At the recent AMBITION Boot Camp, I talked with Scott Thomas about two things that he has lots of experience with–replanting churches and dealing with criticism.
As expected, Scott offers some sound counsel for both.
Watch, learn and help us spread the word.
For my benefit (and yours), I use a feedreader and follow a number of blogs.
In the coming weeks, I hope to begin sharing and linking some of what I am learning from my own study.
Here’s a good post I read yesterday from Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing on Leadership.
PS More from my conversation with Scott Thomas tomorrow.
few weeks ago, I moderated a panel discussion as a joint event between the Sojourn Church Planting Center and my ministry “Church Planting for the Rest of Us.”
This is a great excerpt from my friend and A29 Pastor, Kevin Jamison, sharing what he considers the top 5 church planting mistakes guys often make.
The rest of the video is available HERE and HERE.
Videos like THIS are why YouTube was created.
I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hear the guy’s “thoughtful commentary.” So if there is anything objectionable in it, sorry…
Last Fall, at the Houston Boot Camp, Acts 29 interviewed me about my call to church planting and pastoring my family. Hopefully this will encourage you to consider your own calling and pastoring your own family.
BTW, this is NOT me ; ) and though I didn’t create this art, I think it is HILARIOUS.
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I just realized I have a new spiritual problem.
Truth be told, I have had it for a while, but the light bulb just finally came on in my soul that illuminated what has been going on. I can get so caught up in trying to figure out why I sinned that I forget to repent of my sin.
As a “gospel-centrality” guy who believes that all true change begins at the heart level, I consider it a goal not just to stop doing something evil, but to try to figure out why I was doing that evil in the first place. My hope in doing so is to be led to as specific of an application of the gospel as possible, and to cut off the snake’s head and not just shorten his tail.
Theologically speaking, I believe this effort to deal with the root causes of our sin (Matthew 5:29) is a good practice modeled by Jesus, Paul, Keller, the Tripp brothers, and all of us who follow in their footsteps. However, practically speaking, even a good tool in the hands of sinners like us can do significant damage.
I have found that in an effort to get to the root of my sin, I can become so navel-gazing that I cease to be cross-focused. I have found that I can get so wrapped up in the complexities and nuances of my sin and ‘how deep the rabbit-hole goes’ that I forget to repent of the fact that it was my fault that I climbed into the rabbit-hole in the first place.
I have also found, perhaps worst of all, that I can become so despairing or despondent because of my sin that I cease to be dependent upon the only One who can save me from that sin—Jesus.
And in those dark moments, thankfully, I am confronted afresh with the good news of the gospel: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25) Most of us reading this can agree that we are wretched. But who or what is to save us from this wretchedness? Our self-evaluative introspection? Our repentance?
No. Neither is strong enough.
But Jesus is strong enough. And worthy enough. And holy enough. Only Jesus can save us from our sins and ourselves! In the midst of Paul’s own spiritual angst, this is the good news of the gospel that Paul himself is retelling and praising God for. In the midst of our own angst, we would be wise to follow suit.
So when you sin, repent—first! Then evaluate and seek to get to the root of what is going on. And when you find yourself confronted with yourlatest spiritual problem, whether it is like mine or not, ask yourself, “What good news am I retelling? Mine or Jesus’?”
If you are in a groups based church, you MUST watch this video. I laughed so hard I almost had to turn it off. I have been doing groups for years now and these guys are right on the money with their “tips.” ; )
I am just full of suprises this week, apparently. Must have been the Christmas ham…
As we speak, I am working on a short ebook about dealing with something nearly all of us can relate to–the difficulties of the transience implicit within most of our modern ministry contexts.
It will be called “Losing Your People Without Losing Your Mind.”
And as a gift to the Church, I want to try to give it to as many pastors, planters and future planters as possible.
This project is being undertaken in addition to all of my other duties as a husband, father and pastor (in the midst of leading our church into its first “permanent” facility), so the release date is still TBA, but things are coming along nicely and I hope to have it out in the next month or so and hope to put it out through several other outlets as well.
When it drops, I want you to have a copy and I would love it if you would help me spread it around as far as we can. I will keep you posted with updates here and I will post it here when we have it finished.
In the meantime, I would appreciate your prayers as we work hard to bring this project to fruition. Thanks!
At the recent AMBITION Boot Camp sponsored by Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY, I had the opportunity to sit down with A29 Pastor and Blogger Joe Thorn. In this short conversation, Joe shares part of his own story and in the process gives us some great counsel. Watch and learn. And pass along.
It is a profound thing to be chosen to suffer.
It is an even more profound thing to be chosen to suffer while the world looks on.
As most of you know, Matt Chandler, Acts 29 Board Member, has been diagnosed with a tumor on the frontal lobe of his brain and is scheduled for surgery this Friday.
Because of the uniqueness of Matt’s ministry and his impact on us all, as we pray for Matt’s speedy recovery, I believe God has graced us with a unique opportunity to stop and reflect on our own frailty and pressing issues in our own lives. It is my hope that my sharing of my own personal reflections could perhaps serve you as well.
As you would expect, Chandler’s unexpected illness has hit close to home for me and many others for several reasons. The first of which is the most obvious.
Matt is young pastor with a younger congregation with young children in his early thirties…this is me.
In fact, this is most of us who are reading this post.
And this reveals the first truth that guys in their early thirties like to try to ignore.
Anything could happen at any moment.
We may think otherwise. We may plan otherwise. We may try to insulate ourselves and pretend that this is not true, but situations like this remind us that despite God’s immense grace to us, the fallout of the fallen world still falls on all of us.
In a moment like this, all of us who feel invincible would be wise to remember James 4:13-17.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:13-17 ESV
And I believe this unexpected Sovereign intervention calls us not just to reflection but also to action.
In this moment, I pray that all of us would be asking questions like:
In light of the fragility of life, what is it that God is calling me to do that I have been putting off?
Having that conversation with someone…?
Listening to your doctor about losing the weight…?
Adjusting your schedule to make more time for your family…?
Reconciling with that brother or sister from which you are estranged…?
If God is speaking to you about something specific, please do it. Do it today. Don’t give your flesh the opportunity to deceive you into putting it off until the someday that becomes never.
The second thing that I am being reminded is that
God really is in control.
Nearly all of us who are reading this post prize and readily proclaim the Sovereignty of God. In our day, the acceptance of this doctrine has become almost assumed among younger evangelicals as long as long as God’s sovereignty remains simply a theological concept.
But what about in these moments when it seems to become almost too real…?
Is this doctrine still an anchor?
A comfort?
Do we lean on our theology to hold us up in our own times of trial?
By God’s grace, Matt is. His tweets show it.
The first one from when the news broke:
“Thanks for all the prayers…I have a small mass In my frontal lobe…dye with the neurosurgeon early next week…I am His and confident”
Or the tweet and Facebook message from Driscoll containing Matt’s words.
“Matt Chandler my dear friend & Acts 29 board member texted. He’s got surgery on Fri & will be in ICU for the night & hospital for up to a week. He said he’s, “confident that He has chosen me for this and pray that I might suffer well while the world watches.” Prayer for he, his wife, children, & church are appreciated….”
These statements are coming from a man who doesn’t just believe in the Sovereignty of God but who walks in it, rests in it, and is leveraging it in the midst of his most difficult hour. His example, even at the beginning of what could be of a long road, calls us to do the same in our own difficulties no matter how big or small.
I believe there is another message in Driscoll’s tweet as well.
Matt knows that because of his public platform that his suffering will be public as well.
I believe the question for us here is “do we?”
Few of us will ever have a following like Matt Chandler, but all of us live our lives in front of other people.
Our wives. Our children. The churches we pastor. We are mistaken to think that any of us suffers entirely in the shadows.
Not long ago, John Piper served us well in his own battle with prostate cancer with “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” and though we may not face these particular struggles, we do face our own struggles in front of a watching world.
Finally, I am struck by the response of the Village Church elders. Their obvious concern to shepherd both their shepherd and their sheep well and encourage them to keep their eyes on Jesus is such an evidence of grace to us all.
I have been particularly encouraged and challenged by this and, in light of their example, have begun to put a plan in place for what to do if something similar were to happen to me.
Could God be calling you to do the same?
In many ways, it is possible that Matt, a man who is such a gift to us all, is just beginning this journey. As his brothers and sisters, we need to passionately pray for him, his family his church and His healing.
As we pray, we must also recognize that there is much more at stake here than simply the restoration of his physical body.
This is a opportunity for the glory of God to be magnified through this difficult situation in a way that is entirely unique.
This is opportunity for the Gospel to go out through Matt Chandler in a way that it never has, though, this time, not through his mouth, but through his life.
And from what I know of Matt, that is what I know he wants the most.
The recent interview that I did with Matt can be found here and here.
