Lots-o-Links 3.3.10

Bill Streger: Uncool People Need Jesus Too...

I have yet to assess a church planter who wants to move to a declining, smaller city and reach out to blue collar factory workers, mechanics, or construction crews. Not one with an evangelsitic strategy to go after the 50-something administrative assistant who’s been working at the same low-paying insurance firm for three decades now....Why is that?

Brent Thomas: Would You Like To Be Part of a Movement...

Though, on paper, we offer much less than other churches (we “do” Sunday mornings and Community Groups), we are actually asking you to consider an entire reorientation of your life around the Mission of God (Missio Dei), to be part of a movement, to transform the culture of the NorthWest Phoenix Valley through the power of the Gospel.

New resource from TheGoodBook.com called Beginning with God...

Beginning With God helps parents start a Bible-reading routine with their preschool-age children. The beautifully-designed book from The Good Book Company is an easy-to-use companion to the Beginner’s Bible and other popular toddler’s Bibles.

Check out new music from These New Puritans and The Besnard Lakes.

Lots-o-Links 2.25.10

Dave Kraft: What Makes A Leader? series

Hudson Taylor on Evangelism...

Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.” (via)

GCM Collective (Gospel Community Mission) launches on Monday...

It is a gospel community that lives out the mission of God together, as family, in a specific area and to a particular people group by declaring and demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms. God is moving to create thousands of new gospel communities on mission around the world. Be a part of this movement.

Did I Get Married Too Young?

When my very smart and relatively young girlfriend (she was then 20) first told her father she was thinking of marrying me, he refused to even hear of it. "How much college debt does he have?" he demanded. "What's the rush? Why not wait until your career and finances are established? How do you know he's the one?"

Brent Thomas sees Rob Bell's Drops Like Stars

Just because someone says something very well, that doesn’t mean someone says something very right.

Acts 29 Theology Workbook

Tim Keller: The Big Issues Facing the Church & How Should Churches and Leaders Be Preparing To Address These Big Issues Facing the Church?

Joel Virgo: Pray with Perspective series

Francis Chan: Public Passion vs Private Devotion

Last summer I came to a shocking realization that I had to share with my wife: If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave His church to attend mine because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. He was the one who said, “He who loves father or mother … son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37 NIV) I’m much more popular than Jesus.

Having come to that conclusion, I came back to the church with resolve to call people to the same commitment Christ called them to. I knew that people would leave, and they have. I found comfort in that because, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 NIV) Over time though, the conviction can fade, and it gets tiresome seeing people leave. There is a constant pull to try to keep people around rather than truly lead the faithful who remain. When my church was started, I used to tell my wife that I didn’t care if we only had ten people, as long as they really loved God and desired to worship Him with all of their hearts. Where is that conviction now?

On the Verge - Part 3

*I'm running a series of posts on attending & experiencing Verge. Pt1, Pt2*

 

One of my guilty pleasure movies is Far and Away. Two young people (with terribly inaccurate accents) come to America in hope for freedom and land. My favorite character is the girl's father who is in constant despair as a powerful and rich landowner in Ireland. He wants freedom and adventure. He's bored with money and business compromises. 

After much adventure and seemingly insurmountable circumstances, the boy and girl finally make it to the race for land in America. Along the way the girl's father and mother have come to America in search for their daughter, find her, and join in the race for land on which to live out the rest of their lives. Likely too old to win land in this race, they sneak to a beautiful piece of land in the night, which was dangerous and illegal. The man boasts to his wife with a jolly and satisfied grin on his face just before their , "We're breaking the law, Norah."

On arrival at Verge 2010 the announcements made it clear that every attender should only attend the workshop they signed up for. We were strongly urged not to attend a workshop we didn't sign up for. As a member of the social media team I had my sections chosen for me, and they didn't include the two Soma Communities workshop with Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski. So I broke the law...with a grin on my face. Yeah I sat in the back on the floor, but that's closer to the outlets anyway. I'm so glad I disobeyed Verge.

During these two workshop sessions, which they admitted were only a hint at what happens at Soma School, I had about 25 brain explosions. It was very hard to keep tracking with them, distracted by every "aha" moment. I have been hoping it all would sink in since Verge, but I'm still in the learning phase of what Soma does. It's not complicated. But it is profound and challenging. It's taking a lot of work to undo these evangelical Southern Baptist knots in my brain.

All Soma has really done is to focus on local mission and community without driving everything through programs. They were telling practical stories about things they are doing that I've only scratched the surface of in my life. For me they are ideals. For Soma they are in practice and alive. Missional Communities may have no better friend than Soma. Very convincing. Let me pull out a couple of threads here, to show you how God was working on my heart at Verge. I hope to represent what they were teaching accurately. 

Let me give you 2 words that are reforming my approach to community. You can also check out the notes I took during Jeff & Caesar's workshop.

Family

We need to see everyone as family. The church, our missional community, etc.

From Soma School PDF...

Think about it in Familial terms…Do we define a family based only upon what they do? “We are a family because we sleep in the same house, eat together, do dishes, share a budget, etc…” (Defined by activity). By who they are? “We are a family because we have the same parents, the same last name, belong to one another, etc…” (Defined by being). Or because of how we came into being? “We are a family because our parents gave birth to us or adopted us” (Defined by Origin). A Healthy family would be defined in all three ways: 1) Our parents birthed us or adopted us – so we belong to them. 2) We are all related and share identity – so we belong to each other. And, 3) We do what families do together – life lived together defined by love.

Jeff and Caesar also encouraged us to think beyond the Family to the world, extending to all people. We are commanded to love our neighbors, to treat them like members of our family (even if we think of them as estranged family members). 

What if we treated the older couple across the street as parents, the very old woman next door as our grandmother, the kids around the block as our kids? How life changing would it be in our neighborhoods? What if our home was open and our hospitality that relational and loving?

Rhythms

Speaking of hospitality, I found the discussion on using the everyday rhythms of life for mission refreshing and helpful. 

In order to lead our people to see all of life as ministry and mission we must equip them to live out the gospel in everyday activities – everyday rhythms.

We have found some transferable patterns or rhythms of life that we see throughout The Story of God and in every culture in every part of the world. Through each of these rhythms people have the opportunity to walk by faith – walking in line with the truth of the Gospel – or walk in fear or prideful rebellion to God – walking in unbelief.

When we come to understand and believe the Gospel we realize that we are saved by faith not works AND we are being saved by faith not works. We know that the righteous live by faith and every moment is pregnant with the opportunity to walk by faith and therefore in line with the truth of the Gospel. Training up ourselves and others to walk in line with the truth of the Gospel is really all about learning to walk by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave up his life for us in every part of life.

These everyday rhythms that we have identified can be easily observed in the very beginning of The Story before the Fall of Man and through The Story we can see how they can be lived out in faith or in fear or prideful rebellion…

What everyday rhythms of life do you observe in the Garden including the Fall of Man that are also present in every culture in the world?

Soma has identified 6 everyday rhythms...

• Story-Formed
• Listen
• Celebrate
• Bless
• Eat
• Recreate

For more on understanding each rhythm check out the Soma School PDF starting on page 10. For now let me say that it's nice to think about life as mission rather than stopping life for mission. It's not a new idea, and it's all over the missional conversation of the past few years. But these guys are not just thinking about doing it. They are doing it and leading others to do it well.

The heart of rhythms is that we don't need to add more to our lives. Just do what you do with gospel intentionality. It's been my approach here in Woodstock for the past few years, but I'm still learning. Soma may be the "go to" guys on this stuff now. We are talking in my house about how to think about the rhythms of culture, our lives, and how to see them intersect. We are working on having our door of hospitality open a lot more and having a more "open door" sort of policy to our home. We are thinking about how to invite others to the family meals we already have together every week. We are planning to celebrate more and accept more invitations to celebrate with others. Christians should be the most celebratory people in the world! Good stuff.

This was easily the best teaching I got at Verge. I hope you will look into it more. Check out the Soma Communities website, in their 31 page PDF of Soma School Notes. You may want to look into attending a Soma School this year in May or October. 

Review: Gospel-Centred Life

 In the past several weeks I've reviewed Gospel-Centred Church and Gospel-Centred Family. Today, a review of Gospel-Centred Life, a workbook by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester (not to be confused with the workbook from World Harvest Mission). Their book, Total Church, has been such a helpful and provocative resource for me as a pastor. Highly recommended for pastors and other church leaders. I was glad to dive in an tackle these three short, practical workbooks. All of these books came to me for review from the good folks at The Good Book Company.

Onto my review of Gospel-Centred Life (GCL). Like the others this workbook runs under 100 pages. It's broken up into fourteen lessons/chapters in three main parts.

• Part 1: Gospel-Centred Change
• Part 2: Gospel-Centred Perspectives
• Part 3: Gospel-Centred Living

In GCL each lesson is about 4-5 pages (a few a bit longer) and moves through five sections. In my copy at least there is no introduction explaining the five small sections for each study. GCC and GCF both had this and I think it's helpful. The online description says GCL is 128 pages long, so maybe this is remedied there. Either way, the sections are pretty self-explanatory to me so it's not in any way a deal-breaker. 

The sections: Principle (one sentence), Consider This (intro to the principle using a brief story), Biblical Background (read a Scripture and think through short questions), Read All About It (the meat of the lesson and the principle made full), and Questions for Reflection (helpful end questions to apply to life and provoke us to further thought). For full lesson titles go here, where they also have a sample to read.

As with the other workbooks this one is really good. Solid theology and practical. Good for personal use or group discussion. Let me hit a few highlights for me from this study.

Properly, the authors start with God's glory, the "great, unchangeable principle against which everything is assessed." I'm pleased to see a nice foundation on the spiritual as well. So easy to miss. We too often overly focus on personal goodness through denial without emphasizing enough the Holy Spirit. There's even a chapter titled "A Life of Miracles." 

I really like the emphasis on the family of God in decision-making rather than merely seeking God personally is so helpful and broken in most of our churches. The authors encourage us to think about the implications of the Christian community as we make decisions AND to make significant decisions in consultation with members of our Christian community. As a pastor I am shocked at how often my people make decisions without seeking advice, considering the consequences for the church, without mentioning it to their community groups, etc. 

Really GCL is far more about community life and relationships than I expected. I should have expected it after reading Total Church, but I didn't. I think this is needed as our churches have such poor community life and is too dependent on programs. 

Lastly let me explain how the Questions for Reflection section at the end of each lesson is so helpful in GCL (as with the other workbooks as well!). The authors think through areas of application that are easy for us to miss in everyday life. We often think of the obvious and easy applications and the authors are good at finding the missed ones that should be more obvious to us. After a first time through the questions at the end of the lessons will be easy to return to as refreshers and as reminders of how to think through the process of good application. Well done. Even as I write this I'm feeling conviction and encouragement to live differently as I flip through the book. Below are some examples of these helpful application questions.

From chapter 2, A Life For Others...

If you are a shy person, the next time you find yourself sitting next to someone you don't know, remind yourself that God has made you to be a lover of God and others. Ask Him for the grace to express that love in the moment. If you are an outgoing person, the next time you are in a social situation and the centre of attention, remind yourself that God has made you to be a lover of God and others. Ask Him for the grace to express that love in the moment.

From chapter 8, Look Forward to Eternity...

What did you do last week for your present comfort or security? What did you do last week for God's future?

From chapter 13, Possessions...

Look at advertisements in magazines or on the television. What does each one promise? How do these promises parody the promises of God?

This is yet another valuable resource from The Good Book Company. Buy Gospel-Centred Life for $8 and get it cheaper in bulk. Highly recommended.

On The Verge - Part 1

*I'm running a series of short posts on attending & experiencing Verge.*

Pre-Verge

I'm not a big conference-goer. I tend to get more excited about the idea of conferences more than enjoy the experience of them. I don't like leaving my family. Yeah, I know. Neither do you. But I've realized that I'm quite the homebody. I hate to leave home for a couple of days without the family with me. Home and family and privacy energizes and encourages me. Travel and itineraries and going through security and all that does not make me happy. So when invited to join the Verge Social Media Team and fly to Texas I wanted to say "no." Wisely my wife urged me to go. And, you know, Verge sounded cool and fun and interesting. Plus I love going to the "weird" cities (Boulder, Madison & Louisville are 3 of my fav places in the world). And Austin is not only a "weird" city but also a key part of the music world, the kind of music I love. So I decided to go.

Honestly, I'm a bit of a cynic at big events. Going to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting will do that to a guy. I'm especially skeptical of big events with lots of flash. I easily cluck my tongue and roll my eyes at the slightest twinge of showiness, celebrity, and self-importance at big conferences. Yeah, I'm a jerk like that. And that worried me even more because as a Verge Social Media Team guy I wanted to be generous and kind and to expect the best from the conference speakers and experience. I'm sure I left for Verge a bit guarded, but I would try my best to be open.

What I know now is that God was working on me for months prior to Verge, to hear from Him. I didn't know Verge would have anything to do with the struggles and sufferings and sins God has been pointing out in my life. I didn't know the things I've been reading and thinking would come together at the conference. I didn't see my family devotions, current sermon series, and Verge merging. I thought Verge would be a conference full of practical how-to's with a bunch of look-how-amazing-we're-doing-it's. And while I love the idea of missional communities and want them at Doxa and I knew I needed the practical stuff, I didn't think these three days of my life would amount to much. I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Lots-o-Links 2.9.10

Brief Molly Update: Molly has been having some rough symptoms from her Chiari I Malformation the last 2 weeks. Day to day she doesn't know how she is going to feel. For the most part she keeps living and enjoying life and serving others as much as she usually does. In lots of ways she is looking to do more. What a lady! We are hoping the symptoms will just go away, and we believe they will in time. Thanks for praying for her.

I'm reviewing Gospel-Centred Life this week, Lord-willing. Already reviewed Gospel-Centred Family and Gospel-Centred Church.

Jonathan Dodson: 10 Tips for Missional Community Leaders

Jonathan McIntosh introduces us to the vision of Christ City Church in Memphis, his new plant. Maybe you or your church could help support this plant by my friend.

Christ City Church Vision Video from Rethink Mission on Vimeo.

Verge-alicious Stuff...

• I have a series of blog posts on Verge coming up.
• A couple of orgs mentioned: Grounds4Good, LifeTree Cafe, Help Haiti
• Alan Hirsch videos from Verge
• Post-Verge thoughts from Brent Thomas, Jonathan McIntosh, Brandon Hatmaker 

Francis Chan's animated video played at Verge: The Big Red Tractor...

The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.

Danger is Good for Us

"The Gospel becomes this sort of civil religion
that really just affirms my lifestyle."

Verge: Day Three

WiFi is too sketchy here at Verge, so please see my Twitter feed for my take on stuff. 

Verge: Day Two

*Updated as WiFi holds out. 

    Main Session II

Neil Cole

Gospel is...the kingdom has come.

*Sorry, having a rough run with WiFi here at Verge. Hard to find the connection to keep this up. 

    Breakout Session 1

Jeff Vanderstelt & Caesar Kalinowski of Soma Communities 

(*break out stuff below will be more quotes and content than my thoughts on them)

Notes at Soma School - here's the PDF.

Missional Community (MC) is a gospel community - being formed by the gospel, living life by the gospel. 

The shift needed is to start thinking of people as family.

MC sent by missionaries to a people group by demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms. and then declaring the gospel to others both to those who believe and those who don't believe. 

   MC - Not primarily a small group, not primarily a Bible study. 

We do one Bible study then another, but what was the last one? Are we living what we are learning or just moving on to another study. We need to be faithful to what we've learned.

"I'm not going to prep up another deep study of the word to disobey." -Caesar

Study the Bible in proximity of relationship, and live it out together.

   MC - not primarily a support group.

We aren't just mummys all wrapped up.

   MC - not primarily a social activist group.

If we become about one particular cause, we miss the mission.  

MC - must have a people group they are sent to, called to.

Be the peculiar people.

   MC - not primarily a weekly meeting

You may well get together weekly, but you don't define your family that way. People are prone to dualistic thinking in the church. When I'm at the church, I'm the church. When I'm at home, I'm at home. 

Sunday morning: If you came to church this morning, we're glad you're here. You're never going to get to do that again. -- (because this isn't the church, we are the church)

We don't go to missional community, we meet with the community. Reorganize our lives around the gospel in community.

Always training on the gospel, who we are in Christ, and how to live with gospel intentionality.

*I know my notes are sketchy and hard to follow. Sorry. Doing my best to get as much of it down as possible without misstating what's being said. 

-- Caesar jumps in with some Prophet, Priest, King perspectives on shared leadership (bit of a semi-reluctant rabbit trail)

Every missional community is under the leadership of an elder. Start with 6-8 people. Typically kingly types are your leaders. Starts to cap out at about 20. 

*Lots of questions now. I think the specifics and dynamics of what MC's do/should look like are hard to imagine. Folks are trying to see more concretely. 

We invite people into our lives.

Story-formed - Only answer from where you are in the story

    Breakout Session II (part 2 with Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski)

What We Do - these are all rhythms, not events

• Story-formed - story of people/culture around me and story of God. Help people find place where their story intersects with God
• Listen - Listen to people. Listen to one another.
• Bless - Who are 3 ppl a week you could bless. Bless in rhythm. 
• Eat - Rhythms of eating in culture. Parties. Lord's Supper. Eat 3 meals a week with others. 
• Celebrate - If we're going to be good missionaries, bring the best wine to the party. If you are a Baptist, clean up afterwards. :) We get to live forever. Let's be a celebrating people. We should be the most celebratory people in our city.
• ReCreate - Rest and create. Rhythm of sabbath. 

Don't add more to your life. Just do what you do with gospel intentionality.

We have no programming at Soma. What Missional Communities do we are doing.

Identity: Family, Missionaries, Servants, Learners

Recommended: You Can Change by Tim Chester

I don't invite people to things because they are already a part of my life. An open door policy in our houses. We teach people constantly to understand relationships by how they are invited in and when they are told we are busy. 

Stop trying to get everybody. Get one.

*Lots of questions coming now. Honestly, the ideas from these breakouts have stirred me up. It's hard to concentrate on the questions while I'm stewing on my own, and my context, and our need to BE the church.

Realign your life around the mission. Radically reorient your life around the mission. As leaders, every pushback with Christians is an opportunity for discipleship. We will not stop calling you to what you were created to be.

Reactive Mission - Proactive Mission

• Reactive - The Good Samaritan, I come across them, along my way
• Proactive - plan, strategize, pray over, ask God to lead us in

Be on mission in such a way that if God doesn't show up we are ruined. We need to be overwhelmed.

Great QnA time during this session. I feel like it's all possible. Biblical, gospel community. Check out more at the Soma links above. Dinner time.

Verge: Day One

My post for the day. For quotes and such go to Twitter #verge10. Updated regularly here are my personal thoughts, reflections, etc. 

    Main Session I: 

Matt Carter - Pastor, The Austin Stone

Carter challenged us to not be about the mission, but about Jesus. Comes from Revelation 2. If we are about Jesus we will properly be about mission. If we are about mission (primarily, or ultimately) we will lose track of Jesus. 

Francis Chan - Pastor, Cornerstone Church

Chan does theology. His style is engaging and winsome. He's funny. But he drops bombs. Simple lit fuses leading to truth and theology and mission. Good stuff.

We meet on the Lord's Day. He is risen indeed. Why aren't we living like people who know the radical resurrection of our Savior?

You will try and fail to start movements. Movements come from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit. If you try to go surfing and there are no waves, you send your buddy out to start splashing and try to make waves. We can't do it.

Think about the book of Acts, and how unstoppable they were. This is Holy Spirit powered. 

Keller: Global Cities Initiative

 From the Redeemer Church Planting Center (via OnMovements.com)...

The Global Cities Initiative Conference took place in New York City on September 9 - 11, 2009.  Over 80 cities were represented by ministry leaders and church planters, and the experience culminated in the signing of a covenant (found in a link to the right under "Related Media.") 

Tim Keller gave three plenary addresses at GCI, which you can stream by clicking on the titles to the right (or download by right-click).  Also to the right are downloadable pdfs of the outlines of these talks, which were distributed at the conference.  The talks were:

September 9th - "Gospel Renewal"
September 10th - "City Focus"
September 11th - "Movements & Ecosystems"

The conference was hosted by Redeemer Church Planting Center in partnership with Transform World Connections, which was founded and is currently led by Luis Bush.

Links to the audio and PDF's...

• Gospel Renewal
• City Focus
• Movements & Ecosystems
• The GCI Covenant
• Gospel Renewal PDF
• City Focus PDF
• Movements & Ecosystems PDF

The Tangible Kingdom Primer

New resource in the mail. As an official member of the Verge social media team I got The Tangible Kingdom Primer, a study based on The Tangible Kingdom book. It is a "stand-alone resource," so if you haven't read the book that's just fine.

I read through the introduction last night and liked the 7 day format, including a day where a small group would work through it together. It's 8 weeks long and looks to be quite helpful for folks looking for missional resources for their church. Check out their website. And come join me at the Verge conference in February!

Review: Gospel-Centred Church by Timmis & Chester

I'm pastoring a church striving for and working through renewal, so I'm always looking for good, Gospel-centered resources to help our people grasp the realities of what that renewal involves. When Brad Byrd (The Good Book Company, Brad on Twitter: @tweetiebyrd) gave me a copy of The Gospel-Centred Church (GCC) workbook by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester at the Acts 29 boot camp in Louisville, I hoped this would be one of those resources. It is. 

GCC is broken up into an introduction, three main sections and a conclusion...

• Part One: The Priority of Mission
• Part Two: The Priority of People
• Part Three: The Priority of Community

There are a total it's 18 lessons of 4-5 pages each. Each is engaging and provocative. It worked well as an individual study, but I can see greatest value in a group setting. For the most part you can read it either systematically or topically. Despite having the limitations of being a workbook under 100 pages, the authors do well to encourage us to long for and become the community the Gospel should produce.

There are six parts to each lesson. The first is a principle--the core of the lesson. A scenario is introduced to raise a dilemma in gospel ministry. Then we consider Scripture (only a reference given so you can use your own Bible) with questions, a section discussing the theology and application of the principle, discussion questions, and actionable items are finally suggested.

I enjoyed GCC. Its challenges were many: how we think about church buildings, money, community life, leadership, courage, using gifts and more. I grew progressively more convicted by chapter after chapter over this different picture of what "church" can and should be. 

I most impressed by some thought-provoking statements and application. The authors were creative in making the principles practical. Specifically many of the "Ideas for action" were helpful. GCC will provoke you to be see your world in a different way because of the Gospel.

GCC will be helpful anywhere Christians are struggling with what it means to be community-focused and missional. If you are a pastor of an established church, I think GCC will be helpful for key leaders in your congregation. If you need a bit of a push out of safety and into the world, you will find encouragement here. If you need to remember the value and importance of local communities of faith, of locking arms for our mission, this is a good place to go. Small groups of various sorts will do well to check out GCC.

This is truly a workbook about a Gospel-shaped vision for the local church. If you are looking for a theological book, this isn't it. But for what it is, I found GCC useful for my own life and will be using it with some folks at Doxa. 

• Buy it for $7.99 
• Read a sample

Approaching Non-Christians

This was over at Rethink Mission. Wanted to share it with you and get your thoughts. Agree or disagree?

Lots-o-Links 9.16.09

Brief Molly Update: Molly has no issues on her new MRI/xrays according to her surgeon. So no surgery at this point. Symptoms will be treated medicinally, but it's a guessing game as to what to try and we aren't sure if the medicines will help. I should add that her symptoms, generally speaking, have improved a bit on their own over the last 6-8 days. We are very thankful things aren't continuing to get worse, and that no surgery is needed. But living with sypmtoms may be a permanent thing. Thanks for your prayers. I'll let you know if anything changes.

I hope in the next day or two to finally review Fight Clubs by Jonathan Dodson. I've been putting it off, and I've been rethinking some small group stuff in my own church and was doing some processing. If you haven't read this great gospel-centered book (55 pages) you can download it free and/or buy it at Resurgence.

Hopefully you are becoming very familiar with the great new missional resource, Rethink Mission, from Jonathan McIntosh. Check out his roundtable discussion on Leading from the Second Chair.

Stream the album from Volcano Choir: Unmap (including Justin Vernon, the voice of Bon Iver). It's really good. Also worth checking out is the Monsters of Folk album, streaming in full.

Always thankful when people write about how to help your pastor. A series of posts at Resurgence: Healthy Pastors.

Books I'm Reading

I'm into three books right now that really have me excited. Wanted to encourage you to check them out. I have reviews coming soon.

1. Deep Church - Jim Belcher (@jimbelcher) (Buy: Westminster, IVP, Amazon: out of stock)

I'm 140 pages in and just love this book. It's analysis and critique of both the emerging and traditional church with a compelling "third way" beyond those two. The analysis of the emerging church as well as Brian McLaren has really been outstanding. Belcher's understanding of the third way resonates very strongly with me.

2. Fight Clubs - Jonathan Dodson (download for free, buy copies at Resurgence)

Jonathan is a friend and I've been looking forward to this booklet for a while. "Fight Clubs are about promoting gospel-centered discipleship, groups of two to three men or women fighting the fight of faith." It's fairly short and is an easy read. Practical and helpful advice from a Gospel-rich author and pastor.

3. Counterfeit Gods - Tim Keller (releases on Oct 20th - Amazon)

Have you heard of Tim Keller? :) I am preaching a series on idolatry starting on September 6th and will be using this book as a resource. I can't say much yet as I've only gotten a little of the way in and so far haven't seen much beyond what I've read or heard from Dr. Keller in other places. But I'm pumped about this book and can't wait to get deeper into it.

Rethink Mission

Glad to see Rethink Mission, a new website by my friend Jonathan McIntosh, is now up and running. Rethink mission is "Inspiring gospel-centered, missional churches." From the site...

The Rethink Mission logo looks like a stylized compass. The firstthing you notice about it are the arrows pointing out, which makes sense. Each of us, cultural missionaries, are sent to the corners of the globe (or to the edges of our cities) with a unique purpose.

What’s not as apparent are the 3 larger arrows pointing in. The internal work of the triune God who, in love, chose us, redeemed us, and makes us new. The fact that God comes to us, offering relationship despite our sin, is only a work of grace. Christ dies for his enemies to make them his friends; to make them his family. This is the gospel.

And that grace – received, believed, internalized – works in us, freeing us from guilt, shame, and despair, changing the way we relate to God and others, changing what we put our deepest hope in and derive our fullest joy from.

This is the internal transformation that only the gospel brings.

We need this. First.

Because you can’t go about fixing this world, until you yourself are at least on your way to repair. You can’t bring new life to this world until you yourself have experienced that life.

Otherwise, the very best of actions that stem from an inwardly empty self, though they may look like life, in reality have the stench of death about them.

I need the gospel to make me new.

But gospel renewal is always moving, always dynamic. The pages of scripture are filled with story after story – from the appearance of God to Moses, to the call of Isaiah; from the call of the first disciples, to the birth of the New Testament church – showing simply that God first draws us only then to send us out.

If a heart, charged and transformed by the grace of God does not explode outward in mission, then grace has not truly been experienced. It is the very nature of grace to move out to broken places and broken people.

Grace has movement: first in to renew the heart; then out to renew the world.

In. A heart renewed by the gospel.
Out. A missionary sent to work for the renewal of all things.

Summerbia: Connection Tools

A few weeks back I wrote about connecting with suburbanites during the summer.I mentioned participating in cultural events, being servants through things like coaching sports, and having hospitable events like cookouts.  With 5 full weeks left we still have a lot of great opportunities to connect. I’ve noticed in my life and in the life of my family that 5 tools have stood out this summer as helpful for connecting with our neighbors. Here they are for you. I hope you’ll add to the list.

1. Invite Cards — My church, Doxa Fellowship, just recently had some branding work done and immediately had some invite cards created. If your church doesn’t have them, I highly recommend getting some done. They are simple, attractive business cards with key church info.  On ours we have the church name, website and email on the front and our Sunday location and time, including a map, on the back.

I have invite cards in my wallet, backpack, both cars, camera case, etc. I don’t drop them under windshield wipers or “accidentally” leave them lying around. The last thing people need is to feel like your church is the same as the going-out-of-business furniture store. I use them relationally. They give a better connection to our church when meeting someone or having a conversation.

I think after a shipping snafu we ended up paying $25 for 1,000 cards. You can get them plenty cheap, and they are of great value.  I pass them out all the time. I keep them in front of my face as an encouragement to use them. I have a stack by where I set my wallet and keys. I put 3 on the table at the café when I sit down to read or work and see if I can give them out before I leave. It’s a great tool.

2. Tennis Ball — I have two sports-oriented kids who will watch girls softball if nothing else is on. One thing we have learned to do is always keep a tennis ball in the car, in our swimming pool bag, in Elijah’s bat bag, etc. When we are at the pool and they force that 15 minute break, we grab the ball and play “hot box” in the grass. Hot box is where you have two bases, a guy catching at each base, and everyone else is a baserunner trying to advance but not get an out. And guess what. Kids see us playing and want to join in every time we play.

A few days ago we had about ten kids playing hot box at the pool. Just last night we were on the Woodstock Square for a band concert. We took the tennis ball and started up a game of hot box well off to the side. Sure enough others joined in. We’ve connected with parents and kids by just having fun with my kids and inviting others to join in.

A tennis ball is nice because it’s heavy enough to throw hard and soft enough to not damage someone. But if you aren’t baseball oriented try a good nerf football (you need to be able to really throw it or it’s worthless), a frisbee, hacky sack, bag toss (sorry, I won’t call it “c*orn hole). You have nerdy kids? Cool. Embrace it. Bring extra magnifying glasses and invite kids to burn ants. Or if nothing else works, just play a game of tag.

3. Extra ______ — It’s happened to you. You are at the pool or the park and someone didn’t bring something they needed. Maybe it’s a water bottle. Maybe it’s bug spray or sunscreen. I was golfing several weeks ago and someone needed a Tums. I had one. When you go somewhere, bring extra consumables and be aware of folks around you who might be suffering from forgetting something or a lack of planning. Be over-prepared and generous.

It doesn’t need to just be consumables. Early in the Little League season it was cold and we would have plenty of blankets in the van for our family and for others if needed. Bring an extra umbrella if it might rain. It’s snowing? Bring an extra sled.

The key here is to think of others when planning for your events and outings. Whatever you need for yourself, just add more. We leave bug spray, sunscreen, umbrellas, sweatshirts, wet wipes, lawn chairs, and water bottles in the car pretty much at all times.

4. Camera — I can’t tell you how many times I have my camera with me and see someone trying to get a “family picture” with one member of the family holding the disposable camera. I let them get their shot and then tell them I’m happy to get a photo with my camera and email it to them. They love it. Most often I just tell them I’ll take the photo and they can see and download it on Flickr. I carry Moo mini cards with my name, email address and Flickr address on it.

I also like to grab photos of other people and/or their kids in the park, playing baseball, etc, and then give them a Moo card. In the last few weeks Elijah (8) played on the 7-8 year old all-star team. I took a handful of photos, put them on Flickr, and gave a Moo card to every parent and coach. Same with the 9 year old team. Same with Danny’s (6) bittie ball team. The commissioner of the entire Woodstock Little League organization has been grabbing my photos for next year’s book because of it. Lots of great connections. A few weeks ago a woman in Woodstock was getting a photo of her kids by a piece of local art and I told her to pose with her kids and I’d email her the photo.

If you have a decent camera, it can be a great tool for making connections with your neighbors.

5. Courage — How often do you kick yourself for not striking up a conversation? Or are you so bad at it that you just gave up and don’t even feel bad about it anymore? We need a renewed courage to strike up conversations along the way.

I’m an introvert. Everyone in my church thinks I’m an extrovert because I’ve forced myself to learn to strike up conversations when in public, though I’m still learning how.

Having invite cards, tennis balls, a can of Cutter and a Nikon won’t get you anywhere without a little courage to gently push into the lives of others with an opportunity to serve them. Too often people won’t ask for help. They will swat the mosquitoes rather than asking if you might have spray. Often the kids will stand on the sideline and watch us play catch rather than ask to join in.

Once you are prepared with a few “connection tools” you have to be looking and longing to be involved in the lives of others. You have to find opportunities, and open your mouth. “Want to play with us?” “You know, that picture of your wife would look better with you in it. How about if I get a picture for you?” “Skittles?” Once you have a way to connect, go ahead, connect!

Let me know some tools you have found helpful for connecting with your neighbors.

*Originally posted at sub•text

Summerbia

I’m thinking a lot about summer lately. It was one of those wintershere in the Chicago burbs that made me long for summer. Well it’s May now. Summer is knocking and I’m running to the door, eager to embrace my long, lost friend.

As suburban Christians who are looking to love our neighbors summer offers us so many opportunities to connect with them. Summer is the time for cookouts and fairs and going to the park with the kids. The beer gardens are open at the local pub and the farmer’s market is in full swing. People will be taking walks in the neighborhood and going to the pool.

So summer is an ideal time to connect with new folks in your suburb as we enjoy the weather and the culture around us. Here are a few suggestions for your summer from the things my family is doing. I hope you will add your suggestions, stories of stuff you’ve done, and share your plans in the comment section.

Be a Participant

Get involved in the life of your suburb. Find a community calendar on your city’s website and put some stuff on the family calendar. We recently attended a very popular fair in downtown Woodstock. My son and I were in the Little League section of the Memorial Day parade and my daughter was in the middle school band. Molly and the other two kids were enjoying the parade with some local friends from school. Through events like these we’ve met new folks, made new friends, and supported the life of our suburb.

Be a Servant

I’m the dad to four great kids, ages 6-12. I made a commitment to try to be a servant when possible as they get involved in public activities. This works best for me with sports. I’ve coached just about every team they played on. Just last night I sat in on the Bittie Ball (“coach pitch” level) coaches meeting. Daniel (6) is on the Devil Rays this year (Satan’s team). So while I’m already an assistant coach for Little League and soccer, I’m now also the head coach for Bittie Ball. It’s going to be a busy summer, but I get to serve a bunch of great kids and their families by being a coach.  It forces me to learn their names and get to know them, and they want to know me too.

If you are going to serve as a coach or help out at the local school (as Molly does) or help with a summer play or whatever else, you need to do it with excellence. It’s frustrating to have someone in your family in a public activity only to find out the people in charge are incompetent. If you serve, do it well. Truly love your neighbor and consider them as more important than yourself. It not only makes folks love the experience, but it endears them to you.

Serving through various cultural activities also provides us the opportunity to serve our neighbors beyond these events. We often see former team members and/or their parents out in public or at their schools. I will always be “coach” to these kids. One thing we work hard at is trying to have at least one cookout a year for players and their parents. And that leads to another suggestion for your summer in suburbia…

Be Hospitable

For Memorial Day (last weekend) we had a cookout. It was mostly community friends we’ve connected to through local school involvement, but we also invited a church friend or two and a visiting couple from the previous week’s worship service. We had about 40 people there, some I knew well and others I met for the first time. It was a blast. Here are a few things you should do to make your cookout a hit.

- Introduce people. If you are bringing folks together who don’t already know each other, and you should, make sure you introduce them so they all feel comfortable.

- Have plenty of good food. We had too much food because we wanted to be generous. Nothing like a cookout where you feel underfed. And make it good food, please. I don’t want to come to your house if you are going to buy the hot dogs with the highest amount of rat hairs and bone chips. Not all hot dogs and hamburgers are created equal. Get quality stuff. And spice it up. We got burgers at Sam’s and then added a layer of Famous Dave’s burger seasoning. People raved about the burgers, though most of them didn’t know why. You want your neighbors happy.

- Let people bring something if they want to. Sometimes people feel obligated. Sometimes they really enjoy bringing something. Don’t presume on people and don’t ask them to bring something. But if they want to bring something it can be a good thing. It makes them feel like they’re a good neighbor too. For our Memorial Day most everyone insisted. Some brought a dish, or chips and soda. One family brought a ton of Edy’s ice cream they got for free in a contest. It added a super-charge to the cookout that none of us could probably afford otherwise.

- Have plenty to do. We had more games we didn’t use than we used. You are providing opportunities, not a schedule. We had kids playing baseball in the church field, jarts, football, a fire pit as it cooled off in the evening, lots of lawn chairs, sparklers for kids after dark. And think of the little things, too. We fogged the yard before people came to kill most of the mosquitoes and then we had several cans of Off available. We had sunscreen. We had music. We tried to cover all the bases, though we learned a few bases we didn’t cover as well as we will next time.

Make this summer a great one, one where you grow in your relationship with folks around you by participating in the life of your suburb, serving your neighbors rather than waiting for someone else to serve you, and firing up the grill to bring people together.

(originally posted at sub•text)

The 2009 Reformission

I've identified 10 changes I want to see in my life in 2009.  Call them resolutions if you like.  I have much more I could say about them, but I wanted them to be somewhat brief here.  The first 3 are general and pervasive through the next 7, and are things I've been working on for years (ordering not important).  The last 7 are more specific (and in order).  I know that it's really God who works change, and that everything below should say "Lord-willing" after it, but just accept that up front if you would.

10. A year of clearer boundaries.  I'm thinking of several areas here including the areas of hospitality (more at #6), personal organization, what I do in my different workplaces, time with my wife (more at #2), what we let our kids do and not do, etc.  This isn't about "tighter" boundaries necessarily (well, maybe in a few areas).  But muddy boundaries make for a muddy life.  Clarity is, well, clarifying. 

9. A year of fewer excuses.  I'm sick of my mind running to look for better excuses for why things aren't different, better, possible.  I've been working on this area for some time because it's a tough one for me. I'm going to work at dropping excuses, admit when I'm wrong, and press on.  "Do or do not. There is no 'try.'"

8. A year of greater risk.  Comfort is an easy default mode for me.  Risk is a sexy word to me, and a sexy idea.  But all too often it's a word and idea and not much else.  This year when I catch myself being too protective or fearful (also see #7) I'm going to try and let go and go for it.  I'm still going to count the cost, I'm just going to try and not selfishly count the cost.

_____

7. A year of saying what needs to be said.  I'm a prophet-type guy.  I used to be the guy who would say things and then find out later that I was actually very bold and courageous and truthful and transformational, though at the time it didn't feel at all courageous.  I've been tamed a bit, and I'm sick of it.  This year I'm going to speak when I feel led to instead of feeling later on that I should have said something.  This will result in things from more direct evangelism, to more regular meetings with church folks who are slacking, to a louder public voice in my city, to many other things. 

6. A year of expanding our "public" space.  I'm thinking mostly hospitality and relational discipleship here.  Some things have led us to restrict levels of private space and too rarely invite people in.  Most of those things are stupid and selfish.  We are going to try to open our home more, enjoy the company of friends and strangers more, etc.  We used to influence people more through things like letting them be around parenting situations.  This worked especially well with university students.  We don't do that enough anymore.  We have been really changed over the years by hanging around older Christians, pastors, and others and watching their life, asking questions, and just sitting and soaking in the relationship.  We need to be more intentional about being there for others.

5. A year of scheduling mission.  This has always been something I've done, but it's waned and I want to get serious about it again.  Unscheduled mission is always easier for me (ALWAYS!) when scheduled mission is happening.  So really this will help scheduled and unscheduled mission.  I've already added some significant chunks into my winter schedule. I'm going to vary the locations, means, and approach.  Along with this I have some ideas from last year that we shelved until some core changes happen at our church, which are coming very soon (see #4).

4. A year of church transformation.  Starting in a few weeks the changes I've been working for at my church for more than 4 1/2 years are finally going to start happening.  We are working on reconstituting, restarting, and renaming our church.  That's just the beginning.  Last year we made some important decisions and went through some real pain to make what's happening in 2009 a reality.  Should be a busy, fruitful, exciting, and risky year.  I'll try to keep you posted here. 

3. A year of discipling our children better.  Last year discipleship was just ok.  We are still not close to what I want for my kids.  I have a picture of what I want to see in their lives, of how I want them to experience the gospel, truth, faith, ministry, and compassion.  Now we will day-by-day begin, one stroke at a time, to paint that picture. 

2. A year of rediscovering my wife.  The end of 2008 was really difficult for my marriage.  We never grew apart or stopped loving or liking each other or anything like that.  But most of my readers know how really tough these last few months have been.  When you spend all the time thinking about how your car isn't working right you never get to experience the joy of being on the road.  You get too focused on the problems.  Same with our relationship.  We need to get out and feel the wind in our hair and hug a few turns on the country roads again, even if Molly's issues mean it will be at a slower speed.  This means things like getting date nights back in order, finding more time in the evenings to just hang and talk about something other than what's wrong with Molly, and me stopping being such a jerk. :)

1. A year of responding better to the Holy Spirit's promptings.  I've noticed, especially over the last half of the year, some things in my life that just aren't in order.  They get better, and then worse again.  I going to spend more time preaching the gospel to myself.  I'm going to refresh the disciplines while also simplifying things a bit.  I'm going to be more protective of times of silence and solitude. I'm looking forward to a growing intimacy with the Lord over 2009.