I have some friends who have been full time workers in Western Europe for the past several years. They are back on US soil now and have started a new initiative to help churches in the US do ministry effectively in Western Europe. These guys were huge receptacles of information for us during the formation of the Iceland Project. If you are considering leading your church to be more missional you should give Larry and Caleb a call.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Is It Pastor Appriciation Month?
Wow… Just got an email that one of the families in our church bought my whole family tickets to the Monster Jam truck rally. It’s the real deal at the Verizon Center! That’s a pretty unique way to tell your pastor you love him! But I definitely got the message!
Check out Monster Jam
Buy Monster Jam Tickets
UPDATE: A reader, Becky Porter, sent me THIS ARTICLE tonight. Please pray the family of a 6 year old boy who was killed at the monster jam tonight.
Continuing the Lifeway Conversation
It has come to my attention that lifeway is making some effort to inform readers of the unorthidox nature of the reading material that they are selling. A flyer featuring THESE WORDS are stuffed inside of books written by the following authors. Follow the links to see the specific theological faux pax.
The Shack by William P. Young: Book Briefing
Bell, Rob: Author Briefing
McLaren, Brian: Author Briefing
Miller, Donald: Author Briefing
Still no health and wealth guys on the list but I have to commend lifeway for making an attempt on this one.
Ranting and Raving About Books
First the Raves:
Wow… I have never read a Rainer book that I really got into, but today I picked up Surprising Insights and it was actually full of Surprising Insights. I can’t wait to finish this thing I feel like I’m becoming a better pastor by the minute reading this book.
Favorite quote so far: “Our research of over 4,000 churches in America we have seen clearly that many churches are abandoning the Biblical model of pastoral ministry. Instead of allowing pastors the necessary time and encouragement to spend time in prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4) congregations are demanding time and energy from their pastors for tasks that have little biblical foundation”
Second, Timothy Keller’s, The Prodigal God. Its a short read but takes a closer look at the parable of the Prodigal son. Keller points out that we have been missing the point of the parable to focus our attention on the Prodigal boy and shed’s glorious new light on the teaching of the parable. Well worth the read.
Now the Rants:
I’m a card carrying Southern Baptist. When my church planting buddies push me around for my support of the SBC I defend my denomination like a good Royal Ambassador should.
I am also glad that the SBC owns a huge bookstore chain that brings in boat loads of cash every year.
But I can’t understand for the life of me why we charge churches… the very churches we are trying to resource… hundreds of dollars for a single resource!? Take for example THIS ONE. Written by someone on the Lifeway payroll. Just the leaders kit is $200 bucks plus another $10 a book for each student.
Next, why do we peddle books and products that oppose our doctrines? Seriously, Lifeway’s CEO is the author of the first book I raved about in this post. Furthermore, SBC has some of the greatest minds in the Kingdom. Dr. Stetzer… can you do anything to help this situation? Why are we selling poo on the feature shelf in our million dollar book stores? Do we actually want our church members, or anyone for that matter to read, “woman thou art Loosed” or “Your Best Life Now” I was in Lifeway today and the Word of Faith movement was better represented than our own denomination. I’m all for selling something from outside the denomination… but not outside of orthidoxy.
I want to understand, please help me.
Christianity Has A Mecca
First of all, I fear that my recent decision to reenter the world of higher education will adversely effect my ability to be a constant blogger. I was hit with a major case of syllabus shock on Monday when I received my three hundred page course packet for my first eight week class.
Ok, now on topic… I have been thinking a lot about Louie Giglio. I have tremendous respect for Louie. We have never met but he has been a major contributor to the advancement of the cause of Christ in North America and for that we are friends. He has also been one of those guys who has remained seemingly humble despite his rise to prominence in Christiandom.
A few years ago my respect for him went through the roof when he used his platform with passion to encourage college students to transfer to schools in New England and assist in starting churches in New England’s major cities. Some Great friends of ours, Brian & Kim Metz, actually accepted this challenged and moved to Boston for a year!
In the last few months rumors have begun to float around about Louie and some of the passion crew (Chris Tomlin, Nathan & Christy Nockles and Matt Redman) are starting a church… Awesome! This is great news!
So the date is set, the location is chosen, the website is made and Atlanta is the home of Passion City Church
Here is my question…
Why Atlanta?
- Atlanta is the most churched major city in the world.
- Atlanta is the home to the largest number of church plants each year for the past several years.
I fear that Passion City Church will unintentionally rape the churches of Atlanta of thousands of passionate, Jesus loving youngsters that are desperately needed in their ministries. I’m glad we are going to have another great mega church, by March it will be the new, fastest growing church in America… But there will be a thousand church plants in Atlanta with buckshot through them.
I really wish passion city church would have opened in Vegas, New York, Boston, or DC or Philly. I am interested in your thoughts about this.
Family Shots From Christmas
Are You Kidding?
I just wonder if anyone finds THIS as ridiculous as I do?
