some pastors in church history who functionally modeled a high view of Scripture?
- For a pastor who lacks a conviction about the power and authority of Scripture, what would you say to him?
You can download or listen to the 15-minute audio recording here:
September 2, 2011 by
Tony Reinke
Categories: Pastors College | Resources
This week classes began for the 2011–2012 class of the Pastors College class. And each year the PC curriculum includes classes by experienced seminary professors who are invited to teach on targeted subjects. Last year one of the highlights was hearing Dr. D.A. Carson lecture on the Epistle to the Hebrews to a room full of nearly 100 pastors from Sovereign Grace churches. This year we are honored to have Dr. Thomas Schreiner teaching a course on one of the Pauline Epistles and Dr. Steve Nichols teaching Church History 3 (a course that may or may not include a little history of Blues music).
With the start of the new year we thought you may be interested to hear a few interviews we’ve done with visiting lecturers in previous years.
Today we’re posting a conversation we recorded with Dr. Andreas Köstenberger, Senior Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology and Director of Ph.D. Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2009 he traveled to the Pastors College to teach a course on the Gospel of John, one of his specialties which is evident in some of his book projects:
- A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters: The Word, the Christ, the Son of God (Zondervan, 2009)
- John, in the Baker Exegetical Commentary series (Baker, 2004)
- Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective (Baker, 2002)
- Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John's Gospel, in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series (IVP, 2008)
During a break in his course lectures we pulled Dr. Köstenberger into the recording studio and asked him questions about the Gospel of John, its theology, themes, and structure. Questions included:
- What is it about the Gospel of John that has led you to do so much work on it?
- What are the similarities and differences between the Gospel of John and the synoptic gospels?
- What are some distinctive themes in the Gospel of John?
- You say that John uses different literary devices to communicate his theology. In what ways?
- How is the Gospel of John structured?
You can download or listen to the recording of the 20-minute conversation with Dr. Köstenberger here:
Here’s the audio of Craig Cabaniss’s message from the final general session of our WorshipGod conference, which concluded on Saturday. Craig is senior pastor of Grace Church (Dallas, TX).
“Gathering to Commission” (1 Peter 2:9)
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(RSS readers, you may need to click through to the post to stream the audio.)
Here’s the audio of Bob Kauflin’s message from the fourth general session of our WorshipGod conference. Bob is director of worship development for Sovereign Grace Ministries and serves as a worship leader at Covenant Life Church.
“Gathering to Edify” (1 Corinthians 14:1-33, Ephesians 4:15-16)
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Here’s the audio of Thabiti Anyabwile’s message from the third general session of our WorshipGod conference. Thabiti Anyabwile is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands.
“Gathering to Hear” (1 Timothy 4:11-16)
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(RSS readers, you may need to click through to the post to stream the audio.)