The new worship album, Keith & Kristyn Getty: Modern & Traditional Hymns - Live at The Gospel Coalition is out today. Go get it!
Conferences
09/10/2013
07/12/2013
Engage The South Conference
"Engage the South" is conference cosponsored by Acts 29, Beeson Divinity School, and the Gospel Coalition. It's September 24th at the Wright Center at Samford University in Birmingham.
The question they are asking is "what kind of churches does the South need?"
Here are the sessions...
- "Churches that Embrace Theological Clarity" Ray Ortlund
- "Churches that Plant Churches" Bryan Loritts
- "Churches that are Marked by Humility and Holiness" Matt Chandler
- "Churches that are Committed to Ethnic Diversity" Kevin Smith
- "Churches that are Serious about Evangelism and Conversions" David Platt
That is a rock-solid line up. If I was in the area, I would be there. Early bird pricing runs through July 27th. $49 bucks!
Head over to the conference website to find out more and buy tickets.
01/29/2013
11/15/2012
Sovereign Grace | Pastors' Conference 2012
Audio is up for free download from the Sovereign Grace Pastors' Conference 2012. I've downloaded a handful. Go grab some. Here's the list of the speakers and talks. Go to the site to download them.
The general-session messages from our 2012 Pastors Conference are now online:
- Dave Harvey, “Forgiveness: Debtor No More” (Mt 18:21-35)
- Jeff Purswell, “A Call to Arms” (Eph 6:10-20)
- Ligon Duncan, “God and Your Ministerial Discouragement” (Dt 34, 1Ki 19, 2Ti 4)
- Ian McConnell, “Gospel Men on Gospel Mission” (Mt 16:13-21)
The breakout-session messages are also now available:
- Nancy Guthrie, "Pain that Can't be Prayed Away"
- Nancy Guthrie, "Learning to Walk with Each Other Through Loss"
- Jon Payne, "Union with Christ and Everyday Pastoring: Reinforcing an Important Doctrine"
- Paul Buckley, "Godly Speech - The Power of the Words We Speak, Write and Read"
- Matthew Wassink, "What Polity Can, Can't and Shouldn't Do For Us"
- John Loftness, "Evaluating Pastors: Common Mistakes, What We've Learned, and What Scripture Calls Us To"
- Craig Cabaniss, "Leading through Change: How to Address Sin, Mistakes and Growth in the Church"
- Phil Sasser, "Effective Elderships: Fostering Clear Roles, Healthy Function, and Strong Leadership"
- Dave Harvey, "What’s Our Role? Elders and the Global Mission"
- Mickey Connolly, "Discerning Holiness: Legalism, License and the Principle/Practice Distinction"
- Mark Prater, "Loving and Leading Those Who Criticize"
- Bob Kauflin, "Parenting and the Grace of God: Has Our Understanding Changed?
10/19/2012
10/15/2012
PLNTD Conference | Gospel Leadership (25% off)
I've got a deal for my blog readers.
In three weeks, the PLNTD Network is hosting a conference in Nashville focusing on cultivating gospel-driven leadership. November 2-3, Ed Stetzer and Trevin Wax will address this important topic, namely how the gospel shapes church leaders as well as how to forge a distinctly gospel-driven philosophy of leadership. Whether you are a seminary or college student, pastor, church planter, or small group leader, this focused time of training will provide instruction and encouragement for anyone wanting to train, equip, and send out gospel-driven leaders to reach our communities for Christ. Alongside the main sessions, there will be breakout sessions, Q&A discussions, and several free resources given to everyone who attends.
For the next two weeks, you can register for this event with a special promotional code and receive 25% off registration (normally $49). Get the details on the conference and register with the special code "stevemccoy" to take advantage of the special discount!
10/12/2012
Tim Keller | Center Church Livestream
This should be good. Two hour livestream with Tim Keller focusing on Center Church during a @TGC regional event. A week from today. Mark your calendar. Here's the schedule...
3:00-3:15 p.m.
Introduction to Tim Keller and The Gospel Coalition New England Regional Conference
Stephen Um
3:15-4:00 p.m.
Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City
Tim Keller
4:00-4:45 p.m.
Contextualization and Theological Vision
Tim Keller, Richard Lints, David Wells, and Stephen Um
4:45-5:00 p.m.
Live Q&A from Boston audience and from online
Use #TGCNE12 and #CenterChurch
08/28/2012
Michael Frost | Romancing Your City
It sounded like a cheesy title, but Michael Frost (Exiles, The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus, The Road to Missional) delivered a simple, thought-provoking breakout at Exponential 2012 that I listened to by podcast last night. He compares a good marriage to how we say "I do" and "To death do us part" and the ongoing romance with our spouse with how a church loves her neighborhood (or city). I'd have some minor quibbles, but it was quite helpful for me.
Here are some of his thoughts and points from my sketchy notes, which you can see are comparable to marriage. Should we commit to our neighborhoods (cities) to a lifelong romance, till death do we part? Good thoughts here...
- Move in to the neighborhood God has sent you to
- Listen to your neighborhood
- Talk to your mayor, police chief, fire chief, school principals
- Eat in local restaurants, get in local cafes, walk the neighborhood
- Ask people what they want, long for, desire
- NOTE: Interesting section on midnight-5am "street pastors" 16:45 mark
- "Listen to your neighborhood, it is telling you--if you listen hard enough--how to evangelize them, how to serve them, how to unleash an awareness of the reign of God in that place."
- Partner with your neighborhood
- Stay for a long time in your neighborhood (sickness or health, rich or poor, till death do we part)
- You will move culture to a tipping point by transforming hundreds of thousands of villages across the nation.
- If this place goes down, we will go down with you.
08/17/2012
Lots-o-Links 8.17.12
Some new, some I'm just getting to, but here are some links to check out...
Good Book Company Giveaway: Tim Challies is giving away a bunch of The Good Book Company Bible study guides. Great chance to get theologically solid studies by guys like Tim Chester, Justin Buzzard, and Mark Dever. Also, keep an eye out for $2 Tuesdays from The Good Book Company starting next week!
GCM Conference: Highly recommend the GCM Conference coming up in September in Huntsville. My Soma School experience has me in love with GCM and what it is working to do. Sign up!
Paul Tripp: 6 Traits of a Pastor In Awe of God (get your awe back) | "I counsel you to run now, run quickly, to your Father of awesome glory. Confess the offense of your boredom. Plead for eyes opened to the 360-degree, 24/7 display of glory to which you have been blind. Determine to spend a certain portion of every day in meditating on his glory. Cry out for the help of others. And remind yourself to be thankful for Jesus, who offers you his grace even at those moments when grace isn't nearly as gloriously valuable to you as it should be."
J.I. Packer: Advice to Aspiring Writers - 1. Go deep in personal worship. 2. Write to hit hearts. 3. Write from a sense of calling.
The Gospel Project is worth checking out, if you haven't already. Curriculum for kids, students, and adults. Exciting new resource from Ed Stetzer, Trevin Wax, & LifeWay.
08/11/2012
07/11/2012
Together for Adoption 2012
If you haven't been to Together for Adoption, it's a great experience. We loved it, even though we haven't adopted a child. It fed our soul, showed us the love of our adopting God, while also revealing to us the need great need to encourage Christians to consider adopting. Here's info on the conference in Atlanta in September...
The primary objective of our September 14-15 national conference is to take Christians deeper into God’s story of Adoption to give hope and practical tools to walk with deep joy through “the sufferings of this present time” (Romans 8:18-23) for God’s glory and the good of orphans around the world. God’s work of adoption within the world is a story that encompasses all of human history, from its pre-temporal beginnings when God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to the renewal of the heavens and the earth. From the Apostle Paul’s perspective, Adoption is the story that makes sense of the universe, that makes sense of our broken lives and gives the existence of all creation ultimate meaning.
[...]
Join us September 14-15 in Atlanta for Together for Adoption National Conference 2012. Over 1,000 people will gather together at Cross Pointe Church to explore God’s Story of Adoption for a Broken World.
Register now. Follow on Twitter.
03/09/2012
PLNTD Conference: Cultivating Gospel Communities
At the end of March (March 30-31), the PLNTD Network is hosting a great training event in South Florida focused on cultivating gospel communities. Steve Timmis and Jared Wilson are scheduled to speak, and there will be breakout sessions as well as Q&A to discuss and consider contextual application to your local church.
Get the details (schedule, location, hotel, reservations) by going to the conference website. Current registration for the conference is $49, but PLNTD has a special promotional code for Reformissionary readers. Get $10 off that price when you put "mccoy" in the promotional code slot as you register.
Here's a description of the conference from their website:
God has given the church a mission. At the very heart of that mission is the call to make disciples. And at the very heart of making disciples is gospel communities on mission.
The PLNTD conference : Cultivating Gospel Communities
is a training event focused on equipping God's people to engage in the mission of the church in ordinary life with gospel intentionality. The gospel is extraordinary good news, and communities formed and fueled by the gospel are persuasive displays of how life-transforming and kingdom-advancing it really is. During these two days, we will pursue ways to communicate in word and commend in deed the gospel to our neighbors as we pray for a move of God that impacts our cities for Christ.
Who should attend this training event?
Anyone who wants to make, mature, and multiply gospel-centered disciples. Pastors, church planters, small group leaders, and ministry apprentices/interns are strongly encouraged to attend. For those in South Florida, you will also hear about new developments to collaborate for kingdom advance through the formation of a regional network. There is no better time to get in the trenches and scatter the gospel seed than now! We hope you'll join us!
Sounds great! Hope many will get to go. When you get there, give Timmy Brister a big kiss from me. Actually, a hug will do. :)
PLNTD Conference: Cultivating Gospel Communities
At the end of March (March 30-31), the PLNTD Network is hosting a great training event in South Florida focused on cultivating gospel communities. Steve Timmis and Jared Wilson are scheduled to speak, and there will be breakout sessions as well as Q&A to discuss and consider contextual application to your local church.
Get the details (schedule, location, hotel, reservations) by going to the conference website. Current registration for the conference is $49, but PLNTD has a special promotional code for Reformissionary readers. Get $10 off that price when you put "mccoy" in the promotional code slot as you register.
Here's a description of the conference from their website:
God has given the church a mission. At the very heart of that mission is the call to make disciples. And at the very heart of making disciples is gospel communities on mission.
The PLNTD conference : Cultivating Gospel Communities
is a training event focused on equipping God's people to engage in the mission of the church in ordinary life with gospel intentionality. The gospel is extraordinary good news, and communities formed and fueled by the gospel are persuasive displays of how life-transforming and kingdom-advancing it really is. During these two days, we will pursue ways to communicate in word and commend in deed the gospel to our neighbors as we pray for a move of God that impacts our cities for Christ.
Who should attend this training event?
Anyone who wants to make, mature, and multiply gospel-centered disciples. Pastors, church planters, small group leaders, and ministry apprentices/interns are strongly encouraged to attend. For those in South Florida, you will also hear about new developments to collaborate for kingdom advance through the formation of a regional network. There is no better time to get in the trenches and scatter the gospel seed than now! We hope you'll join us!
Sounds great! Hope many will get to go. When you get there, give Timmy Brister a big kiss from me. Actually, a hug will do. :)
02/22/2012
Soma School: What We Did
I'm trying hard to figure out how to explain Soma School. For a couple of weeks now I've been in processing mode while unfolding the story of my week in Tacoma for my wife and kids, our church leaders and some of our members, our community group, and our church as a whole.
As a part of processing I'm working on a few posts to explain what I did at Soma School and what God is doing through what I learned there. First, what we did. The Soma School schedule for the week was well constructed to immerse us both in what they say and what they do by hearing it and actually doing it. You can view a general schedule online but it has been tweaked. Here's my brief overview with the tweaks included as well as some of my experience. I tried to be brief. Also, click on photos for larger version.
Tuesday: Fly in. Reception dinner & introductions at Shakabrah (Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski's restaurant). GCM vision, Soma vision, & expectations for the week were also discussed, along with some exhortations about being teachable.
I enjoyed some time with a few other Soma attendees from Toronto between landing and the evening beginning. We met on the car ride from the airport and had an amazing story. More on that another time.
We each left with our host family as they came to pick us up.
Wednesday: Story of God. 10 hour story from creation to consummation, compressed to about 6 hours. and taught in two 3 hour sessions. In between we visited Network Tacoma for lunch and to see how they serve the homeless community.
Everyone was assigned a missional community (MC, more info) to attend either Wednesday evening or Thursday evening. I was assigned Jeff Vanderstelt's MC on Wednesday. Jeff brought us to their house and people started showing up. A few folks brought dinner and cooked it as most folks were hanging out and talking. Dinner was served and people were spread all around the house, still talking. Then we all gathered in one room as the MC was finalizing their MC covenant. They didn't talk much about it after the conversation got side-tracked to one woman's concern with how often Jeff, the leader of Soma and the MC, travels. It made for an interesting and eye-opening discussion on expectations, some good ones and some not as much. But it was an open, beautifully messy conversation about who they are and what they are trying to do together.
Both Wednesday and Thursday included pub nights, where Soma School attenders could go out with some Soma guys and talk about pretty much anything. I went both nights (Parkway Tavern), and it was lively conversation.
Thursday: 6 hours on Identities and Rhythms. Lunch in between with Seth McBee and other Soma School attenders to discuss various topics. A handful of Soma leaders were available so attenders could choose who to go to lunch with to discuss their areas of expertise. Really smart and helpful.
Without an MC to attend, Josh Cousineau and I grabbed dinner, late coffee, and headed to pub night. Banter with Jeff Vanderstelt and Sam DeSocio, stories of other conferences, and a packed table with tons of laughter filled the evening.
Friday: 6 hours on the 4 G's: God is Great, God is Glorious, God is Good, and God is Gracious. Followed by 90 minutes of time to repent together in triads. Wow. Powerful. I hate when I'm forced into something like that. It was a running joke that if we knew that was coming we might not have attended Soma School. But it was one of the best experiences of the trip for me, to have 30 minutes for me to tell two brothers how I'm struggling to believe in my heart that God really is these things. Lunch was with Seth McBee again. Also Caesar Kalinowski. Teriyaki. Mmm, good.
Friday night was the songwriters's showcase at Shakabrah featuring Aaron Spiro and others. Packed room enjoying good music.
Saturday: Sacred Space work. Nearly 6 hours of work at Wapato Park. We attacked a large section of the park and took out massive amounts of unwanted growth. Exhausting, but dozens from Soma and Soma School did some beautiful work. What a lesson in a community of faith serving her city.
Then I showered and tried to rest a bit before an expression dinner that my host family is connected with. Great conversation with Justin and Chris and their wives, as well as many others. It was one lady's birthday and they took significant time to surround her and let her know how they see God at work in her life and then pray for her. Eye-opening, beautiful, and something I'd never seen done except very superficially.
Sunday: Attended both morning Soma Tacoma Gatherings with Josh Cousineau. Loved how they did the Lord's Supper. MC's are encouraged to take it together. So they go to a table with a loaf of bread and both juice & wine (intinction), and then they walk away together to circle-up and pray. I took at the 9am gathering with my host family and at the 11:15am gathering with Josh and a couple other Soma School guys.
After, our Soma buddy Lairs took us to Seattle for some burgers and the 5pm Mars Hill service. This was optional, and most other Soma School attenders carpooled up for sightseeing in Seattle. But we did our own thing.
Monday: This is where it all came together. About 6 hours of teaching on building a missional community, which included significant time for questions and answers from two different panels of Soma folks and other discussion.
Lunch for me and a handful of others was with Sam Ticas where we discussed various Soma things, systems, etc.
Dinner was with my host family, John, Trisha and little Aaron before we went to Shakabrah one more time. This time it was host family (John & Trisha, for me) & Soma School attenders together to close out the week, with the opportunity for each attender to share one takeaway from the week. I'll share mine in a future post.
There was a great move of the Spirit in the room as attenders opened up and shared amazing things God was doing. Someone asked Jeff Vanderstelt how we (attenders) could pray for Soma. We then spent a significant amount of time praying for Soma, which was completely unplanned. Wonderful. Then they prayed for us and we left. I packed up and prepared for my flight home on Tuesday.
-----
That's a brief overview of the week not only according to the schedule, but as I experienced it. I probably forgot a few significant things. I purposefully left out some of what God was doing in me as I want to give that a more singular focus. All in all it was a week I'll never forget. John & Trisha were great hosts, loving me and serving me well. Teaching from Caesar Kalinowski, Abe Meysenburg, and Jeff Vanderstelt was excellent. But the whole week learning with head, heart, and hands was remarkable and is incomparable with anything else I've experienced. If you are considering attending Soma School, I highly recommend it. More posts to come.
12/02/2011
11/07/2011
Tim Keller | The Berlin Conference
Tim Keller gave three talks at the 2011 Berlin Conference, two of which were followed by questions & answers. You have to register on the City to City Europe website to download, but it's worth it. His talks...
- The Gospel-Centered Church (also Q&A)
- The Urban Church (also Q&A)
- The Holistic Church
Go to City to City Europe to download them.
11/04/2011
Adopting a Corn Dog
I met Jason Cornwell (@TheCornDog) at Together for Adoption. At first I just thought he was a dude with a car who would take us from the hotel to the conference and back. But we quickly became friends (he's a ton of fun) and we learned that Jason is coming on staff with T4A. His responsibilities include...
- Directing Regional Conferences
- Unpacking the Doctrine of Adoption in churches, college chapels, and high school assemblies
- Writing and blogging
- Networking
Come to find out, his only job isn't driving Molly and me around. He's kind of a big deal for T4A and I want to encourage my readers to learn about Jason, his ministry, and how you can support him and Together for Adoption. So please go read the T4A writeup on Jason and consider helping this great ministry, and my new friend.
10/25/2011
10/24/2011
T4A | Featured Bloggers - Everything
Here's my best shot at creating one post with links to everything from Together for Adoption featured bloggers. Not every blogger wrote on everything or was present for every main session. I expect more posts are still coming with reflections on T4A in the days to come. I know I have some unfinished posts on some talks and a handful of other reflections to share. If you see things I've missed, let me know. FYI: I know other bloggers/twitterers said a lot at T4A, but I'm focusing on the "featured bloggers." If you want to put a link to other helpful posts in the comments from non-featured bloggers, that would be a great addition to the list.
Check out tweets still coming out from #t4aCon attenders and others RTing good quotes. Also go back in the Twitter accounts (listed below) for a ton of great quotes. That may be the best way to get direct quotes, while the posts often contain interaction on the quotes and topics.
BLOGGERS - Name [link to Twitter account] (abbreviation)
- Matthew Lee Anderson [Tw] (MLA)
- Aaron Armstrong [Tw] (AA)
- Dorothy Bode (DB)
- Julie Gumm [Tw] (JG)
- Chris Marlow [Tw] (CM)
- Steve McCoy [Tw] (SM)
- Zach Nielsen [Tw] (Z)
- Lindsey Nobles [Tw] (LN)
- Dennae Pierre [Tw] (DP)
- Noel Piper [Tw] (NP)
- Josh Reich [Tw] (JR)
- Brent Thomas [Tw] (BT)
MAIN SESSIONS
Darrin Patrick | Session 1 - The Church & Social Justice
Tullian Tchividjian | Session 2 - Surprised by Adoption
Dan Cruver | Session 3 - Adoption & The God Who Cares
Bryan Loritts | Session 4 - The Church as the Theater of Transracial Adoption
Jeff Vanderstelt | Session 5 - Gospel-Motivation for Missional Living
Tim Chester | Session 6 - Relaxing in Trinitarian Love
PRE-CONFERENCE & BREAKOUTS
- A Mom at Rest by Dr. Donna Thoennes || DB | JG | DP
- Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story by Tim Chester || AA: Sessions 1, 2, 3 | JR: Sessions 1, 2, 3
- Attachment & Family Growth by Mark & Kristen Howerton || JG: Pt 1 | Pt 2
- Gospel-Centered Parenting by Tim Chester || DP | BT
- Trans-Racial Adoption by Vermon Pierre || DP
- Missional Living & Orphan Care by Jason Kovacs || JR
- Grief In Infertility || MLA
MISC & POST-CONFERENCE
- MLA: "Together for Adoption National Conference" | "Seven Thoughts On Together For Adoption"
- AA: "Heart for Adoption: Stephen Miller's Story" | "The Trinity & Adoption: A Quick Chat With Tim Chester" |
- DB: "My Plans/His Plans" | "Worship Within The Circle of Bloggers" | "One Minute To Share Their Ministries" | "Seeing Change" | "Book Giveaway To End the Endless Pile" | "Project Hopeful"
- SM: "T4A Songs" | "Chicks 4 Orphans"
- ZN: "A Heart for Adoption" | "God's Care for Orphans Through the Hatian Church"
- DP: "10 x 100=1000 for Orphans" | "A Challenge Now That You Are Home" | "Pre-Conference for Adoptive Mamas"
- NP: "Adoption Changes Families" | "Home-Based Orphan Care" | "But What Can I Do?" | "Goodbye & More to Give Away"
- JR: "A Heart for Adoption (Video Story)" | Surge Intensive (non T4A event, but it's with Tim Chester)
10/23/2011
10/22/2011
Chicks 4 Orphans
One of the exhibitors here at the Together for Adoption 2011 Conference that has caught my eye is Chicks 4 Orphans: Buy a Chick. Help an Orphan. My first question was, "Was this created by a college fraternaty?" I've heard a similar buzz among other conference-goers and even the speakers. It's a fun bit of viral marketing. It enticed my wife to seek out one of their t-shirts, and then they wanted me to wear one because they wanted guys to not be afraid to wear "Chicks 4 Orphans" shirts. I'm proud to be wearing one today and want to share this interesting and viral kind of ministry with you.
From the Chicks 4 Orphans Facebook page...
Chicks help orphans. You can help orphans too!
Chicks 4 Orphans is both a sustainable poultry farming business in Zambia and a fundraising campaign for Every Orphan’s Hope, a ministry dedicated to sharing the love of Jesus Christ with children left orphaned and vulnerable because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
What impact can Chicks 4 Orphans make? As you give and encourage others to give to Chicks 4 Orphans, you’re helping to create sustainable poultry farming projects that will help feed and care for orphans. Chicken farming also provides an income generating business to support the many other needs of these children, such as education, clothes, housing, healthcare and more.
The goal is to create sustainable poultry farming businesses that employ villagers, sustain ministry operations and care for orphans in Zambia.
"LIKE" Chicks 4 Orphans on Facebook and take the 100 Chick Challenge. Follow on Twitter. We are excited to get home tomorrow and discuss this ministry with our kids, especially our daughter, Sarah. It's something you can do online, in your church, in a small group. It's a simple and beautiful way to help orphans.
10/21/2011
T4A | Tullian Tchividjian - Session 2
Tullian delievered a great message on Law & Gospel at Together for Adoption 2011 Conference. Rather than redo work others have done, I commend to you the notes of a new friend of mine, Aaron Armstrong (author of Awaiting a Savior). Here are a couple of my favorite quotes I took on Twitter from Tullian's talk...
"It's a lie that grace is dangerous and needs to be kept in check."
"It's silly that we have to put the word 'radical' before Grace, as if there's some other kind."
"There is nothing more radically unbalanced than grace."
I'm excited about Tullian's new book coming out October 31st, Jesus + Nothing = Everything. Order it now.
10/19/2011
Together for Adoption | Main Sessions & Giveaway
Molly and I are flying to Phoenix for the 2011 Together for Adoption Conference tomorrow morning, Lord-willing and the winds die down. I know many of you can't go but are interested in following along. So I encourage you to stick around for live-blogging here at Reformissionary. Follow me on Twitter for a lot of instant updates and pics and who knows what else. I also encourage you to follow other featured bloggers at T4A for a wide variety of experiences of and discussions about the conference. The official hashtag for all the stuff on Twitter is #t4aCon and official conference twitter account is @t4aCon.
You'll hear about a ton of different breakout sessions from different bloggers as well as these top-notch general sessions. You won't want to miss what these guys are saying...
Darrin Patrick: The Church and Social JusticeTullian Tchividjian: Surprised by AdoptionDan Cruver: Adoption and the God Who GivesBryan Loritts: The Church as the Theater of Transracial AdoptionJeff Vanderstelt: Gospel-Motivation for Missional LivingTim Chester: Relaxing in Trinitarian Love
GIVEAWAY
Ok, so for those of you who can't go, I'm doing another giveaway of 5 copies of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (edited & written in part by Dan Cruver). I love the book, and I want to get it in your hands. So, here's how you can enter for a chance at one of the copies. All three steps are required, and easy.
1. "LIKE" the T4A Facebook page.2. TWEET (and/or post on Facebook wall), without the quote marks: " Win a FREE copy of Reclaiming Adoption! RT this & comment at Reformissionary to win: http://bit.ly/nW95S8 #t4aCon "3. COMMENT BELOW (so I can verify you did steps 1 & 2). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners.
For fun, and since the World Series begins tonight, share your World Series winner in your comment. Texas Rangers or the St. Louis Cardinals? Also feel free to give your predictions on how many games it will take to win (sports SINthusiast Joe Thorn, just tell us your favorite color). I'm calling it for the Rangers in 5.
I will randomly choose 5 winners on Saturday, the last day of the Together for Adoption 2011 Conference.
09/22/2011
09/06/2011
T4A: Pre-Conference with Tim Chester
I've been very blessed by the ministry & writing of Tim Chester. I've read Total Church twice & I've reviewed the excellent Delighting in the Trinity. You should also check out his book From Creation to New Creation among others. At the Together for Adoption Conference Tim and Dan Cruver (author of Reclaiming Adoption) are delivering a pre-conference event called "Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story." Here's more from the website...
Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story
Tim Chester and Dan Cruver
Missional church is not simply the latest fad. It’s rooted in the trinitarian character of God and the story of the Bible. Explore the foundations for shaping life around gospel, community and mission along with practical application for church life and the implications for orphan care.
Registration: $75 Per Person
Learn more about this pre-conference event with Tim Chester.
07/26/2011
Together for Adoption Conference | Early Bird
Email from the T4A folks on how you can save by registering this week for the conference. I'll be there with my beautiful wife. Hope to see you there!
You can save $30 by registering for Together for Adoption's October 21-22 orphan care/adoption conference this week (read full-details here). You may now register for just $75 today, July 25th, through Saturday, July 30th. This limited-time discount is over $30 less than our current early bird special. Take advantage of this super early bird price and help us spread the word about it this week. This sale ends on Saturday, July 30th at 11:59pm. Check here for details and to register at this super early bird rate.
If you take advantage of this early bird special and would like to sign up for conference childcare or reserve a room at one of our partner hotels, you will need to do so at our regular online registration site. You may also register there for one of our two pre-conference events as well.
NOTE: If you are coming with a group from your church, this would be a perfect opportunity for your group's members to register.
We hope to see you in Phoenix this October 21-22nd.
06/01/2011
Together for Adoption 2011 Conference
Registration is now open for the 2011 Together for Adoption Conference. Come to Phoenix on October 21-22 and join me and Joe Thorn and our wives and a bunch of other good folks for what is sure to be informative, insightful, fun and, uh, hot. From the website...
Join us October 21-22 in Phoenix for Together for Adoption Conference 2011. Over 1,200 people will gather together at Redemption Church (Gilbert Campus) to explore the theme Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care. One of our primary objectives for this year’s conference is to create a forum to consider the good news of the Gospel, explore its implications for how we think about and implement orphan care strategies, and discuss how we can move toward greater collaboration as the people of God for the sake of orphans worldwide.
General session speakers include: Darrin Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Tim Chester (coming to us from England), Bryan Loritts, Juan Sanchez, and Jeff Vanderstelt.
Registration:
- Early Bird: $109 Per Person (good through August 31st)
- Regular: $149 Per Person (price from September 1 until October 21)
*Registration price includes two onsite lunches and afternoon snacks.
Worship Leaders: Shaun Groves, Aaron Ivey, and Jimmy McNeal
General Session Hosts: Shaun Groves and Johnny Carr (National Director of Church Partnerships at Bethany Christian Services)
Note: Childcare is available.
Pre-Conference Event (Thursday, October 20):
Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story
Tim Chester and Dan CruverMissional church is not simply the latest fad. It’s rooted in the trinitarian character of God and the story of the Bible. Explore the foundations for shaping life around gospel, community and mission along with practical application for church life and the implications for orphan care.
Registration: $75 Per Person
Current list of our Featured Bloggers: MegMiller, Lindsey Nobles, Reformissionary (Steve McCoy), JoeThorn.net, Julie Gumm, Zach Nielsen, Missional Thoughts (Josh Reich), and Michael Robinson. More will be added.
There will be 60+ breakouts to equip you and provide you with opportunities to meet others who share your same passion for orphaned and vulnerable children. Over 60 organizations involved in orphan care, adoption, and foster care will also be there to serve you as you seek to live out James 1:27.
Notice on the list of featured bloggers, my real name is secondary to my blog name. That can't be good! ;)
I hope many of you will join us. So go register for the conference. Also check out and "Like" the Together for Adoption page.
04/15/2011
Those Who Face the Death of a Child
At The Gospel Coalition this week I was able to talk with David and Nancy Guthrie. Nancy Guthrie is the author of many books, including Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.
Nancy and David told me about Respite, a ministry to parents who have suffered the death of a child. I want to encourage those who have lost a child or have friends who have suffered in this way to check it out. Pastors, this could be a very valuable resource to keep in mind.
04/14/2011
04/13/2011
Gospel Coalition | Day 1
I have absolutely no time to recap my days here at the Gospel Coalition 2011 in Chicago, but I figured I'd put up something.
I'm really impressed with the new location, McCormick Place. Huge facility. The bookstore is outstanding, and now has Joe Thorn's new book, Note to Self.
What preaching I saw was great. Maybe better than that, Joe Thorn and I talked just before bed about how amazing our conversations have been. Gospel-focused, encouraging, God-glorifying. I've seen new friends and old ones. I told Michael Horton I'm one of those missional guys and got Rod Rosenbladt to laugh. I met Ray Ortlund, Jr. and Dane Ortlund for the first time and talked to Sam Storms yet again. I got coffee with Greg Thornbury and tried to convert Tim Ellsworth's 7 year old son to being a Cubs fan (FAIL, for good reason). I told Josh Harris he looks a bit like Russ Moore. Josh is always a joy to talk to. Matt Schmucker gave me a sticker. Al Mohler, as always, asked about my wife's health. Several guys actually did. I heard Tim Keller preach. Nuff said. I talked to a bunch of bloggers about, well, blogging. I saw my pastor from Kentucky, my old friend from a Methodist church in my hometown, and several local friends. I met Jared Wilson and his lovely wife, Becky, who is probably a better conversationalist than he is. And he's a great conversationist. I got to discuss and strategize about open-air preaching with guys from cities, suburbs, and small towns. I talked about "synagogue evangelism" with some Twitter friends I got to meet for the first time. It was one of the best days of conversations I've ever experienced, and it's just the first day. Because of all the above I'm even more optimistic about the Church, the mission, and our great God.
It's been a very good but long day and I think I've dropped enough names, though the list goes on. These are real guys, serious guys, and it's a blessing to know them. More tomorrow. It's late and I'm punchy. Let me close with this: The Gospel Coalition is probably my favorite all-around conference for a superb mix of content & opportunity to make connections with Gospel-saturated guys. I wish even more friends were here. God has been good to me.
01/27/2011
Giveaway: Reclaiming Adoption
BOOK GIVEAWAY
I recently read and endorsed Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through Rediscovery of Abba Father (Kindle version only $5.99). Check out my endorsement & many others. Love this book by Dan Cruver, also with John Piper, Richard D. Phillips, Scotty Smith, and Jason Kovacs. There's a PDF study guide and sample of the book available.
By the way, Dan Cruver is also leading a breakout session at the Desiring God Pastor's Conference at 3:15-4:15pm this coming Tuesday.
*****
So, to the point. I've been given the chance to host a GIVEAWAY of 5 COPIES of Reclaiming Adoption. Here's your chance to pick up one of the best books I've read in the last year.
Do this...
STEP 1: Copy & share the following without the quote marks on Twitter (if you aren't on Twitter, use Facebook, or do BOTH!): "Get a FREE copy of Reclaiming Adoption! RT this & comment at Reformissionary to win: http://bit.ly/ih1LeK "
STEP 2: Leave a comment below (so I can verify you did step 1). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners. For fun, also comment on your Super Bowl winner & score.
I will randomly choose 5 winners in the late afternoon/early evening on Friday (28th).
GO!
01/20/2011
If God Is Against Us...
Until we come to grips with the fact that there is one unchanging God who has always hated sin and deals with it with the utmost severity, we're not anywhere close to revival. We're going to have to accept the fact that when God is grieved He turns himself and becomes his peoples' greatest enemy.
I still hear people saying, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" But that's not the issue right now. The issue is, "If God is against us, what does it matter who's for us."
Richard Owen Roberts, 2010 Forum on Revival at SBC (original source)
01/14/2011
Ligonier Ministries $5 Friday | 1.14.11
$5 Friday deals at Ligonier this week...
Books: Living by God's Promises by Joel Beeke | Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow by RC Sproul
Teaching Series: Truth (CD) | Classic Collection (download, 10 best known messages) | Oaths & Vows (download)
DVD: War on the Word (2002 Natl Conf)
Audio: Scenes from the Life of Christ by Tom Howard (CD w/ narrations by Begg, Mohler, Piper, Sproul, several others)
Check out all the books & resources at Ligonier.org and the Ligonier Store.
12/15/2010
Bifrost Arts: Liturgy, Music, & Space
I heard about the new Bifrost Arts worship conference at Covenant Seminary a few weeks back. It's called "Liturgy, Music, & Space." If you don't know Bifrost Arts, you should. I very much enjoy their two albums: Salvation Is Created (Christmas) and Come, O Spirit (worship). More about the conference...
Each week we tell our congregations a story with how we use liturgy, how we use music, and how we use space in worship. Bifrost Arts has developed a curriculum for small groups and Sunday School classes entitled “Liturgy, Music, & Space” to help churches walk through a coherent, biblical view of how these elements of worship are forming us.
Join us from March 29-31 as we present this curriculum at a conference with lectures, workshops, and times of worship in St. Louis, Missouri with:
- Nicholas Wolterstorff
- Bryan Chapell
- Greg Thompson
- John Hodges
- Kevin Twit (Indelible Grace)
- Betsy Steele Halstead
- Isaac Wardell
- The Welcome Wagon (great album)
Conference fee is $150. Discounts are available for students, campus ministers, and church employees from small congregations.
This conference is made possible through a worship renewal grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, MI, with funds provided by Lilly Endowement Inc.
I'm not a worship leader, but this sounds amazing for worship leaders, pastors (especially of smaller churches), etc.
Bifrost Arts from josh franer on Vimeo.
12/13/2010
PLANT! Conference | March 24-26, 2011
PLANT! Conference is looking pretty awesome. Love stuff like this, where like-minded guys from various backgrounds and networks come together. Here's some info. It's not expensive. You should go.
PLANT! | March 24-26, 2011
Location | Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA
Cost | $99 bucks
Who Should Go | Church planters, pastors, pastors who desire to see their church plant churches, members of churches who desire to be a part of planting a church some day
Why Go To PLANT! | Sovereign Grace is gathering church planting thinkers and doers from different denominations and church planting movements for three days of teaching and dialogue about planting and building churches on the gospel.
Learn from a group of men from Acts 29, Sovereign Grace, the PCA, and 9 Marks who have planted, replanted and are in the midst of leading planting movements. Men like Darrin Patrick and Daniel Montgomery from Acts 29, Mark Dever and Mike McKinley from 9 Marks and the SBC, Tim Witmer from the PCA, CJ Mahaney, Dave Harvey, Pete Greasley, Craig Cabaniss from Sovereign Grace Ministries.
Get more info & register at PLANT! Conference website. Connect on Facebook.
11/18/2010
Tim Keller: Urban Plant Life PDFs
Here are PDF's of talks Tim Keller gave at the Urban Plant Life conference in London a couple of years ago. You can also check out the audio/video or grab the podcast. But having documents you can print and search is very helpful. Thanks to @BradAndrews for the heads-up.
1. Gospel Renewal
2. Church & Culture
3. Contextual & Missional
4. Gospel Theology
5. Integrative Ministry
6. Gospel Preaching
7. Gospel Theology
8. Movement Dynamics
9. Church Planting
11/11/2010
08/26/2010
GCM Conference - Austin in October
Austin has more to offer than good music. The GCM Collective Conference is coming October 28-30. You need to be there.
If you are unfamiliar, GCM stands for "Gospel Community Mission." From the website...
The GCM Collective exists to promote, create and equip Gospel Communities on Mission. A gospel community is a group of believers that lives out the mission of God together as family, in a specific area to a particular people group, by declaring and demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms. Regular people, living ordinary lives, with great gospel intentionality.
GCM Collective's online community for discussion and sharing resources is quite helpful. Again, from the site...
Over a thousand missional leaders and thinkers are gathered together online to share insight, experiences, resources, prayer and more to help you in your effort to lead a local community on mission. Engage in meaningful conversations with others from around the world or who live near you.
But the conference is what I want to highlight. I'm going to be there. I want to encourage you to come.
The list of speakers is solid. Ed Stetzer, Steve Timmis (author of Total Church), Jeff Vanderstelt & Caesar Kalinowski (Soma Communities), David Fairchild & Drew Goodmanson (Kaleo San Diego) and Jonathan Dodson (Austin City Life Church).
I was in a breakout group with Vanderstelt and Kalinowski at Verge in February and it was some of the most thought provoking, encouraging stuff I've heard on practical, local church life. I was in a breakout with Timmis for an Acts 29 boot camp which was very helpful as well. And these aren't just thinkers, they are practitioners. We often go to conferences for big names giving big talks. GCM Conference is going to be very different, and I think transformational.
Jonathan Dodson recently posted "4 Reasons I'm Excited about GCM Conference." These are some of the same reasons I'm excited for this conference.
Go read Jonathan's post for more. And join us in Austin in October for the GCM Conference.(1) Practioner-tested Missional Community Training
(2) Top Notch Theological Reflection on Mission
(3) The Collective Experience
(4) The Centrality of the Gospel in Mission
06/25/2010
Story Chicago 2010
My friend, Ben Arment, has created another STORY Conference here in Chicago. The STORY website is the dreamiest ever. How can you see this and not want to go? STORY purposefully has limited seating for maximized experience, so you want to get your tickets now.
Here's more info...
---
STORY
Sept 23-24
Chicago, IL
STORY is a conference for the creative class in ministry on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church's artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians. Presenters include:
# Dan Allender - best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School# Charlie Todd - creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City
# Princess Zulu - AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed
# Jason Fried - founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework
# John Sowers - president of Donald Miller's The Mentoring Project
# Shauna Niequist - former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet
# David Hodges - formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter
# Leonard Sweet - futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University
# David McFadzean - creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne
# Richard Walter - accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA
# Sean Gladding - member of Communality, a new monastic community
# Andrew Klavan - author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels
# Gary Dorsey - founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX
# Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker Seating is limited to just 500 attendees, and the event is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy the weekend in the city. Following its inaugural event in 2009, STORY is now a two-day, main-stage event with no breakouts or workshops; just an intimate audience with the top creative minds. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event and continue the conversation after it's over. Visit www.storychicago.com.
05/14/2010
missionSHIFT Conference
One of my favorite conference experiences EVER was at Ridgecrest, NC for a missions conference with John Piper. BOOM! Awesome. There's another conference coming up at Ridgecrest this July with a stunning list of speakers called missionSHIFT.
Check this out: Matt Chander, Ed Stetzer, Alan Hirsch, JD Greear, Jeff Vanderstelt, Daniel Montgomery, Neil Cole, Dan Kimball and...*gulp*...Joe Thorn!
Would be cool just as a conference, but it gets better. Though not a speak, Tim Keller and some other guys (after I hear Keller, everyone else just fades away...Stetzer, Hirsch, blah, blah, blah) are crafting "The Missional Manifesto"...
During the months leading up to missionSHIFT, many of today’s leading missiologists, theologians, and practitioners will begin to draft a document entitled “The Missional Manifesto.”
[...]
The framers hope to construct a helpful statement on the use and application of the word missional. The intention of “The Missional Manifesto” is to allow the Scriptures to guide our understanding and involvement in the mission of God as it applies to the whole of life and doctrine. The document will strive to show how missional intersects with truths about the gospel, the local church, evangelism, missions, social justice, and contextualization, among other things.
Prior to missionSHIFT, all interested parties will be able to participate in shaping the document via Twitter using the “tweet” feature on the left side of the home page - using @missionSHIFT and #missionSHIFT. Because we feel that biblical community is inherent to the participation in God’s mission, we hope you will use the “tweet” feature to share information about missionSHIFT via other mediums such as social networking and email platforms.
Before the conference, “The Missional Manifesto” will be posted on this page for attendees to prayerfully read through and consider signing in affirmation at the conference. After missionSHIFT, non-attendees will be given an opportunity to electronically sign “The Missional Manifesto” on this site in affirmation of its content.
As stated, we believe now is the time to forge this declaration and we look forward to doing that with you!
Friends, this is a really great opportunity to both attend and help to craft this document with some of the finest minds and practitioners around. Check out missionSHIFT.
03/31/2010
Catalyst One Day Chicago
I had the privilege of attending Catalyst One Day Chicago last Thursday at Willow Creek. I didn't know a lot about One Day before I went. I knew it was ONE day and had Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel as speakers. I knew it would probably be mostly leadership and organizational principles. That's about it.
One Day's are four main sessions (Andy, 2 Craig's, Andy), significant Q and A time, and Andy-Craig dialogues. You get to hear the nitty gritty aspects of ministry from these two guys who lead two giant churches and who have been through a lot.
Topic was momentum. An important topic for my ministry & church in particular, so I was very eager to hear them on it. Let me first describe 5 things that I really needed to hear.
First, I needed the reminder from Stanley that if people aren't following, they aren't convinced of the vision. I'm working on vision stuff at Doxa this week and heading into summer. It's an important thing for me to hear and hear again. I'm not nearly good enough at casting vision and keeping it in front of my people.
Second, I needed the word from Groeschel that "If you're not hurting, you're not leading." Pain is a part of leadership and ministry, I've experienced it a lot, and it's a part of it that I can't avoid. But I love to try to avoid it. If I do, I stop leading. Another quote: "The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the painful decision you need to make."
Third, I needed everything from Groeschel's second talk. So good for me. We need to repent life as "Christian Atheists," as people who are full-time Pastors but only part-time Christians. This was another God moment for me, which are growing in number over the past few months. God is good.
Fourth, I needed the reminder to talk to my wife about when it's best for me to be home. I've just flat-out neglected this. I'm home a lot and I'm a real homebody, a family man. But often not at the times that serve her and my children best. I'm correcting this.
Fifth, I needed Stanley's encouraging closing talk as it pertained to my approach to ministry. He said programs are created to answer a question or meet a need and we must stop them when they no longer answer the question or meet the need. I've seen a need to work on this at my church, and I just needed to be encouraged again on how important this work is.
Now, a few critical thoughts I have and I know some others have.
Some will criticize conferences like this for not emphasizing the Gospel more. I hear that, and agree to a point. I know we can't assume a lot of guys in ministry know and/or preach the Gospel all that well. I agree that the Gospel is THE filter and directive behind all that we do. And I do think the message of One Day would be impacted and improved should the Gospel take a more prominent place as the day begins.
But I also like the format. I like having some assumptions so we can narrow the focus. We don't always have to say everything. You know coming in to this that it isn't really a theology/Gospel conference. There are other places for that. This is leadership and organization and best practices. And I found it of great value for what it is.
I disagree significantly with both Stanley and Groeschel on some organizational aspects of their churches. It's hard to talk best practices without the conference teaching a model, at least to a point. I was able to pass off the stuff I didn't find sound or compelling from my point of view, so it wasn't a big deal for me. Is it possible the Gospel/theology aspect is not only absent because of the narrow focus of the conference, but also because it's under-utilized in these models? Possibly. But that doesn't mean I can glean what I find valuable there, and I found a lot of value.
Another criticism could be that these pastors of large churches with lots of staff aren't speaking quite as helpful for smaller church guys. There's some validity to that and had that thought during One Day. But I also think there is enough there that anyone in any place of ministry will be blessed. Like I said, yu can't do everything at every conference. And the principles discussed are meant to be universal. I was happy enough, though I wasn't always fully tracking with where these two guys are in their leadership journey.
If you have a chance to attend a One Day or other Catalyst Conference, I think you will be blessed. I was.
03/26/2010
Phriday is for Photos 3.26.10
It's Friday, this is a photo, but I didn't take it. At Catalyst One Day they asked "What is the one way the church should innovate to be more effective?" This was the answer of Joe Thorn and me.
03/09/2010
On the Verge - Part 4
*The last of my series of posts on Verge. See Pt 1, 2, 3.
I've been struggling. Personally, spiritually, pastorally, physically. I was talking with my wife on Saturday night about some of the stuff I've dealt with in the last year and beyond, and it blew me away when I realized the issues that have I've dealt with in my life. I know that's vague, but I want to give at least a little context for what I'm going to say and what I've experienced. I know we all go through difficult, dryer times. We all have detractors. And I've talked to a number of young pastors in the last months and years who have had many of the same issues. I know I'm not alone or unique.
In the few months prior to Verge God was really working on me. I've been doing a lot of repenting of the idols in my heart. I've been preaching the gospel to myself. Molly and I have been thinking through a lot together. She has been going through much of the same through a study that just rocked her world a couple of months back.
When I got to Verge I connected with friends and settled in for a good time. What I didn't expect that God would use this conference as a spiritual pivot-point. Practical, sure. Theological, maybe. Not spiritual. During the conference, through a number of sessions and conversations and events, the Holy Spirit haunted me with God's goodness and faithful love in Christ.
Let me briefly describe how the Holy Spirit worked in me at Verge.
First, I was blessed and challenged by the video lead-ins by Alan Hirsch. Each session started with Hirsch detailing an idea that the upcoming speakers would speak on. One-by-one these videos deepened my love for Christ and the Church. I ended up looking forward to the next video more than the next speaker. It was a great thread tying together the conference, and through them the Spirit was stirring that old fire in my belly to see God's local church vibrant and alive.
Second, as detailed in my previous post, Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski's breakout on Soma Communities took Hirsch and gave it legs, concreteness. They took the hunger I was gaining for biblical, misisonal community encouraged by Hirsch and made it seem possible. God was renewing my view of community, my calling to shepherd our church toward it, and my love for the Church despite her flaws.
Third, the two sessions with Francis Chan were remarkable. Nothing flashy. Quite the opposite, really. Just real. The dude was real. He was honest about his own struggles and our struggles as pastors to want what God wants and to want them through the means God provides.
Both sessions were on the Holy Spirit. I don't care what the titles or topics were. The Holy Spirit was the point for me. Why are we functioning on any power other than the Holy Spirit? Chan said...
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.
I want to ride the wave. I'm spending way too much energy splashing in the ocean to make my own waves when if I look for the Spirit's waves, they will be unstoppable. How can we think our tactics and strategies and plans and efforts will go anywhere without God?
Chan's honest and sobering message inspired me to dream again about being the church we saw in Acts. I used to dream about the exciting, messy movement of God in the world. I want to want that again. Most preaching makes me want to believe I can do something. Chan made me want to believe and pray that God would do something.
In his second message Chan said something like this...
If you are not suffering, there is a problem. Imagine how close you’d be with Jesus and how safe you would feel had you suffered alongside Him. Then you would know this is real.
This was the message I can quote the least because I was so tunnel-visioned into what God was saying. I didn't hear the sermon, I experienced it. You can get a lot of the message from Jonathan McIntosh's post. He echoes much of what I thought about Chan and the work of the Holy Spirit at Verge.
Allow me to quote JMac here for my fourth and final point.
Fourth, the Holy Spirit showed up. Jonathan writes...
The best part of the weekend was a worship session on Saturday afternoon that never seemed to stop. It was time for the singing to be done and for all of us to move on to the next deal on the schedule – except that God had something else on His schedule.Matt Carter got up and acknowledged that something was going on. Breakouts were going to start soon and that if people needed to go they could, but he opened the door for others to stick around if they felt so led. And we did. People just stood there. Or knelt. Or bowed.
And then one by one, people spontaneously started calling out to God. In a group of thousands, people started calling on the name of Jesus.
It’s hard to describe what happened, and I really don’t want to dishonor that moment by trying to make it seem more dramatic than it was. I’ll just say that for me it was an intense moment of sensing God’s hugeness and my own smallness and yet feeling accepted in that instead of alienated. It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that happen in a group that large since my charismatic revival days.
I agree. I've had a lot of "aha" moments from God through His Word. I've had a sacred few moments when He was noticeably present in a special way. I've had even fewer like Verge when He moved in unity among many and was, apparently, sensed by nearly all of us.
Truthfully, I'm all too skeptical of these things. So much junk is said to be the work of the Spirit, and that's when eye-rolling and tongue-clucking commences. But I can't deny the experience I (we) had at Verge. It was the culmination of many things happening in my life. It was sparked by truth and Christology and ecclesiology and evangelistic/missional fervor at Verge. But the crescendo for me, and it seems for all of us, was when a "rock star pastor" (Chan) laid himself bare, talked about struggles instead of displaying his flapping cap, and talked about Jesus and the Spirit instead of strategies. It was a moment I can't forget, and that drives me NOT to pursue a new ministry plan BUT rather power that can only come from the haunting of the Holy Ghost.
May our churches find ourselves on our knees far more than we sketch out plans. May the interruptions that God puts in our lives be seen as more important than our intentions. May we be willing to suffer as missionaries for our great God. And may He be glorified.
03/03/2010
02/23/2010
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.
Soma has identified 6 everyday rhythms...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?
- 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.
02/16/2010
On The Verge - Part 2
*I'm running a series of short posts on attending & experiencing Verge.*
Being a part of the Verge Social Media Team made the conference a unique experience. You pay attention in a different way when you have to write about it, tweet it, etc.
One thing I seem to always talk about when it comes to blogs, Twitter, Facebook and so on is the value of the relationships formed through them. I've yet to find it very valuable for the people around me. Honestly, where I pastor there are number of folks on Facebook but the other stuff is another language. Most of my church doesn't read nor do that care about my blog. No one else tweets. But Reformissionary, Twitter and other social connections have been some of the most valuable resources of my life as they have connected me to a huge network around the globe of pastors, missionaries, planters, and missional Christians.
If not for my many followers I wouldn't have gone to Verge. It was on my radar, just not my budget. But my social network helped to make my attendance valuable for Verge as I could spread their message to my network. I hope the Verge posts and tweets were/are a blessing to you. I'm so thankful Stew and the other Verge folks invited me there.
Having my network helped me to connect to many people at Verge. Some I knew by name or photo. Others I've never met. It's kinda funny how often folks recognize me at conferences from Reformissionary or Twitter, or how often I recognize them. It opens doors and leads to conversations far down the road. If not for my network I wouldn't have had Brent Thomas driving me everywhere with his rental Escalade (or whatever it was). It's only the second time I've seen him face-to-face and he's already a great friend and encouragement. Then there were the other Twitters and bloggers and Facebook friends. They were all over. What a cool thing.
For all that's said about social networking as a detriment, it's been one of the great blessings of my life in ministry.
Being specifically on the social media team wasn't all that big of a deal (other than them picking up the tab!). I didn't get access to apple slices and caramel dip or anything. I'm sure I could have had more access to speakers if I asked. But I wanted to soak, and experience, and that was just my role. I'm glad it was because too much would have put noise around the voice of God, and I needed it a little quieter.
By the way, almost no one is as cool as they seem on the web. You've realized that, right? DJ Chuang and I were sharing our Tim Keller stories. I was geeking out because I met Kent Shaffer and Charlie Wear and Milfred Minatrea and others. But you quickly realize they are just other dudes who love Jesus and work for His Church. They are just guys. I'm glad to be one of them.
I felt like the Verge social media team experiment was a good one. One I was blessed by far more than they (or you) were blessed by my involvement. I learned by my Verge experience that the Spirit is infinitely greater than "the buzz." If "the buzz" doesn't come by the Spirit, it isn't good enough. There was a lot of social network buzz coming out of Verge. That was/is a good thing. But it doesn't compare with what God did to my heart at Verge. I hope through this and other blogs that "the buzz" will ultimately be about God and His goodness and glory through Jesus Christ. It should be because He was there.
That's what the next two posts will be about. Post 3 will be about the impact Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski's workshop on Soma Communities had on me. Post 4, the haunting of the Ghost.
02/15/2010
Coming Attractions...
Upcoming reviews...
- Gospel-Centred Life - See reviews for GC Church and GC Family
- Holy Ground: Walking With Jesus As A Former Catholic
Other upcoming posts...
- On the Verge - a handful of posts on the 2010 Verge Conference: stuff on the social media team, Soma workshops, the work of the Holy Spirit in my life at/through Verge and more. I'm am still processing so much. I've never had this sort of conference reaction before. God is good. See all my Verge10 posts.
- Post-sermon thoughts on the gospel
- Lots-o-Links
- Phriday is for Photos - it's been too long and too infrequent
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