DOUGLAS BOND 

Douglas Bond has been invited to speak as keynote at numerous Reformation and Church history conferences around the country; at several Ligonier Conferences; Symposium on hymnody for the Conservatory of Music, Saint Andrews Chapel, Stanford, FL; at schools and churches in Perth, Western Australia; in Uganda at two pastors and church leaders conferences; at homeschool events in London, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and (forthcoming) in Oxford; at Union University in a featured address for the Psalms Project, funded by the Lilly Foundation; as keynote at Fresno Pacific University's Christian Writers Seminar; several times now at the Biblical Worldview Student Conference (BWSC) at Milligan College, TN; at the Family Bible Conference in Washington DC hosted by Generations; at the Great Homeschool Convention (GHC) in St. Louis, and several times at the Christian Heritage Family Discipleship and Homeschooling Conference, Redmond, WA;  Reformation conferences for Church of the Open Door, Fort Leavenworth, KS; and forthcoming conferences for Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church, Simpsonville, SC.    

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Douglas Bond (profile/CV) frequently speaks at conferences and churches on a variety of topics related to the themes explored in his more than thirty books, including the Christian family in a hostile world, challenges facing fathers & sons, biblical manhood and womanhood, Christian worldview and apologetics, knowing church history and the heroes of the past as an essential support for Christian living in the church, the home, the world; and various practical addresses on writing and teaching writing to our children. Wherever he begins, expect him to make a beeline for the gospel of Jesus Christ as the foundation of all learning and practical Christian living, and that we and our children are both justified and sanctified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (see recent comments from nearly three decades of those who have sat under Bond’s teaching). Follow Bond at bondbooks.net, douglasbondbooks.blogspot.com

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Recent comments from attendees at events Douglas Bond has spoken at:

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"I commend Doug's knowledge of Church history. I've heard very few people who have

such an extensive knowledge of Church history and who really see it with all of the

important distinctions." TIM CHALLIES, author, book reviewer, conference speaker

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"It was such an incredible gift and challenge to me to see how Christ-centered you are..."

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"Douglas Bond is a great writer and communicator."

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"Words really fail me here - if only I had Mr. Bond's talents!  I am so incredibly blessed.

His enthusiasm for history and literature are contagious." 

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"Mr. Bond knocked it out of the park. He was the most engaging speaker at this event,

and, in my opinion, the best keynote addresses we've ever had."

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"Doug was not the best-known name speaking at this conference, but as far as I                                 Speaking roster at recent Ligonier Conference             

was concerned, he was the most interesting to listen to, had lots to say, and said it in

ways that made me wish he would keep speaking."      

 

 "Douglas has the rare ability to communicate effectively with young and older people alike. His knowledge of history and the significance and importance of intimate details was incomparable." Colonel Dan  Painter (retired)                                                                            

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THEMES:

1.     CHURCH HISTORY. Bond delivers a wide range of biographical sketches of heroes from Church history built around the 7 Biblical Reasons Every Christian Ought to be a History Geek. Imminently practical, these biographical messages are intended to build up the Christian family and home increasingly encircled by a secular world hostile to the Word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, biblical manhood and womanhood, and the Christian home and family. Fathers and mothers and children of all ages will be encouraged to a more stalwart faith built upon the foundation of the grace of the gospel as lived out by so many in our rich and fascination Christian heritage. Far from being dry lectures, Bond enthusiastically delivers fast-paced, Christ-centered messages, that are both practical and devotional. Examples: Augustine (and his praying mother Monica), Patrick of Ireland, The Venerable Bede, Peter Waldo, Bernard of Clairvaux, John Wycliffe, John Huss, Girolamo Savonarola, Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples (the Wycliffe of France), John Calvin, Martin Luther (and his intrepid wife Katie), John Knox, Hugh Latimer (The Bishop Martyrs in Oxford), John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, William Cowper, Blaise Pascal, Adam Smith (biblical economics 101), JS Bach, Scottish Covenanters, French Huguenots, English Puritans, Isaac Watts, Augustus Toplady, and a variety of hymn writers and featured hymns that serve as the controlling idea and outline for many of Bond’s messages.

2.     PRACTICAL THEOLOGY: Various addresses/exhortations/sermons on the many ways the Church corrupts the gospel in every generation. Drawn from Bond’s book of practical theology, Grace Works (And Ways We Think It Doesn’t), these messages demonstrate the numerous ways the enemy infiltrates and insinuates error within the gates, how he has done it in the church, the home and family in the past, and how the Christian family can be on guard against his devices in the present; Church history relentlessly teaches that the church and home do not need outside assassins; destructive corruption of the message of the grace of the gospel happens within the gates of our institutions, in our churches and pulpits, in our families and homes, and in our own hearts. These messages serve as a call to biblical vigilance in every generation.

3.     FATHERS & SONS messages are based on Bond’s two volume series for fathers to read aloud with their sons, STAND FAST and HOLD FAST. This can be in a single message or can be more thoroughly explored in a series. Fatherhood defined, illustrated; blessings and challenges; unique challenges for young men in a post-rational world of gender and sexual chaos; what standing fast means biblically; how to stand fast in Christ in a variety of areas (the table of contents in STAND FAST and HOLD FAST are laid out thematically and can serve as a way of selecting which messages are most appropriate and practical for the theme of a convention). The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood reviewed this series and concluded that the last chapters of STAND FAST are “worth the price of the whole book.” Bond has delivered this material in a two-part exhortation or address that can be entitled, The Doctrines of Grace for All Christians.

4.      HEROISM & TRUE GREATNESS. These address particularly emphasize the importance of a biblical view of heroism for today’s young people (especially young men): Augustine and other greats from the early church; Medieval greats: Bede and Caedmon, Peter Waldo, Bernard of Clairvaux; John Huss, Girolamo Savonarola; John Wycliffe; Reformation heroes as models of true greatness, including lesser-known Pierre Viret, Renee of Ferrara, Jeanne d’Albret, many others, all made great by the definer of servant greatness, Jesus Christ himself.

5.     ALL WRITING SHOULD BE CREATIVE WRITING: In these addresses on the craft of writing, Bond draws from more than twenty years of writing books, being published, writing published hymns, writing for periodicals like Table Talk and Modern Reformation, and being an award-winning writing teacher. Additionally, he draws from his curriculum for the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, which he teaches twice yearly on location at the oldest university in England. Bond has an adaptive series on writing lectures that vary by particular author: “7 Things [CS Lewis] Taught Me About Writing,” or CH Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Flannery O’Conner, Strunk & White, and others. In these lectures Bond elucidates important observations C S Lewis (and others) made about writing, taken from private letters, professional and avocational writings, and their lectures and addresses on the craft. Other age-appropriate lecture/discussions/tutorials for adults, teens, or younger people. These include historical fiction writing (Telling Truth With Fiction), non-fiction writing (the classic essay), and the central importance of poetry, “The Push-Ups of Prose.”

6.     WRITING POETRY & HYMNODY (from Bond’s Mr. Pipes series on Christian Hymnody, his Ligonier biography The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts, and Augustus Toplady: Debtor to Mercy Alone) with tutorial handouts, models, the historical/biblical relationship between Psalms and hymns, the anatomy of a hymn from biblical idea to finished composition, etc. See NEW REFORMATION HYMNS written by the author, the history, importance, and relevance of Christian hymnody for today’s Christian home and church; how to write hymns in Common Meter and in Long Meter, iambic and trochaic meters, etc. Discussion of contemporary music in worship, challenges of an entertainment model for worship today, and how we can prepare ourselves and our families to winsomely adorn biblical, Psalm-like worship relevant for today (and always, “from age to age the same.”)

7.     CHRISTIAN SINGING IN WORSHIP: These exhortations/addresses are drawn more than two decades of writing about sung worship, writing a series of New Reformation Hymns (now in the Rise & Worship album), and from Bond’s book God Sings! (And Ways We Think He Ought To) in which he holds the biblical ethos of worship above the entertainment ethos of what he calls the nightclub liturgy, the hipster cool Christianity preferred in the present moment; How Paul Solves the Worship Wars; Singing Psalms and Hymns in a Post-Poetry World, Best Hymns of the Last 100 Years, features on Martin Luther, Augustus Toplady, Isaac Watts, and many others.

8.   SKETCHES OF HYMN WRITERS & THEIR HYMNS: In these messages Bond examines the lives, the poetry, and the theology of many great hymn writers through the centuries: Watts and Alas, and did my Savior Bleed; Addison and Spacious Firmament on high, and When all Thy mercies, O my God; Timothy Dwight and I love Thy Kingdom, Lord; Anna Waring and Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me; Cowper and God moves in a mysterious way; Calvin and I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art, and many others, including New Hymns from the last 100 years; Mr Pipes Twenty-Years Later; A Healthy Church Sings Loudly; The Family Who Sings Together Stays Together, and others.

9.     FAVORITE BOOK TALKS: with readings from Bond’s books and Q&A discussion. Example: passages from Crown & Covenant on just war theory, when killing is justifiable, obedience to unjust rulers, other. Or from The Betrayal or Guns of Providence on lust and resisting temptation; or Hostage Lands, Roman Empire history, especially in Britain, Roman warfare, early Church persecutions, challenges posed for Christians in that pagan world, what we can learn about how to face the challenges in a world deeply devoted to irreligious (so claimed) secularism. The value of historical fiction in the study of history. Excerpts from Crown & Covenant Trilogy; gleanings from Bond's research for his novel on the life of John Calvin, THE BETRAYAL, now published in Dutch as Het Verraad. John Knox and the Scottish Reformation (Two volumes on Knox now available). Samuel Rutherford, and others.

10.     TO BE A CHILD OR NOT TO BE A CHILD: Based on Paul in I Corinthians 13: "When I was a child, I thought like a child...," this message examines the difference between being childish and being childlike. Jesus said that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This message is an exhortation to be, by the transforming power of the gospel of free grace, a child in the way in which Jesus meant. I explore the important differences between childishness and biblical humility, all by the power of the new birth. 

11.   CHRISTIANITY, CULTURE, and LITERATURE: Why read imaginative literature? Features from such notable authors as Shakespeare, John Donne, Milton, Daniel Defoe, Sophocles, C. S. Lewis, Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, Doris Lessing, others.

12.    BIBLICAL ECONOMICS: What does the Bible teach about private property ownership, implications to Capitalism, Free Market, justice for poor. Features on Adam Smith and other economists. Socialism/Communism explained and critiqued using Marx’s own words.

HERE IS A RECENT LINE-UP OF TOPICS/TITLES with brief descriptions:

1. Grace Really Does Work (and Ways We Really Think It Doesn’t): From Bond's book, Grace Works (And Ways We Think It Doesn’t). Rooted in examples from Church history, this address will demonstrate the various ways the enemy infiltrates and insinuates error within the gates of the Christian home, church, and family; Church history teaches us that we don’t need outside assassins; destructive corruption of the message of the grace of the gospel happens within the gates of our institutions, in our churches and pulpits, in our families and homes, in our own hearts. Practical call to biblical vigilance in every generation. (1 or 2 session option)

2. Why Every Christian Must Know History: Seven biblical reasons why, next only to the Word of God, every Christian family ought to diligently study and know our family history: Church history. Optional featured historical figures to illustrate the point: John Knox, Calvin, Bunyan, Savonarola, Huss, Wycliffe… (1 or multiple session option)

3. Writing With CS Lewis (and other greats): Explore important insights C S Lewis (and other literary greats) made about writing, taken from his private letters, professional, and avocational writings. An overview of lecture/discussion/tutorial that includes writing fiction, non-fiction writing (the classic essay), and the central importance of submitting to the writing of conventional poetry, “The Push-Ups of Prose.”

4. Poetry for a Post-Poetry World: Why and how post-modernity has destroyed poetry and why and how Christian families can and ought to be agents of the recovery of poetry. This address draws from my Mr. Pipes series on Christian Hymnody, my biography The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts, and Augustus Toplady: Debtor to Mercy Alone) with tutorial handouts, models, the historical/biblical relationship between Psalms and hymns, the anatomy of a hymn from biblical idea to finished composition, etc. See NEW REFORMATION HYMNS written by the author, the history, importance, and relevance of Christian hymnody for today’s Christian community; how to write hymns in Common Meter and in Long Meter, iambic and trochaic meters, etc. Discussion of contemporary music in worship, challenges of an entertainment model for worship today, and how we can prepare ourselves and our families to winsomely adorn biblical, Psalm-like worship relevant for today (and always, “from age to age the same.”). (1 or 2 session option)

5. Let the Historians Debate: How Ignorance of History Destroys Society: What is historiography? Everybody has one but few people today understand what historiography is. This address gives a rapid-fire sweep of how Western Civilization understood and interpreted history for 1,700 years, and examines the four subversive historians and historiographies that set us up for postmodern priorities. Augustine’s City of God versus Carlyle, Marx, Spengler, Toynbee, and post-modern eco-theology. (1 or 2 session option)

6. The Doctrines of Grace for All Christians: Why do Christians disagree about what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? a two-session address that The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood said was “worth the price of the whole book,” referring to my book for Fathers & Sons, STAND FAST In the Way of Truth. Convinced or unconvinced, come explore the major objections to and misconceptions of the doctrines of grace. (2 sessions)  

7. Huguenots, Covenanters, American War for Independence and Deism versus mere Christianity, others…

8. Bond is sometimes available for pulpit supply, and exhorts/preaches expository Christ-centered sermons from throughout the Scriptures.

 

CONTACT: For other speaking topic options or questions email bondbooks.net@gmail.com or call 253-381-1961. To listen to previous lectures/addresses/sermons in audio, click here. Listen to The Scriptorium podcast, Bond’s regular exploring of Church history, literature and art, current events, practical theology, Christian worship and hymnody, writing tutorials, and more. Follow Bond's blog by subscribing to this site.