Weekly Once-Over (10.24.2013): 

The Wisdom Of Walking Away from Some Friendships: "Recently I’ve been giving a lecture about how we will become like the people we hang out with. It’s true. In five years, you’ll become a conglomerate of the people you spend the most time with." Wise, discerning blog post by Donald Miller about times when you should walk away from friendships.

What the Church Can Learn from Chick-fil-a: "The church doesn’t need Chick-fil-A. We don’t need successful Christian businesses, athletes, films, and reality shows for the advance of the gospel. The tip of the spear is the local church. But when we can glean a few pointers from another body reading our Book, we might as well take notice." 

From Strangers to Missionaries: NextDoor Neighborhood Strategy: "In our world today, pathways into people’s lives have changed. In times past, permission was given to enter through their front door (literally). People were much more accessible and approachable. Neighbors felt like neighbors. Now neighbors are more like strangers than ever before." Tim Brister gives us a great strategy to getting to know our neighbors.

I Hope I Die Before I Get Old:  "It was during a frustrating car ride home one day. Circumstances in their lives led them in that car ride to through tears and faith say to the Lord, “Whatever you want, whatever will magnify you, that’s what we want.” Richard had his seizure that led to his diagnosis a few days later." Sobering Blog post about death and the pursuit of Christ now.

The Perfect Church:  "For the last ten years I’ve been on the search for the perfect church. I’ve been to mega-churches, house-churches, school-churches and slum-churches in America and Africa and Mexico…looking and searching and hoping that one day I’d find the long-lost church of my dreams: the perfect church. The music would be perfect, the chairs would be perfect, the sermon would be perfect, and the people would be perfect." Great blog post from a dear friend of mine Kyle Rogers talking about the imperfect church pursuing the perfect Savior.

Interview with Nagmeh Abedini, Wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini (VIDEO BELOW): "POWERFUL interview and testimony about Pastor Saeed who has been imprisoned in Iran for his faith. This is conducted by Oak Hill Church in Humboldt, IA. The pastor, Doug Wolter, is a good friend from college."
 

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 Weekly Once-Over (10.17.2013) 

How To Humanize the Workplace: The brokenness of the workplace is compounded when combined with the brokenness of the community and also the individual.  How do we humanize the workplace?

6 Early Working Signs You're Dealing With a Toxic Person:  You’ve dealt with them before. At your church, as a volunteer, on your staff, as customers. Toxic people, are well, toxic...So…how can you tell early on that the person you’re dealing with might be that person? Here are 6 signs.

Thinking About Consuming Culture: A helpful review of Brett McCracken's, Gray Matters. "The basic point is this: I, like many young evangelicals, don't need more worldliness. I need less. That applies to a good number of movies and television shows I could watch but don't, because frankly they won't help me. I teach college students, and I can say with great confidence that their chief need is Christward conformity and transformation."

Hijacking Back Your Brain From Porn:  Pornography lays down real physiological paths in the brain. All sexual experience tends to migrate to these paths. I concluded that none of this brain research takes God by surprise. He designed the interplay between the brain and the soul. Discoveries of the connections between physical and spiritual reality do not nullify either.

5 Ways We Should Forgive: Some in our culture advocate forgiveness, but it is not biblical forgiveness. Why do we really forgive, and how do we put Christlike forgiveness into practice in real life? 

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Editors' Note: The Goal for this Interview is to paint a picture of what true discipleship looks like between a college age student and a family. I have received plenty of requests from college students expressing their desire to have someone disciple them. But we felt challenged to express where we think the best discipleship happens, by being integrated within a family. In these two blog posts we interviewed a family and the college student (at the time) and asked them both what discipleship looks like as their lives were interwoven.

Discipleship In the Eyes of a Student

Discipleship In the Eyes of a Family: Below is the blog interview that was done with Steve and Janine Kruyswijk.

How Can I Get Discipled?

*******

Before we start I wanted to get an understanding of what discipleship looked like to both of you before you came to Redeemer Church?

Steve:  I did not really even have a category for discipleship before coming to Redeemer.  I was not intentional at all, and never even thought of discipleship.  I thought being a Christian was being good and doing what you were told, and knowing enough of the Bible to be saved.  I was doing that and not really thinking about other people.

Janine:  I’ve never thought of it specifically before coming to Redeemer.  I’ve never really had someone take the time to disciple me, so I did not really know what it was or think about it at all.  I’ve heard of the concept, but have never had it play out in my life.

When Maddy came to you both and asked if she could come to your house and see what it's like to be a part of a healthy family, what did you both think this would look like or what did you expect to happen?

Steve and Janine: When Maddy first came for a visit, we figured it was just nice to have a friend over.  We knew her a little from church.  We did not start having her over to disciple her.  She had expressed an interest to Sierra to come visit for fun, play with the kids, make new friends.  I (Janine) got to know Maddy a bit before this while teaching at Redeemer Kids.  I knew she did not have a close relationship with her parents, and she told me this on Mother’s Day.  I did not have her over for reasons of pity, but to love her; my mother heart strings were being pulled.   And Maddy is young and fun, and a student, and kids love that and look up to that.  Other than getting to know Maddy better and enjoying visiting, we had no other intentions or expectations.  We saw this more as a chance for fellowship with a sister in Christ than a discipleship opportunity.

How has your view of discipleship changed, after spending the last few years with Maddy?

Steve:  Well, I don’t think someone gets discipled well if one is too intentional.  Chill out.  Want to learn about families?  Make friends with parents.  Hang out, become a part of the family.  We never considered Maddy more than a friend and as a sister, even today.  I don’t even think of it as discipleship today; were just doing life together.  We actually think of her as a part of our family, and we would never forget about her.  We feel very protective of her, we love her, and when you love someone, you have conversations, and you share your heart with each other, and you want to be together and help one another in any way you can.

Janine:  I feel the same way as Steve.  We can learn so much from each other, and we get to very practically apply the Gospel to each other’s lives and situations. We get to pray together, do family devotions together, she sees our needs, she sees we are not perfect, and we get to practice grace and forgiveness.  She helps me so much.  We get to know her friends, they come over with her sometimes.  She is such a blessing in our lives.  We have learned so much from her!  She is so encouraging, and has a great sense of humor, which I need with four kids.  Maddy has now had a huge amount of experience with kids.  She has seen up close what a Christian marriage is like.  We love having her as a part of the family.  I don’t know if we are helping disciple her more, or we are learning and benefiting more from her being a part of our lives.

What sort of things from both of you did you desire Maddy to learn while being with your family?

Steve:  When I think about this, considering that Maddy did not grow up in a Christian family, I desire her to learn how one Christian family operates, albeit very imperfectly and with huge weaknesses.  I do believe that we have established certain routines in our lives that keep us in the Word, and that keep us discussing the Word with each other.  Also, offering your children a Gospel-centered home is the best gift you can give your children and one of life’s greatest joys.  She desires to be a mom someday.  Establish routines that get you in the Word now so you can teach these to your kids, as well as have the biblical knowledge necessary to be able to teach your children at an age appropriate level.

Janine:  I also desire for Maddy to learn what a healthy Christian family looks like.  I would like her to learn from us how different roles in life (wife, daughter of God, mother, home maker, etc.) crowd into your life, and all this is difficult to keep prioritized.

I find Maddy to be a strong leader.  I really desire that she takes what she learns and experiences with us and disciples and teaches others as she herself puts them into practice.  I so hope that when she is married has children that she also has a “Maddy” or two that she is discipling out of a pure desire to do so.  Plus she will need the help .

Through this experience, how has Jesus become sweeter in your eyes, specifically because of the relationship you have had with Maddy?

Steve: Seeing how drastically Jesus has transformed Maddy’s life and is transforming her life now makes me praise His name, and gives me hope for the work of the Holy Spirit.  I thank God that we will worship with Maddy around the throne of God one day, and celebrate at the marriage feast of the Lamb, and live forever in God’s eternal Kingdom.  This motivates me to speak highly about my King, knowing he is doing an amazing work in our time here on earth.

Janine: Through being part of each other’s lives, Jesus has become more real, closer and sweeter to me by experiencing his forgiveness and grace.  We’ve needed to forgive each other, we’ve needed to remind each other of God’s amazing grace, and we’ve then had that blessed joy that comes when we both worship God and realizing there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God through Jesus.

This sort discipleship is very rare within the church, what sort of advice would you both give to college students who desire to have older mentors disciple them?

Steve and Janine:  Get to know the families you are worshiping with in Church.  Go talk to them, after or before worship.  They are people just like you.  See who you click with and build a relationship.  It really is not hard at all.  Before you know it, you are close friends and enjoying life together.

Another thing you could do is find out where there is a GC with lots of families and go join it.  You’ll be in their home with other people, and you’ll be able to see multiple families interact at once.

Lastly, what are some specific things you love and appreciate about Maddy?

Steve:  I love her sense of humor.  She can take it if I tease her.  She is like a younger sister to me.

Janine: I love Maddy.  I consider her one of my best friends, as close as I am to my own blood sister. I appreciate Maddy’s honesty and openness, and I love her goofiness and sense of humor.  I love seeing her grow as a woman of God. I love her generosity towards our family. The kids absolutely love her and look up to her. I want to come over and babysit her kids someday.

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Weekly Once-Over (10.10.2013) 

The State of the Church in America: Hint: It's Not Dying:  The church is not dying. Yes, the church in the West—the United States included—is in transition right now. But transitioning is not the same as dying, particularly if you hold the belief that Christianity is represented by people who live for Christ, not check "Christian" on a survey form.

What If I Screw Up My Kids?:  When I became a parent I found myself frequently getting drawn into vicious thought cycles of pessimism concerning my son. It would usually start with a simple observation like, “My son doesn’t like naps” or “My son’s hair is thin.” That would lead to a series of fearful and often ridiculous what ifs...

Tim Keller Wants You to Suffer Well: Suffering. Is there a more perennially and painfully relevant topic? Countless books address the subject—and countless sufferers read them. Beneath the sometimes shiny veneer, after all, this world is a profoundly tragic place...Check out this blog post about Tim Keller's new book on suffering well.

How to Fight with Your Wife (or Husband):  For nearly 20 years I have been blessed to have a good marriage (which seems to be rare). Some of this can be attributed to the fact that my wife and I have learned to fight well. Having also performed marriage counseling for 20 years, I have seen the resulting carnage from marital fights. Learning to fight well is critical for marital success. I am writing this primarily to husbands. On Wednesday, my wife will be posting a follow-up post for wives.

Feeling Shame Is Not Repentance:  "What do you say to people who are dealing with shame from sexual sin?" a longtime friend asked me in a text message. That question deserves more than a text response, but I wrote, "It could only be the strategy of Satan to allow the shame of one sin to lead you into more sin. And so I would go to Psalm 51—this psalm shows how to deal with shame from sexual sin.  And the prayer for restored joy is a big key."

Thursday Humor: 

"What do you say to people who are dealing with shame from sexual sin?" a longtime friend asked me in a text message. That question deserves more than a text response, but I wrote, "It could only be the strategy of Satan to allow the shame of one sin to lead you into more sin. And so I would go to Psalm 51—this psalm shows how to deal with shame from sexual sin. And the prayer for restored joy is a big key."

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Anchored in Truth: What's it about?

This year’s women’s conference is focus is truths of God. Truths that we need to turn to. Truths that draw us to worship and praise. Truths to anchor our souls.

Speakers:

Kati Berreth, Rachel Gross, Danielle Dow and Vanessa Cordero. 

Dates:

Friday Nov 15 5:30-8:30pm – Saturday 9am – 3:30pm

Location:

Redeemer Church – 211 Northshore Dr

Registration:

You can register on line starting Sunday Sept 29

Registration Form

or at the registration table at Redeemer Church after services. 

Cost:

$35 until Oct 20. Late registration (after Oct 20) $40. You can pay on the City or the registration table. Scholarships are availble. 

For questions or more info please contact Vanessa Cordero at vanessa@redeemernw.org

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

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