The Briefing #358/9—July/August, 2008

Up front

• What makes you angry?
• Smell the coffee
• Preaching hell to depressed teens
• Wreck-conciliation or reconciliation?
• Can Western Christians even think ethically any more?
• Sola scriptura
• Nodding off
• Fire in the bones: Truly meek—D Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows us why the meek will inherit the earth.

Features

• The strategy of God—Phillip Jensen talks about the importance of strategy—and why our job is not to work it out.
• Ministry mind shifts—Colin Marshall thinks about how our approach to ministry would change if we took God's strategy seriously.
• Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 1): Why we don't—In the first of a three-part series, Stuart Heath argues that the Christian life is more than just having faith, it's about doing good. (Read Part 2 and 3.)

Departments

Pastor's brief

• The broken marriage of preaching and pastoring—Archie Poulos and Gordon Cheng ponder whether separating preaching and pastoring is a good way of thinking about it.

Bookshelf

• Duty first: Men: Firing Through All of Life by Al Stewart and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge—Tim Booker looks at two books which talk about what it means to be a real man.
• The Word Became Flesh edited by David Peterson—Adrian Russell looks at the importance of the incarnation.

Resource talk

• Blast from the only slightly recent past—Tony Payne discusses Mission Minded by Peter Bolt, a resource which can help you implement God's strategy for the world. (US link.)

Bible brief

• Daily readings on Habakkuk—by Craig Dobbie.
• Daily readings on John 7-11—by Simon Roberts.

Epilogue

• iPod, iSermon, iRighteous?—Nathan Walter explains why he's against people listening to more sermons.