Pastoring & Leadership
Me and a certain pastor friend are going to see this tomorrow. I'm pumped!
-Bob Hyatt is good reading, as usual. 80-20 and the Organic Church Part 1 and Part 2
-Harry Potter as "Shared Text"
-Seth Godin's "Unleashing Your Ideavirus" (Part 1 and Part 2) was an excellent and thought-provoking read. It's not very new (2000), but it was good. More Godin here.
-I really dig this creative photography of kids.
-Must reading for those mashing the Thanksgiving potatoes.
I know I posted on this a long time ago, but when my wife and I were at the first Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle (2006) we heard Darrin Patrick's talk on "The Life and Death of the Missional Leader." I listened to it again this morning and was struck by how helpful of a message it is right now in my life. I encourage you to listen to it.
Trying to catch up a little after a week with no cell phone or internet. I think I'll have a music post up later today.
Tim Keller Stuff:
The Evangelists Conference: Smashing False Idols
Gospel Realisation Tim Keller
Gospel Communication Tim Keller
Gospel Incarnation Tim Keller
Tim Keller on Tim Keller's new book: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Keller is interviewed by Preaching Today
Gary Shavey of Resurgence interviews Mark Dever (mp3).
Acts 29 has a Chicago Boot Camp coming in January
Joe Thorn gives us Mark Dever's advice for leaving a church. Every pastor wishes more Christians would do this.
Joe and Jen Thorn are pregnant! (yes, I said it that way on purpose)
"Six Rules to Work Less and Get More Accomplished" by Lifehack
Boundless on Becoming a Writer
Mark Driscoll recommends these books for missional church planters
Interview with Vanhoozer on reading culture (via JT)
North America People Groups Project
My kids are in soccer, and love this kind of thing...
As I'm training guys in my church to preach, I quickly wrote out a very brief outline of how I prepare a sermon. It's incomplete and will seem vague to some of you. There are many things I don't mention, like finding/using illustrations, choosing commentaries, prayer, practicing the sermon and revising it, etc. But this was written for those I'm discipling who I'm interacting with a few times a week, so I can fill in the blanks verbally when they are missing. Nonetheless, I still thought it might be good for discussion here and to get feedback.
FYI and for context. I generally preach through Bible books (not topically). I treat different genres of Scripture very differently, and this outline is meant to be more general, not genre specific. I currently do all my sermon prep in a Moleskine. I write out any sermon study notes within, then organize the sermon in it, and take it into the "pulpit" with me.
How to Study the Bible for a Sermon
Justin Taylor interviews one of my favorite people in the world, Steve Wellum on baptism and the covenants. Wellum's chapter in Believer's Baptism is "Baptism and the Relationship Between the Covenants." Wellum was one of my best profs at SBTS. We were at the same church, spent time in his home, and still occasionally have lunch when I get to Louisville. Great guy.
Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a bit longer than most.
Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their effort on something new.
[...]
Quit the wrong stuff.
Stick with the right stuff.
Have the guts to do one or the other.--Seth Godin in The Dip, page 4.--
Many of my 'minister' friends speak of church as something from which they must seek solace. They 'protect' their day off and guard the privacy of their home. They feel the loneliness of ministry, looking outside the local church for people who will pastor them and events that will refresh them. For me church is where I find solace. The Christian community pastors and refreshes me through the Word of God. Someone put it to us like this: 'If I were to say I needed a weekly day off from my wife and children, people would say I had a dysfunctional marriage. So why, if I say I need a day off from church, do people not ask whether I have a dysfunctional church family?'
Total Church, page 121
I've been sharing links to Gary Rohrmayer's helpful posts on Engaging in More Spiritual Conversations. His newest addition provides "Ideas for Practicing the 3 x 5 Rule." From the post...
The 3 by 5 rule is simple: A leader seeks to find 5 contacts a day or35 a week until they get 3 meetings or sit downs to either share the gospel or the vision of the church. A contact is securing a person's name and contact information (a business card, phone number or email.) A sit down is a follow up appointment with one of the contacts you have generated.
The primary question generated by this rule is "How do you find 35 contacts a week?" There are three sources of contacts we will look at today. 1) Follow-up Contacts 2) Networking Contacts and 3) Cold Calling Contacts.
"Engaging in More Spiritual Conversations" (Part 1, 2, 3, & 3x5 Ideas)
Sam Storms' response to the whole baptism and the Lord's Supper thing that has been buzzing around online: "Piper, Grudem, Dever, et al, on Baptism, the Lord's Table, and Church Membership (just how "Together for the Gospel" are we?)"
I read the article this morning but with no direct link available (and some grocery shopping to do) I left it alone. In the mean time Glenn Lucke wrote a great post and Abraham Piper quoted some Storms.
You need to read the whole Storm's article for context, but I agree with him and loved this paragraph...
My question...is this: How can we claim to be "together" or "united" for the sake of the gospel and turn away a brother or sister from the very expression and proclamation of that gospel that is so central to the life and testimony of the church? What does this prohibition say to the world around us? What must they think of our professed "togetherness" or "unity" when the elements of the Eucharist would be withheld from a brother such as Ligon Duncan?
From Jim Wideman's Blog (1 & 2)...
10. ACCOUNT FOR YOUR TIME
How did you spend your day? Write it as you go & evaluate how you did at the end of the day. Now look for ways to improve and ask yourself, “What am I going to do about this tomorrow?”9. PLAN YOUR TIME OFFENSIVELY
Act like your time belongs to you! Learn to say no to the things you don’t need to do.8. KEEP YOUR PRIORITIES IN ORDER
Remember if you don’t have priorities you can’t keep them.7. DELEGATE TO THE FAITHFUL
What are you doing someone else can do? What is it, that only you can do?6. PLAN FOR INTERRUPTIONS
When everything is said & done, there is more said than done. Things don’t always happen how you plan them.5. RESPOND RATHER THAN REACT TO A CRISIS.
There is more than one side to every story. I’ve found in church work there are about 36. Do your homework. It’s okay to say, I’ll get back to you, I don’t know is a smart answer.4. DON’T PROCRASTINATE
Do what you can do, don’t put it off.3. GET SOME HELP
Make some calls, network, read a book, listen to a CD, get a mentor. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.2. PLAN FOR GROWTH
Remember people follow people with a plan. Have a plan for spiritual growth, organizational growth, and numerical growth.1. PRAY
Things happen when we pray that don’t happen any other way.(HT: CR)
From Tyler at the Desiring God blog...
Every two years John Piper completes a rotation of weekend seminars on different aspects of Christian doctrine and practice. These seminars include:
- Biblical Eldership
- Desiring God
- Future Grace
- Gravity and Gladness on Sunday Morning: The Pursuit of God in Corporate Worship
- Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting
- Sexual Complementarity: The Pursuit of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
- Suffering for the Sake of the Body: The Pursuit of People Through Pain
- TULIP
- Why We Believe the Bible
The audio for each of these seminars is now online. Complete course notes are also available so that you can follow along.
The Gospel Coalition website (which has gone from a little helpful toward really helpful in a short period of time) has a number of short video interviews (linkable) with key players: Don Carson, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and yes, Tim Keller. As you could have guessed, I'm linking the Keller (and Carson/Keller) ones here for you. To see them more quickly, just go to the interviews page and scroll to them. And don't forget to visit my Tim Keller Resources page.
9 Marks, the very helpful ministry of Mark Dever and Matt Schmucker from Capitol Hill Baptist in DC, now has a blog. Check out Mark Dever’s introductory post. From a 9 Marks email...
Ourintended audience, as with most of 9Marks material, is pastors, church leaders, and seminarians. At the same time, we hope that all Christians become more interested in church matters, because we believe the local church is the focal point of God’s plan for displaying his glory to the nations. That includes all of us who profess faith in Christ.
Blog contributors will consist of Mark Dever, Matt Schmucker, Jonathan Leeman, and the 9Marks lead writers, as well as several like-minded pastors and occasional guests. For the time being, we thought we’d try opening the blog to public comments. Hopefully it can be used as a place of honest inquiry and discussion regarding pastoring and leading local church life.
Allelon - "a movement of missional leaders" -- They have a website which has a number of resources, but I'm really loving Alan Roxburgh's netcast (especially the audio podcast) the most. There are things said that I don't like or agree with, but in general this is a great podcast for seeing the emerging missional church for what it is and what it claims to be in different locations. The interview with Steve Taylor is really great.
Theology Unplugged (TUP) is a podcast by some Dallas Seminary profs. They say, "The uniqueness of TUP is that we speak on theological issues of the day with clarity, honesty, and openness. TUP allows the listener to make informed judgments on the most important theological issues today." Their seven part series on the emerging church is a great example of that. I'm through the first three episodes and I'm pretty shocked at how well they do in trying to understand the emerging church. Well worth hearing. (HT: Internet Monk Radio)
Peter Leithart finds ways of saying things that just make sense to me...
One of my recurring frustrations with recent debates in the Reformed world is a widespread failure of theological imagination. Too many seem to operate on the assumption that we have everything already figured out; we have all possible categories and positions ready to hand. All we need do is deploy these categories on whatever happens our way. It'll fit, Procrustes says.
Thus, it is seriously proposed that someone is either on the road to Rome or the Road to Geneva - with no possibility of a third (or fourth, or fifth) destination, with no possibility that there might be something in between (though in between is where much of the Christian world lives). And if I suggest that we Reformed might still have something to learn from the Bible about justification, then I must be Rabbinic or Roman Catholic - there simply is no other alternative.
The Evangelical Outpost (Joe Carter) wonders why Southern Baptists would create boundaries with alcohol that would exclude Jesus from leadership in the convention. He asks, "Can we be more ethical than Jesus?"
Darryl Dash hears Tim Keller and blogs: Tim Keller on Spiritual Fruit and Ministry.
Desiring God Blog: 25 Ways to Help Kids Love to Read
Drew Goodmanson on Missional Eldership.
Miniature Earth -- "If the world's population were reduced to 100, it would look something like this..."
English 101 (we all make mistakes, but some of us make too many!)
Some Videos...
Children See, Children Do...
Doll Face...
Stop Motion Beatbox...
Joe Thorn gives a great post today called "So, You're Thinking of Being a Pastor?" Great, simple advice for guys considering the pastorate.
I just wrote myself a note yesterday to remember to reread The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Now you can get the audiobook for free. I just got it, so should you. Via Justin Taylor...
ChristianAudio's "Free Audiobook of the Month" is Richard Baxter's classic, The Reformed Pastor.
Inhis introduction, Baxter writes: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." This charge from Acts 20:28 only is the beginning of a solemn and overarching task to be personally involved and disciple all of your congregants. Richard Baxter's plea for shepherding his flock continues with a charge to pastors to verify their own spiritual walk and then walks them through various disciplines, strategies, and goals to guide and instruct their congregation.
Use the coupon code MAY2007 during checkout to get the download format of The Reformed Pastor for free!
Your Price: $0.00
List Price: $22.98
It just kills me how hard some folks (can anyone say Missouri Baptist Convention?) are trying to distance themselves from the "emerging" Acts 29 organization and Mark Driscoll. Driscoll is all pomo and truth has no meaning for him.
Then in Bizarro world Bill Hybels (a pastor of a moderately influential, smallish church in suburban Chicago) has poked him publicly for his fundamentalism after viewing Driscoll on video at the National New Church Conference. He basically didn't like Driscoll's male-centered approach to church planting and let that be known from the platform. That resulted in Acts 29 eating thousands of Driscoll's videos because the conference decided not to hand them out as originally planned.
From Driscoll on the Resurgence website...
Last year I spoke at a large church planting event along with a number of other church planters and church planting movement leaders. The event was held in Florida, went well, and did a very encouraging job of bringing together a number of denominations, networks, and organizations that otherwise would not have benefited from such a partnership.
This year I was invited back but declined because the few-day round trip from Seattle to Florida to give a very short message (last year it was less than twenty minutes) seemed like too much in light of other responsibilities. So, the sponsors of the event asked me to instead put together an eight-minute video on church planting that could be shown at the event and then handed out to each of the 1,500 attendees. So, in an effort to be helpful, the video crew from Mars Hill Church and I spent half a day in freezing weather at a military cemetery shooting scenes that were then edited for the video. Apparently the video was shown at the event, was well received by the attendees, and then criticized by Bill Hybels from the stage because it did not speak of women church planters. And, not wanting a bigger fuss, the organization hosting the event then made a decision not to hand out the video as they had promised, leaving the guys from our Acts 29 Church Planting Network who had hauled suitcases of the videos to Florida with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted effort. The leaders of the event are good guys whom I still consider friends, and I've never met Bill Hybels so I won't speak about him personally. But, I thought we should at least post the banned video online, so here it is:
Here are podcasts I enjoy, listed by category. I hope you might find some of them helpful for you. I'm leaving off my poetry podcasts for another post.
Ministry/Theology
Audition (Mars Hill Audio): Ken Myers in an NPR style commentary on culture and Christianity through Myers' commentary and interviews. This is a free spin-off of the Mars Hill Audio commentaries.
Catalyst: Covers both church leadership issues and cultural issues through interviewing Christian leaders, authors, pastors, etc. I really enjoy the Catalyst podcast, though I find myself skipping the first several minutes of pre-interview conversation about Catalyst Conference stuff and other random bits. The interview is the meat, and it's consistently thoughtful and engaging.
Church Leader Insights: Pastors Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas of The Journey Church in NYC talking together about church leadership, church growth, church planting, systems, evangelism, etc. A lot of info of what has and hasn't worked for them. I always come away with insights for pastoring and ministry, even if you don't approach ministry in quite the same way as these guys.
Covenant Worldwide: At least 15 free seminary classes are available on the topics of biblical theology, OT and NT, apologetics and outreach, the Reformation, life and letters of Paul, and more. What the heck are you waiting for?
Fermi Project: Discussions with leaders on culture, the future, the Church and the Gospel. It's hosted by Catalyst guys Gabe Lyons and Andy Crouch. It's only on episode three, but I've enjoyed it tremendously so far. A great, concise podcast.
Internet Monk Radio: Michael Spencer's thoughts on theology, ministry, his critics, yadda. The worst aspect of this podcast is his love affair for the Cincinnati Reds. Yuck. But if you can get past that, Spencer can often deliver thoughtful insights on a variety of issues. Warning: If you don't know Spencer and his online writings, some of this won't make much sense. It's for the devoted.
National New Church Conference: Interviews with conference speakers dealing with church and church planting. Have learned a lot from this podcast and highly recommend it for church leaders.
Practically Speaking: North Point boys (Andy Stanley, et al) on the Seven Practices of Effective Ministry. It's a "dead" podcast in that there are no new episodes, but their seven podcasts I have found very helpful as a pastor. I've listened to them more than once, and will listen again.
Resurgence: Mark Driscoll's missional resource that includes talks from various conferences and lectures pertaining to ministry and theology. Lots of good stuff here.
Movies
Filmspotting: A weekly podcast from Chicago featuring new movie reviews, top 5 lists, interviews and insightful film talk with Adam Kempenaar and Sam Van Hallgren. It's also found on Chicago Public Radio. Ugh, this is a great podcast. The best movie podcast I know of. Even when I disagree with a particular take on a movie, which isn't often, these guys are still compelling in their arguments. Worth every second.
Music
KEXP Live Performances: In-studio concerts at KEXP for all to hear. I've found some great new stuff from this podcast.
KEXP Song of the Day: Live performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent musicians that KEXP thinks listeners should hear along with songs from more well-known artists. Why not?
Introductions to newer bands and/or new albums through a free song.
NPR All Songs Considered: An eclectic mix of fresh music by emerging artists and breakout bands -- from NPR.org's Web-only music show. Good stuff.
Paste Culture Club: A wonderful music magazine's podcast. Always a treat.
Preaching
Capitol Hill Baptist: Pastor Mark Dever is one of the most important living Southern Baptist pastors/preachers, and a pastor who I have had a chance to talk with a bit. He has seen a remarkable change over the years of his church in D.C. Dever is obsessively expository in his approach. If you want to know the Bible, this is a great way to digest it. Dever is also well known for tackling very large sections of text, including single sermons on entire books of the Bible.
Cornerstone Simi: Pastor Francis Chan is fairly new on my radar, but I have enjoyed what I have heard so far.
The Journey - St. Louis: Pastor Darrin Patrick is a friend and has seen some great things happen after planting in St. Louis. A good preacher, and a young leader worth watching.
Mars Hill Church, Grand Rapids: Pastor Rob Bell is a controversial writer and speaker in the emerging church movement. I find him very engaging and biblical, though we would surely differ at points. He challenges me with living the Gospel.
Mars Hill Church, Seattle: Pastor Mark Driscoll is a different sort of controversial writer and speaker in the emerging church movement. He has been very influential in my ministry and life.
Village Church: Pastor Matt Chandler is SBC, Acts 29, and one of the best young preachers I've heard. Probably my favorite younger preacher to listen to over the last few months. Some people trip over a few of his stylistic traits at first, but please persist and you will find so much worth hearing.
Miscellaneous
This American Life: Ira Glass hosts this show of first-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny and surprising. An amazing show that takes a topic and surrounds it with pertinent stories.
Fresh Air (for Joe, "frosshhaar"): Terry Gross hosts this daily take on contemporary arts and issues. Good stuff on politics, faith, entertainment, etc. (Please no emails on her political POV, as if I don't know.) A great show nearly every day.
Writers on Writing: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett hosts this weekly show on the art and business of writing. She interviews authors, poets, literary agents, etc. A staple in my life. Great insights through great interviews.
Colin Adams (Unashamed Workman) has started a series of posts called "Ten Questions for Expositors." His first interview is with Tim Keller.
Here are a few resources I've enjoyed so far on my week-long planning/strategy sabbatical. Some are new to me. Some are for review or rereading or re-listening. Some books I'm reading in full, some in part.
Tim Keller: Should I Not Love That Great City?
Tim Keller: The Meaning of the City
Tim Keller: Love for the City
Tim Keller: Why to Plant Churches
Mark Driscoll: Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah Part 1, Part 2 (notes Part 1, Part 2)
Philip Yancey: Prayer
Bill Sullivan: Ten Steps to Breaking the 200 Barrier
Bil Cornelius: Go Big
Bill Hybels: Just Walk Across the Room
Church Leader Insights (Nelson Searcy): Momentum and Church Growth (post/article by Scott Whitaker)
I'm also doing some of my planning/strategy work at Bubbl.us, which is a simple way to do mind-mapping.
Some resources I hope to get to...
Henry Cloud: 9 Things a Leader Must Do
Jonathan Edwards: Personal Narrative
Don Whitney: Family Worship
