"this is the only continent in the world where the church is not growing" … "We need less mission statements, we need to join God on His mission." - Ed Stetzer at subtext forum [#subtext ] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "a weak spot", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2009/03/12/a-weak-spot/" });

"Most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus’ costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don’t need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn’t based on their performance." -Tim Keller SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:...

Tim Chester, co-author of Total Church, was interviewed over on the Desiring God blog. Check it out. Good stuff.  I’ve been reading the book and am challenged on a number of levels. My soul and mind resonate with the subtitle: “A radical reshaping around Gospel and community.”  A helpful quote from Chester: One of our catchphrases is “ordinary people living ordinary life with gospel intentionality.” It means doing the chores, having meals, watching sports, and so on with an intention to talk about Jesus, to pastor one another with the gospel, and to share that gospel with...

Biblical truth is in the closed hand. (It doesn’t change!) But changing methodologies and adapting to culture is in the open hand. (It can change.) Keeping that in mind will be helpful when giving younger leaders are given opportunities to lead in the church. Mark Driscoll briefly discussed this in preparation to the 2006 DesiringGod conference. He makes a point that if younger men feel stifled and are not able to venture out and lead in creative ways, well, they will probably leave. [HT: Carey @ Paul+Timothy ] Be a Paul and raise up a Timothy, pouring out your life into him, and knowing...

Only a few dozen pages into the new Total Church book. It arrived this week in the mail — 4 weeks before it’s official publishing date — and I was hoping to dig into it this weekend if possible. Last night I couldn’t put it down. Looking forward to interacting with the UK authors’ concepts, as they try to unfold what they mean by the subtitle: "A radical reshaping around Gospel and community." The publisher gives a summary: "As two pastors outline the biblical calling to make both the gospel and community central in the Christian life, they apply...

Brent has a great post, "Personal Preference and Churches ." An excerpt: If you’ve been involved in “church life” for any extended period of time, you surely know that people are not casual about their preferences. We’ve all heard the horror stories of churches splitting over the color of carpet. Some of you may have actually lived through that. Yet most of us are willing to overlook matters like the color of the carpet, but don’t you dare sing too many “contemporary” songs, or “traditional hymns,” depending on which side of the argument you come from. One of the things...

Tim Keller has a new article out in the latest edition of the Vineyard’s Cutting Edge magazine.  It’s called "Process Managing Church Growth ." I have seen it before, but the dynamics of my current church life and leadership made me more attuned to what he has to say this time. A couple excerpts: "Every church has a ’size culture’ that goes with its size that has to be accepted. Most people probably have a size-culture that they prefer. However, many people ‘moralize’ their favorite size culture and treat other size-categories as spiritually...

Kari and I wanted to head to Seattle this week so I could attend the National Resurgence Conference 2008: Text & Context. But God has other plans. In the meantime, we hope to catch some of the sessions live @ http://www.theresurgence.com/live (All of the audio, video, and perhaps notes, will be available after the conference sometime.) Monday, February 25, 2008 2:00 pm Session 1 – Mark Driscoll – Text & Context: Humble Incarnational Ministry 4:00 pm Session 2 – CJ Mahaney – Text & Context: Pastoral Character & Loving People 7:00 pm Session 3 – John Piper – Text:...

I recently ran across the survey (nominations) of the most innovative churches in ‘08. Drew Goodmanson writes: Why are America’s Most Innovative Churches also some of the largest in America? Northpointe, NewSpring, Saddleback et al are nominees for the award in 2008. Is this like when Taco Bell wins best Mexican food because it’s the most voted place in town? Aren’t there small churches who are doing innovative things too? It seems like smaller churches should have more freedom to be innovative. House church movements? Harbor’s multi-site, multi-congregational...