Recommendations

Error message

The World We Made: Coming soon...

UPDATE: There’s been lots of interest in this podcast, with about 2000 listens from 30 countries and counting! If you haven’t subscribed yet, we’ve added a few links to make it easier for those of you who aren’t on iTunes, which is most of you. (Welcome non-Apple fanboys.) Don't miss an episode. Scroll down and subscribe now.

"These are the confessions of American Christians recovering from American Christianity. This is the world we made."

Warhorn Media is pleased to announce a new podcast hosted by Jake Mentzel and Nathan Alberson and featuring Tim Bayly. The World We Made is designed to help ordinary American Christians think through the difficult issues we face in our culture today. Season 1 is about homosexuality.

Over the course of the first season, we talk with Tim about how we went from having anti-sodomy laws in all 50 states (just 50 years ago) to where we are today. What are the changes Tim has seen in his lifetime? What exactly do they mean? What part did the culture play and what part did the church play? How are regular Bible-believing Christians supposed to respond? What has Tim learned as a pastor to help equip us for the challenge of ministering to men and women tempted by homosexuality?

These are the questions we'll be unpacking over the course of eight 20-minute episodes. We'll start out slow and easy, and things will pick up steam as we get closer and closer to the end. You won't want to miss it, so check out the trailer (above), and go ahead and subscribe now in iTunes or Android (or wherever you listen to your podcasts—Google Play Music, Stitcher, TuneInRSS feed) so you're ready when the first episode drops (July 17). 

android-button.png subscribe_on_itunes_badge-420x153.png


You are what you sing: real soul music...

Before the sermon this past Lord's Day, I recommended some music to the congregation. This is music that has strengthened me many years now as I read and write—particularly books and sermons. I don't know how weak I'd be if these musicians hadn't been strengthening me for this work.

First, the one group of musicians I have been strengthened by each Lord's Day the final few hours of study very early in the morning: Good Shepherd Band and My Soul Among Lions. This is what I listen to always and only each Lord's Day morning. 

First, "Glorious Things." This CD has some of the best worship songs we use in worship. Personal favorites are...


A good Christmas gift for fathers...

Pastoral care is not a high priority in the church today and it's hard to give it from a distance. The Apostle Paul did it through his epistles and most of the New Testament is simply the permanent record of pastoral care by pastors who lived at a distance from those they loved and led, done by means of letter writing in a day when texts, FB, and Skype didn't exist.

Daddy Tried is my own letter providing pastoral care to fathers.1 New fathers who year by year are welcoming their newborn sons and daughters into the world; and also old ones who year by year are welcoming their grandsons and granddaughters into the world; both ages of fathers are the men I want to encourage to walk their fatherhood by faith with love.

Maybe your husband or the men of your church lack anyone caring for them, personally, as they raise their daughters and sons? Maybe no one exhorts, admonishes, or rebukes them with great patience? Maybe no one encourages them to not grow discouraged at the hard, hard work...


Stone Gate Ministries: pastoral care for sinners...

Harry Schaumburg and Brian Bunn invited a group of pastors and elders up to Port Washington, Wisconsin, this past week. Harry is the author of two classic books written to help Christians on the road of repentance for sexual sin. The books titled False Intimacy and Undefiled are an extension of the one-week Biblical intensive counselling program Harry provides...


Fully Funded!!! Just a couple days left to get your advance copy...

 

I'm pleased to announce that the Kickstarter for My Soul Among Lions's latest studio project (Psalms 11-20) is fully funded. We're so grateful to God and to every one of you who has chipped in to support the project. Many thanks!!!


A thank you message from My Soul Among Lions...

With our 'Psalms 1-10' Kickstarter campaign drawing to a close (just 4 days left to go!), we're so thankful and pleased to see that God has not only allowed us to meet our basic goal of $9000, but also our first and second stretch goals, too. This is wonderful!

Did you know that every backer will be receiving at minimum a pre-release copy of the album? We're already oversubscribed, but if you haven't yet contributed to the campaign and you'd like to be among the first to receive the album, consider making a $10 or $25 pledge before this Saturday night in order to reserve yourself a pre-release copy. The album won't be publicly released until early 2016, but we hope to get it into the hands of all our subscribers by mid-november, in digital form at least.

Thanks again, everyone, for your encouragement and support! 


A Conference on Fatherhood in South Carolina...

Feminists have been beating on the Fatherhood of God for quite some time now. Their hatred for God our Father has sunk so deep that fatherhood itself is seen as unnecessary, at best, or destructively oppressive, at worst. The sickness of our homes, our churches, and our culture can be tied back to this throwing off of God's Fatherhood and the corresponding fatherhood of men. It is nothing less than a rejection of all authority and a loss of the blessings that come with fatherhood: protection, governance, and love. Our daughters defend our country; our wives govern our homes; and our children rebel without any knowledge of the severe love of their father. The damage has been done, but our Father in heaven still rules. He makes things alive even and especially after they die. Such is our prayer for our homes, our churches, and our culture. 

To that end, please help us spread the word about A Conference on Fatherhood with Tim Bayly, September 25-26, at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg, SC...

A Conference on Fatherhood with Tim Bayly

There is no higher calling for a man than to be a father, and yet we despise fatherhood. You, me, our culture—we don’t like dads. In fact, we hate them. We don’t ever want to be them. Where does that come from? How do we fix it? If there was ever a time to pray that the Lord would “return the hearts of fathers to their children,” it is now...


General Assembly attractiveness in the PCA: doing the impossible...

The fourth key issue identified by the PCA's Cooperative Ministries Committee (first, here; second, here; third, here) was:

Making the General Assembly more attractive to younger pastors and ruling elders.

General Assemblies, like elder board and presbytery meetings, are work sessions. If we try to lure men to attend GA by it's attractiveness we detract from the task at hand: doing the work of the church. For me, GA would be more attractive if we dispensed with the pre-assembly sideshows and seminars and immediately got to work. We could define ourselves by our actions rather than by talking about who we are ad nauseam (sorry, I like the sound of that drum).

But, since you asked, here are a few more things that would make GA attractive to me...


Because Moses was married to a Cushite woman...

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman)...  - Numbers 12:1

Preaching on Psalm 90 the first Lord's Day of the new year, I wanted to say a bit about Moses since this Psalm begins with the attribution, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God." At the time of the rebellion against Moses led by his sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, Scripture brings the account to an end with that wonderful statement that Moses was "very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth."

Wanting to explain the context of this high praise, I went roaming for commentary on the racism of Miriam and Aaron that was behind their rebellion...


Gift suggestions...

Need some ideas for Christmas gifts? Some recommendations...


You are what you read...

Years ago, my father-in-law, Ken Taylor, worked to get me to read Christianity Today. He suggested I subscribe, then tried to give me a gift subscription (which I declined).

An hour or so ago, my dear brother David Wegener left a copy of the November issue of CT on my dining room table, pointing me to a one-page article he thought I should read. I'll read the article, but only because I love David and please understand my love for David is very, very deep. Yet even in the throes of such loving deference, I still found myself a minute ago tearing the magazine in half and placing everything but the article in the trash. Why?

Jesus warned His Disciples—and thus us: "Beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees." I can find nothing that so precisely matches "leaven" as the editorial content of CT and nothing that so precisely matches "scribes and Pharisees" as the men CT promotes...


Book recommendations: Baxter's Reformed Pastor and Shusaku Endo's Silence...

It seems inane to say so when so many others have said the same so often for so many centuries, but having recently led our Pastors College men through Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor, I was reminded how central to the development of my work as a minister of the Word Baxter has been. After seminary, I read The Reformed Pastor, followed quickly by Baxter's Autobiography, and it's impossible to overstate the impact both had on my pastoral conscience and commitments these past thirty years. Page after page, I see my markings and marginal notes and think to myself, "that's where I learned that" and "that's why I think that way!"

Whether you're a deacon, pastor, or elder, if you haven't read Baxter's Reformed Pastor, buy it now and read it yesterday! Then preach on Acts 20 and you're good to go! (Or to sit down and mourn and cry and beat your breast and confess your failures to the Chief Shepherd, asking for His mercy and renewed commitment to faithfully shepherd Christ's Church which He bought with His Own precious blood.)

* * *

Speaking of books, I also just finished Silence by Shusaku Endo and recommend it to our good readers. (I was up staying with my brother, David, for a couple days and pulled it from his bookshelves, so thank David for the recommendation.) Silence is said to be the masterpiece of Japan's most respected novelist and the work is a fictionalized account of the great persecution Christians suffered in Japan during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries...


New version of The Gospel Blimp released today...

Speaking of books, if you haven't yet read Dad's Gospel Blimp, you really should. Written back in 1962 after two decades working in the parachurch world of Evangelicalism, Dad's parable remains quite funny and painful.

Good news! Today Clearnote Press released a new version of this classic. With an intro by Doug Wilson, the Gospel Blimp is bound with a full set of Dad's other stories/parables formerly published as I Saw Gooley Fly.

The title is The Gospel Blimp (and Other Parables); (Kindle), (Paperback), (Nook), and (eBook-Kobo). Later this week it will be available on iTunes.

It would be a great encouragement to the men of Clearnote who did the work of revision, proofing, and design if readers of Baylyblog were each to buy a copy. And, if you're willing, you could like, share, and/or comment on the announcement on the FB page of Clearnote Fellowship. Thanks.

* * *

BTW, for the foreseeable future, no Bayly family member will receive any royalties on the sale of this book.


An updated reading list on sexuality...

Here's a reading list of thirteen books on the meaning and purpose of the two sexes created by God—man and woman. It's been slightly reworked since it was last published.

1. Scripture, starting with these texts
2. Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House
3. Paul King Jewett: Man as Male and Female
4. Stephen B. Clark: Man and Woman in Christ
5. Walter Neuer: Man and Woman in Christian Perspective
6. Steven Ozment: When Fathers Ruled
7. G. K. Chesterton: What's Wrong With the World or The Thing
8. Doug Wilson: Reforming Marriage


Some good listening as you drive or cut the grass...

In response to a reader's comment requesting recommendations of free books to listen to, I threw this together:

I'd start with this page of Chesterton's works available free on LibriVox. Chesterton is an acquired taste that assumes some ability on the part of the reader or listener. If you haven't listened to him before, maybe I'd start with What's Wrong with the World around chapter 15 or so because...


Books that make you think long and hard...

Recently, Tim commended the works of E. Michael Jones to our attention. Several of us have been reading them, but I've been complaining about their high prices. So Tim wrote Mr. Jones, and he reports that a number of them are back in print and available from Culture Wars for much better prices than you will find on Amazon. A few samples...


On the necessity of reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments...

Thy words were found and I ate them... - Jeremiah 15:16

You accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. - 1Thessalonians 2:13

My dear children: Throughout much of our lives, we have read the Bible together. Why did we do that? Why should you do it on your own?

Reading the Bible plunges us into a spiritual bath...


Merle Haggard...

When I was in San Diego working for Youth Specialties, back when they published the Wittenburg (sic) Door, the Doorkeepers were Mike Yaconelli, Denny Rydberg, and Wayne Rice and Wayne had a bluegrass band named Brush Arbor. They'd opened for Haggard, so I bought a Haggard album and I'm listening to him now...


Looking for a church in Toledo, Bloomington, or Indianapolis?

Looking for a church home in Toledo, Bloomington, or Indianapolis? We'll put up a post about Christ the Word soon, but much of what is said here about Clearnote Church Indianapolis and Clearnote Church, Bloomington is characteristic of Christ the Word, Toledo, also.

CNBHomePageIt's hard to move and have to find a new church home. All of us have done it and those of us a part of Clearnote Fellowship want to make your work a little easier by telling you why we love our Clearnote churches in Bloomington and Indianapolis. So read on and spend a little time learning about the work God is doing within Clearnote Fellowship.

First, a few words about our doctrine and denominational roots. If this stuff isn't your brand of coffee, click through and start reading about our ministries.

ClearnoteFellowshipDoctrinal and denominational roots...

The roots of Clearnote Fellowship are deep into the Presbyterian Church in America: I've served as a teaching elder of the PCA in Wisconsin and Indiana for almost twenty years; six of Clearnote Church, Bloomington's elders have been members of PCA churches; son Joseph Bayly who pastors Clearnote Church, Indianapolis was a part of the PCA's campus ministry (RUF) and attended a PCA congregation while studying at Vanderbilt; we have referred many families moving away from Clearnote Church, Bloomington to PCA congregations across the country; and several sons of our church now serve as PCA pastors.

This to say the people of Clearnote Fellowship have decades of experience as members and officers of the PCA, so those of you moving and looking for a PCA church in Bloomington or a PCA church in Indianapolis will find the congregations of Clearnote Fellowship to be spiritual homes where you and your children will thrive. Come and visit our Bloomington or Indianapolis congregations...


Save the date for Clearnote Summer Conference (2012)...

IBGFACONFIf you’re a father or mother, husband or wife, pastor or elder or deacon or Titus 2 woman who has benefited from the work of Baylyblog, please mark your calendars for this coming July 6th and 7th, and join us for the annual Clearnote Fellowship Conference. Our theme this year is "I Believe in God the Father Almighty."

To those with eyes to see, the Fatherhood of God is everywhere! The Spirit of God witnesses that we are adopted sons of God by our hearts crying out, "Abba! Father!" Seeing God's Fatherhood writ large across His Creation is a radical vision that's entirely countercultural in our day of both father-hunger and father-hatred...