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Greatest Lesson on Leadership & Movements I've Ever Seen

Conan on Cynicism

Conan's "final thoughts" were dynamite! Fantastic portrait of a way to go out with class, as well as profound closing words on cynicism...

Exciting News at Redeemer

The last eighteen months have been the wildest of my life. We are having a blast watching God work in Midtown and throughout the Kansas City metro. It's been a true honor to labor with the elders on our team. And, as we've watched God grow our church, we have for some time been praying that he would grow our team as well. It's an answer to prayer for us and a joy to announce that Steve Miller will be leaving the Journey in St Louis to come join us at Redeemer.

For those that are interested in hearing more, I would encourage you to watch the video Darrin Patrick and Steve posted telling the big story of what God has been doing to bring Steve to us. Or, hit the jump to read the email we sent to our people.

As You Think About Haiti Relief...

Last Sunday at Redeemer we gave our entire offering to support the relief efforts of The Global Orphan Project in Haiti. By God's grace, our people responded with staggering generosity and gave $22,600 toward relief efforts. 

We also started to talk as a church about taking the long view with Haiti-- realizing that restoration there involves decades, not merely one time financial gifts. As such, we are presently working to make our people aware of immediate opportunities to travel to Haiti while we strategize how we might take teams of our own. You can follow this dialogue here.

As requests for information continue to pour in, I'm humbled by the passion of our people and their willingness to respond. I was also reminded of the following section from one of my favorite books:

Religious social activism not rooted in love for God is driven by love for idols. It pretends to come from concern for others or for God's kingdom, but actually it is motivated by the worship of humanity or disguised forms of self-glorification (Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life 31).

My prayer for our people as we grieve, pray, and mobilize in response to this tragedy and others is that we will remain relentlessly God-centered in our efforts.

Andrew Bird on Pitchfork TV (UPDATED)

UPDATED: THE VIDEO WORKS NOW! Not sure how I botched the code first time around. If there are still errors, try this link

FRIDAY PHOTO

my flickr page

IX Marks e-Journal on Multi Site Churches

IX Marks e-Journal // Multi Site Churches

Matt Chandler asks my question in his reflection, Clouds on the Horizon

"And so after studying the issue, we decided to go multi-site. Yet we still have some serious concerns and questions about the multi-site idea even as we participate in it. The problem that haunts us is a simple one. Where does this idea lead? Where does this end? Twenty years from now are there fifteen preachers in the United States?"

Read the whole journal here

FRIDAY PHOTOS

(viewed best on black)

Quinn is walking now (finally!), so our lives have changed quite a bit and have been moved, at his behest, into the front yard.

The second photograph is of our sanctuary at Redeemer. I took this a few weeks ago with a fisheye and used this photograph in our recent newsletter. We are quickly approaching our first anniversary as a new church.

Hope everyone is enjoying the change in season and has a great weekend. Blessings!

Ten Years of Cutting Edge

Though I have become increasingly disappointed with the content in recent years, I have found the Association of Vineyard Churches Cutting Edge magazine to be a great resource for church planters. Examples of helpful articles would be the Tim Keller interview in The Big City issue and David Allen's excellent contribution in The Effective Pastor

For this reason I wanted to link the recently published, Ten Years: A Collection.

Here is the product description from Vineyard Resources:

Vineyard’s own “Cutting Edge” church planting magazine has just published it’s 2nd Book! Featuring 136 beautiful large color pages, with 9 outstanding chapters titled: Foundations, Mission, Praise, Preaching, Praxis, Teams, Life, Stability, and World.

Jeff Bailey says in the Forward…

“Over the last few months, I have been reading scores of old issues of Cutting Edge. I have been amazed, to be honest, by the sheer volume of articles and interviews. The thick book you are now holding in your hands represents the barest fraction of the total number of pages in Cutting Edge over the past ten years…In what follows you’ll find a lot of old favorites, including interviews with Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Tim Keller, John and Carol Wimber, Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, Will Willimon, Jim Wallis, Henry Townsend, Rodney Clapp, Steve Nicholson, Rich Nathan, and a host of others. Topics range from mission to preaching to spirituality, and the sorts of models explored include everything from urban mega churches to rural community fellowships. A lot of ground was covered over the last decade…Perhaps what is most important about this retrospective, however, is that it reminds us of the most important thing that Cutting Edge has always been about: God’s mission being carried out by ordinary men and women captured by a vision of what church might be. That is what Cutting Edge was designed to celebrate and support. And in some small way, that is what this retrospective celebrates, as well.”

Those interested in the magazine but not sure about buying the book should check out the last several years of Cutting Edge that can be downloaded as free pdf here.

Ditch Your Indie Rock Bands & Get a Pimped Out Choir

Fleet Foxes Sun Giant EP For a Buck!

For those that don't already own it, or haven't seen it all over Twitter today, please go to Amazon right now and buy the Fleet Foxes Sun Giant EP for $1 Read the Pitchfork review and head to amazon.

The Beginning of Knowledge

"Of all things that are to be known this is most evident, that God is to be feared, to be reverenced, served, and worshipped; this is so the beginning of knowledge that those know nothing who do not know this"

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible Vol III, 793

(quoted in Bradley's introduction to Buyon, A Treatise of the Fear of God)

Recycling the Suburbs

It has been interesting to read some of the conversations related to Time Magazine's The New Calvinism (10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now).

I haven't seen as many Christians talking about No. 2: Recycling the Suburbs:

The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban -amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (on one-sixth of an acre [675 sq m] or more) in the U.S. (read more)

FRIDAY PHOTOS

After several inches of snow last Saturday, this week brought us some of Kansas City's most beautiful days. Quinn is having a blast in both environments! He is fifteen months old-- chattering incessantly and showing little interest in walking (much like his father in that way).

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Office Musical

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

I found this photo yesterday as we were making the last minute touches to our March - May Gospel Journal (a guide for reading and meditating on Scripture that functions together with our sermon series at Redeemer). I think the newest journals look great and they should be ready for you to pick up on Sunday in our gallery. (You can see what the Gospel Journal cover looks like here.)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm preaching Mark 2.13-17 at Redeemer-- and pray that God will speak to us through this text in some profound and culture shaping ways.

Technorati Tags: SethGodin

In the spirit of Michael Scott, I needed a bit of laughter today...

"When I discovered YouTube, I didn't work for five days. I did nothing. I watched Cookie Monster sing Chocolate Rain about a thousand times..."

-Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman (VIDEO)?????????
-The Cross and Criticism
-Will 2009 Be the Year of the ebook?
-Is the Kindle 2.0 worth the $?
-CJ Mahaney Interviews John Piper
-CJ Mahaney reflects on Micahel Phelps's Bong
-Since people continue to ask me: Scott Thomas on "What does Acts 29 Mean?"
-Twitter crack heads rejoice with the advent of the new tweetdeck beta
-Please tell me you saw the Radiohead video from the Grammys
-Among football men, pen and ink are alive and well (long live pen and ink!)

my del.icio.us world

TWITTER FRENZY

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

FRIDAY PHOTO

I found this photo yesterday as we were making the last minute touches to our March - May Gospel Journal (a guide for reading and meditating on Scripture that functions together with our sermon series at Redeemer). I think the newest journals look great and they should be ready for you to pick up on Sunday in our gallery. (You can see what the Gospel Journal cover looks like here.)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm preaching Mark 2.13-17 at Redeemer-- and pray that God will speak to us through this text in some profound and culture shaping ways.

"No One Cares About You" | Seth Godin

Technorati Tags: SethGodin

Obama's Elf

In the spirit of Michael Scott, I needed a bit of laughter today...

"When I discovered YouTube, I didn't work for five days. I did nothing. I watched Cookie Monster sing Chocolate Rain about a thousand times..."

my del.icio.us world

-Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman (VIDEO)?????????
-The Cross and Criticism
-Will 2009 Be the Year of the ebook?
-Is the Kindle 2.0 worth the $?
-CJ Mahaney Interviews John Piper
-CJ Mahaney reflects on Micahel Phelps's Bong
-Since people continue to ask me: Scott Thomas on "What does Acts 29 Mean?"
-Twitter crack heads rejoice with the advent of the new tweetdeck beta
-Please tell me you saw the Radiohead video from the Grammys
-Among football men, pen and ink are alive and well (long live pen and ink!)

my del.icio.us world