Lots-o-Links 5.14.08

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Good to hang for a couple of hours with Darryl Dash of DashHouse last night.  He is in a city just north of me for a conference and decided to look me up, so we found some time for coffee.  Great guy.

Care to buy Scott Lamb's 6,000 book library? 

Jonathan Dodson isn't starting new ministries.

Learn how worship teams practice at Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY.  They use The Planning Center.

Scott Hodge describes The Orchard's critiquing culture.

Joe Thorn pointed me to this video: "From Russia With Hate."  Wow.  Awful.

JD Greear is describing the missions strategy of Summit Church: Part 1, Part 2.

Resurgence interviews Matt Chandler.

Important values for Christian artists as summarized by Justin Taylor.  The whole PDF.

Jeremy Pryor continues his explanation of The Story-Formed Life discipleship class...

Music Monday 5.12.08

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Avett_brothers_3Molly and I saw The Avett Brothers on Saturday night.  What an amazing show!  High energy.  We were bouncing and dancing and screaming and singing.  I was fortunate to have a voice on Sunday morning.  And though we were in Milwaukee for the concert we were still in bed by 12:30am, which is a typical time for me to get to sleep before preaching. 

If you don't know The Avett Brothers, shame on you.  Seriously.  I've worked hard to introduce them to you on this blog.  For all you who are slow to catch on, here...



Img_7220small By the way, the opening act was Jessica Lea Mayfield (MySpace).  Outstanding.  Blew us away.  (That was her in an above Avett video.) Her only recording is her White Lies EP that seems impossible to find apart from going to the concert or ordering from her website.  It's not on iTunes.  I picked it up at the concert.  Her stuff is alt/country, her recordings are very acoustic, her concert added a deep level of power and mystery.  Holy cow.  Also check out David Mayfield's stuff, Jessica's brother, who was her bassist and a fun stage presence.

This is the best video I could find of Jessica.  It's cluttered at the beginning with crap, but get through it and you will be rewarded.  By the way, this is the song from the second Avett video above.  They covered her song.

WARNING: Some unbaptistlike content to come.  Some of you won't like this.

Jessica sings a song called "Bible Days" which was outstanding in concert.  Here is a stripped down version and a pretty good recording.  I love when the world helps me know how they think.  Listening is such a great tool.

Mother's Day

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Dsc_001020070709My wife is a more than just a totally hot babe, she is also an amazing Mother.  We spent time driving in the van today and I had the kids take turns saying why they think their Mom is so great.  Their answers were great, but they barely scratched the surface explaining the many ways my wife is a Mother worthy of admiration and honor.  I love you Molly.

Lots-o-Links 5.6.08

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I'm really sick at the moment (102 temp) and I thought a lots-o-links post would be therapeutic.  And away we go.

A Cubs website: Just One Bad Century.

Really appreciate Jeremy Pryor making some videos about a discipleship strategy called The Story-Formed Life.  First video.  Second video.  More to come.

JD Greear: Multi-Site = Multi-Opportunity.

From The Economist: Nomads at Last: Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to places—and each other.

Multi-site Exposed Media.

Top 10 Memory Hacks.

The Empire Strikes Barack...

Music Monday 5.5.08

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Gavin DeGraw's new album comes out tomorrow, I think.  I thought Chariot was really fun pop music with a fairly unique sound.  Watch the first video from In Love With a Girl.

Portishead's "Machine Gun" = very wow.  I know some of you won't like it, but that's your problem.  I'm looking forward to picking up their first new album since 1997, Third.  You can hear more at Last.fm.

There are several clips of Portishead's new stuff, but none are great quality video.  So to introduce you to Portishead's trip-hoppy goodness, here's "Roads" from a live 2006 show...

"Go Cubs Go!" is the song played at Wrigley Field after a win.  My kids and I sing along.  Here's a fan video...

NPM '08: One of the Most Beloved Poems...Ever

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The 23rd Psalm
(KJV)

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

NPM '08: Czeslaw Milosz

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Milosz_big_5I enjoy the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz (Wikipedia, Poets.org), winner of the Nobel Prize in 1980.  I think you will too.  Milosz died in 2004.

Forget

Forget the suffering
You caused others.
Forget the suffering
Others caused you.
The waters run and run,
Springs sparkle and are done,
You walk the earth you are forgetting.

Sometimes you hear a distant refrain.
What does it mean, you ask, who is singing?
A childlike sun grows warm.
A grandson and a great-grandson are born.
You are led by the hand once again.

The names of the rivers remain with you.
How endless those rivers seem!
Your fields lie fallow,
The city towers are not as they were.
You stand at the threshold mute.

Encounter

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago.Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

Lots-o-Links 4.28.08

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I'm on Twitter now.  Put it off for many months but am enjoying it so far.  Some "essential tools," "twitter links," and "benefits."  Twitter in plain English.

I've opened an Amazon bookstore for my blog.  I'm building up all my recommended books there.  When you buy through it I get something back. 

Bob Franquiz: 10 things churches could learn from Disney.

Tim Chester: When Gideon gave a seminar on church planting.

Audio/Video of the Multi-Site Exposed conference in Seattle.

Bart Ehrman vs N.T. Wright on suffering.

Trevin Wax interviews N.T. Wright on Surprised by Hope.

Music Monday 4.28.08

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In music news, Dr. Dog has a new album coming out in July.  I really like We All Belong, so I'm looking forward to Fate.  Hear some unreleased stuff at their MySpace.  Tegan and Sara have an iTunes live EP releasing tomorrow.  I'll be downloading it.

Matthew Smith, of Indelible Grace fame, loves him some Ryan Adams.  Here's the amazing "The Sun Also Sets"...

"Oh My God, Whatever, Etc"...

Of all the wonderful 80's music memories, how can I not mention this one...

When I was a kid "Hollywood" came to my hometown of Pontiac, Illinois and filmed a movie called Grandview, USA.  The director was Randall Kleiser (a film school friend of George Lucas and director of Grease) and it starred people like Jamie Lee Curtis, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and John Cusack.  I know what you are saying.  "Wow!  That must be an awesome movie!"  Nope.  But I did find some clips online and thought you might like the music video dream sequence. 

The Church I Pastor: ILT

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Leadership1Because our church has adopted a new direction including some pretty dramatic changes, I have led them toward adopting an Interim Leadership Team (ILT). 

Today our church changed our constitution to add the ILT, and upon my future recommendation will vote in a few men to be on the ILT.  This essentially is a transition team of leaders who will lead us through our changes, primarily toward a new constitution and the appointment of elders.  While the ILT won't be elders, they will be a much more like elders than what we have now.  Once the church adopts a new constitution and appoints elders, the ILT will dissolve.

The Church I Pastor: The Missional Triad

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Here is what I call The Missional Triad (a tweaked version of this by Joe Thorn and this that Joe and I fleshed out together).  Forgive the handwritten sloppiness, but it's what I have for now.  It's essentially a missional paradigm for our church to think through what we do and where we do it.  The mission is a very central part of the paradigm.  (Click the diagram for a larger version.)

Missional_triad_423 If you are familiar with Joe's paradigm the next few points will help you see the changes I've made for my version, as well as explain a few things I thought you might have questions about.

1. The order of the shapes is different.  I changed them to a left to right flow for unbelievers and right to left for believers.
2. I've changed the titles of each shape.  I have included something of each shape in the name (example: tri-formed discipleship).    I can still use "table, pulpit and square" as designations, and have done that, but I felt it helpful to give each a name that is slightly more descriptive.  That also allows my "table" to lose the Lord's Supper confusion.
3. The "Circles of Friendship" is fleshed out so that hospitality is seen in three different spheres:
        neutral >> semi-private >> to private
It also moves beyond the home into third places (why?).
4. Under Tri-Formed Discipleship I have used "Equipping Ministries" to explain all discipleship, from one-on-one to seminars, short-term classes, membership class, leadership training, etc.
5. Our small groups are transitioning toward being "Missional Communities."  These will be more than small groups but less than house churches.

If you want to know something more, let me know.  It's basically still the same three shapes, the same basic approach, the same goal of simplicity.

Lots-o-Links 4.23.08

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Check out Ed Stetzer's post about the current decline of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Joe Thorn and I have been blogging on these issues for years, and Ed offers some very good commentary and critique.  I'm very thankful for guys like Stet who are speaking to the convention honestly and directly.  Here's a snippet...

Baptisms are at their lowest levels since 1970 with seven of thelast eight years showing annual declines. Even though some might hope the decline in membership numbers is due to lack of reporting, the inescapable conclusion is that baptisms by individual churches is falling off. (LifeWay Research will provide more analysis in the next month.)

For now, Southern Baptists are a denomination in decline. Some of you were born into an SBC church; others of us chose it of our own accord. Either way, it is dear to us all. Our responsibility before God is, then, to urgently consider how we should respond.

Also worth checking out is the New Evangelism Research.

Bob Hyatt shares a great photo of what a church that packs out a coffee shop looks like.  Love it.

Tony Morgan says that changed lives is what creates buzz about a church (more here).

A Cubs hater (meaning, someone who likes another team) sent me a video filmed from the bleachers of Wrigley Field.  In it two fans, who probably had too much to drink (it's a Cubs game, duh), decided to have a hot dog eating context.  The result is worth watching.  There is at least one word that is not for kids, so please heed the WARNING: Not for kids or judgmental Christians...

Almost

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183545085_798b0ced69_mMy 9 year old, Jack, had a writing project for his 3rd grade class.  The project was to write a short essay about someone he knows who helps people.  Jack, fresh off an evening watching American Idol's Idol Gives Back, decided he would write about the great philanthropist he knows, Carrie Underwood.  The teacher explained to Jack that he doesn't know Carrie Underwood.  He was heartbroken and didn't know what to write.  The teacher asked Jack if he might know someone, you know, who helps people.  Jack decided to write about his Dad, me, a pastor.  Here's the essay.  I left his spelling and punctuation in tact.

My dad helps people by preaching, yes he's a paster.  He goes to church on Sundays the first and last out of church to awnser questions from the church.  And sometimes people from the church come to our house for prayer meetings while kids come in the basement to play (if there are any).  I think if I had to chose a dad I would chose this one.  Our family sometimes we go to different churches but the church I like most is our church.  And I know my Dad is teaching lots of things to the church, such as My Mom and children in church in sunday school, so I know my Dad is the paster in church and he's helping people learn about God.  But he is also a good photographer, he also puts his pictures on the wall by the ordering area at StarBucks at the square, you should see them there...So that's my Dad almost my favorite parent.