Isaac's Keep | Reformed Canton Church in Downtown Canton, GA

“I Don’t Want my Children to be Happy.” AWESOME!

Is Church Boring! No you are! Thank you R.C., you may be 120, but you still know how to rock some words.

We often treat “missional” as an ideal rather than a reality. Tim Chester looks at 4 key elements to making community work.

• taking the initiative to resolve conflict (a great balanced look)
• taking the initiative to serve others
• humility
• the centrality of the cross

Jared Wilson on Crucifying the American Dream, “the church in the West is full of Christians who have bought into with heart, mind, and soul the pursuit of erecting “houses” of worship of the human spirit. The American dream bids us build monuments to ourselves and our ingenuity and perseverance.”

Are you a Christian Hipster? This is funny. Thanks Lauren for drawing my attention to this, it provided lots of laughs in our house.

This book, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture is on the way to my house.  All I can say is it’s about time some introverts get some love.

Had a good dose of Bill Mallonee (Vigilantes of Love) this week. I once saw Bill in a private concert at the Holly Springs Shriner’s Club, it was probably one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen, Bill truly puts his heart into it.  If you ever get to see him live, do it, you want regret it, and invite me (April 17th in Athens). A very kind soul as well. Love this artist, a lyrical genius.

Love this perspective from Tim Chester.  Regarding the shared life, “we’re not talking about house groups or small groups. Home groups are usually a meeting. You have ‘home group night’. It’s an event. We’re talking about a community of people who share life together.” More of Chester on the church meeting and the shared life.  Should be required reading for churches.

A great article on the trappings of significance from the female perspective.

Misguided Christian Outrage, Dr. Moore nails it, again.

Christians should read this regarding issues facing the church, I agree with all 5 points that Tim Keller makes. #4 is very good (emphasis is mine).

4. We must develop a far better theology of suffering. Members of churches in the west are caught absolutely flat-footed by suffering and difficulty. This is a major problem, especially if we are facing greater ‘liminality’–social marginalization–and maybe more economic and social instability. There are a great number of books on ‘why does God allow evil?’ but they mainly are aimed at getting God off the hook with impatient western people who believe God’s job is to give them a safe life. The church in the west must mount a great new project–of producing a people who are prepared to endure in the face of suffering and persecution.

Here, too, is one of the ways we in the west can connect to the new, growing world Christianity. We tend to think about ‘what we can do for them.’ But here’s how we let them do something for us. Many or most of the church in the rest of the world is used to suffering and persecution. They have a kind of faith that does not wilt, but rather grows stronger under threat. We need to become students of theirs in this area.

Needed quote of the week also came from Tim Keller, “Ministry places enormous pressures on one’s integrity and character, pressures which require extra vigilance and a deeper understanding of one’s need for God.”

This video is amazing!

These guys have been around awhile but they are stil awesome. Who? “The Mother Hips”, here is one of their newer songs:

Since this post has taken a swing toward music, the sounds and lyrics of Mumford and Sons are amazing. Raw accordions, trumpets, banjos, and the gospel. What’s not to like? This post about M&S sums up my thoughts as well. Here’s an acoustic of Sigh No More (I can run under a 7 minute mile to this song, which is good for me):

Check out Project Judy,  would love to promote this in other churches, businesses, etc. $20 provides a tangible gift for Haitian orphans.

REDEEM HAITI continues to help connect believers into Haiti. A team of ten are in Port au Prince this week working on shelter for orphans at Notre Dame (the one from this story). Pray for them.

Project Judy is getting ready to launch it’s own website as we begin a more focused drive to provide every orphan in Haiti a doll.

Did I get married too young? Mr. Lapp and I share a common story and I couldn’t agree more.

Look forward to seeing this (GCM) develop. The future of denominationalism in my opinion.

If you’re in ministry long you begin hearing the same questions from skeptics of God and faith.  John Piper doesn’t shy away from the difficult questions.

Great look at Rob Bell and the Christian celebrity culture.  Love these two statements:

1. Just because someone says something very well, that doesn’t mean someone says something very right.

2. Bell reminds us that, sometimes, the more charismatic the person, the more careful we need to be.