Check out this video. It’s one man’s take on bringing just, mercy, and compassion to a broken world. What do you think? What’s your role? Who’s your one person? Thanks to Walt Mueller for the heads up on this.

more about “One At A Time”, posted with vodpod

Equipped for Adventure: A Practical Guide to Short-Term Mission Trips by Scott Kirby was published in 2006 by New Hope Publishers. It is a handbook for making short-term mission trips happen.  This is a holistic treatment of the process of making short-term missions a centerpiece of your church’s ministry. Kirby casts vision, answers criticisms, and then proceeds step by step through the process of planning, organizing, actuating, and following up a mission trip.

Spiritual Leadership in the Global City was written by Mac Pier and published in 2008 by New Hope Publishers. This is a book of stories and mission combined to get your mind and hear thinking about what it means to reach a city.  Pier’s text looks at twenty different churches and Christian organizations in New York City. He walks you through their development and growth. Each church and organization provides you with a key spiritual leadership insight.  It has a unique, engaging, and accessible format.

Eyes Wide Open by William D. Romanowski

Brazos Press, 2001.

Group Discussion Questions

Eyes Wide Open was written by William D. Romanowski the Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Calvin College. It was initially published in 2001 and was revised and expanded in 2007. As a Christ-follower seeking to engage culture and to make culture I have found that this little book is remarkably helpful.  Romanowski’s style is engaging and accessible.  He is writing from the Reformed perspective and is seeking to see Christians engage the world around them in such a way as to transform culture.

The article linked below provides some interesting insight in breaking into the minds of the emerging generations. What does this look like for a church? Are we willing to take the time and effort to be creative enough to raise awareness, engagement, and interest?

MediaPost Publications Ad Infinitum 11/13/2009.

Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living was written by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Nation and published by New Hope Publishers.  Stetzer is the director of LifeWay Christian Resources and Nation is a church planting missionary in north Metro Atlanta.

Compelled is broken up into three parts. The first, “Death by Love: God and Mission” looks at how the three persons of the Trinity love and how their love applies to our relationships and ministry. The second part, “Identifying Love: The Church in the World” looks at how we are shaped by love.  This section really highlights the way that love works itself out in the context of the Christian community.  I would say that this is the central argument of the text. The third part, “Formed by Love: Believers and the World” looks at how the church is to interact with the non-Christian world within which it finds itself.  This section I think is the most important as it challenges the presumptions of the status quo.

So, I have this awesome opportunity to read and review books from New Hope Publishers.  It’s a great way to score some free books and have some accountability to read! Anyway, here is review number one (review number two will come today or tomorrow).

Trolls and Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See is written by Jimmy Dorrell.  He is the lead pastor of Church Under the Bridge and also the Executive Director of Mission Waco in Waco, TX. This is a little book and quick read.  It hits on 14 key issues that Dorrell has found to be truths that the first world American church needs to hear.  He argues that most of the American church ignores the poor and broken in their communities.  He is writing from his own experiences as a pastor to those very people.  He tells the stories of 14 different people.  Those stories each function as a parable for a particular truth that he believes the contemporary church can learn from those people who live on the fringe of society. He covers a wide range of issues including appearance, actions, societal barriers, giving, communication, and music.

This is a fascinating article.  I strongly encourage you to give it a read.  What’s most intriguing are the comments by Stephen Baldwin on why someone should get “saved”. Well, check it out.  Tell me what you think.

RELEVANT Magazine – Outsider’s Guide to the Christian Subculture

ht Rob

So it turns that some of the greatest thinkers in the Christian world are coming to the conclusion that the church has missed something.  It has missed “discipleship”.  We are not training, building, developing, and sending mature believers into the world. 

It seems to me that this is the “cost” of the great “evangelical” movement that has developed over the last fifty-five years. Prior to the fifties the church trained people well.  There was a commitment to “catechism”.  There was an emphasis on education.  However, there was a cost.  The cost was that of evangelism.  We were not inviting people into the community of faith. So, were we really training people well? Probably not.

But, now we get the message out and get people saved but we are not building and sending.  We need now not a pendulum swing but a re-centering on the life and ministry of Jesus.  I think that this is a good article and points us back to where we need to be.  However, it’s still a rehash of Coleman’s Master Plan of Evangelism. If we could only master the Master Plan.
NextReformation » The Great Omission

Image via Wikipedia

A few years ago I ranted about my dislike of the Family Christian Store chain.  Well, today I am reminded why I have not shopped there in five years and why I continue to encourage people to steer clear. Below is the link to their section of “New Testament Commentaries”.  I happened to receive a gift cert for the store and thought I would find something on the website. Well, it didn’t really matter.

I think that Christian Bookstores have a responsibility to the Church to help get good study materials into the hands of lay people.  It seems quite clear that Family Christian Stores are not concerned to help this matter much. I am sorry, but the memoirs of Billy Graham, The Message: Promise Book, Promises for Women, and the like are not commentaries.

I was expecting to see Pillar, Zondervan, Baker, or even Matthew Henry’s commentary.  But the kind of pop-culture bubble gum stuff that FCS is promoting as a “commentary” is a joke. Ten clicks on the “Next” button still do not yield a real commentary.

Thankfully, I know an author or two that I am interested and found a few books by them.  But, this is disappointing and sad.
Family Christian Stores