Friday, April 30, 2010

"Abide" by Jared C. Wilson

I got a copy yesterday and perused it.  Looks like a good read on five disciplines of the Christian life, including service and community.  You can buy it here, if you wish.  This intensive review was conducted of my own accord without any payment made to me by the author or the publisher.  Once I actually read it, perhaps I'll say more about it.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Love Thy Neighborhood

Jen Janis told me the night before I preached that she found this shirt at the Gap and was going to buy it for me to wear while I preached.  I would have, but $24 for t-shirt? C'mon!

Friday, April 23, 2010

"Christ sweated blood for them ..."

Thank you Tim Chester for this helpful reminder of the centrality of the cross in making community work.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Church Planting?

"I am becoming increasingly persuaded that the term 'church planting' is a significant hindrance to church planting." - Steve Timmis of the Crowded House (not the band)

I agree.  Do you?  Check out what Neil Cole said on the same topic (if I'm understanding Steve Timmis correctly) at the Verge conference:

"Stop planting churches. Plant Jesus and churches will be the by product." - Neil Cole


"It is possible to plant churches and never make disciples. Church is to be the outgrowth of the message." - Neil Cole

And check out the last paragraph of Tim Chester's article here

Monday, April 19, 2010

Doing the Dishes and Preaching a Sermon

Two Sundays ago, I preached my first "behind-a-pulpit" sermon in three years at my church. The sermon can be found here. Anyway, during my sermon I made the comment that when I go out at night with the guys at Herb's or Starbucks to talk about life and the Gospel, etc., we wait until 8:30 pm so we can help our wives with the dishes before leaving. That comment generated incredibly positive feedback from a few women and I got a few "my wife apppreciated the part where you talked about doing the dishes ..." comments. Not what I expected as the biggest takeaway from my sermon.


Anyway, the sermon describes how we got here (Cleveland-ish) and what we're doing in terms of ministry in our town. In a pre-sermon interview (not recorded), I cleared up a couple misconceptions:

1.) The national Evangelical Free Church Planting (EFCA) branch has a saying: "All kinds of churches for all kinds of people."
2.) This means that the Free Church generally and Providence Church specifically supports this idea.
3.) Therefore, Jason and Janeen Oesterling (who preached at the church a couple years ago - I met him once) is planting one kind of church in Medina, Ohio, John and Kristine Meaux are planning to plant a church in the next year or so somewhere in the greater Cuyahoga county area, and Naomi and I have "landed" in our neighborhood to do Gospel ministry (more on that in the sermon or by perusing this blog).
4.) This clarification was necessary due to a.) plans changing and b.) people getting confused as to who was planting a church with who!

In any case, enjoy the semon, if you wish to do so.