Todd Engstrom

Category: church

  • The Church and The Surprising Offense of God’s Love

    I’ve been reading The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love by Jonathan Leeman, and although I’ve had some disagreements with the book, it has been an excellent read.   I wanted to share a few quotes that have been particularly challenging for me. Below is a good challenge to teaching “community” as the solution…

  • A Gospel-Centered Reader | Timmy Brister

    I stumbled across this resource a couple of weeks ago, but neglected to post it…the link below is an excellent compilation of Gospel-centered resources from Timmy Brister.  Give it a look! A Gospel-Centered Reader Timmy also just posted a links to Soma Community’s resources of “Living Inside the Gospel Story” here.  I’m planning on doing…

  • Multisite Church | Christian Standard Interview

    If you have been interested in the multisite discussion as a missional church, then I’d recommend reading the article below.  Todd Wilson does a great job of highlighting the upside of multisite planting, and a holistic perspective on how it fits with church planting strategy. Christian Standard Interview – Todd Wilson on Multisite I think…

  • Book Review | Total Church

    The second book I read over my vacation was Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. The overall perspective of the book is applying to the church the two foundational principles of gospel and community.  As a short synopsis, it is an excellent basic theology primer coupled…

  • Book Review | Vintage Church

    Although it wasn’t the first book I read on vacation, I’m going to start with Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. I have grown to thoroughly appreciate the ministry of Mark Driscoll, and am consistently thankful that he preaches the gospel faithfully to his church, as well as…

  • Multisite Church

    I just finished reading through the new 9 Marks Journal on Multisite church.  I thought it was a fantastic and balanced presentation of arguments both for and against the concept.  Ed Stetzer dialogued through the basic objection most have to multisite here, and I’m also asking a similar question. The article by Jonathan Leeman titled…

  • The Ordinary: The Rabbit and The Elephant.

    We have some great students who think deeply about the church universal and the church local, and are living expressions of mission on their campus.  Aaron is one of them, and I’ve been blessed to watch him wrestle with the concepts of missional community.  He’s writing about it at The Ordinary, and here is an…

  • Parachurch and Church | Moore to the Point

    This is an interesting insight from Russell Moore about campus ministries and the necessity of connecting with a local church.  I would probably take a less hard line approach than he does and value a less “formal” expression of church, as well as argue that a church needs to adapt to its cultural context to…

  • When Planning Fails Churches

    This quote from an article in Church Solutions Magazine adds some fuel to the fire from our conversations as a staff and implementing our strategy as a church. The statistics tell the unfortunate truth. Eighty-seven percent of American churches have either plauteaued or are declining in attendance. We can and should innovate until we are…

  • Attractional and Missional | TheResurgence

    Below is quote from a post a The Resurgence on the Attractional vs. Missional “debate”. People often set up attractional church and missional church as polar opposites. Attractional has a come-to-us mentality. It’s about drawing people to the church. Missional is a go-to-them mentality. We take the gospel to people, meeting them on their terms…

  • Another Wells Excerpt

    Another great selection from Above All Earthly Pow’rs by David Wells here. This is probably the best book I have read in the past two years…

  • Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 | Catalyst

    Matt Carter, our Senior Pastor, was named as one of the top 3 innovators at Innovation3 by CatalystSpace.  Good stuff! Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 January 30, 2009 The Innovation3 conference was this week and it was cool. Did you go? There were over 100 speakers, but here are my Top 3 picks for most…