The Briefing #342—March, 2007

Couldn't Help Noticing

• Bleeding heart conservatives
• Beyond abortion
• The offence of the truth
• Sheik's claims not so shaky?
• Driven to serve
• Removal from office

• WordWatch: Literally—Kel Richards thinks seriously about a much-misunderstood word.

Resource Talk

• Six more steps—Tony Payne chats about a new resource for firing up people to reach their friends: Six Steps to Talking About Jesus.

Flexing the church

• Reaching out without selling out—Shane Rogerson takes a look at Mark Driscoll, a young American pastor who is gaining a reputation for reaching the lost in new ways without compromising the old message in the process.
• The Nooma revolution—Phil Colgan examines these new trendy DVDs to see what they are like and why they are so popular.
• Briefing interview: Mark Dever—Mark Dever speaks to Tony Payne about the marks of a healthy church.
• Deliberately healthy churches—Chris Braga reviews The Deliberate Church and 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever.
• To usher with love—Raj Gupta explains why he thinks ushering is more than handing out bits of paper and greeting people.

Pastor's Brief

• Gathered to hear the Word: The corporateness of preaching—Christopher Ash makes a case for why we meet together physically in church.

Bible Brief

• Luke 1-6—20 daily Bible readings by Andrew Richardson.

Epilogue

• Anger that's not to be despised—Phillip Jensen shows us why not all anger is bad.

Web extras

In this month's web extras, find out what Mark Driscoll himself has to say about the emerging church, and read Bill Muehlenberg's review of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell (incorrectly cited as Phil Colgan's review in the print Briefing).