Reformation 21

This looks really good.  Reformation 21 is the new online magazine of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (ACE).  It is edited by Derek Thomas, and he explains the purpose of the e-zine in more detail here.  They explain the purpose of the e-zine as...

Reformation 21 is an online magazine (ezine) created to serve, edify, and educate Christians bypresenting an authoritative reformed perspective, while embracing various denominational positions, on a variety of relevant historic matters, current issues, and thoughtful positions that inform, inspire, and challenge Christians to think and grow biblically." 

They also have a weblog, book reviews, an archive of both new and older writings, and counterpoints that engage a cultural issues.

You can read a list of contributors which includes Alistair Begg, John Piper, Mark Dever, Paul Helm, Sinclair Ferguson, D.A. Carson, Al Mohler, and Jerry Bridges.

 (HT: JT)

12 Wonderful Years

It's our 12th anniversary today!  On July 24, 1993 I was married to Molly and we are in the process of living happily ever after.  I can't describe how much I love my wife, so I won't even try.  But I am blessed beyond measure.

Happy anniversary Sweetheart.

Cawley-Armstrong

Kevin Cawley has been chosen to portray Lance Armstrong in the movie about his remarkable story from cancer to Tour de France champion.  He will ascend mountains a little slower than Lance, but he is "larger than life" nonetheless and is a perfect fit for the role.

"Kevin can't fit into my shoes, but like me he is all heart.  I'm glad my life will be forever remembered through the unmistakable presence of this talented young man."
- Lance

Looking forward to it Kevin. 

(HT: Joe Thorn)

Almost Seven

Lance Armstrong will win his seventh Tour de France tomorrow and he didn't want to do it without winning a stage in this years race.  He won today's time trial, an exciting stage, and tomorrow will head to Paris with Champagne in hand. 

Honestly, I've seen more exciting TdF's.  More attacks, more doubts, more challenges, more crashes.  But this was one when Lance is not at his peak and still able to dominate.  Congrats Lance!

On Drawing Lines in the EC

Okay, let me openly say that I don't get it.  And things are changing fast with this situation, so let's think this through.

Frost and Hirsch of Forge have an internal paper that basically says, as far as I can tell, that the emerging church contains various groups and is very diverse.  They want to make clear that what Carson is dealing with in his book is not what they are dealing with in Australia.  They want to make it clear that they are more conservative and more strategic in their pursuit of church planting (CPM's).  I get it so far, but Emergent seems very uncomfortable with drawing lines inside the emerging church and have very aggressively/defensively told everyone to "stop it."

My question is, What's wrong with drawing lines inside the emerging church?

I have great respect for Brian McLaren, and things he has written (I've read a few) have helped me realize that people in the ec are asking the same questions as I have for the last couple of years.  I've realized others see the same problem issues in evangelicalism as I have.  It's connected me to a larger crowd and helped me be challenged beyond accepting what I've been told "just because."  I think there are some in evangelicalism who need to be confronted by his writings and realize where we are failing.  In that sense I am very sympathetic to the emerging church and McLaren.  He's one of those guys who challenges you by offending you.

But I also realize that McLaren and others are asking some questions that I'm not asking.  They are doubting some things I'm not doubting.  And I don't get that from Carson's book, but from my own reading and understanding of him.  So because of that, I think it's helpful and even necessary for people inside the ec to say that we don't agree with all that is being said inside the ec.  I think there is a need to draw some lines, even when we want to remain sympathetic to the ec as a whole.  Is that considered unacceptable?

I think Frost and Hirsch and Forge have acted in wisdom.  To go after them for drawing lines is, I think, to deny them the goal of being missional.  To be missional means to be incarnational in your context and culture, to understand local needs and issues and deal with them as the context dictates.  Incarnational ministry is not only incarnational to the world, but also to the Christians around us.  And if being incarnational in Australia means drawing a few lines inside the emerging church to show that Forge is different than Brian McLaren though they are all a part of the same conversation, so be it.  I think being incarnational in the U.S. may mean that for many of us too.

That seems to make a lot of sense to me, and it seems heavy-handed for Emergent to say that drawing lines for the sake of incarnational ministry (while still holding to a unity of faith and even of ec values) isn't good enough. 

Am I all wet or what?

Together for the Gospel

There will be a meeting of some of the sharpest minds and most passionate preachers of evangelicalism in Louisville next year.  The "Together for the Gospel" conference is coming.  It runs from April 26-28 and includes a who's who of mostly reformed types.

> Mark Dever is pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C and founder of 9Marks Ministries.
> Ligon Duncan is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS.
> C.J. Mahaney is founding pastor of the church that Joshua Harris now pastors, Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD.  C.J. now runs Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church planting movement of reformedish baptistish charismaticish churches.
> Al Mohler is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.  He also writes the world's longest blog, has a second blog, speaks at like a gozillion places a year, you know the drill.
> John MacArthur is long time pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA and teacher on the Grace to You radio show.  He has written too many books to list.
> John Piper is pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, founder of Desiring God Ministries which includes conferences, articles, books, sermons, curriculum, poetry, devotions, and trained lemurs.
> R.C. Sproul is the teacher of Ligonier Ministries which includes all sorts of valuable resources on philosophy, theology, biblical studies, and Columbo.

Please do yourself a favor and watch a video discussion promoting the conference.  It's really remarkable because you get to see Al Mohler make jokes (yes, he can be funny) and see C.J. Mahaney laugh.  If you have never seen and heard C.J. laugh you are missing out on a lot.  (FYI, Joshua Harris has spent way too much time with C.J. because they laugh exactly the same.  So if they are in the same room, it's really bizarre to hear.)

Am I going?  Dunno.  I've wanted to since I first heard about it a couple of months ago.  But I've heard these guys enough to feel like I can anticipate what they will say.  And if they were reading their response to my previous sentence would be that we always need a refresher on the gospel.  Yeah, I know.

Missional and Emergent

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, authors of The Shaping of Things to Come (I'm through some of it, good stuff) and leaders of a missional training organization in Australia called Forge, have come out with a paper (delinked, see updates below) responding to D.A. Carson's Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church.

I think this is a very helpful document.  It makes clear some lines between ec/Emergent stuff and missional.  I think I will have more to say about this at a later time. 

(HT: Andrew Jones- TSK and Andrew Hamilton, also read the comments on both as Tony Jones, National Coordinator of Emergent chimes in with an unfavorable reading)

UPDATE 7.21.05: Darryl over at Dash House indexes thoughts from Jordon Cooper, Alan Hirsch, and Tony Jones.

UPDATE 7.22.05: Andrew Hamilton has delinked the article and requested others do so while Forge rethinks what was said.   Curious.  My link is no longer available at this request.

Missional Book Lust

A lot of people read. Harry Potter books don't sell at 250,000 an hour for nothing.  The growth of the publishing industry and the rate at which books are sold in general is pretty astonishing.

Similarly, the popularity of book reading groups is hard to miss.  They are all over the TV.  Oprah made the idea freakishly common, then the Today Show added one as did Good Morning America.  You read the book on your own and then discuss them with local groups and on the internet.

Book reading groups are also in nearly every city and neighborhood in the country.  You can look for them meeting in your local bookstore, public library, or coffee shop, and they are advertised in many of these places while meeting in another location, like someone's home.

This has led some organizations to start aiding these groups because it helps their business.  For example, Barnes & Noble has a book club section of their website that offers help on starting reading groups at B&N stores and learning how to run a reading group.

And all of this tells me a couple of things.  I'm restraining myself to these two ideas, but I hope you will add to them.

First, people are hungry for more than just reading.  They want some sort of community and desire to share common experience.  We were built for community as the special creation of the God in triune community.  It's no wonder people are finding it through books which draw us into experiences that often ring true to our own and desires we were made to desire.  I believe C.S. Lewis said, "We read to know we are not alone."  Reading groups push that experience beyond books themselves and on to the very communities in which we live.  In that sense, books not only help us know we are not alone, but connect us to people who share life and experience with us.  Reading can create community.

Second, books and reading groups provide us with a great way to get to know our neighbors.  To read and meet with a group can be a fantastic part of missional living.  Often we find it difficult to start gospel conversations because we don't know people very well, or because our conversations are rather superficial.  But reading groups are already dealing with issues of life and death, truth and fiction, myth and reality, love and hate, revenge and forgiveness, and so on.  We get think and talk with those who need Christ about the deepest of emotions and most difficult life questions because books tell us stories about ourselves.

If Christians will get out of our foxholes (where we are shooting at the culture) maybe we will be able to build relationships with people in our communities who love to read.  We need to find where people meet and join with them. 

A word of caution.  We also need to be careful not to find every slightly open door and start vomiting Jesus all over them so that they will hope we don't show up the next month.  We need to respect the group time, share honestly about the book which should naturally lead us to speak in redeeming ways, build relationships that grow outside the boundaries of the group and will lead to much more than book lust.

We also need to start creating reading groups of our own.  I don't mean Left Behind groups where we try to pawn off our "Break Glass In Case of Rapture" post-rapture kits.  I don't mean groups of just Christians.  I mean start groups reading and meeting with people around us.  Start one on your street, at your coffee shop, or wherever makes sense for you and your community.

How else can we make reading a part of missional living?

Theology as Springs

Rob Bell, planter/pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and the Nooma DVD's, has a new book out called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  Rob uses the idea of a trampoline to illustrate how we should view theology.

When we jump, we begin to see the need for springs.  The springs help make sense of the deeper realities that drive how we live every day.  The springs aren't God.  The springs aren't Jesus.  The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping.  I would call these the doctrines of the Christian faith.

They aren't the point.

They help us understand the point, but they are a means and not an end.  We take them seriously, and at the same time we keep them in proper perspective.

[...]

Our words aren't absolutes.  Only God is absolute, and God has no intention of sharing this absoluteness with anything, especially words people have come up with to talk about Him.  This is something people have struggled with since the beginning: how to talk about God when God is bigger than our words, our brains, our worldviews, and our imaginations.
(22-23)

A few pages later he writes...

This truth about God is why study and discussion and doctrines are so necessary.  They help us put words to realities beyond words.  They give us insight and understanding into the experience of God we're having.  Which is why the springs only work when they serve the greater cause: us finding our lives in God.  If they ever become the point, something has gone seriously wrong.  Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.
(25)

What say you?

Denominations and Church Planting Networks

I'm a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination.  We plant churches because it's the job we all have to spread the gospel.  Our church gives money, some of that money goes to church planters who have gone through the proper assessments of our North American Mission Board and who have a sponsoring church and an acceptable plan, and then they go plant.  Simplistic, I know.  But something like that, anyway.

Often sponsoring churches are just typical churches who happen to know a young guy wanting to plant.  They at times can offer great support, but too often are struggling themselves.

Other denominations that plant churches in much the same way but with slightly different systems.  But what we all have in common is that church planting is one of our jobs, it's what we must do to be obedient to Christ, so we get at it and it's a good thing.

Denominations aren't the only people planting churches.  There are churches like Mars Hill (Mark Driscoll) in Seattle and Covenant Life (Josh Harris, formerly C.J. Mahaney) in Gaithersburg, MD who have started church planting networks.  These are Acts29 and Sovereign Grace Ministries (which C.J. runs full-time now) respectively.

I have never really understood how to explain these church planting networks.  I mostly just say that churches who aren't associated with a denomination have to find ways to plant some churches, so they are effectively their own denomination.  But now I see them as different and better.

David Garrison has written a much-circulated booklet on Church Planting Movements.  It's an important work on what it means to get a movement of churches planting churches who plant more churches that plant churches.  And the SBC's International Mission Board has taken on this idea that our missionaries are not out to get into a country or to a people group and stay there forever.  They want to pray and work to get a church planting movement going so it will sustain itself and the missionaries can move on and start again in another area.

That's exactly what I think the church planting networks I mentioned are, they are church planting movements.  They are local church founded and vision driven networks organized around doctrinal agreement and shared passion.  Denominations are often too much about internal maintenance while church planting movements are more pointedly about expansion of mission and multiplying churches.  Denominations want that too, but they do it more through systems and less through momentum.  Church planting movements are run by visionary leaders who have momentum.

Isn't that exactly what we see in countries like China?  A few years ago I had the privilege of meeting the founder of one of the several church planting movements in China.  In the movement he began there are several million people meeting in illegal house churches.  He had escaped to the U.S. because he was probably going to be killed by Chinese authorities.  But he didn't come to escape, he came to encourage us to learn from the Chinese Church and organize to help the Chinese Church from afar.  So I was able to sit with him in a secret meeting in Kentucky (his presence in the U.S. wasn't public info yet) and learn from him and think about what it would mean to have a movement in the U.S.

I think Acts29 and Sovereign Grace Ministries are the kinds of movements we need.  I'm happy for denominations too.  But our cold and calculating church planting systems are part of the reason that some 80% of all church plants fail.  Movements are doing better, I think, at planting churches that last because those churches are founded on momentum. 

I think instead of us denominational guys focusing on our denominational planting systems alone, we need to also latch on to movements.  The SBC is doing that in some places by connecting with Acts29.  There is some serious camaraderie between guys like Al Mohler and Mark Dever (SBC guys) and C.J. Mahaney (Sovereign Grace).  We need those connections, not just because we have the same doctrines, but because system guys need movement guys who are changing the world.

But I also think that we need in our local churches to envision starting more church planting movements.  We need visionary local church pastors dreaming about starting a network of churches.  Don't be content with your denominational system.  Start a church planting movement where you are discipling new planters and networking with them and planting more churches.

Missional Mann

Terry Mann is doing some great blogging on missional living in the suburbs.  Go read him on this: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

From Part 1...

A good pastor friend of mine has a shirt that reads, “Don’t go to church” on the front. The back reads, “Be the church.” That is being missional.

From Part 2...

Most of the reading you do on the missional church has a distinctively urban flavor. But that is not the only place where missional should come into play is it?

From Part 3...

A major “third place” in our setting is youth sport’s leagues. They are absolutely huge....Why should I not offer to coach a team? I have no children of that age, but it would still allow me to give back to the community without asking for anything. Therefore I became the coach of a girl’s under ten soccer team....One of “my girls” was injured at home one day. When her mom informed me of the injury, I told her that I would pray for her. I later found out that that simple statement was HUGE for that girl. They knew I was a pastor, although I never did flaunt it, so she asked her mother if she thought I really would pray for her. Her mom said, “yes,” and well . . . I did. In so doing a relational connection was built. I may or may not ever see the fruit of that, but I am convinced it will bear fruit. After all, I am not the only instrument God has at work in this equation.

Mohler and Emerging Church

While I was on vacation Al Mohler decided to put up two consecutive articles on the emerging church: part one and part two.  I think he was trying to slip them past me. :)  My responses are intended to be reflections on what I read, not a response to him or a rebuttal. 

As others have noted, Mohler spends most of his time rehashing much of Don Carson's book on the emerging church (ec).  That's fine, and much of what Carson says is helpful.  But in Mohler's articles, like in most anti-ec stuff, it comes down to what McLaren says vs. historic Christian doctrine.  That's a bit unfair.  There's room for a discussion on McLaren and doctrine, but let's just not imply that McLaren speaks for the ec.

I guess what I'm thinking is that for Mohler and Carson all their critique of the ec is based on their critique of postmodernism, as if the ec is about a wholesale commitment to being pomo.  I understand the idea of being ec as being aware of postmodernism in culture and communicating clearly in their vernacular.  I could be wrong, and am happy to discuss this.  I also know that not all ec'rs have the same convictions on this.

So Mohler will say things like...

By denying that truth is propositional, Emerging Church theorists avoid and renounce any responsibility to defend many of the doctrines long considered essential to the Christian faith.

I'm happy to admit that some in the ec have greatly downplayed propositions, but mostly in response to an evangelicalism that wrongly has made propositions the truest truth.  The Bible is the truest truth we have and proposition are a way of verbalizing theology as we study the truth.  More on propositions in a bit.

Mohler writes...

I am constantly confronted by young pastors who identify themselves with the Emerging Church movement but deny that they associate themselves with the aberrant theological impulses and outright doctrinal denials that characterize the writings of the movement's most well-known and influential leaders.

I completely agree with D. A. Carson when he reflects: "I would feel much less worried about the directions being taken by other Emerging Church leaders if these leaders would rise up and call McLaren and Chalke to account where they have clearly abandoned what the Bible actually says."

I think the issue is that Mohler and Carson take everyone sympathetic to the ec and make them McLarenites who must deny the heresies of their highly exalted leader.  Who says you can't be sympathetic to the ec and disagree with McLaren?  Mohler and Carson have worked hard to broadbrush here, but I just don't see it.  They want clean lines at all times dividing the good and bad, the true and false.  But the Reformation included some fuzzy boundaries for a while, didn't it?  We need to be aware that it's okay for things to be fuzzy for a while on some things (not all) for real change to happen.  And even Mohler admits that evangelicalism needs to look at changing.  More coming on that below.

Let me say that it would be nice to hear Mohler rejoice that some ec'rs are happy to reject what's wrong with some theology the ec.  Why not give these young leaders credit?  Why not be excited that there is evidence that bad theology isn't just being swallowed by ec'rs?  Why not see this as evidence that Mohler and Carson's determinations on the ec as this postmodern, truth-denying, proposition-denying, foundation-denying community is not exactly what they thought?  I would think this would make Mohler take a fresh look and wonder if his initial assessment of the ec is less than right on.

Mohler finishes the final post with....

The real question is this: will the future leaders of the Emerging Church acknowledge that, while truth is always more than propositional, it is never less? Will they come to affirm that a core of non-negotiable doctrines constitutes a necessary set of boundaries to authentic Christian faith? Will they embrace an understanding of Christianity that reforms the evangelical movement without denying its virtues?

This is the first thing Mohler has done that I know of where he actually seems to want an answer.  I hope that is his intention, because until now I think he has worked so hard to scold that he is losing any influence he had.  Here I think he is more helpful.  I think the questions are good.

At the same time, the tables must be turned. Will evangelicals be willing to direct hard and honest critical analysis at our own cultural embeddedness, intellectual faults, and organizational hubris?

Fantastic.  Finally the concerns of the ec are being addressed by one of the most eloquent spokesmen of the evangelical world.  With that, I think Mohler's articles deserve to be reread and reheard and reseen with a little more openness because he is taking the pointing finger of judgment and turning it at least a little bit inward on evangelicals. 

Shoot, more like this and we may actually get somewhere.  This is the best of Mohler we have on the ec to date.

George Hincapie

I'm a big Tour de France fan, as some of you know.  I cheer out-loud at my TV when Lance Armstrong is taking on the mountains and Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso and the rest.  But today was a special day for someone else, another American rider on Lance's team. 

Long time teammate of Lance, George Hincapie, was on an early breakaway at the front of the race.  He was in a group of 14 riders, and then some dropped off in the mountains, and then more dropped.  Finally George and Oscar Pereiro (Team Phonak) were left alone for the last few kilometers.  George out sprinted Pereiro for the win in today's stage, which was considered the hardest stage of this year's TdF.

Hincapie is known as the lieutenant of Armstrong, not someone trying to win a stage.  He races to win in classics, which are one day races held in the spring.  During the Tour his job is to help Lance stay protected and toward the front of the peloton (the peloton is the main group of riders).  He basically does a lot of hard racing every July just to prepare Lance for victory.  But because Lance was doing fine in the overall TdF standings (he will likely win now) and because George had a chance to try to win, the team told him to go for it. 

It was a great day for Hincapie, for American cycling fans, and for anyone who has any idea how hard Hincapie works for the success of someone else.  It was George's day, and I was glad to experience it.

Bright Eyes: Lua

Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) does more than just sing on Leno about President Bush.  He also writes some gripping songs, including some powerful ones from his album "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning."

You can get "Lua" here as offered free from the Bright Eyes site.  Click to listen, or right click and "save as" to download it.

"Lua" by Conor Oberst

I know that it is freezing but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxis; they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actor’s west side loft
Supplies are endless in the evening; by the morning they’ll be gone.

When everything gets lonely I can be my own best friend
I get a coffee and the paper; have my own conversations
With the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like s**t.

I know you have a heavy heart; I can feel it when we kiss
So many men much stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it
But me I’m not a gamble you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning won’t exist.

You’re looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
You just keep going to the bathroom always say you’ll be right back
Well it takes one to know one, kid, I think you’ve got it bad
But what’s so easy in the evening, by the morning is such a drag.

I’ve got a flask inside my pocket we can share it on the train
If you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
We might die from medication, but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening, by the morning seems insane.

And I’m not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away but the feeling never did
It’s not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight, by the morning never is
What’s so simple in the moonlight, now is so complicated
What’s so simple in the moonlight, so simple in the moonlight
So simple in the moonlight

When the President Talks to God

Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) was on Leno in May.  The video of his performance is online and I encourage you to watch it.  It's called "When the President Talks to God." 

If you haven't heard or watched it, some of you are about to be seriously offended.  Others of you will be sympathetic to his views.  Still others will like what he says but not be happy with his approach.

Honestly, I couldn't care less to discuss the politics of his ideas.  I'd rather think and talk about how we listen (or not) to what he says.  I'd rather discuss what it means to hear what a person is really saying regardless of the rightness or wrongness of their views.

So watch the video.  The lyrics are available at the above link too (though you won't miss them on the video), and let me know what you think.

Less Corporate Coffee

I like Starbucks.  I like Caribou Coffee better, but there isn't one near enough to visit frequently.  But I also think it's helpful to find good independent coffee shops and support our local businesses.  Delocator.net is a place where you find these coffee shops with a zip code and a click.  From the site...

Cafés are vital social outposts that have historically provided subjective, social, local, and at times, irrational interaction, inspiration, and nourishment to artists, hipsters, musicians, activists, intellectuals, radicals, and others alike. Currently, independently owned cafés around the world are under aggressive attack; and their numbers  have been sharply decreasing for many years. Delocator.net is a means  to preserve these local businesses.

Top 50 Influencial Churches

The Church Report lists their top 50 most influencial churches. (HT: JT) Here are the ones I think are worth mentioning in categories of my own design.  Meant to be funny guys.  I'd love to hear some of your own categories.

The sarcastic "Oh really? They make the list?" goes to..
1. Saddleback - Rick Warren
2. Willow Creek - Bill Hybels

The "Aren't these guys the same church in different locations?" goes to...
3. Northpointe - Andy Stanley
4. Fellowship - Ed Young, Jr.

The "That's not a "real" church!" goes to...
8. Potter's House - T.D. Jakes
14. Crystal Cathedral - Robert Schuller

The "We'd be better off if their number was a lot higher." goes to...
19. Bethlehem - John Piper
23. Mars Hill - Mark Driscoll
26. Redeemer - Timothy Keller

The "He doesn't look like a pastor." goes to...
5. Joel Osteen - "The new Expedition would look great in your driveway.  Want to take it for a test drive?"

Young Bucks

I thought I would point to a couple of young guys who are saying some interesting things in the blogosphere.  I know both of them.

First is Justin (Justin's Mad Wisdom).  I met Justin during my work with international students at the University of Kentucky.  Justin isn't an international, but has been international on his two year stint overseas with the International Mission Board of the SBC.  Now he is about ready to marry a very close friend of ours who my wife and I had the privilege of discipling for a while at UK.

Check out Justin's post on trying to figure out the emerging church stuff.  Good wrestling going on.

Second is Adam (Reform the Romans).  I also met Adam in Kentucky while attending the same church (pastored by Kyle McClellan).   I just found his blog today and it's looking very promising.  Justin interacts with Adam in the post linked above.

Cawley on Missional Encounter

I think some of you have still refused to listen to me and start reading Kevin Cawley's blog (CawleyBlog).  It's only going to get better since I've threatened him with terrible consequences if he doesn't blog on what he's learning during his ThM work at Regent. 

Seriously, Kevin continues his excellent blogging with The Nature of the Missional Encounter.  Read it and return for more.

Acts29 and a Half

This just can't get much better.  I'm continuing through Acts29 boot camp audio and I have to point to one other talk.  Please listen to Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Part1 and Part2 of his talk on "Unplugged Teaching."