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Photo by hickory hardscrabble

I thought I’d wait until we had a little space from Christmas to re-post something here on the blog so your visceral reaction would not so closely connected to the present tense.

Just before Christmas, my friend Shaun Groves wrote a four-part series on the idea of “going giftless.” (And yes, I’m using the word “guiltless” in my blog title on purpose; a little turn of the phrase)

It’s challenging. You may not agree with everything in the series but I think it will be good for your soul to wrestle with this. Holly and I took a big step in this direction with our family this Christmas. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow…

Here is the series:

Going Giftless Part 1
Going Giftless Part 2
Going Giftless Part 3
Going Giftless Part 4



Ed Stetzer & David Fitch – a missional conversation from Missional Tribe on Vimeo


From Missional Tribe:

Shot in Chicago in November of ‘08, Part One of this 45 minute conversation features Ed Stetzer and Dave Fitch discussing what they each mean by the term “missional”. They also spend some time discussing attractional vs missional – and whether missional church, as it seems to be presently framed is “interested in converts.”

A very good conversation between two PhD’s, who are also church planters, teachers, authors and missional instigators in their own right.

This video was produced by Toronto’s mkpl.tv – Producer, Imbi Medri. Director/Editor, Bill Kinnon. It is made available under a Creative Commons License – Attribution – No Derivative Works. Copyright Holders: Medri Kinnon Productions Limited, Ed Stetzer, David Fitch.


2. David Fitch – Reclaiming the Mission

David Fitch, Betty R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary; founding pastor of Life on the Vine Community, an emerging church in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago; co-founder of Up/Rooted, an emergent cohort that gathers leaders and thinkers to engage issues of the emerging church and the post-modern context; and author of The Great Giveaway comes in at #2.

David has been one of the most influencing voices in the development of my ministry/church planting philosophy. It started with The Great Giveaway, but continuing on with the stream of consciousness on his blog, let’s just say, it’s a gold mine. I believe it will be shown that David was one of the most important shaping influences on the grounding of missional orthopraxy in the twenty-first century.

I’m looking forward to becoming a regular part of the missional leader learning community in the future. I was personally invited to the one in January but can’t make. I hope to down the road..

Check these:
Please Lord, Don’t Let Me Get Pragmatic: Spiritual Formation for Missional Leaders
“The Numbers Are Going Up But Something Doesn’t Feel Right”
Conversion a casualty of Missional Theology?
When They Will Not Come – Community: The anti-attractional process of beginning a church with community
The Middle In: The Unique Missional Opportunity

Top 8 Recap
8. J.R. Woodward | 7. Jonathan Dodson | 6. Neil Cole | 5. Drew Goodmanson | 4. Bob Hyatt | 3. Alan Hirsch


Tim Chester, co-author of the seminal book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around the Gospel and Community with Steve Timmis, has a new book coming out in mid-2009 called The Ordinary Hero: Living the Cross and Resurrection.

Here is Tim talking about the ethos of the book:


You can find all of Tim’s books here at Amazon.

You can read Tim’s blog at: Reformed Spirituality and Missional Church.


In my studies with Ed Stetzer, one of the interesting individuals he has introduced to me is missiologist Francis Dubose. You can read Ed’s thoughts on Dubose here and here.

According to Ed, Dubose is the first person to use the word missional in the adjectival sense we use it today in his book, God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission (1983). Dubose was a professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary where the Francis M. DuBose Award for Excellence in Kingdom Missions is given in his honor.

Ed believes that Dubose roots his idea in the “sentness” of a “missionary church” which impacts at least one stream of the missional conversation which he calls that the “missionary” stream.

Recently, Andrew Jones had the opportunity to sit down with Dubose, who is 85 and living at a retirement “hotel” in San Francisco, and asked him about his thoughts on his impact on the current missional conversation.



Brad Briscoe has a great summary of Dubose’s book, God Who Sends here:

• God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest
• Being Sent and the Pentateuch
• Being Sent and the Historical Books
• Being Sent and the Prophets
• Being Sent and the Gospels
• Being Sent in Acts & Epistles

[HT: Andrew Jones]


the year of the nudge

This last Saturday, I had the privilege to serve and worship alongside 40 MBU students – who make up our traveling ministry groups – at Cornerstone Farms in St. Jacob, IL for our first annual all-MBU ministry group retreat.

It’s pretty amazing to think about the ministry that is done by these groups. Last school year, our groups ministered in over 100 churches/youth groups/events in the Midwest and beyond. Next year, SpiritWing – the group I direct – will celebrate its 25th anniversary. These students are the cream of the crop on campus at MBU.

As for the retreat, we served Cornerstone Saturday morning by doing a variety of service projects. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We played games in the afternoon. And we closed out the day by a short devotion from myself, hearing the amazing testimonies of Dave and Cortland Hendrick – the owners of Cornerstone – and worshiping through a ‘concert of prayer’ for our campus and future ministry.

During my time with the students, I ‘declared’ this school year as “The Year of the Nudge” for all our MBU ministry groups. The idea of the “nudge” comes from a little devotion from J.I. Packer’s devotional book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God. The devotion is from January 16 and uses the text from 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Unpacking the text, Packer says:

Impressions belong to the authentic reality of Christian living. When we have a “vision” or “burden” for something, we are testifying to an impression, and when our concern is biblically proper we are right to treat our impression as a nudge from the Holy Spirit.

I challenged the students to be aware of the Spirit’s leading this year as they step into ministry. And to obey the ‘nudge.’ It means God is at work and He wants us to join Him…

Here were some other big ideas I shared with the students, jumping off of Packer’s thoughts:

* God doesn’t add members to a team accidentally
* God builds a team to match the assignment
* God builds a team, gives it an assignment, and equips the team to carry out the assignment
* You should pay close attention to the people God adds to your team
* When you find out where the Master is, then you will know that is where you need to be
* A tender and sensitive heart will be ready to respond to God at the slightest prompting
* God has not changed. He still speaks to His people
* If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience
* The moment God speaks to you is the very moment God wants me to respond to Him
* The moment God speaks to you is God’s timing
* God develops my character to match the assignment He has for me
* He has a right to interrupt your life. He is Lord. When you accepted Him as Lord, you gave Him the right to help Himself to your life any time He wants
* When God speaks, your response requires faith and obedience
* Obedience is the outward expression of your love of God
* If you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem
* When God gives a commandment, He is not restricting you, He is freeing you
* When God lets you know what He wants to do through you, it will be something only God can do
* When God’s people and the world see something only God can do, they come to know God


Starting a new thing here on the ‘ole blog: vodcasts. And to kick it off, a series on the book of Acts. And as I mention in the opening moments of the video below, I have like 28 series going on the blog. Not a great finisher. I do plan on wrapping up some of those in the near future. Really. I mean it.

I have a feeling that I might like this idea of vodcasts a lot. The only downside is you seeing my mug instead of my words. Oh well…

So here we go. Vodcast 1 on the book of Acts:


God’s economy // our daily bread

This is unbelievable. So timely. Francis Chan on Proverbs 30:7-9:


1. Great thoughts from Ed Stetzer on how multi-ethnic our churches really are. In short, there not but I’m encouraged to read of those who are trying to get the conversation rolling…

2. Brian of Semper Reformanda Records continues to pump out great posts. These [here and here] center on the danger of inauthentic ‘marketing’ to our congregants. And the jumping off point is Jack in the Box tacos. Yes, you heard me right…

3. A.J. Vanderhorst has been doing a great series on “Planting With Small Groups,” which refreshingly sounds very similar to the missional communities conversation happening in church planting circles today. His most recent entry, “Connect the Dots,” unpacks the subtlety of how to build an organic “church of small groups” rather than a “church with small groups.”

4. Dan Kimball’s ruminations on preaching. He’s pro-preaching, but with a few caveats…

5. Couldn’t agree more. From Jordan @ Northwood Church: Why I Hate Patriotic Songs (in Worship)

6. I thought Tony Morgan hit this out of the park. He talks about do’s and don’ts regarding ministry growth. i.e., #1: You don’t need a logo, you need life change. Love it…

7. And finally, Bob Robert’s encouragement to young pastors: Keep Movin’ Forward…


extract’d

“In the New Testament, church leaders were… theologians-in-residence within the congregation… We ought not to underestimate the influence of the metaphorical concept of ‘home.’ If the theologian’s ‘home’ is academia, then approval from other ‘family’ members will be important. This can be painfully illustrated by the lives of former evangelicals who pursued academic careers with the noblest ambitions, yet sadly ended up a considerable distance from their evangelical roots… if the primary ‘home’ of theology is the believing community, it will be more likely to be earthed in life and more likely to remain evangelical…

To a large extent, however, contemporary theology is pursued by people who make no pretense of being ‘Christian’, working in non-confessional institutions. If true theology is the fruit of engagement with the Bible set in the context of the local church, then much of what passes for theology is not theology at all.”

-Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, from a chapter entitled “Theology” from their book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel & Community

Photo by Andy Cornejo


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