I know I am going to miss some of the blogposts in attempting to do this, so let me go ahead and make the disclaimer that i am in no way trying to leave anyone out! If you are blogging through the Puritan Challenge and I miss your posts, please let me know by either emailing me (outpostministries[at]yahoo[dot]com) or commenting in the post, leaving me the links to your posts.
This is my first installment in blogspotting The Puritan Challenge. I will be randomly adding more installments in the days and weeks to come.
* Andrew and Carolyn at Double-Usefulness have gotten of the blocks with three posts already. They are Meet Mr. Sibbes, a biographical introduction, The Balanced Mr. Sibbes, a glimpse of Sibbes godly counsel, and The Illustrative Mr. Sibbes, a compilation of Sibbes’ preaching illustrations.
* Jerry at Minor Mutterings has been rockin’ it out with posts on ten chapters already! Here they are: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten. Jerry, you are going to keep me very busy!
* Caleb Burnison (or it is Josh Gelatt?) answers the question, “Why Read the Puritans?”
* Mike Leake begins with a nicely outlined post including tailored discussion and “diamonds and pearls.”
* David at Presbyterian & Reformed provides an excellent memoir of Sibbes’ life from an 1809 edition of Sibbes’ Works.
* Justin Nale adds his thoughts on the first, second, and third chapters of The Bruised Reed.
* Kevin Rhyne loves the language of 17th century plain speaking prose as found in Sibbes.
* Terry Delaney is five chapters in and already finding personal application to what he is reading. Very cool.
Again, more to come. I am setting up my Google alerts and going blog-fishing, so be sure to lure me in with some good bait!
It is Josh Gelatt who answered the question, why read the Puritans? I picked it up from Steve at Banner of Truth’s blog. Sorry for the confusion. I’m almost done with the bruised reed enjoying it. I got one of the kids in my youth group started on the Glory of Christ. He read 35 pages yesterday and he said, I learned that Christ’s glory has been passed to us. I said yeah that’s exactly right. He said that those who do not have the glory of Christ are deceived and that they desperately need the truth. He said he feels pretty small reading it (I told him you are going to feel small when you compare yourself to Christ’s glory) but said he enjoyed reading it so far. He also mentioned how it has given him a foundation for sharing the truth with others. It was great to hear. So we might have another John Owen fan among us. Blessings.
Tim,
Thanks for the listing of my posts to date. As I mentioned earlier, they reflect my brief notes for my own remembrance but I wanted to share them with anyone interested.
In addition to my posts on the “assigned reading” I hope to also post more reflections from “The Valley of Vision” and other reading.
Ryken’s “Worldly Saints” came yesterday and I expect “Meet the Puritans” soon.
Thanks Caleb for the clarification. I could quite delineate if it was you or Josh answering the question. That is awesome news about your youth picking up Owen! As a former student pastor, I am convinced that the younger generation are overly entertained and under challenged. And many are looking for an opportunity so step up as seen in this case. Praise the Lord for instilling such an interest in this young man!
Jerry,
Very cool. I like the variance in format of everyone’s posts. I will be looking forward to your other posts on the Puritans as well.
Hey Tim,
Have you found an easy way to streamline all the Blogs that are discussing Sibbes work? I just got my book in the mail and would like to keep abreast to what other are saying but I hate wasting so much time coming over here and finding links.
Obviously, you have found some who have begun discussing—what have you done to find them? RSS feed? Any ideas on how to simplify and cut down wasted time searching? Sorry if these are dumb questions—I am still pretty new (only months) to Blogging. I am thinking of dedicating Friday posts towards discussion on my Blog. Any thoughts to share?
Thanks!
Jennifer,
I have done two things, both with involve Google applications.
1. With GMail, you can set up “Google Alerts” for whatever key words you want and they are sent to your inbox. I have a Gmail account exclusively for this purpose. My three alerts right now are “Sibbes”, “The Bruised Reed, and “Puritan Challenge”. Every morning, whatever blogposts contains any of these words come to my inbox, and I put them in a folder.
2. With Google Reader, I subscribe to whatever blogs that are posting on the PRC. Currently I have around 13 blogs that I am following, although I expect that number to increase as more people start posting. I tag all these blogs with a label which basically puts them in a folder for me. I then “star” whatever posts I want to link to and add whatever appropriate tags I think applicable.
With these two applications, I catch most (but not all) blogposts on the topic. I also sometimes will use Google Blogsearch and Technorati to look for trackbacks (those who link to your blog or a particular post). In all, I will spend about 30 minutes between these two applications, reading and organizing the data. That way, when I go to post, I can do it relatively quickly.
I hope that helps!
Thanks Tim.
I just created a Gmail account for this purpose too. I hate bothering you with such pidly questions. I appreciate you taking the time to answer and help me out! Hopefully, this will be helpful to someone else as well. Boy—-this PRC is stretching me in more ways than one! 🙂
So, at the current time I should be able to find @13 that are already discussing?
Jennier amd Tim,
Thanks for leading me out of the woods. I had the same problem as you had Jennifer and since I already had a gmail account, I just became had to become “alert”.
Tim,
Thanks for those wonderful pictures of Conrad Mbewe, Paul and Jeff. Jeff (with Voddie Baucham) was in Zambia last year speaking at a Reformed Family conference.
Jennifer,
Your questions are certainly not petty! If I had known them when I started blogging, it would have saved me a TON of time. These are things I picked up along the way or from more experienced bloggers who really know what they are doing (contra me!).
Yes, so far I have counted around 13 (including yours). The ones linked to above would be a good place to start, although I am finding more as the challenge goes on.
Rees,
Yes, I remember that conference in Zambia and Pastor Jeff telling me about the hunger of the Zambian pastors to learn about church discipline and other important marks of a true church. What God is doing there among you guys is really amazing. I would love to come sometime. A close friend and former roommate lived in Lusaka for two years as a missionary to the Bemba people group. His work and experiences there were really encouraging as well.
Tim,
What is the name of the brother that worked in Kasama? I could have met him. We have reformed conferences every year. We had a blessed time with Jeff and Voodie. Paul has been here a couple of times and he is dearly loved.
I finally posted my first Puritan post! 🙂 Woo-hoo. My book just got here and I’m already feeling a little behind. (not to mention my children got hit with the stomach bug) Still trying to get up to date with the G-mail account too, I’ll get it altogether soon, Lord willing. 🙂
(And a great beginning on the today’s discussion on P&P too)
Rees,
He was in Zambia from 2002-2004 and his name was David Kizziah. He was there as a Journeyman with the IMB (of the SBC). I will ask him if he has heard or ever met you.