Weekly Once-Over (10.03.13):

Riot Evangelism: We live in a day when everyone is okay with your Christian faith as long as you keep it private. But the Apostles in Acts do the opposite, offending many with their public testimony about Jesus. Welcome to riot evangelism.

Tremble At The Word: Scripture gets examined like it’s behind glass and you need to be covered in sterile clothing with gloves to approach it. The word gets treated as something solely to be studied and examined for its contents and data to be reported, rather than something to be encountered which actually reads you better than you read it.

20 Quotes from Walking with God through Paid and Suffering: Tim Keller has written one of the year’s most important books (a line I seem to recite annually). His newest — Walking with God through Pain and Suffering — is a wise, Christ-centered, comforting book for readers who hurt, and offers counsel to readers who anticipate future suffering. It’s a book for everyone, and it releases tomorrow from Dutton. To mark its arrival, I pulled my favorite quotes from the book and narrowed the list down to my top 20.

How To Start Managing Your Time Better Beginning Today: You know the frustration. You put in a full day. You worked hard. But you didn’t even touch that important project. You’ve been meaning to. You intended to do it. It was first on your list. But the message isn’t written. The strategic plan isn’t done. The analysis that could turn your organization around didn’t even get started. All of this despite the fact that you stayed late and showed up at home tired and barely in time for dinner. Okay, you missed dinner. So why is that? Here’s an insight I hope can make a significant difference not only to your productivity at work, but to your life.

Five Reasons People Aren't Volunteering At Your Church: Churches everywhere need to mobilize more volunteers to get ministry done.  But before you start signing people up and filling slots, it might be helpful to take a look at why people are NOT volunteering. Here are FIVE REASONS people might not be volunteering at your church.

Am I Still Crazy Busy?: As I’ve done interviews, engaged in conversations, and read a few reviews about Crazy Busy, one on the recurring questions is whether I am actually any less crazy busy after writing the book?

"Mission is not a strategy we adopt, but a culture we nurture and the very air we breathe as the people of God." @Porterbrook

photo credit: e_lisewin via photopin cc​

Goal for Weekly Once-Over

Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (09.26.13):

One of Our Favorite Series on Manhood: Matt Chandler did a Men's Bible Study back in 2008 at the Village Church titled The Image & Glory of God. We thought it's a great series on manhood so we wanted to repost it here as a resource. 

A Prayer for a Fresh Stirring and Filling of the Holy Spirit:  Everyone should read this blog post. Scotty Smith writes a wonderful prayer for our souls to catch a fresh stirring and filling of the Holy Spirit.

Implementing Discipleship Groups within your Gospel Communities: Most small groups have a regular gathering where they study the bible, fellowship, and pray.  As a leader wanting to implement LTGs, this is a great place to start!  Rather than immediately breaking people up into twos and threes, however, I think it is critically important to model what you want to see happen for the whole group...

What to Do With "Some People Are Saying...": The pastor (Or any Christian for that matter) must not tolerate gossip. When he hears it, he ought to stop it and check it. When he hears of it, he ought to intervene and check it. Gossip often is disguised as concern. Some concern isn’t gossip, but a lot is. Gossip is when we say things about someone we won’t say to them. If you have a concern about someone that you aren’t wiling to take to them, it should be forgiven or forgotten. Any serious concern—about sin, about error, about immodest associations—ought to be brought to the person for discussion.

Social Media in Real Life: Look at the picture below. Funny but true...

Goal for Weekly Once-Over

Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (09.19.13):

 God Does Not Change - "However, having a God who cannot and will not change can be a very haunting or a very comforting thing depending on your view of him." Alex Early has a great blog post that reminds of God never changing self.

5 Steps to Seeking the Welfare of your Community - "Following are 5 simple ways that you can seek the welfare of your community (whether it’s an inner city neighborhood or not). This is not an exhaustive list, but my prayer would be that it sparks believers to understand God’s purpose for us in the exact places that He has sovereignly placed us."

Lay Aside the Weight of Prideful Comparison - "...you and I frequently must battle against comparing ourselves with others..." This blog post by Desiring God brings a sobering reminder to us on the pitfall of comparison towards others. Give it a read.

Six Questions That Will Radically Change Your Marriage - "What if you could help your marriage be more about relationship and less about business?  It’s easy to know our spouse’s schedule and forget about their  heart. These six questions will recalibrate your marriage."

The Sacrifice of a Saint - "I’ve heard it said that Jesus talked about money and stewardship more than any other subject. When it comes to tithing, New Testament Christians have questions: Are we supposed to tithe? Does the New Testament teach us to do so?"

Taking Joy in the Joy of Others - Watch the video clip below, it will help see how to bless others and take joy in the joy in others.

Goal for Weekly Once-Over

Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (09.12.13):

Seven Ways for Busy Moms t0 get in the Word: Here is a simple guide for busy moms who want to build more of these slow moments into their everyday — moments to stop and drink deeply from the living well.

The Introverted Mother: Great blog post from a mother who is naturally introverted but learning daily how to navigate life being a introvert and a mother.

Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are: We're all just so "busy" these days. "Slammed" in fact. "Buried." Desperately "trying to keep our heads above water." While these common responses to "How are you?" seem like they're lifted from the Worst Case Scenario Handbook, there seems to be a constant exchange, even a a one-upping, of just how much we have on our plates when we communicate about our work...

What Does 'Intentional' Mean in Dating?: "Scripture doesn't demand relational clarity from day one. Eventually, a clarifying conversation should come, and the girl rightly expects it, but maintaining crisp romantic articulateness at all times will most likely weird her out (and if it doesn't, it probably should)."...Really interesting blog post about the word intentional and how it is defined when it comes to dating.

The X-Factor in Bible Reading: There is more than meets the eye to this spiritual discipline. A variable we can’t control. An enigmatic power we cannot command. A mysterious goodness we can only receive. The Holy Spirit.

What Are the Essentials of the Christian Faith?: Almost every Christian makes some distinction between essentials of the faith and non-essentials. The distinction itself is fairly uncontroversial. But what exactly are the essentials? That’s a bit tougher...

How to Destroy Your Marriage Before It Begins: "One of Satan's most effective strategies to corrupt the gospel-portraying union of marriage is to attack couples through sexual sin before they say "I do." Here are four of his most common ploys to attack marriages before they begin."

Goal for Weekly Once-Over

Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (09.05.13):

Prove Your Gender: "My husband and I have a young son. And this son is not like his brothers. This son is emotional, empathetic. He likes a song and a story and a snuggle. He doesn't much care about winning and sometimes wanders away from the backyard ball game by the second inning. He's neither adventurous nor loud. He is still, however, a boy..."

Accidental Pharisees: "We who consider ourselves “gospel-centered” or “Young, Restless, Reformed” (or whatever monickers we prefer) tend to focus on reading books that come from within our little movement and that share its perspective. I suppose this is true of any group of like-minded people, because it’s safer and less complicated this way. Accidental Pharisees speaks to us, it speaks to me, but it does so from the outside..."

There Really is a Man Upstairs: "You see, the shocking truth is that there really is a man upstairs! A real man. Jesus, the God-man, has taken human flesh into the throne room of heaven. He is the ascended man. He is the man who has gone where human flesh has never gone before. He is Jesus the Jew, the wounded Suffering Servant, the Glorified King, and he’s seated at the right hand of God. Right now. And when we get to heaven, it will be a nail-scarred human hand that will reach out to greet us—a man’s hand..."

From Strangers To Missionaries: A Strategy for Mission: Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the world and make disciples. I believe, first and foremost, Jesus is speaking of cross-cultural engagement of unreached people groups. The thrust has an expansive, horizontal dimension no doubt. But, I also believe that the making of disciples has a depth dimension as well. Even in “reached” areas of our cities, there are many unreached and unengaged people. Let’s be honest: What percentage of our city is unengaged with the gospel? What percentage of people have any proximity to the kingdom of Christ?

5 Simple Ways To Move Neighbors From Strangers To Missionaries: This post is dedicated to think through practical application and fleshing it out in practice of moving neighbors from strangers to missionaries.

Goal for Weekly Once-Over

Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (08.29.13):

Make the Bible Your Native Tongue: "Some things seem to just happen. No one in particular is to blame. Options increase, the past gets overshadowed by the present, and the next thing we know, conventional thinking shifts, and we’re heading down a new path as though it’s the one that’s always been..."

9 Things You Should Know About Child Brides: Every day, more than 25,000 girls under the age of 18 are married worldwide, human rights groups estimate. For many child brides, a future of poverty, exploitation, and poor health awaits. Here are nine things you should know about a practice that is harming girls around the globe.

Sorry, Miley: Adults are supposed to protect young people. Adults are supposed to refuse to treat young people like little gods, put them on pedestals, and parade them on stages. But adults do it, anyway, and our culture is just dumb, and just numb, enough to act like it's perfectly normal. Turns out, as we've always known, celebrity messes with people's heads, particularly the young...

Teens and Unrestricted Access: Time to Repent: The statistics have been published, the literature has widely circulated, the conversations continue, but the issue still doesn't seem to be addressed with due vigilance. I'm talking about teenagers with unrestricted access on their smartphones and tablets. I give a hearty "Amen!" to Russell Moore's recent tweet: "I am just stunned by parents who give their pre-teen children iPhones and iPads with unrestricted Internet access."

Video Below: Social Justice and Young Evangelicals: Encouragement and Concern

Video Below: When a Gay Mayor partners with Evangelical Churches in Portland: These two offer a model for how we can work together for the common good of our communities despite religious and political differences.

If we do not win the hearts of the young, where shall we get another generation of Christians? - Charles Spurgeon