Category Archives: Books

The Church’s Response to the Plight of Orphans

Posted by clintclifton on

Since our teenage romance my wife and I have imagined ourselves being adoptive parents. We’ve been changed by the gospel and compelled by the plight of orphans in Haiti and around the world. We’ve discussed the possibility many times but for one reason or another we’ve never acted on it. It could be because we we started pumping out kids as soon as the honey moon was over, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that our occupation and our stupidity has kept us near the poverty line.

But in 2010 when we got our personal finances in order and learned we could have no more children naturally. We decided to visit a friend who runs an small orphanage in Haiti and ask the Lord if He’d  allow us to be apart of his plan to realize the desire he’d given us so long ago.

While in Haiti we met two orphans that thawed our hesitations. We came home, with no clue how to pay for the adoption but an resolve do whatever it what it took. Within a few months nearly all of the money was in hand and our adoption proceedings were well under way.

Ever day we think about these two children, we pray for them continually and just like it was with pregnancy, we love them already. This week a worker at the orphanage sent us the following descriptions of their personalities and it made our week.

Betchina is sweet. I may even say that she’s the sweetest kid here. Her little giggle is just the best. She never, and I mean NEVER forgets to say thank you. Just recently, she had a bad cough (all the kids had it) and I would bring her medicine every night when she crawled into bed. Even though it didn’t taste good, she would always say “thank you!” with a sweet smile on her face. She’s such a lovely little girl! I’m really excited that you guys are homeschooling her because I think that it will be a good fit for her especially. She’s very shy. We just got report cards from her school and they told us that she knows the lessons, the problem is that she doesn’t like to talk in class very much. I guess the teachers will ask her questions but she won’t answer all the time. Sue and I were talking about it and how we think she will do really good doing school at home.

Jean is funny. He is literally the biggest three year old I have ever seen. He LOVES to be held. I feel bad for the poor kid because he’s so big that it takes more effort to hold him. I really think he would be happy if I just held him all day long. He’s so big that I can’t walk around holding him so he has to wait until I have time to just sit and be with him. He’ll walk up to me and mumble my name with his big puppy-dog eyes open wide and his arms up. When I pick him up, he just melts. It’s sweet. I think Sue needs to hire a worker just to hold him all day! He also has the best language skills out of any three year old I’ve ever met. He speaks so clearly and knows so many words. I’m amazed whenever I talk to him.

Jean literally will eat everything and anything. After everyone eats we always catch him licking off the trays of the highchairs and eating scraps off the floor. One time I gave him some lotion on his hands and I caught him licking it off. He cracks me up. So, to prepare for him to come home, put up all toxic substances where he can’t find them! Most of his spilled tears are over food. A lot of it comes from his personality I’m sure but he’s not the only kid here obsessed with food. All the kids here can eat more in one sitting than any American kid ever could. I’m discovering that it’s part of growing up in a third world country. Food is so important to these kids. Before they came to here it was a matter of life and death. While kids in the US are complaining about crusts, a lot of kids in Haiti are worried that they might not even get a next meal. I am sure that worrying about food is a habit that a kid doesn’t easily get over.

Our hearts are full of gratitude and joy about what the Lord is allowing us to participate in… but we see something that makes us sad… The American church gives special attention to the sanctity of human life each January but other than that it seems as a whole we don’t take much responsibility for the care of orphans. Meanwhile, our culture is snuffing out human life at a pace that is mind boggling. We are becoming increasingly aware that it’s the privileged and joy of the church to Display the Glory of Christ by responding in force to the plight of orphans.

Maybe you’ve considered adoption at one point or another but have been discouraged by the obstacles. I want to encourage you to do a few things in order to explore the issue further:

  • Read Orphanology or spend a few days studying what the Scripture has to say about orphan care.
  • Contact me or another adoptive family and learn about the process. (Clint@pillarchurchsbc.com)
  • Volunteer to provide foster care in your community.
  • Visit an orphanage like THIS ONE.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

65 Church Planting Books

Posted by clintclifton on

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People often ask me for recommendations of church planting books so I’ve decided to keep a list on hand. This list, although not exactly exhaustive does represent the vast majority of what’s in print on the subject today. I have not personally read all of these books, nor do I have plans to so please don’t view the entire list as a recommendation. The books that I have actually read are colored in red with my recommendation notated on a scale of 1-10. (1 being not recommended, 10 being highly Recommended) The books are listed in no particular order. If you know of a church planting book on the list please let me know.

  1. Planting for the Gospel – Beynn
  2. Church Planter – Patrick (7) 
  3. Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by Church Starts – Griffith (7)
  4. How to Multiply Your Church – Ralph More
  5. Total Church – Chester & Timmis (8) 
  6. Planting, Watering Growing – Hyde
  7. Church Planting is for Wimps – McKinnley (10) 
  8. Launch – Searcey (2) 
  9. Discovering Church Planting – Payne
  10. Planting Missional Churches – Stetzer (7)
  11. Planting Growing Churches – Malphrus (4) 
  12. The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting
  13. Viral Churches – Stetzer
  14. What is the Mission of the Church – DeYoung, Gilbert
  15. Starting a New Church – Moore
  16. Gathered and Scatterd – Halter & Smay
  17. The Forgotten Ways – Hursh (6) 
  18. Exponential – Ferguson
  19. Marks of a Messenger – Styles (10)
  20. Planting Churches in a Postmodern Age – Stetzer (7) 
  21. Lessons for New Churches – Fopp
  22. Planting Churches that Reproduce – Comiskey
  23. Church in the Making – Arment (6)
  24. Church Planting Movements – Garrison (7) 
  25. Global Church Planting – Ott & Wilson
  26. Planting Churches in the 21st Centuary – Murray
  27. Planting Churches Cross Culturally – Hesseigrave
  28. Keys to Church Planting Movements – Sutter
  29. Planting and Growing Urban Churches – Conn
  30. Church Planting – Murray
  31. Planting Churches in Muslim Cities – Livingston
  32. Planting a Family Integrated Church – Fox
  33. There’s a sheep in the Bathtub – Hogan
  34. God’s Passon – Calvert
  35. Street Crossers – Shrout
  36. Church Planting from the Ground Up – Jones (3)
  37. The YBH Handbook of Church Planting – McNamara
  38. Church Planting for a Greater Harvest – Wagner (3) 
  39. Churches that Multiply – Towns
  40. Reaching a Nation Through Church Planting – Harris
  41. Vision of the Possible – Sinclair
  42. A Biblical Church Planting Manual – Mull
  43. A Legacy of Church Planting – Miller (3)
  44. Indigenous Church Planting – Brock
  45. For the City – Carter, Patrick
  46. Be Fruitful and Multiply – Logan
  47. Church Multiplication Guide – Patterson
  48. Church Planting Landmines – Nebel (9) 
  49. The Purpose Driven Church – Warren (6) 
  50. The Master Plan of Evangelism – Coleman (10)
  51. Multi Site Revolution – Surratt
  52. Rediscovering Church – Hybles
  53. Church for the Unchurched – Hunter
  54. Confessions of a Reformissional Rev – Driscoll (8) 
  55. Branding for Church Planters – Dalman
  56. Extraordinary Leaders in Extraordinary Times – Wood
  57. The Art of the Start – Kawasaki
  58. Starting a New Church from Scratch – Searcy
  59. Doing Church As a Team – Wayne Cordeiro
  60. Church Next – Coffey, Gibbs
  61. The church planter’s toolkit – Logan
  62. The Missional Church – Guder, Darrell
  63. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? –Alllen
  64. Creating Communities of the Kingdom – Shenk, Stutzman
  65. 44 Questions for Church Planters – Schaller

Reververation

Posted by clintclifton on

A quote from Jonathan Leeman’s new book, “Reverberation”, due out Monday.

“The operations of God’s Word are not visible to the eyes. So pastors spend week after week in their studies hunched over books and older books, year after year in the pulpit filling their mouths with God’s even older words, but then look out and see the same old faces staring back at them. They wonder why nothing seems to change. Then they walk back to their offices, glance out the window, and watch as cranes half a mile away build the 5000-seat auditorium for the trendy new church with large video screens and boy bands. You can almost hear the sigh.” (from chapter 3) Check it out HERE

Spurgeon on Agressiveness

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“The Christian Church was designed from the first to be aggressive. It was not intended to remain stationary at any period, but to advance onward until its boundaries became commensurate with those of the world. It was to spread from  Jerusalem to all Judea, from Judea to Samaria, and from Samaria until the uttermost arts of the earth. It was not intended to radiate from one central point only; but to form numerous centers from which its influence might spread to the surrounding parts… The plan upon which the apostles proceeded… was to plant churches in all the great cities and centers of influence in the known world.”

- Sword & Trowel, Vol 1 April 1865, p.63

Helpful Packer Quote

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“God saves sinners. God. – The triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the father electing, the son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirits executing the purposes of the Father and Son by renewing, Saves – Does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies. Sinners- men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, blind, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners… Sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future is of the Lord, to whom be glory forever, Amen!”

- J.I. Packer, “Saved by His Precious Blood: An Introduction to John Owens’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ” in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 130.

CHBC Internship Conclusion

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As I have mentioned a few times before on this blog I have been learning from Dr. Mark Dever and the team at CHBC since August as a “virtual intern” Dr. Dever leads six interns each semester with in a concentrated theological and practical study of ecccesiology. I was the seventh wheel participating in some elements of the internship while excusing myself from others for the sake of my church and family. My experience was quite memorable and I will use this post to share a few of my the ways the internship was helpful to me.

First, Dever’s study is amazing.. and the hub for much of what Goes on at CHBC during the week. His study is in his home just a few steps from the back door of CHBC’s downtown DC facility. The CHBC has purchased most of the homes on the street fro the staff to live in. Dever leaves his back door open when he is in and a steady stream of traffic is up and down the flight of stairs leading to his study.

A few major benefits that came from participating in the CHBC internship:

  • Reading with Application - time will tell how much I retain from the reading and discussion… but unlike simple reading or studies in seminary the discussions of very old texts were applied to a modern church. And the implications were immediately discussed and compared in various settings.
  • A Transferred Passion – Although I never heard Dever mention this it is clear to me that he is intensely committed to training young leaders and pastors.  He spends an staggering amount of time with young men and spends hours each week reading what they have written. I want to mimic him in this area. I pray that as God grows our ministry that I will continually seek to influence young men who are called to ministry.
  • Normalizing Missions – By far the most interesting thing I learned from Dever and CHBC is how to normalize missions. In my church for example… we talk about going on mission & spreading the gospel all the time in hopes that as people hear about it they will grab hold and go for it. CHBC has successfully created a culture in there church where the people do the missions an ministry – not programs thought up by the staff. I venture to say they are having more impact on and sending out more prepared missionaries than anyone in the beltway but doing it very discretely.

My only regret is that I didn’t do something like this before entering vocational ministry. I will continue meeting at CHBC with a small group of local pastors each month and continue to learn from the ministry. I strongly recommend young seminarians consider applying to the internship. For those of you who are already in ministry 9Marks offers Weekenders and T4G. If you live in VA, MD, DC region and would like to go to T4G I am organizing transportation and lodging for a large group – If you are interested feel free to email me at clint@pillarchurchsbc.com.