Driscoll’s a29 Dallas Bootcamp Message

Mark Driscoll delivered a stirring and inspiring message at the Acts 29 Dallas bootcamp last week in which he unpacked failures of the past, successes of the present and visions of future in Acts 29. This is the first audio released from the bootcamp. More is forthcoming.

Primer on Triperspectival Leadership

These guys offer a collection of audio and articles on Triperspectival Leadership as advocated by Drew Goodmanson and David Fairchild. This approach to church and to leadership takes the perspectivalism of John Frame and Vern Poythress and applies it to ecclesiology. Regarding leadership, the prophet, priest, & king offices of Christ and applied to functional and pastoral leadership roles in the missional church. Prophet is teacher/preacher. Priest is pastor/counselor. King is administrator/XP.

I admire Drew and David’s hard thinking and missional leading, and was blessed by their generous, Jesus like spirit when I was in San Diego earlier this summer. I am encoruaged to be in parntership in the gospel with them. This approach to ecclesiology is worth considering and has its strengths and weaknesses. Enjoy.

Post-Christendom Spiritualities

Earlier this year Trinity Graduate School hosted a conference co-sponsored by the Lausanne Movement on Post-Christendom Spiritualities. During the consultation participants heard from, among others, Dr. Gordon Melton (Institute for the Study of American Religion) on changes in the “New Age” or New Spiritualities; Dr. James Beverley (Tyndale Seminary) on the emerging church movement; Dr. Ross Clifford (Morling College) on the significance of the new religions in popular culture and the importance of combining a pastoral approach with a subjective evidential apologetic for post-Christendom spiritualities; and Dr. Gerald McDermott (Roanoke College) who discussed the church’s earliest theologians and apologists and how they responded to the religious movements of their culture in the first centuries of the Christian era.

McDermott’s essay in No Other Gods Before Me? made quite an impact on my theology of religions, tying insights from Jonathan Edwards to the revelation of God in other religions. Although I don’t agree with McDermott on everything, if the rest of the other speakers were anywhere close to his forward thinking, this will be some audio to get.

Blogging yourself to Death

A few years ago I hesitantly took up blogging at the behest of a friend. Since then I have started three blogs, two of which are active. I knew the dangers going in. Blogging is an inherently narcissistic medium; it assumes that readers want to know what you think about any given topic. It is from you, through you, and if we aren’t careful, it will be back to you. I fight that blog narcissism every day. Blogging panders to pride.

Statistics don’t help. You can track down people who refer to your blog, interact in comments, and watch your hits rise and fall. Sure, these can be helpful and produce some good conversations, but stats are as dangerous as they are helpful. Of course, it’s not the stats that are really dangerous; it is my idolizing heart. The part of me that wants everything to be about me, not God. The impulse to worship something other than the glorious triune God, namely myself. Or is that really what is happening in my heart? Am I worshipping myself or am I worshipping what others think of me? Ah, that’s more to the point.

Blogging invites interaction, recognition, and criticism, as do many forms of self-expression. I find myself checking comments and statistics to see if anyone has responded. Often, this is out of a desire to know what people think about me and my ideas, to see if they like or dislike them. If they like my writing, then I feel good, and sometimes I will cuddle that goodness, like Gollum and his ring. I the dark places of my heart, I want others’ approval more than I rest in God’s approval. The applause of men echoes more loudly in my darkened heart than my applause of God.

If I am not careful, vigilent, I will blog myself to death. Living for the approval and praise of others is deadly. It blackens the heart, atrophying affections for Christ and actualizing affections for self. It leads us into a kind of death, where Jesus offers life.Paul tells us to put to death deadly things, to fight the good fight of faith: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:10). I need to put evil idolatry to death, so that I can truly live.

In Fight Club we: 1) Know our Sin 2) Fight our Sin 3) Trust our Savior. I know my sin, and sometimes I fight it. But I am short on strength to choose life, not death, apart from the Spirit. The Spirit has made me a new creature. When I cuddle blog stats, I act like the old creature, the one that Jesus died to forgive and renew. I act out of character. Paul reminds me that I: “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” The new disciple in Jesus is constantly renewed. He or she doesn’t just look back and say, that’s when I became a Christian, when I became a new person.” Instead, they look at the present and they say: “This is proof that I am a Christian, that I am being renewed today in the knowledge of the gospel, of Jesus, to live out my new humanity.”

Jesus offers us life where there is death, newness where there is oldness, forgiveness where there is vanity and every evil thing. The question is, “Will I trust him?” Or will I trust the fleeting promise of men’s approval? Fortunately, God is bent on renewing me, on guiding my heart to a place of infinite joy in his presence, to the acceptance of the Father who loves me enough to redirect my affections back to him. I am encouraged by God’s relentless pursuit of his glory in my joy. I am thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that reminds me and shows me just how great God’s grace is, and as a result, today, I will choose to trust Christ, not approval, and blog for life, not death!

Church Planting by Ashtray

J.R. Briggs has a creative post on how he has trained his house church leaders with an ashtray.

Top 5 Books on: Missiology

Name 5 of the most influential books on missiology that you’ve read.

Leading with a Limp: A Review

See JR Woodward’s helpful review of Dan Allender’s Leading with a Limp.

The Homeless Keep your Faith Real

John is another reason I am glad to be planting in urban Austin. John is homeless. He was molested at six and was in and out of state and foster homes. He’s been on the street since 19. How do you answer that? He is a compassionate soul who tries to help others, not the kind of homeless guy who is always looking for a free ride. Attempting to get to his heart, I asked him if he was happy in life. He said: “No, I’d start over from six if I could and redo it all.” He said he knows Jesus and that he looks forward to being free of pain in heaven. I asked him what difference it makes now. He couldnt naswer that. I told him God really wants to take his hurt and give him life. I bought him a warm meal, gave him a card, and told him we’d help him get into community and onto his feet, if he was interested. Talking to homeless people can keep your faith real, force it to work through love and through action. Hang with the homeless. Pray for John.

Missional Core Team Resources: Bootcamp Follow Up

At the Acts 29 Bootcamp last week, I mentioned a number of resources during our workshop on Developing Missional Core Teams. Here are links to some of those resources:

• The Rise of the Creative Class: A book written by Richard Florida on the remarkable cultural and economic impact of Creatives. See my critique here.
• Missional Practices: Core values are worthless unless they are held accountable to expression in the local church and in missional communities. Here is post on Five Characteristics of Missional Communities and a little on how we developed our Practices.
• Three-strand Evangelism: This is the community-focused, gospel-centered approach to evangelism that we use. It was developed by Tim Chester and is explained further in Total Church.

Church Planting or Gospel Planting?

Alan Hirsch has suggested that we move away from the term “church planting” in order to advocate a more biblically faithful term–”gospel planting.” Is Hirsch correct? Do you think the terminology should be changed? Does it matter?

HT: BH