Church
Ed Stetzer interviews Mark Driscoll for the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference) podcast. Want to know more about "the cussing pastor?" Want to know more about Driscoll's church, prayer life, struggles with sin, history with Emergent guys, or preaching? This is a great way to find out from the horse's mouth instead of the latest blog gossip. Great info. Very encouraging.
Grab it at the Exponential site, or on iTunes. The whole series of podcasts has been helpful.
I dunno, I thought it would be fun to put up 13 things worth looking into on this cold and rainy Thursday in Chicagoland. This is going to be pretty random, but I expect most of you will find a gem in there somewhere. In no particular order but numbered for your counting pleasure...
1. Dwight Schrute Video (via Marko): "selling paper, fighting evil." A hilarious, Schrutastic 2 minutes of pure Office-alicious enjoyment. Please use this opportunity to stay in touch with your inner Schrute, who "has the strength of a grown man AND a little baby."
2. Tim Keller Quotes: thanks to Charlie. Here's one...
If you speak and discourse as if your whole neighborhood is present eventually more and more of your neighborhood will find their way in or be invited. Why? Most Christians, even when they are very edified in church, know intuitively that their non-Christian friends would not appreciate the service. What you want is for a Christian to come to your church and say, "Oh! I wish my non-Christian friend could see (or hear) this!" If this is forgotten, soon even a growing church will be filled with Christians who commute in from various towns and communities far and wide rather than filling up with Christians and seekers from your church's immediate neighborhood.
3. Gary Rohrmayer says to look for a "Man of Peace."
Here are a few things to look for: 1) They are not just open to the gospel but they receive the gospel freely. 2) They are in a position of great influence over their family, friends and within the community. 3) They have the ability to introduce church planters into their sphere of influence effectively. 4) They are also great "bringers and includers" of others into the life of the church.
4. Dictionary Tooltip for Firefox. Love this extension.
5. Joe Thorn shamed me to switch my feed reading to Google Reader. Great recommendation. I've added a daily updated list on my left sidebar that shows what I liked from my feeds.
6. Convert your docs to PDF documents. "Very nice! How much?" Free.
7. After hearing Shane Claiborne on the Catalyst podcast, I was intrigued. Get it. Check out The Simple Way.
8. Ed Stetzer has some stats on the survivability of church plants.
9. Check out John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life video podcast. (via KC)
10. Have you seen the new Challies-ified Monergism site? Looks great, and of course it contains great content.
11. You may want to check out the Internet Monk's conversations with another blogger about Southern Baptist identity (you will need to scroll to find all of them). Some helpful stuff by iMonk. The other guy? Not so much.
12. We are just starting to use Fighter Verses for family Scripture memorization. You can subscribe to the podcast which also contains audio of the verses.
13. Saving the best for last, this is without question the greatest photo in Joe Thorn's portfolio...
Rodney Olsen, an Australian radio show host and blogger, let me know of an interview he did with Alan Hirsch on his book The Forgotten Ways. A very worthwhile interview.
I'm currently reading Hirsch's book slowly (I'm not doing enough reading lately) and expect to have a handful of posts up on the book in the weeks ahead.
A couple of important things in my life at the moment...
- My 8 year old, Jack, had surgery today. He had tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed. It has been a long day for us and longer for my son. He's resting now, my wife is off helping our local school find a new principal, and I'm preparing for a funeral tomorrow morning.
- Ed Stetzer, Darrin Patrick, and (by default) many younger leaders in the SBC are under attack from a Missouri guy named Roger Moran. Marty Duren has the details and Joe Thorn adds some helpful thoughts. Joe writes...
This appears to be a case of guilt by association. The gist of this man’s argument is that when we work with other evangelical bodies outside of the SBC we are endorsing everything anyone does or thinks who is also a part of that organization. Were this true it would create serious problems for many of our best leaders and professors who work with other groups who differ from the SBC but remain evangelical. The whole thing would be funny if this guy wasn’t serious, and wasting everyone else’s time.
Geez it's easy to hate us. Stetzer just nailed it at the Baptist Identity Conference and then we have to get this kind of crap. No wonder I get emails weekly from disgrunted young guys who either want to leave the convention because of stupid stuff like this or who thought about joining up with the SBC but have decided they aren't wanted for various silly reasons. I will post an email soon from one of those guys.
By the way, Union U has modeled something that much of the rest of the SBC doesn't get. Instead of screaming at and snubbing bloggers they embraced us, gave opportunities for their students to meet us, and made us feel welcome and appreciated. Maybe Union should secede from the Convention? ;)
- I just received three different packages in the mail today. One dude bought me a book from Amazon, Crossway sent me a book to review, and a well-known emerging church guy just sent me a pile of books (from commentaries to the very practical). I got 14 books in all today, all for free from generous friends. Thanks much guys!
Here are a few links for you...
Tom Ascol (of Founders Ministries) discusses the post-denominational time we live in and some research from SBC's Lifeway. Ascol proves again to be an important voice both in and out of the SBC.
The Internet Monk gives 5 reasons he doesn't use the word "inerrancy." He then spends an entire post using the word "inerrancy!" :)
Kent over at ChurchRelevance.com gives 8 steps to mind mapping. Here's an fun free resource.
The autism rate is now about 1 in 150. Yikes. My 8 year old is autistic, for anyone who didn't know already.
I met Drew Goodmanson last year at the Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle. Really good guy. I've had his blog on my sidebar for a while, but I just wanted to emphasize that Drew is doing some great blogging lately. Make him one of your "must reads."
Al Hsu continues some great posts on ministry in suburbia, including this post on the hiddenness of poverty in suburbia.
Joe has been taking some great photos lately, like this one.
It appears that Acts 29 has an excerpt from some Tim Keller curriculum up as an article. It's called "Clarifying the Purposes for the Church."
Here's a video sure to spark discussion on emerging church and truth issues, among other things. It's about Solomon's Porch: A Holistic, Missional, Christian Community, where Doug Pagitt (blog) is Pastor.
Do everyone a favor and do more than just react. Please try to be generous in your comments. You will likely disagree with some things.
(HT: Tony Jones)
I'm reading several books right now including The Power of the Hour (Lakhani) and The Forgotten Ways (Hirsch). The Forgotten Ways is a very interesting read so far. My worship team and I are reading Pleasing God in our Worship, a booklet by Robert Godfrey. Basic but good. Bob Roberts' new book is out, Glocalization. I've read his other book, Transformation, and liked it. Looking forward to picking up this new one. You should keep up with Bob's blog as well.
I also wanted to mention that a generous Amazon.com shopper sent me the New and Collected Poems (1931-2001) of Czeslaw Milosz. Awesome!
I just finished preaching a series of sermons on generosity. God's timing was amazing with this series and the events of my life. I then preached Psalm 103 last Sunday, will be preaching on being a church without walls this coming Sunday and on the need for small groups on the 18th. Then I start a series on the book of Daniel that should take us through to warmer weather (it's currently 1 degree with like a -10 wind chill).
In another study I do before worship on Sundays I just finished teaching through The Enemy Within (Lundgaard) and am now doing a straight-up practical series on The Organized Life.
I'll post soon on some really incredible things God has done for our family. Look for it.
The NFL has demanded a church not show the Super Bowl...
NFL officials spotted a promotion of Fall Creek Baptist Church's "SuperBowl Bash" on the church Web site last week and overnighted a letter to the pastor demanding the party be canceled, the church said.
[...]
Newland said his church won't break the law.
"It just frustrates me that most of the places where crowds are going to gather to watch this game are going to be places that are filled with alcohol and other things that are inappropriate for children," Newland said. "We tried to provide an alternative to that and were shut down."
Other Indiana churches said they are deciding whether they should go through with their Super Bowl party plans, given the NFL's stance.
My thoughts? You can't love Jesus and the Colts, so either the church is a cult or they are misguided on their choice of football team.
Seriously, how about telling the members to invite their lost neighbors into their homes for the game? Or how about going to your lost neighbor's house if they invite you?
Wow. Very interesting article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about The Journey Church in St. Louis and their pastor, Darrin Patrick. It's called, ahem, "Beer and the Bible." Darrin is a friend and someone who I think is doing an unbelievable job pastoring. They are associated with the SBC as well as Acts29 (Picture credits to the StLP-D).
It seems, according to the article, that there are some frustrations in the Missouri Baptist Convention because they loaned The Journey money to buy a building and then found out some at The Journey drink (like Jesus). The Journey has a regular theology event called Theology at the Bottleworks where they discuss all sorts of issues, and yes, some drink a beer there.
Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The Schlafly program is part of the church's outreach ministry. And it works.
Every month dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey's ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today.
Here are a few things I've read recently that you might want to check out.
Kent Shaffer: 5 Ways Your Church Can Build Trust In Your Community
Mark Driscoll: Twenty Leadership Questions for Building a City Within the City (including Driscollian chest fur)
Tony Morgan: 10 Signs You're Not Ready for Change
Drew Goodmanson: The Future of Spirituality and What Is After Postmodernism
Steven Furtick: Irreplaceable
Mark Dever: Baptists and Elders (best for Baptists who don't have elders)
Joshua Sowin: A Guide to Writing Well
Acts29: An Expanded List of Books for Missional Church Planters
ESV Daily Readings (I'm doing this one)
Dangit. Creflo Dollar is STILL more influential than me. I thought this was my year! The Reformissionary needs a strategic plan for taking over the world.
At least Frank Page (SBC President) beat Creflo Dollar. And with less bling! Of course that matters little when Phil "Big Idea" Visher beats the SBC President. I propose that the SBC should focus more on puppet ministry in order to beat Visher next time around.
Some places worth going and things worth reading...
Michael Spencer on Francis Chan's Gospel Presentation
Drew Goodmanson on Conducting a Church Missional Survey
NT Wright at CT: Mere Mission
Free Hugs
Fast Company on Creative Class Struggle
Pan's Labyrinth
Interview with Bob Roberts
One of the podcasts I enjoy is Catalyst. Recently they interviewed Rick McKinley and discussed kingdom issues, the gospel, his church (Imago Dei, Portland) and the Church, the emerging church & Emergent, and practical missional stuff. I've listened to it a few times now and it continues to provoke me in the right direction. Check it out.
I don't know if I've linked this before, but just in case here's Tim Keller's message at the Desiring God Conference, "The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in the Postmodern World."
It will cost you a few bucks, but if you want to understand art and "cultural creatives" you should get Tim Keller's message "Christianity and the Creative Age." This is a lecture given for the Redeemer InterArts Fellowship in September 2006. The Redeemer InterArts Fellowship is "for anyone working in (or interested in) the
fine or performing arts, design, media, or entertainment."
This lecture is helpful on consumerism, art & artists, the city, creativity and relationships. It's particularly helpful for pastors desiring to encourage a biblical view of the arts and, obviously, artists.
It's budget time at our church and Tim Keller's words are painfully evident. Ugh.
The smaller church by its nature gives immature, outspoken,opinionated, and broken members far more power over the whole body. Since everyone knows everyone else, when a family or small group of members express strong opposition to the direction set by the pastor and leaders, that small group’s misery can hold the whole congregation hostage. If they threaten to leave, the majority of people will urge the leaders to desist in their project. It is extremely difficult to get complete consensus from a group of 50-150 people about program and direction, especially in today’s diverse, fragmented society. Yet in smaller churches there is an unwritten rule that most everyone must be happy with any new initiative in order for it to be implement. Leaders of small churches must be brave enough to lead and to confront immature members in spite of its unpleasantness.
Tim Keller, "Leadership and Church Size Dynamics"
New article by Tim Keller in the new issue of The Movement (Redeemer's church planting newsletter): "Leadership and Church Size Dynamics." This is Part 1 of 2. Read the rest of the issue here.
Also encourage you to read the interview with J.R. Vassar, "Calling and Seduction of the City." He is the planter of Apostles Church in Manhattan, NYC. I met him in my first year of ministry in Colorado when he spoke at a college retreat I organized. Good guy.
In other Redeemer resource news, I noticed a few days ago that Redeemer has a Coaching Urban Church Planters book out from J. Allen Thompson. Should be helpful.
If I haven't linked to it before, check out the Redeemer Center for Faith and Work (yes, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, Tim Keller, etc).
Kevin Cawley pointed to a great collection of Church Planting Wisdom from young guys who are in the middle of it.
