Weekly Once-Over (6.12.2014)
To: Dad, Love: Your Adoptive Daughter: Thank you for attending all of my ballet recitals as a little girl. Thank you for discipling me and teaching me the godly way to live. Thank you for making sure that I heard the gospel regularly taught and saw it lived out. Thank you for allowing me to pour my heart out over a cup of coffee. Thank you for working hard to provide for the family. Thank you for being selfless.
Honesty, Truth and Homosexuality: The world is talking about homosexuality. The conversation is impossible to ignore if you are paying any attention to cultural currents. News outlets, Twitter, blogs, television shows and even federal courts are conversing. What they are saying is fascinating. It is also frustrating.
How Our Thoughts Feed (or starve) Our Passion For Jesus: When Edwards speaks of "religion" he is speaking of a living, vital relationship with Jesus, clearly different than how we use this term today.
Pastors Aren't Born But Formed: As a young pastor myself, one theme that caught my attention was the formative influence of mentors and friends. In what follows I'd like to highlight three lessons on mentorship for both younger and older pastors drawn from Calvin's early years.
Pornography And Gospel Community: One of my elders at church taught a class Sunday on pornography. He was vulnerable and honest about his own serious struggle with pornography after being exposed to it at a very young age through sexual deviancy among the adults in his home. I found his lesson relevant to men who've struggled with pornography, women who've struggled with pornography, men who haven't struggled with pornography, and women who haven't struggled with pornography. Since that probably covers all the readers here, I thought I would share the progression of his thoughts.
Worship - A Biblical Definition: Notice that I also use the word “response” in my definition. Before the fall, we were primarily responders. God is the actor, displaying His love for us, and we responded in worship. This is the natural order of things. Today, we attempt to be the actors, and we hope that others will respond to us.
Summer Family Activity Book: Summer is fast approaching! For many of you, the next few months will be filled with travel, adventure and increased opportunities to spend time together as a family. As you begin to think about and plan how you will spend the next few months, we’d like to once again present you with the Summer Family Activity Book. This resource gives you ideas on how to be intentional with your time together as a family.
5 Reasons Established Churches Should Plant Churches: Most people know me I love church planting. I've done extensive research on the topic, written books about it and even planted churches. In addition to my love for church planting, however, I also love established churches. I'm as passionate about church revitalization as I am about church planting. While some may see the two as mutually exclusive, I'm most excited about where the two overlap: churches planting churches. Pastors of established churches should be engaged in church planting. Here are five reasons why.