Now You Can Be Part Of The Fun

The audio from the Text and Context conference in Seattle is now online. I want to take a little bit to say here that this was an absolutely life changing conference for me and these are the messages that God used to do that. In them, you will find extremely challenging statements and probably more than once find yourself with your head swimming.

They are not light. They are not easy. And as a general rule, they are directed at men who will are or will be leading a church. If you are on a church staff, wanting to be on a church staff, or looking at planting a church, you need to listen to these. I'll link to them in the order they were preached. Right click on the link to download the Mp3.

Putting Preachers In Their Place - Mark Driscoll
Pastoral Character And Loving People - CJ Mahaney (GOD ROCKED MY WORLD THROUGH THIS ONE)
Why I Trust The Scriptures - John Piper
Fear And Trembling In The Experience Economy - Jim Gilmore (THIS GUY IS BRILLIANT)
Preaching The Gospel From The Center Of the Evangelical World - Matt Chandler
How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry - John Piper
Vision Of A Church Planter - Matt Chandler
How Do I Distinguish Between the Gospel and false gospels - John Piper
Decoding The Future - The Phoniness - And The Shifting Sands - Jim Gilmore

Driscoll ended with a Q & A time that I don't see online anywhere. Hopefully that will be available sometime in the future. Take a listen, you won't be sorry you did!

Thank You Thomas Doolittle

If I say the word "Monergism" and that doesn't ring a bell with you, it should. It is, as far as I can tell, the most comprehensive site anywhere in the world on resources for growing in your walk with Jesus. You could hang out on this site for a lifetime and not even come close to digesting all the resources they have pointed you to.

So I'm looking through their RSS feed for yesterday and I came upon this link to a sermon by Thomas Doolittle. Who is Thomas Doolittle you ask? I have no idea. I did however come upon this brief paragraph over at this blog:

Thomas Doolittle (1630-1707) was an English Puritan pastor of the 17th century.  At his death, in 1707, at the age of 77, he was the last surviving pastor of the Great Ejection of 1662 (when more than 2,000 ministers were forcibly removed from their pastorates by the English government) to die.

Anyway, Thomas Doolittle over 300 years ago knew that the name of my church plant would be Eternity and he felt compelled to write an essay helping me share the vision of why the name Eternity is a great name. At least that's how I like to look at it J Here's an excerpt of the sermon I came across yesterday:

The reason moving believers to keep a steadfast eye upon things unseen, and to look off from things seen—is the eternal duration of the one, and the short continuance of the other: "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen—because the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The good things in this world which are seen—as riches, pleasures, honors—are things of time, and only for time; therefore we are not much concerned whether we win or lose them: and the bad things in this life which are seen—as poverty, imprisonment, persecution—are at longest but for a short space; and therefore we are not much concerned whether we endure them, or are freed from them. But that which adds weight to the things in the other world now not seen by the men of this world, and draws our eyes toward them, and keeps them fixed thereon—is the eternity of them.

Are we pleading with our people in our churches to focus not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen? Are we encouraging them to ponder forever? In short, are we pointing them towards Eternity?

Text And Context (VI) - It's A Wrap

A great week came to a close yesterday as Jenni and I were assessed by three Acts29 church planters. It was a good experience as they asked tough questions but still showed their heart to help us succeed.

After our assessment, we went and had lunch at the Space Needle. If you've never done that, you need to sometime before you meet Jesus. It's a great time. We then began the long journey home which saw us crawl into our beds at 4:00 am this morning.

There are so many things that I will take away from this week and remember. The church planters that I met, the conversations I was blessed to have, the great preaching that we sat under, the hospitality of Mars Hill church, the beauty of Seattle, and the greatness of my wife.

Weeks like this don't happen very often. Maybe once in a lifetime. I'll always be grateful I got to experience it.

Photos and some other stuff still yet to come. But that's all for now...

Text And Context (V)

It's over. The conference portion at least. Once again, great roundups over at Justin Buzzard's blog. To be honest, my mind felt like Play-Dough today. I think you reach a point where there is just no more information - no matter how good it is - that you can absorb. And that's what it felt like today. With that said:

• Jim Gilmore is absolutely amazing. He talked about his book Authenticity today and also did a good Q & A. When it becomes available, you have to download his audio and digest it.
• The highlight of the day was Driscoll's Q & A, and then to have his wife Grace join him halfway through it was absolutely amazing. I'm going to offer some commentary here. Driscoll was different this week. He just was. And I think a great different. For those who think he's Satan in the flesh, you just have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. This guy is real. He loves his family. He loves Jesus. And he knows his stuff. There was an awesome spirit in the room as he did his session. You just had to be there.
• Jeff Vanderstelt and Darrin Patrick wrapped up. It was good to hear. And they both have such unique angles from which they approached church planting. I think that's the strength of A29 - its diversity, its intelligence, and its Jesus obsession. These guys embody it.
• Jenni and I did the tourist thing tonight in downtown Seattle. This is her first trip here so we checked out the fish market and then did dinner. That wouldn't seem like such a big deal except that 1) We had some conflict with two folks who thought homelessness and sitting in front of the Cheesecake factory begging people for food as soon as they step outside of the restaraunt was a good idea. 2) Seattle has to have the highest per capita rate of people walking around talking to themselves loudly. 3) Some sweet lady decided to stalk my wife and I for a few blocks asking for a dollar for the bus ..only problem is we told her around 150 times we had NO CASH on us. 4) *NOTE: THIS WAS SCARY AND SAD - not funny: we literally almost hit a blind lady who was standing in the middle of the street and disoriented yelling at the top of her lungs for someone to help her. It was a really scary moment and one I don't want to experience again.
• Assessment is early. This is a big moment and I pray that God is glorified in all of the conversation and all of the questions.

We fly home on Thursday. So many things swirling in my head right now. More to come...

Text And Context (IV)

What a day! As I wake up this morning to share my thoughts (last night my brain was mush and there wouldn't have been much that was coherent), I'm SO JACKED UP NOW MORE THAN EVER to go plant Eternity.

Is it going to be hard? Yes! Will it be the absolute hardest thing anybody could ever do? Yes! Church planting is not for the faint of heart and neither is the proclamation of the great God we serve.

BUT, I'm ready to go NOW. What God has done here in Seattle has been nothing short of amazing and as you listen to Piper's messages by going here and here, you'll begin to know why I can't walk away and I'll never be able to walk away. No matter how hard it is, no matter what trials may come, I pray and know by the grace of God, I'll never be able to walk away.

And I pray for God's grace and mercy when the trials, suffering, and agony that always accompany church planting or preaching God's word come. I pray for the grace to endure it. I pray for the grace to feel the weight of it. But I pray for the grace to persevere through it. On the flip side, when the joy and the victory and the absolute radical transformations happen in people's lives, I pray for the grace to celebrate it and to glorify God in it.

Other thoughts (you can read more detailed notes about the speakers over at the Buzzard Blog):

• I had a out of this world conversation with Jim Gilmore who spoke yesterday. Jim is the author of The Experience Economy and his presentation was nothing short of brilliant. And he's a really nice guy too. You gotta read this book and listen to his message from this conference.
• Seattle is a cool city. Too bad you have to make Bill Gates money to live here.
• Mark Driscoll is a passionate lover of Jesus - I don't care what the fundies say. And I'm not a Kool-Aid drinker by any stretch but to watch him interact with Piper last night at the Q&A was amazing.
• I love my wife. I miss my boys. And I pray that I can be a good daddy to them.
• I wish CJ Mahaney would have preached more than once at this conference.
• Matt Chandler preached my opening sermon for my church plant. One of his points in his messages yesterday came out of Ecclesiastes and the text he used was "God has placed ETERNITY in the heart of EVERY man". It's a catchy little name for a church - don't you think?
• I hope and pray that God uses me in a mighty way.
• The Bible, The Bible, The Bible
• Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
• My assessment team coming up on Thursday is an awesome group of men. We had dinner last night as assessors and assessees. They asked good questions. But more than that they showed they cared about us. If you think about it, pray for me and Jenni, but also pray for Steev Inge, Trey Herweck, and Mike Rydman. They are guys who are in the battle and could use prayer.
• Quote of the week and I'll leave today with this: John Piper to Mark Driscoll after insulting Mars Hill's worship band and Mark shooting back at Piper that he had just insulted his band: "You care about insulting people? What's going on here?" It was a classic moment and one that I'll remember forever....

More to come...

Text And Context (III)

For a full wrap-up of yesterday's events complete with pictures, you can visit Justin Buzzard's blog to see notes and pictures.

What I'm going to share is a few thoughts running through my head last night as I downloaded and processed yesterday:

• Driscoll's message yesterday seemed to be more than just a sermon to this conference. If I heard it right, and I'm thinking that I did, he laid out the marker to say that he (along with others) are going to put for the definition for what a church is. He talked at length yesterday about how he would ask people what a church is and they would tell him they didn't know. That seemed to rankle him and with an upcoming book and yesterday's message, I think you're going to see him take on yet another HUGE task -- namely laying down the parameters for what constitutes a Christian church.
• Along that note, he took George Barna to task yesterday. There were a lot of names he didn't mention, but he did mention Barna and with force.
• For those who think Driscoll is not within the realm of "orthodox" Christianity, you really need to get your head screwed on tighter.
• God (through CJ Mahaney) flat undid my whole world yesterday. I've always said one of the unspiritual gifts was to be able to size someone up and tell them what was wrong with them in the first thirty seconds I knew them. CJ, in the most loving way I've ever seen it done, not only called that unbiblical, but also stated you won't have a church for very long if you can't have a divine perspective. He preached out of the introduction to 1 Corinthians.
• I've listened to a lot of CJ's messages, but to sit under his teaching live was amazing in that God brought him to this conference to talk to ME. Period. I was (and still am) so messed up I couldn't even think clearly. I was hoping God would do that to me this week. I just hate it when he does cause it hurts BAD.
• The man (AKA Piper) spoke last night on why he trusts the Scriptures. I agree with Justin Buzzard, I'm going to have to listen to that one a few times to catch it all.
• The highlight of Piper was watching him trying to find a word for "homeboy" or "homslice" or "homepick" and all he could come up with was "Trinity Partner"...you'll have to listen to the audio to find out what I mean.
• Any day you have Driscoll, Mahaney, and Piper on the same stage is a good day.
• My wife is awesome. I love her. And I love being in Seattle with her. 10 great years. And I'm ready for 50 more if God wills.
• I have more deep seeded passion now for planting Eternity than I did before I got here.
• This city is beautiful.
• Mars Hill doesn't look all that great from the outside. But it's an awesome place to be. These people get it.
• Late night buses with 60+ people smell like a locker room. Please use deoderant when riding mass transportation.
• God is amazing. I sense Him and am aware of His presence more this morning than I have been in a long time. That has everything to do with my sinful heart. Nothing to do with God.
• More to come today. I love weeks like this.

Text And Context (II)

The first session of the morning was Biblical Stress Management by Dr. Steve Crain. It was a good session.

Dr. Crain really emphasized the point that stress is not a matter of whether you have stressors in your life or not, because we all do and we won't escape them until we die. But truly, stress (it's physical manifestations at least) are a direct result of how we choose to handle those stressors.

He outlined the differences between "distress" (bad) and "eustress" (good).. The first segment of his presentation was on the science of stress and the processes that your body goes through to deal with stressors. He talked about the different stages of stress and really drew a good connection between "distress" and "disease" as one directly leads to the other.

The second part of the presentation was on Biblical responses and approaches to stress. This was really good segment as we camped out mostly in the book of Philippians and substituted the word "stressors" for the words "circumstances" and "trials". I had never really looked at the book as a book on dealing with stress, but Crain drew some good things out and had a fresh approach to it.

The last segment, and by far the part that I'm the worst at, is the actual ways we can physically help how our body responds to stressors and lessen the effects of stressors on us. Things such as diet, exercise, etc. For those who know me, this was the part I probably most needed to hear but checked out on the quickest. :)

All in all, a good session that I was glad I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready to come to. I couldn't help but feel like this was the undercard for what was to come. Driscoll takes the stage in 40 minutes. Don't forget that you can watch it live.

More to come later...

Text And Context (I)

We made it to Seattle and are staying literally in the shadow of the Space Needle...if you look closely on that webcam you may be able to see us walking around...

Flights were good and after a late night bite to eat, it was a good night's sleep...

I hope to blog the speakers today although it'll be streamed live on the web, so I may just give personal reflections. Either way, I think with Driscoll and Piper speaking today, it should be a good one...

More later..

A Week That’s Been A Long Time Coming

The journey that began almost eight months ago takes another significant step this week. It's boot camp week and with guys like Mahaney, Piper, and Driscoll as the drill sergeants, it promises to be a good one.

I'm excited for a lot of reasons:

• Seattle is awesome. I spent a lot of time there in my days with Upward. It's a great city and one that I enjoy being in. If it didn't cost $300,000 for a shanty to live in, I might consider moving there.
  
• It's going to be good to get away with my wife for a week and just immerse ourselves in this calling God has placed upon us.
  
• It's a chance to stalk (in a totally non-threatening, non-offensive, non-creepy, very Christian way) John Piper. It's funny that a reformation of my heart that began with reading Desiring God some six years ago is going to continue as take another step towards planting Eternity.
  
• If you had told me six years ago that this week would be happening, there's no way in the world I would have believed you. God can take you on the most unexpected of journeys. That's the fun part about being a Christian.
  
• It's a chance to reflect and crystallize the call.
  
• It's a chance eat some good food.
  
• It's a chance to live another day.
  

It all starts with worship this morning at LifePoint. I'm thankful for this church, its leaders, and its people. It's great to be a part of.

Then on to Tulsa, DFW, and Seattle for a late night arrival. And tomorrow starts off with a session by Dr. Steve Crain on "Biblical Stress Management"… (I didn't think church planters had any of that)..

Watch this video for the thrust of the conference…more later…

Resolved (Day 1)

As I was thinking what I wanted to do with The Jonah Syndrome around the first of the year, I had the idea of covering in detail and my thoughts on Jonathan Edwards 70 resolutions. A couple years ago I purchased the complete works of Edwards and have not been disappointed. While I am no where near progressing through them as I thought I would like, one of the first things I read was Edwards diary, his resolutions, and the essay written about him.

Turns out, I'm not the only one who likes Edwards resolutions. Justin Taylor linked to them here and Pulpit Magazine did a post on them as well.

But for the next 45+ days or so, I'm going to go through them here on the blog mainly for my own personal preparation for my Acts29 assessment at the Resurgence Conference in Seattle. However, I hope and pray that my reflections and interactions with them will be profitable for others as well. There are some that go together, as today's post will demonstrate. On those occasions I will list all "overlapping" resolutions so to speak. So without further adieu:

#1 – Resolved: That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved: to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved: so to do, whatever the difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

#2 – Resolved: To be continually endeavorouing to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things.

#4 - Resolved: Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.

So what the heck is Edwards trying to say?

I read these and hear this: Everything I do, I'm going to do what is purely for the glory of God, what is profitable for me, and whatever is good for my neighbor. No matter how much time it takes from me in this life and no matter how hard it is. And not only that, I'm going to be creative in thinking about ways to do it.

You know, as someone who desires to plant a church, this is refreshing for me. Focus is something I struggle with. This resolution hits home with me because I ramp up in the process of planting a church over the coming months, I am going to have be focused.

I'm going to have to have a filter by which I decide what I will do and what I won't do. And what I heard Edwards saying here is a challenge for me to ask the following questions:

• Is what you're about to do for the glory of God?
• Is what you're about to do going to bring you closer to Jesus?
• Is what you're about to do going to help somebody other than yourself?

If the answer to any of those is no, then why am I doing it? Do you realize how much time we waste in life on stuff that just simply won't matter in eternity? It's frightening. And I think it's one of Satan's best ploys to hinder the spread of the Gospel. Occupy the troops with trinkets and toys while mass carnage occurs on the battlefield.

It's interesting to me that the first resolution listed would be on focus. It's also interesting to me that Edwards displays here a passion for creativity? How creative are you in your life? In your marriage? In your church? In your ministry? In your job? In your prayer life? In your Bible study?

Do we realize how destructive and stagnating routines can make us? God's mercies are new every day, and we should be to. We need to be creative. Why? Not for creativities sake. But rather, because when you think about how to do just the right thing in just the right way, you demonstrate the worth of object of your action or your words. And how can we say that God or others are valuable to us when we're interacting with them in exactly the same ways we did 30 years ago or 10 years ago and we have no desire to keep it fresh. Principles don't change. Methods and application do.

Two great resolutions to start with.

Acts 29 Quarterly And All Things Tuesday

Yesterday was a great day in many respects. A beautiful day to drive from Ozark to St. Louis to Jefferson City back to Ozark. I love drive times alone with God.

The Acts29 quarterly was great as usual. Preaching was the topic. Highlights were:

• Jonathan McIntosh challenging us to examine our weaknesses in our preaching. He talked about three streams and how it is vital for preachers to be good in all three streams. He shared rightly that most folks default to one stream but that we needed to listen to guys from all three streams. The three he hit on were:
  
  • Normative – Truth focused (John MacArthur, John Piper, et all) – What to I want people to know or believe?
    
  • Existential – Emotion Focused (Martin Lloyd Jones – CJ Mahaney) – What do I want people to feel?
    
  • Situational – Action Focused (Andy Stanley – Rick Warren) – What do I want people to do?
    
• Catching up and sitting with Steve Easterwood from FBC Lake St. Louis.
  
• Having a chance to talk with Bob Werner about planting Eternity. Bob's first pastorate was in Jefferson City. He had many good words.
  
• Listening to Darrin Patrick, Ron Cathcart, John Ryan, and a great guy who I can't for the life of me remember his name (although he won a preaching award from Covenant Theological Seminary) answer questions about preaching ranging from:
  
  • How they prepare for their sermons?
    
  • How much time do they prepare?
    
  • What is their best advice for guys who are trying to find their voice?
    
  • Their advice on building preaching teams
    
  • Their thoughts on use of certain language in sermons
    
  • Their thoughts on being a communicator for God on Sunday morning
    
• Getting to say hi once again to Maxedon, Sam, Brian, Trey, and meeting Mike Hubbard and Marc Sikma
  

It was then time to head to Jefferson City and have a meeting with some folks about Eternity. For those who are just catching up, I am in the process of planting a church in the next 12 – 18 months named Eternity and Jefferson City is where that church will be. Last night's meeting was great. From everyone I've talked to, the area is in desperate need of a Gospel centered, culturally sensible church.

With every discussion I have about Eternity, I grow more excited and nauseous at the same time. I am growing increasingly aware how huge of a task it will be. I am also realizing with each day how great God is, how ignorant and sinful I am, and how I am in dire straits if God isn't driving this train.

But as each day goes by, Eternity becomes more and more a reality and the path to reality a little more clear.

It was a good day. Let's see what today holds!

The Days Ahead

Everyone is gone from Tan-Tar-A and has returned home to their churches in Missouri to continue their loving service to their congregations.

Micah has a good roundup this morning that I would like to interact with a little bit.

Getting to meet Darrin Patrick was a much more exciting experience than I imagined it would be. I have had the privilege of meeting a lot of guys who are very successful in ministry and who lead fast growing churches, many of which are considered mega-churches and I have never met a Pastor more congenial and laid back as was Patrick.

I'm convinced that if those in the Missouri Baptist Convention and really around the nation would actually spend time with us Acts29 type folks, and the church planters in our network, that they would discover we are not a bunch of beer-drinking liberal freakshows as many would like to paint us as. I read blogs that bash Driscoll and certainly Darrin has taken his load of criticism but much of that criticism is coming from ignorance and fear. As I spent time with guys like Sam Byers, Trey Herweck, Kevin Larson, Rik Maxedon and others, you'll discover that these guys are young, passionate; Gospel consumed people who just want to see Jesus be the hero in their churches.

And the fledgling reformation going on in American Christianity today in ironic ways is about returning to our roots and first loves rather than about leaving them. If you look historically, you'll find that the young church planters would share more in common the founders of the SBC than they do with the current SBC. The young guys are accused of deviating from tradition, but rather they in fact are the ones looking to restore the tradition. Reformed doctrine, Christ exaltation, Man centered renunciation, and a belief in only the Gospel as the possible means of transformation characterizes this group.

And like many times in history, the more that the other side gets to actually know where they are coming from and understand who they really are, the more they realize there is nothing to fear but rather to embrace. And I think many people are discovering that.

I am proud to be a part of that group and I am excited about what God is/currently/and will do through us in the days and years ahead. There is a passionate resurgence well underway and I think folks are beginning to see that. Guys like Darrin and Lane, pastors who are passionate not only about their churches, but the churches of the guys who will plant in the future are awesome to be around and I think typify the spirit of Paul in Acts. They realize that we won't reach the world with one church. And they are passionate about their roles in developing and coaching guys who feel the call of God to plant a church.

For those who might read this and not know a lot about Acts 29 or the young church planters currently in the MBC, I would encourage you to do the same thing Micah did. Just find a way to hang out us. You'll find we're not the boogey-man you may have thought us to be.

Church Planting Meeting At LifePoint

Today was a great day at LifePoint. Twenty some folks gathered, some as far away as Oklahoma, to pray, worship, encourage, and discuss church planting. Jonathan McIntosh, from the Journey in St. Louis, spoke to us today about the centrality of the Gospel in church planting and exhorted us to make sure we were keeping the Gospel front and center in our churches. Jesus is the hero of every sermon, and the point of every passage in the Bible. All of the Old Testament and the New Testament point to and expound upon Jesus. If we lose Jesus, we lose the church.

Over lunch, we had the opportunity to do some Q & A and talk about how the theology of the Gospel fleshes out in practical terms such as giving, growing members to maturity, reviving passion in our congregations, and seeing our church folks truly grasp how the Gospel plays out in their entire lives. We talked about the importance of the folks in our churches grasping that all of life is worship and not just the hour we spend together on Sunday.

The cool thing about this meeting was that it was the first we have done in the Southwest Missouri region and we had a good turnout. Prayerfully, as we move forward, we can build this network to serve as a support, encouragement, and help to men who are in church plants, looking to plant churches, or thinking about church planting and discerning whether it's for them. Lane did a good job of laying out what the objectives of such a meeting were and challenged us to consider our own pride, arrogance, and insecurities as church planters when we come together and to really pray to see this network be all it can be. We're looking at getting together again in January. I would suspect maybe January 8^th? Stay tuned…

It was a great meeting with great men. I look forward to continuing the friendships that were started today.

In his message to us, Jonathan McIntosh referenced Tim Keller quite frequently. For all things Tim Keller and more resources from Him than you can shake a stick at, you need to go here and check it out.

Thank you to everyone who attended today and to the folks who helped serve and make it happen. I'm grateful for a church like LifePoint who has a heart to see the movement grow.

Acts 29 Quarterly - A Day Late

(Left to Right: Lane Harrison, Dwayne Thompson, Me, Lee, Trent [In Front])

Sorry for being a day late on the post. Most probably didn't notice but for those who did, we had a huge day over in Springfield yesterday getting some things squared away now that we are on the ground.

The quarterly was awesome. The Journey did a nice job of putting this on. Not too long, not too short, but enough time to have some great conversations, meet some really good folks and then get out and get on with your week.

Darrin Patrick (Lead Pastor of The Journey) spoke to us for about an hour on the topic of being a Gospel centered missional church. He used Acts 2 as his text and just simply used each phrase as a bullet point of characteristics that the church should exhibit. He talked about Churchville (many of you have or currently do live in Churchville) and how the church has to be different today to be effective. Jonathan McIntosh then gave a session on how to exegete the culture. I didn't get to sit in on this one but am looking forward to hearing the audio of it.

The audio should go up on the Acts 29 site sometime shortly. I'll do a brief post when I find it so you can hear the two sessions.

With all that said, the best part for me was to see over 100 church planters, future church planters, and established pastors there to hear about how we can be missional in our culture. To be able to ask them questions about their churches, what they are doing, what they are stopping doing, what they would change, and just details about how they do it was really beneficial for someone looking to start a church in the near future.

A note on the picture above. Lane and Dwayne are the real deals. Spending two days with these guys was the absolute highlight. Two brothers in Christ, two guys who are flat gettin after it. And they're a scream to be around on top of it. It's nice to be around folks who are more concerned with substance rather than style and image.

More to come in the upcoming days. Including my thoughts on the missional church.

Acts 29 Quarterly - The Pre Party

Yesterday was an incredible day. The morning was busy taking care of necessary errands when you have a 7 year old about to start school and other such things when you move to a new area. After wrapping those up, we took off from Ozark and headed up to St. Louis for the Acts 29 Quarterly meeting.

It was a crazy car ride and I'll introduce you to my car mates in tomorrow's post. Needless to say with two church planters in the vehicle, Theology, Jesus, The Church, and many more things were thoroughly handled and discussed. World peace and hunger are on today's docket.

Last night, we had the chance to sit down with Trey Herweck (Refuge Church - St. Charles, MO), Steve Inge (Mystery Church - Joplin, MO), Dewayne Thompson (Fusion Church - Muskogee, OK), and then Lane Harrison (LifePoint Church - Ozark MO) and myself rounded out the group.

It was a great discussion with guys who are in the trenches. They aren't philosophying about how to reach people, they're working to reach people. BIG DIFFERENCE. They don't sit in offices and wonder about how to get involved, they wake up at six in the morning, read The Word, and then go to work reching people. Great guys, and all vastly different. But they all share one thing really important in common. They have a passion to see the Gospel get ahold of folks and radically transform them.

We covered all kinds of things. What to look out for in the first year of a church plant? What are the hardest things about planting a church? How church planting affects your marriage? How do you handle finances in the first years? But overall, it was a time of encouragement, support, question and answer, The Word, and just spending great time with like minded folks.

The one answer that stuck out to me last night that I'll take back home wiht me. I posed the question to Trey "What's the one thing you'd do over if you had the chance to in regards to you first year of Refuge"...

His answer was very revealing: "I wouldn't do anything over because I'm too scared to go back and have to do any of it over. It was hard the first time, and there wouldn't be anything appealing to me of having to do it again."

It wasn't that he didn't feel like they had made mistakes. But it was also that God had a plan, had a purpose, and that all the things they've gone through have made them stronger. He said God has shown up at just the right time in so many ways and to do it over again would be saying like God messed up the first time. Trey was a great guy and someone I'm looking forward to getting to know a whole lot better.

Well, we're off. Time to head to The Journey to meet more soldiers in the trenches. Today should be unforgettable. More to come tomorrow...