You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
Check out the new website for the upcoming Houston Bootcamp. Here is the schedule:
Tuesday, September 15:
9:00am – Registration
10:00am – Welcome | Scott Thomas
10:10am – Worship
10:30am – Session 1: “The Enduring Gospel” – Matt Chandler
11:30am –Presentation | Logos
12:00pm – Presentation | Great Commission Ministries
12:15pm – Lunch
1:00pm – 2:30pm Workshops
* Wives’ Track – Robie Dodson
* Preparing to Plant a Gospel-Centered Church- Ryan Frazier
* Pitfalls in Church Planting - Barry Keldie
* Planting a Gospel-Centered Suburban Church - Thomas Young
* Evangelism and Church Planting - Dave Bruskas
* People Gathering in Church Planting - Hunter Beaumont & Kevin Cawley
3:00pm – Session 2: “The Enduring Community” - Jonathan Dodson
4:00pm – Break
4:20pm – Session 3: “The Enduring Family” - Matt Carter
5:20pm – Closing Remarks | Scott Thomas
5:30pm – Dismiss
Wednesday, September 16:
10:00am – Welcome | Scott Thomas
10:10am – Worship
10:30am – Session 4: “The Enduring Legacy” – Bruce Wesley
11:30am – Q & A with Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director
12:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm – 2:30pm Workshops
* Wives’ Track – Robie Dodson
* Idols of Church Planting - Rick White
* Missional Communities in the Suburbs and Cities - Jonathan Dobson
* Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Planting - Jacob Vanhorn
* Planting a Gospel-Centered Church in Houston - Bill Streger & Bryant Lee
* Giving Your People Away - Dusty Thompson
3:00pm – Session 5: “The Enduring Sufferer” – Barry Keldie
4:00pm – Break
4:20pm – Session 6: “The Enduring Hope” – Eric Mason
4:20pm – Session 6: “The Enduring Hope” – Eric Mason
5:20pm – Closing Remarks | Scott Thomas
5:30pm – Dismiss
Over the next three days, The Resurgence will run three excerpts from my forthcoming book Fight Clubs: Gospel-centered Discipleship. I’m excited to announce that on August 1st the booklet will be available in three forms:
- eBooklet Download
- Print on Demand @ LuLu
- Online Viewing
Check out the first excerpt here. Keep an eye out for the Fight Club website. Also, check out the unrelated but a similar vision of gospel-centered discipleship, which focuses on men at the Fight Club conference, hosted by an Acts 29 Church.
Here is a description of the LEAD 09 Conference, which I will be speaking at with Tim Chester:
The main theme of “gospel | community | mission” Lead09 is open to people of all ages. We are excited to see the Church come together for Lead09, with people from high school to retired pastors; college students to pastors; lay leaders to paid staff. Lead09 strives to not only talk about community, but display it.
If you sign up now, get a free copy of Total Church and entered into a drawing for an ESV Study Bible. I’m looking forward to returning to New England, working with the Josh’s, and speaking alongside Tim. I am just about to send the titles of my talks to LEAD.
Hope to see you there!
As we wrap up mission in Uganda, here are a few things I have learned from our experience. The church in Africa has many lessons to teach us, both through failure and success.
A worshipping church is a confessing community. We think of the church as a place an individual attends. Many Africans think of church as a building where people worship. Thier worship is exuberant and communal. Consider the familiar song: “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Africans sing this song, but make one important change—”WE will rejoice and be glad in it.” They lead off in worship as a community; they rejoice as a people, not a collection of individuals. This is a great reminder that worship is a communal activity. God doesn’t save individuals; he saves the Church.
Just because we change our pronouns, doesn’t mean we changed our ecclesiology. Although there is a general communal emphasis in African culture. Kinship systems are extened families, not nuclear. More people are crammed onto buses and taxis. Shared meals in big gatherings. These things are great. However, true community is Christ-centered. All of these activities can happen without Jesus at the center. What Africa needs is the same thing the U.S. needs, gospel-centered community. People in relationship based on bold love, not undying need for social acceptance. The community in all of our churches hinges, not on how much we share but on what we share. To share food and finances is one thing, but to share the gospel is quite another. Communities that place Jesus in the middle are willing to confront one another in love, to tell the truth despite the consequences, to suffer together while pointing, not to the sufferings, but to the suffering Servant.
Here is our latest Quarterly ACL newsletter. If you’d like to receive these by email, just leave your email address in the comments as follows: jonathandodsonATyahoo.com. We’d be happy to put you on the list. We hope these stories are encouraging!
Click the Toggle Icon on the upper right to make it legible or download a copy from the More tab.
Here is an update on my booklet Fight Club: Gospel-centered Discipleship. Excerpt included.
Hugh Halter of Tangible Kingdom fame spoke at PlantR last week. We had a record 68 turn out. Here are some reflections from that meeting.
You know the kind of book that is so good you don’t want it to end? I typically experience this with fiction, but this year there have been a few non-fiction books I have read slowly and not finished–because they are so good! Over the next few weeks, I’ll share from some of my reading in the books that I don’t want to end.
Death By Love – This is easily Mark Driscoll’s best book yet. Death By Love is a series of actual letters Mark wrote to people struggling with serious sin and suffering. Here are a few of the chapter titles:
- “Lust Is My God”
Jesus Is Thomas’s Redemption“My Wife Slept with My Friend”
Jesus Is Luke’s New Covenant Sacrifice“I Am a ‘Good’ Christian”
Jesus Is David’s Gift Righteousness“I Molested a Child”
Jesus Is John’s Justification“My Dad Used to Beat Me”
Jesus Is Bill’s Propitiation“He Raped Me”
Jesus Is Mary’s Expiation
Chapter after chapter is charged with honesty, empathy, and wisdom. Rich in practical counsel and biblical theology, this book should be required reading for all courses in Pastoral Ministry. Driscoll takes categories from systematic theology and applies them using biblical theology in a very practical way. Brilliant and grace giving. A basic outline for counseling I use was coined by David Powlision: 1) Listen to their Story 2) Empathize with their Story 3) Redemptively retell their Story. I’ll use this to frame Driscoll’s counsel for a victim of abuse:
- Empathize with Story: “I think I understand what you are trying to say. For a man to devastate his family like your father did means that his simply saying ‘sorry’ is not enough to erase the list of sins he has accrued or the damage h has done. I hope to untangle some of the conflict you are living in…”
- Listened to Story: “you spoke of building forts in the backyard and pretending you lived there instead of in the house with your father because you longed for the day you could move out and never return.”
- Redemptively Retell Story: “Bill, you must realize that not only could God’s active wrath be poured out on your father, but it just as easily could have been poured out on you…not only is your father a sinner who needs his sins propitiated, but you too are a sinner who likewise needs his sins propitiated…not only did Jesus suffer like you; in a very real sense he suffered at the hands of both you and the father at the cross…therefore, therefore you need not merely let your father of the hook because he became a Christian. Further, you need not punish him…I know that you fear forgiving your father…However, because God is sovereign and good, through that evil you have been given one of the deepest appreciations and insights of the doctrine of propitiation of anyone I have ever met.”
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