May 16, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Music
We want you to be aware of a few ways you can partner with us in praying for Bob Kauflin, our director of worship development, and Steve Cook, our music producer, in their work on some new projects with Sovereign Grace Music.
Last week, they recorded tracks for a second Spanish album which will be a combination of original and translated songs. In addition to using talented musicians from our churches, two members from the band Enfield (Dave Zimmer on drums and Ryan Foglesong on bass) are playing on the album. Recording of overdubs and lead vocals started this week. Please pray for the recording process as well as health and strength for the vocalists and musicians.
Also, please pray for Steve Cook as he finishes mixing the live album recorded at the Together for the Gospel conference. The album will feature the voices of 8,000 joined in worshiping our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, singing ancient and modern hymns.
Both of these albums are scheduled to be out before September, and we look forward to sharing more details on each one when it is released.
May 8, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
Last week, Nathan Sasser, one of the speakers at The Clash in July, shared his answer to the question "what is a worldview?" Here are Nathan's thoughts on the difference between a Christian worldview and a non-Christian worldview.
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In my last post, I said that your worldview is the entire structure of your beliefs, a structure that rests on your ultimate foundational beliefs and supports your ordinary, everyday beliefs. As examples of ordinary, everyday beliefs, I mentioned my beliefs about (a) how to get to Smoothie King, (b) who’s going to win the election, (c) whether that guy over there is Bruce Springsteen.
Then I claimed that ultimately there are only two kinds of worldviews: the Christian worldview, which is founded on the self-revelation of the God of Scripture, and the non-Christian worldview, which is founded on anything else.
Here is a picture of a Christian worldview with God as its foundation:
The alternative to a Christian worldview is a worldview founded upon anything other than the self-revelation of the God of Scripture. Even Christians can have alternative worldviews, because true believers in Christ do not always make revelation the foundation of their worldview. Such people are genuine believers, but they don’t have a fully and consistently Christian worldview, as this picture illustrates:
The first worldview is founded on the self-revelation of the Creator. The second worldview includes a belief in the Creator, but it is ultimately founded on the human mind’s independent, autonomous ability to find out about everything.
Here’s why the difference between these two worldviews is so important. If someone asks you whether Christianity is true, how do you answer? If your worldview is ultimately based on the ability of humans to discover truth about the world without revelation, then you have to try to show how, for example, sense perceptions and science and logic all prove that Christianity is true.
But then, if someone asks you how you know that your own mind is trustworthy and able to discover the truth about the world, you will just say, “that’s the most foundational belief I have. Unless I assume that my own sense perceptions and logical capacities and scientific methods are reliable, then I have no basis for believing anything.”
However, if your worldview is ultimately based on God’s revelation in Scripture of who he is, what his world is like, and what he has done for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ, then you will answer differently. You will say, “my Christian beliefs are the most foundational beliefs I have. Unless I assume that Christianity is true, I have no basis for believing anything.”
On the other hand, if someone asks you why you think your own mind is trustworthy and able to discover truth about the world, you will say, “God created the world, and he created people in his own image with the ability to learn truth—if only they will think about the world in obedience to his word. Sin has corrupted our minds so they’re not obedient or trustworthy. That’s why we need the gospel—so that our minds can be renewed in the image of their Creator (Col. 3:10).”
So the big worldview question is this: who do you ultimately trust? God or yourself?
Check out The Clash on Facebook and Twitter to get updates about the conference, or register to reserve your spot.
May 4, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
Nathan Sasser is one of the speakers at our upcoming worldview conference, The Clash, and to give you a little preview of the conference, Nathan has agreed to share some of his thoughts on worldview. Here's what Nathan has to say in response to the question "what is a worldview?"
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People disagree about ordinary beliefs all the time: what’s the shortest way to the Smoothie King? Who will win the World Series or some political election? Is that guy in the airport terminal Bruce Springsteen?
When you want to defend your answer to questions like this, you tell people the other beliefs upon which you base your answer. So for example, you might say, “I know this is the shortest way because Google Maps says so.” Or, “I’ve tried both ways and this way took me longer.” Or you might say, “I think the incumbent will win the election because Americans tend to vote for the incumbent.” Or, “I know that’s the Boss because he exactly matches my memory of Springsteen.”
We can keep on asking these “why” questions: why do you trust your memory of Springsteen? Why do you think that Americans will follow the same voting patterns this year as they have in the past? How do you know that the shape of the earth didn’t change since the last time you clocked your route to the Smoothie King? If we keep on pushing the “why do you believe that?” questions further and further back, we eventually reach our most foundational beliefs, the beliefs on which we base all of our other beliefs.
Your worldview is the entire structure of your beliefs, a structure that rests on your ultimate foundational beliefs and supports your ordinary, everyday beliefs. This makes your worldview like a “house” or “pyramid” of knowledge.
If you think about this a little bit, it is probably obvious to you that not everyone has the same foundational beliefs about the world. In fact, if you think about it a little bit more, it may seem like there is an infinite number of foundational beliefs, and that might explain why there are so many different kinds of worldviews.
Some people aren’t sure whether they have any foundational beliefs at all. They are doubtful about all sorts of fundamental claims: is there really such a thing as right and wrong? Am I living in a dream? Isn’t everyone’s perspective biased?
But even the most skeptical among us don’t have a lot of doubts about what will happen if they jump off a bridge, or whether 1+1=2. What this shows is that everybody has some foundational beliefs that they don’t question, even if they’re simple ones like the belief in gravity or arithmetic.
My claim is that there are ultimately two kinds of worldviews: those based on the self-revelation of the God of Scripture, and those based ultimately on anything else—anything created. This changes not just how you think about your spiritual life, but how you think about gravity, math, the sun rising tomorrow, and whether or not you’re living in a dream.
If you want to find out more about the conference, visit The Clash's page on our website and start following The Clash on Facebook and Twitter.
May 1, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
Calling all 17–23-year-olds!
We’d like to invite you to The Clash, a 6-day conference that will explore what it means to develop a Christian worldview that impacts all of life.
The reason that worldview is so important is that there’s a clash going on in the world right now between rival worldviews. It starts in your heart and extends to the ends of the universe. If this clash between worldviews isn’t something you’ve experienced already, you are sure to experience it soon as a young adult in college or in the workplace.
The Clash is designed to equip you with a worldview that will allow you to worship and bear witness to Christ in every sphere of life and learning. If you choose to attend, we hope you leave with an increased understanding of what a Biblical worldview is and how it functions.
Registration for The Clash is now open to all young adults ages 17–23. The speakers joining us at The Clash are:
Wayne Grudem is Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary. He served on the committee overseeing the ESV translation of the Bible and was the general editor of the ESV Study Bible.
David Powlison is a faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. He has written numerous articles on biblical counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology.
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Iain Duguid is Professor of Old Testament at Grove City College. He has planted numerous churches, most recently Christ Presbyterian Church in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Jeff Purswell is the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors College and the editor of Bible Doctrine, an abridgment of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
Nathan Sasser holds bachelor's degrees and an M.Div and is a PhD student in philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He also serves as Jeff Purswell's teaching assistant at the Pastors College.
The Clash will be held at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. Sessions, rooms, and meals will all be on site and included in the registration cost.
To learn more and to register, visit The Clash's page on our website. And start following The Clash on Facebook and Twitter to get video updates, worldview quotes, and more.
April 30, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: General
As I noted in a post a few weeks ago, we have seated a sub-committee of pastors to begin the process of developing a comprehensive polity for Sovereign Grace Ministries and our member churches. This word, “polity,” has been kicked around a lot in our circles recently, sometimes without definition.
“Polity” is simply the stated rules of how an organization governs itself. For our ministry, we want our polity to grow out of a robust doctrine of the church but also to be useful and practical, creating mutual understandings of how we work together in those areas where Scripture is silent or lacking in detail.
The Board appointed seven men to the committee; you can find their names in the document linked below that was sent to all our pastors last week. You’ll also find in this document a description of the process the committee will engage and some parameters for their proposal, including some initial questions for them to address. One interesting part of the process is the Committee’s invitation to all Sovereign Grace pastors to present position papers to the Committee for their consideration before they write their proposal for the Board.
Please pray for the men on the committee and for their work. We in Sovereign Grace have enormous agreement on so much, but this is one area of our life together that must be defined. Please pray that what results from their work will further our unity as a family of churches as together we endeavor to plant and build churches together by the grace of God.
John Loftness
Chairman
Download the Letter to SGM Pastors Concerning Polity
April 26, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
The Gospel Coalition is hosting a National Women's Conference in Orlando, Florida from June 22–24. The conference, with its theme "Here Is Our God," will seek to help attendees fix their eyes on Christ with the goal of seeing him more clearly and serving him more effectively. Main sessions will focus on Scripture passages in which God reveals himself to his people, and workshops will discuss women living out their faith.
In addition to main sessions and workshops from many renowned speakers, Carolyn Mahaney will be speaking from John 21:15–22 at a workshop entitled "The Snare of Compare." The conference website describes her topic:
We'll consider the risen Lord's dramatic confrontation with Peter, in which Peter is called to face a future he would not choose but cannot change. Peter's first instinct is to compare—to look to those around him rather than to his Lord. How do we respond to challenges we don't want but can't change? The human temptation is to measure our lot against that of others. How can we turn this temptation to compare ourselves with others into a heart of gospel ministry to others? Jesus' challenging words to Peter can point the way.
For more information about main sessions, other workshops, and registration, visit The Gospel Coalition's website.
April 24, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
Together for the Gospel, which is led by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Al Mohler, upholds a list of affirmations and denials that span multiple theological topics.
The affirmations and denials are now available in animated video format. Below are two of the videos, and all of them are available on T4G's website.
Article I: On The Bible
Article XII: On Justification by Faith Alone
April 20, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Conferences
The extended deadline for Next early bird registration is this Sunday, April 22, so if you're interested in coming, take advantage of this final chance to get the lowest registration cost possible. We hope many of you will join us as we explore the topic of the church and its role in the believer's life.
Some of you may be wondering why you should attend a conference about the church, especially if you've grown up in the church and are familiar with it. C.J. Mahaney recently addressed these questions in a video:
April 19, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: General | General
From the Board:
At our recent retreat, the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board decided to relocate the Pastors College and our Gaithersburg office to Louisville, Kentucky. The move will take place in 2012. Given the significance of the decision, we wanted to communicate with you directly about how we reached this decision and share some of its implications.
Around 2008, our country’s economic downturn began to place a strain on SGM’s ability to do ministry in several key areas. Supporters (including Sovereign Grace churches) were broadly affected by the recession, and giving declined for several years as a result. In response, the Leadership Team made extensive cuts to staffing and other costs, while still trying to preserve the ability to fund church planters, train pastors, and serve our international partners. But there was a limit to how far cutting could go before church planting and other activity central to our mission had to be scaled back.
One program that faced particular challenges was the Pastors College. Even though the Leadership Team has been proactive about keeping costs as low as possible, the extremely high cost of living for the DC area set the base cost fairly high. This had several effects on our mission:
- Small churches could only afford to train a pastor every several years, limiting their ability to expand or pursue church planting
- Although Jeff Purswell wanted to explore a two-year curriculum, doing so would be prohibitively expensive because the main cost of attending (housing) would more than double (10 months to 22)
- Prospective church-planters from outside SGM, many already carrying debt from seminary, faced an enormous hurdle to attend the Pastors College without a sponsoring church
More can be said about this, but we hope that is sufficient background to illustrate why, for several years now, the Leadership Team has been considering relocation for the Pastors College and the rest of SGM. In short, our mission is to serve Sovereign Grace churches, and being located in the DC area was placing limitations on our ability to do so. The economic downturn raised the profile of that issue, and the idea of relocating is only further validated by the needs we now see to expand on—not lessen—church care, training pastors, and pursuing mission.
We don't want to give the impression that a move was a done deal even before the events of July 2011—it wasn't. However, this conversation long preceded these events and, for the reasons given above, it has been an increasingly strong likelihood for several years. Over the past few months, our staff has explored various locations for a potential move, including visits, demographic studies, many conversations, and much prayer. They shared this information with the new Board when it was established, thus confronting us with this question: if we were starting SGM tomorrow, what would be the main factors for determining location and where would those factors lead us?
Here are the main factors that led us, after much discussion, to approve this relocation generally, and to choose Louisville in particular:
- The cost of living index is much lower there, such that we anticipate up to 40% reduction in the cost for a student to attend the Pastors College
- The proximity to Southern Seminary allows us to upgrade our academic offerings, including opportunities for collaboration and potential transfer credit toward a Masters degree
- The lower cost of living also allows us to further reduce administrative overhead (although ours is already lower than the standard for non-profits), especially in the areas of office space (including the Pastors College) and staff compensation
- The more central location will make it easier for pastors to audit classes or attend preaching practica (Louisville is within a day’s drive for two-thirds of the U.S. population)
- Basing Sovereign Grace Music out of Louisville places Bob Kauflin’s team much closer to Nashville, where they can both learn from and help influence other spheres of Christian music development
There are three questions that we anticipate you’ll have immediately.
First, don’t we want the Pastors College to be near a Sovereign Grace church?
The answer is yes. However, another recent development will remedy this. The Leadership Team has wanted to plant a church in Louisville near the seminary for several years, and after speaking at a college event there in February 2011 C.J. began to consider leading the plant himself. He made this desire known to us when we were seated as a Board, and we approved the plant this month. Although this was by no means determinative for the Pastors College, this does mean that students will have the opportunity to participate in a church plant led by C.J. This will both facilitate CJ.’s ongoing influence in the college, as well as provide students a smaller church experience that will more resemble their ultimate ministry context.
Second, won’t it be difficult to replicate the benefits of having Covenant Life Church as a host church?
We do not want to give the impression that this decision was a no-brainer—it certainly was not. SGM’s setup with CLC has provided numerous benefits over the past 15 years. From host families and adopting care groups to event volunteers and its members’ hospitality, CLC has made a tremendous investment in the Pastors College since its inception. So, of course, this cannot all be replicated. And we want to thank the pastoral team of CLC and its members for these many years of faithful service and the fruit they have borne—the Pastors College would not be where it is without them. However, we believe that in the long run the Pastors College program will be enhanced, and all SGM churches will be better served, by this relocation and the benefits it offers.
Third, how will this affect the Pastors College calendar?
Although this relocation will require a transition period, we want to minimize any disruption to Sovereign Grace churches’ training needs. Therefore, we plan to host a new Pastors College class beginning in January 2013. The year will be slightly abbreviated, running January-August, with some parts of the curriculum delivered through other venues (e.g., small group settings). The following year’s class will commence in September, 2013, putting us back on a normal schedule.
As noted above, we are excited about opportunities this will afford us to collaborate with Southern Seminary, which will only enhance our program and facilitate further training for our students and pastors. The Leadership Team will communicate more details in coming weeks.
Please join us in praying for all those participating in this relocation. Despite the many adjustments this will entail, we are trusting God and hopeful that this move will position us for greater service to our churches as together we proclaim the gospel and plant churches for the glory of God.
Grateful for your partnership in the gospel,
John Loftness, Chairman
on behalf of the Board
April 18, 2012 by
SGM Staff
Categories: Audio messages | Conferences
Together for the Gospel 2012 ran from April 10–12, and this year's messages focused on the theme "The Underestimated Gospel." The general-session audio and video are available, so you can watch, listen to, or download the following messages:
- C.J. Mahaney, "When A Pastor Loses Heart" (audio, video)
- Al Mohler, "The Power of the Articulated Gospel" (audio, video)
- Mark Dever, "False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church" (audio, video)
- Thabiti Anyabwile, "Will Your Gospel Transform a Terrorist?" (audio, video)
- Kevin DeYoung, "Spirit-Powered, Gospel-Driven, Faith-Fueled Effort" (audio, video)
- David Platt, "Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions" (audio, video)
- Ligon Duncan, "The Underestimated God" (audio, video)
- Matt Chandler, "The Fulfillment of the Gospel" (audio, video)
- John Piper, "Glory, Majesty, Dominion, and Authority Keep Us Safe for Everlasting Joy" (audio, video)