subscribe to my RSS feedIX 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


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.
"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)
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)
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!
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!)
Stereogum posts a fascinating interview with Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto-- pastor and planter of Resurrection Presbyterian Church and half of the duo, The Welcome Wagon. If you don't yet own Welcome To The Welcome Wagon, download it right now-- then read the interview while you listen.
Some of my highlights from the interview after the jump...
Continue reading "QUIT YOUR DAY JOB: The Welcome Wagon (Stereogum)" »
"...without realizing it, parents like me are sometimes embarrassed by Jesus. Why would Jesus draw people like that to himself? It is hard for parents to remember that children in the crowds saw Jesus with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. Parents want to go into Jesus's presence at church in order to keep their kids safe from the world. But Jesus keeps drawing unsafe people from the world to himself. We are confounded. We complain, 'How am I supposed to explain this to my kids?' With that complaint we lose sight of something vital: To explain how Jesus reaches people no matter where they've been or what they've done is to explain to our kids the gospel. It is to explain our own testimony. It is to teach the next generation how Jesus relates to people and the world"
(Eswine, Preaching to a Post-Everything World, 81)
DOWNLOAD NOBLE BEAST TODAY FOR $1.99
(for those that haven't already seen this on twitter...)

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