Top 11 Posts of 2015
It feels funny to pick my own favorite posts from the past year. If nothing else, it was interesting to take a step back and read what I’ve posted over the course of the year and get a sense of what’s been on my mind.
Here are eleven of my picks from oldest to newest:
The opinion of others surely must matter, but in the end, His evaluation is the only one that counts.
All the church planting success or recognition from others will never give me what I am looking for most, and what I already have: the smile and recognition that is mine through the gospel. With that I will be content.
A man who loved the Lord set up a bookstore with some of the best books available. He used his humble bookstore as a front of sorts for mentoring countless numbers of pastors, professors, and ordinary Christians. He invested his life and prayed like a man who understood what’s at stake. He did all of this well under the radar.
There’s nowhere to hide in an open kitchen, and maybe that’s a good thing.
The Slow, Hard Work Of Making Disciples
Entrusting the gospel to others is slow, hard, painful work. But what else would you want to do with your life?
“The Bible Says” Or “Paul Says”? A Response To Andy Stanley
Stanley loves Scripture, and is clearly a good communicator, and his suggestion has a lot going for it. But I never want to let the listeners escape having to wrestle with the fact that God, not just Paul or James, has spoken, and that we need to listen. We can quote the authors, but let’s never be afraid to say, “The Bible says…”
What Church Plants Have That Established Churches (Often) Don’t
Church plants have very little. Yet church plants have a few things that older churches often don’t have, and that makes all the difference.
Instead of dreaming of church plants that require tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, perhaps there is a way to begin with a simple, reproducible model with little overhead for salaries and facilities.
Saying True Things In A True Way
I somehow want to say and hear true things in a way that’s congruent with the truth, even if it means listening to people we tend to overlook, and speaking truth’s we’d rather keep to ourselves.
We all need a small group of those who know our dreams, who know our longings and our prayers,” Os Guiness says. “As time goes by, things slip. We need to hold each other’s feet to the fire.”
Guinness has a pastor-friend who regularly asks him, “Is the revolution still on?”
What Keeps A Church Planter Going?
Church planting is hard, but not necessarily harder than the work that soldiers, athletes, farmers, and small business owners do. If they are willing to put a good part of their lives on the line, why wouldn’t I?
