Articles worth reading

Over the last few weeks I've come across a couple of really good articles that I thought were worth linking to.

Living a Transformed Life Adequate to Our Calling, by Dallas Willard.
I was first exposed to Dallas Willard's writing about eight years ago. He's never been easy for me to understand (he teaches philosophy at USC). Still, I've attempted to read his books, and in doing so have been shaped by them. This is a 24-page article that seems to be his attempt at summarizing his previous works. If you've ever wanted to know more about the Kingdom of God, discipleship, or spiritual formation, this may be worth spending some time on.

We Aren't About Weekends, The Christian Vision Project's interview with Bob Roberts
Bob Roberts is the pastor at Northwood Church in Keller, TX. This church seems to truly understand why they exist. Roberts give a great explanation not only on the role of the church and its members, but also on the tasks of transformation and shaping culture.

Church & Culture Pt. 3

Catalyst just posted a link to the article I blogged on last week. There are some other pretty good articles as well. Here's the link.

The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

Link

IVP New Testament Commentary

The IVP New Testament Commentary is online. I've always liked this commentary set.

Some links I've recently come across

Leadership Network - lots of good (and free) resources
Church Relevance
Christian Vision Project - tagline is "How can followers of Christ be a counterculture for the common good?" Great question!

Evolving Church Conference

Here are some good notes from this conference.

Catalyst - Day 2

OK, this is a little late coming, but Mandy, Adam and I have been out of town for a few days. Here are a few notes from day 2 of the Catalyst Conference. Jason and I ended up leaving after the second session and missed out on the last two.

If you'd like to read someone else's reflections on Catalyst, click here.

Session 5: Rick McKinley & Donald Miller

Rick McKinley is pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, OR. Donald Miller is the author of Blue Like Jazz and is a member of Imago Dei. This session was really just a laid back conversation between these two friends. A few things I came away with…

Imago has two values:

1. Their primary identity is that of a sent people
2. The church is for the world, not for us

Donald has started the Belmont Foundation, which connects teenage guys with older mentors. Here’s a staggering statistic: “85% of men in prison grew up without their dad around.”

Here are a couple of quotes I found here. Both are from Rick.

“When we started, we thought that the city would be against us. When we began to care about the things they cared about, they had open arms.”

“When the church is on mission, there is nothing more transformational for the world. We are the leaders of the church, and if we don’t lead our people into mission, then the church gets misrepresented to the culture. It’s not size or programs – it’s just disciples on mission. It is our job to lead them out to get messy. Discipleship happens when we lead people out into the streets where God is.”

Session 6: Louie Giglio

It would be a bit cheesy to say that Louie Giglio is a passionate guy, but that’s exactly what he is. It just oozes from him. He was a little all over the map, but it was ok. His passion for Jesus and the church more than made up for that. A few notes:

God’s plan to save the world is the church. Again, there’s no Plan B.

The message of Jesus was, “The Kingdom is near.” There is some good in this message: authority, power, a kingdom, etc; but there is also some scary stuff in Jesus’ message: sacrifice, danger, and even death. We have to ask ourselves, “What are we getting into?” Further, “What are we calling others into?” There is life and abundance, but there are also times when it’s going to get, as Louie put it, “hairy and scary.” He said that the church should in some ways be the least safe place on earth. Danger is ahead. We need to be aware of this and we need to make a decision: Do we really want to take part in this adventure?”

Catalyst - Day 1

We wrapped up day 1 of the Catalyst conference a couple of hours ago. While it's fresh, I wanted to jot some thoughts down.

Session 1: Andy Stanley

He spoke from Daniel 4-5, on Daniel's encounters with Nebuchadnezzar and Beltshazzar. Both kinds were prideful and arrogant, and this led to their destruction, as well as to the destruction of Babylon. The key verse is Daniel 4:25. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that his judgment (he would go insane and live outside with the animals) was due to the fact that he did not acknowledge that the "Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes." Even though God's people were exiles in Babylon, this did not mean that God was off his throne. God would not allow His glory to be stolen even by a pagan king.

Andy said that if we believe this (that we too have been put in our places of leadership by God), then it should lead to us being diligent, fearless, and humble.

Diligent – We are in our places of leadership for a purpose. Therefore we should not be lazy. We should work hard.

Fearless – God put us in our place of leadership, not a hiring committee. We need to primarily concentrate on pleasing the Father. He will take care of things. Who do we have to fear?

Humility – If God put us here, He can also remove us anytime He wants, for any reason He chooses. He is definitely not dependent on us. Our leadership is temporal and must be stewarded. This is why men like Moses was ok with not being allowed to go into the Promised Land, why David was ok with Solomon building the temple, and why John the Baptist was ok taking a backseat to Jesus once he began his ministry. It’s not about us. It’s about the Father.

Session 2: Marcus Buckingham

Marcus wrote the bestseller Now Discover Your Strengths. The basic premise is that we need to quit focusing on how to improve our weaknesses and instead spend time developing our strengths. He said that it is ingrained in us to spend time working on our weak areas, and he said that this starts as a child. If your child brings home three “A’s”, two “B’s”, and a “D”, what are we going to tell him or her to focus on. Not the A’s or B’s. He went on to say that the overwhelming majority of adults believe that success comes when a person works to improve in their areas of weakness.

He has polled many people on the following three questions (taken from his website):

Question 1
What percentage of a typical work day do you spend doing things you really like to do?

Question 2
Which do you think will help you be most successful: Improving my weaknesses or building my strengths?

Question 3
When your manager discusses your performance with you, do you spend more time talking about how to build your strengths or how to improve your weaknesses?

Session 3: George Barna & John Maxwell

This session was actually divided up. The first part featured Gabe Lyons interviewing George Barna. The focus was on Barna’s controversial book Revolution. I’ve not finished the book, but the premise is that many people today are finding their “church” experience outside the normal boundaries of “church”, in things like house churches, online, and in coffee shops. Here are a couple of reviews of the book, one that’s pretty positive on it, the other not quite as positive.

The second part featured Andy Stanley interviewing John Maxwell. Andy shared that he first met John around the time he was planting North Point Community Church. John agreed to meet with him every so often to ask him questions regarding leadership. Andy wanted to ask him some of these same questions…this time on our behalf.

He started out where Marcus Buckingham left off – play to your strengths. He said that this is difficult when your ministry job description is children’s pastor, worship leader, youth pastor, etc., or especially when you are planting a church. As much as is possible, though, he said that we should begin working on this. He looks at leadership on a scale of 1 to 10. He said that most people can increase their level no more than two points. Therefore, a 3, if he works very hard, might over time become a 5, but that is still pretty average. On the other hand, if he works on another skill set in which he is a 6, over time he could become an 8, which is a lot better than average.

He made a great point that skill sets and competencies should not be confused with things that you choose. You can’t always choose to be a great athlete, musician or leader. As he said, you might go up one or two levels, but you’re going to be hard pressed to make anymore progress. On the other hand, there is unlimited potential in things that you choose (attitude, commitment, spiritual development).

He went on to say that we need to look at this when we are equipping people. It sounds bad, and actually unbibilical, to say that we’re only going to invest our time in a few select people, but if you think about it, Jesus did it. He spent most of his time with the Twelve, and among them he spent even more time with just Peter, James and John. He said that we need to spend time with leaders who have a 5 or 6-level gift.

The last question Andy asked John was the most powerful. He asked how he had maintained good relationships with his wife and children, when all around us we see ministers falling to immorality. He shared that in the early days of Promise Keepers he was asked to speak on the subject of Moral Purity. He found out the topic around six weeks before the conference, and during those six months he faced temptation like he never had before. He couldn’t explain why he was happening, and even wanted to back out of the conference, believing that he wasn’t fit to speak on this issue.

On the night before he was to speak, he asked his teenage children to lay hands on him and pray. He said that it was one of the most powerful things that he had ever experienced. (If you’ve ever heard John speak, you’ll probably have figured out that he was crying by this point). Before he got on stage to speak the next day, he felt like God said to him that he had been victorious, and it was time to share the message with these men.

He ended the time by praying over us. It was deeply moving, and I think we all felt the presence of God in the room.

Session 4: Gary Haugen

The final session of the day featured Gary Haugen, of International Justice Mission. I am familiar with them through our involvement with Hillside Church, who supported IJM. He began by saying that one of the saddest things in life is to realize you’ve been on a trip but have missed out on the adventure. He shared about a time when he was ten years old and was on a trip with his father and older brothers. They wanted to climb a mountain together, but because Gary was scared, he backed out and instead spent the day in the visitor’s center (not something you’d allow your ten-year old to do today).

He then spent the rest of the time sharing about the adventure they’ve been involved in, fighting injustice all over the world. He said that we don’t really understand true injustice. To us, injustice is being in the express checkout lane at the grocery store, and seeing someone in front of you with two more items than they are supposed to have. True injustice deals with an abuse of power. It is taking from a person that which God wants them to have. I encourage you to go to their site and learn more about this amazing ministry. They work to free slaves in parts of the world where slavery is illegal. He said that 27 million slaves, many of them children, are held illegally in the world. They also work to free children who have been forced to become sex slaves. He said that one million children, some as young as five years old, are forced into this type of slavery every year.

The question that must then be asked is: “What does God think about injustice?” The Bible makes it perfectly clear that God hates injustice, and that it is His desire to bring justice to the poor and oppressed. The next logical question is, “What is God doing about it?” “Does He have a plan?” He certainly does, and that plan is Us. We are the only plan. There is no Plan B.

We will continue discussing this as a team. We feel that this is a critical question for us, certainly for us as Christ-followers, but also for us as missionaries in our neighborhood. I believe that people are just waiting to see us become the light of the world in areas such as this. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that have no interest in our churches. More to come on this subject later.

That wraps up Day 1.

Thoughts from Rick McKinley's lab

We didn't attend this lab, but I found these thoughts about it online.

Catalyst Conference

Jason and I arrived in Atlanta tonight. We're here for the Catalyst Conference. We had a good drive, are both tired, and are looking forward to the conference. Some of the speakers: Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, John Maxwell, John Stott, and Donald Miller. Should be pretty good.

Chapter 1 - Reimagining Evangelism

A couple of months ago I posted a review of this book. Here's a pdf of chapter 1.

Link of the Day

Catalyst

This site, which is associated with North Point Community Church in Atlanta, has a monthly podcast featuring interviews with people such as Eugene Petersen, Andy Stanley, Rob Bell, etc.

I think I've listened to just about all of them. The last two interviews were with Louie Giglio and Chris Seay. They're defiinitely worth listening to.

Enjoy!

Seminary via IPOD

Many Christians wish that they could go to seminary, but just can't afford either the time it takes or the money. Covenant Seminary offers twenty-one of their MA classes for free. You can download pdf's of the notes and study guides, and download mp3's of the lectures. Or, you can subscibe to them as podcasts.

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Here's another link like this one.

Biblical Training

Robert's Top Ten (actually 11) church planting books

These are the books that have most influenced me when it comes to church planting.

Missional Church, edited by Darrel Guder
I read this a week or so after I finished seminary. I had actually been trying to make my way through it during the three years I was attending seminary, but I never made it. I guess it was a timing issue. The premise is that we in North America need to begin looking at North America as a mission field.

The Shaping of Things to Come, by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
I read this one in a couple of days. It is one of the most refreshing books I've read in a long time. The subtitle says it all: "Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century." Here is chapter one if you'd like to read it.

Resident Aliens, by Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon
We Christians here in North America no longer have some of the cultural sway that we once had. We are no longer the majority. Instead, as "aliens and strangers," we as the church discover a new kind of power that only Jesus can give.

Call to Commitment, by Elizabeth O'Connor
This book tells the story of The Church of the Saviour, which started in Washington, DC shortly after World War II. All of the books about this church are worth reading. We talk a lot about the Upward, Inward, and Outward Journeys. I first heard about these from this church.

Planting Missional Churches, by Ed Stetzer
This book covers some theory, but also gets into a lot of the nuts and bolts of church planting. If you can only get one book that covers a little bit of everything, this might be your best bet.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev, by Mark Driscoll
This is the story of Mars Hill, a great church out of Seattle. They started with just a handful of people a little over a decade ago, and now have over 4000 people, and the amazing thing is that they have seen this happen in one of the most post-modern and post-christian cities in the country. He's a funny man, but he'll make you blush at times as well - so be warned.

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, by Roland Allen
I first read this book in a church planting class in seminary. This was another book that I read in a couple of days; and, yes, another very refreshing book at the time I read it. He was a missionary to China in the early 1900's. One of the things that most impacted me about this book was his insistence that getting out of the way and allowing God to do what He wants to do is often one of the hardest things to do for a pastor or missionary.

The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by George Hunter
In this book Hunter compares the Celtic way of evangelism with the Roman way of evangelism, which has often resembled some of our methods. He describes the Celtic way as a very organic, holistic and missional approach.

More Ready Than You Realize, by Brian McLaren
I grew up being very afraid of evangelism. This was one of the first books I ever read that made me rethink evangelism. It caused me to go to the gospels to see how Jesus evangelized, and I came to understand that many of his "methods" would have caused a great deal of controversy for us today. This was very freeing to me.

A Theology as Big as the City, by Ray Bakke
I'm actually only about a quarter of the way through this book. I feel called to the city, and feel like I need to understand more before I am able to minister effectively. Bakke takes the reader through the entire Bible, starting with the Genesis account and ending with Revelation, and through that process extracts God's heart and plans for cities.

Church Planting Manual, by Timothy Keller & J. Allen Thompson
I haven't started this yet, but I've been told that it's one of the best resources for a church planter. I've just become aware of Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC), and have pretty much been blown away by everything I've heard.