This weekend Kari and I are privileged to be able to preach God’s Word. She is heading down south to teach the womens retreat for Calvary Chapel of Corvallis . She has (as usual!) poured over God’s Word and prayed and studied diligently. The four session titles — centered around the theme of "Expectancy without Expectations" came out as: The God of Disappointment, Identifying Expectations (Friday night) Processing Pain, Identifying Fear (Saturday morning) True Hope, Unearthing Expectancy (Saturday mid-day) Enjoying Fulfillment, Worshiping God (Saturday night) Her...

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...

Starting tonight I have the privilege and joy of teaching our 3-week crash course in practical hermeneutics, starting tonight, at Foothills Community Church: Enjoying the Bible for All Its Worth (6:30pm at our building ; let me know if you want to come join us!) I designed the course to be helpful for any and all Bible readers (even for those who don’t yet read it!) It should be beneficial for those who have plunged the depths of its truth for years as well as those still looking for that dusty Book on their bookshelf. All will benefit, and as Kari and my pastor remind me, I will attempt...

Yesterday we three ventured out for our first ‘08 hike in the woods. The single track trails were closed due to winter erosion but the old logging roads provided a good and wide path for us to let Dutch loose on the trails. We set out to go about 4 miles round trip, but that was cut short by an impatient little 16-month-old. In Kari’s words : We did do our hike, although it is now confirmed that Dutch does NOT like hiking. That is, he loves hiking, as long as he’s the one hiking. He doesn’t like being stuffed into a backpack. So, our hike was significantly truncated because...

“God created both soul and body, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both the spiritual and the material. Therefore God is concerned not only for the salvation of souls but also for the relief of poverty, hunger, and injustice. The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust. Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness...

Perhaps the most influential voice in America, stakes her claim as a spiritual leader and denies the identity, work and exclusivity of Jesus the Christ. How can millions of so-called Christians in the U.S. watch her every day, read her recommended books, and follow after her so blindly? I’m not asking for Oprah to affirm the true vision of Jesus (as she’s not a genuine believer, she cannot), but please don’t muddy the waters and consider one’s self a Christian and then say these nonsensical things. Oprah has more influence than she could ever realize. Audio of Oprah’s...

Last night we continued our series in our Foundations class at Foothills on The Church . We had a great time studying some of the metaphors for the Church in the New Testament, like: the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23 ) with Christ as our Head, the flock of God (John 10 ) with Jesus being our Good Shepherd, the family (household) of God, the building of God and temple of the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2 ; Eph. 5:25-33 ). As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson: That we learn to know, love and enjoy God more than we know, love and enjoy anything or...

The audio from the Resurgence Text + Context conference is now available [as well as the sessions from the concurrent Acts29 boot camp]. I’m looking forward to being able to listen to whole messages I only caught glimpses of parts. Stirring Gospel-centered pastoral stuff. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Text + Context audio available", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/03/11/text-context-audio-available/" });

Kari is preaching/teaching a sermon in a communications lab class on Monday, and has 20 minutes to develop the themes of Philippians 2:1-4. I was eager and to have her practice on me today, receiving her words of wisdom and exhortation as the food my soul needed. She’s posted the rough draft of her manuscript over on her blog. Her four points are the Premise, Picture, Path and Pursuit of unity as believers in the church. One of my favorite parts is centered around verse 3 on the Path: Verse 3 provides us with a Path to unity. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but...

This past summer I read a short little book by Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? It was a quick, good read, and I highly recommend the book. Recently, permission was given to New Attitude to post the first chapter of the book, free to read and download (PDF). Find it here. Much of Dever’s ministry is emphasizing and developing nine marks of healthy churches. I have grown in my understanding, appreciation and devotion to the local church. God had to tear down my pride, humble me by painful circumstances and bring confusion before allowing me to see the light of the beauty of His Bride,...