Category: christianity
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New Ebook from Ben Reed
Recently my friend Ben Reed released a short book on small groups called “The Ultimate Small Group Blueprint”. Ben is the small groups pastor at Long Hollow, a multi-site church in the Nashville, TN area. He’s been a good friend and has challenged my thinking. I had the chance to ask him a few questions…
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Churches Planting Churches
This Sunday, The Austin Stone joined with many other Acts 29 Network churches to preach to our congregations about church planting and support the mission to make disciples and plant healthy churches. I continue to be grateful for the Lord’s grace in my life to participate in church planting. As we prayed for our entire…
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Called | JD Greear
I loved JD Greear‘s thoughts on calling as they are seeking to plant 1000 churches in 40 years. Below is the excerpt: First, calling is not: * Necessarily a Burning Bush/Damascus Road/Warm Fuzzy experience. We all want the Mark Driscoll, “God told me to marry Grace, plant churches, and train men” kind of experience, and…
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Discipleship and Ministry
I’ve been spending some time lately reflecting on my ministry and the coming season. As my role has continued to change and our church has continued to grow, the pressures have changed and my time is increasingly spoken for. In addition, it seems like there is always a person or a task that needs immediate…
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Rubik’s Cube and Vacation
Last summer I learned to solve the Rubik’s Cube. This summer, I am aiming to learn how to solve it in under a minute and a half, as well as solving it in as few moves as possible. Should be a fun vacation. I’ll be reposting some material over the next two weeks, so I…
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Leadership | Being Led
Hebrews 13 has some excellent things to say about how we ought to respond to our leaders: 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do…
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Francis Collins to Lead National Institute of Health
I’m definitely not a journalist, but this is one particular piece of news that I am particularly excited about, so I’ll pass it on. For those of you who do not follow the intersection of science and faith, Francis Collins may not be a familiar person to you. For an introduction, I’d recommend reading his…
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Preaching | Gentrified
My good friend Logan Gentry has some excellent thoughts on preaching, and asks some great questions. Below is a quote from the synthesis of his thoughts on what the point of preaching is: It seems to me that our preaching has a 3-fold reach in regards to focus and application. It seems that each message…
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Triperspectival Leadership | Church Matters
There is a good compilation of resources on Triperspectival Leadership at the 9 Marks blog. Here’s an intro to the idea from the post: To over-simplify, the insight is that church leaders tend to be prophets, priests, or kings. Prophets love to proclaim the word of God and dream about where God is leading the…
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Advocating for Justice | Jeff McWhorter’s Documentary
I have a friend in need, and you can help! Below is a call for action from my friend Jeff McWhorter: —- Here is the deal. For my senior thesis at UT, I made a 10-minute documentary about young men growing up with incarcerated fathers in East Austin. One of the young men (14 yrs…
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Aaron Ivey – Between the Beauty and Chaos
You for sure need to download this album if you haven’t already (click the image above or here). Aaron has been leading our church in worship through these songs, and they speak powerfully to the greatness of God and call us to His mission in the world.
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Calling | TheResurgence
I thought about posting an excerpt the following post, but it’s short and you should just read the whole thing. The Confusing Language of “Calling,” Part 1 | TheResurgence This goes in line with what I wrote in an earlier post commenting on Passivity in the Church. The root of passivity in the Christian walk…