Audio from the 2011 Mid-America Conference on Preaching (hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary) is now available for free online. This year’s topic was “Church Planting & Renewal.” Audio is available here.
Ahhh …. finally. Can get my own study notes and sermons indexed in Logos, since I can never remember where to locate what I need. Nothing quite so frustrating as studying a passage or word that you know you studied sometime in the past, but you just can’t seem to locate the notes. Logos 4 also took all of the sermons I had imported into L3 in the past and made them a book. Yeah!
http://blog.logos.com/2011/08/free-personal-book-builder-ships-with-new-logos-4-update/
The Wall Street Journal ponders “The Divorce Generation”:
“Every generation has its life-defining moments. If you want to find out what it was for a member of the Greatest Generation, you ask: ‘Where were you on D-Day?’ For baby boomers, the questions are: ‘Where were you when Kennedy was shot?’ or ‘What were you doing when Nixon resigned?’
“For much of my generation—Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980—there is only one question: ‘When did your parents get divorced?’ Our lives have been framed by the answer. Ask us. We remember everything.”
I am aware that some (many?) pastors of my generation who were raised in a family or church with a total abstinence policy have moved away from that and embraced another position. But I will admit that I was still a bit surprised to read this sentence in Darrin Patrick’s Church Planter:
“As I coach and mentor church planters and pastors, I am shocked at the number of them who are either addicted or headed toward addiction to alcohol.” (51)
I am aware of all the “alcohol isn’t the problem, God created us to enjoy it, etc.” arguments. But in light of the first qualification in I Timothy 3, would it be wiser to just avoid that road altogether, especially if alcoholism is becoming a shockingly common problem for pastors? I have more than enough areas in which I need the Spirit’s help to resist gratifying the flesh – I don’t need to make another one.
A few days ago I posted about the new demographic in inner cities: young, educated adults. If the old inner city stereotypes may no longer be valid, how about the suburban stereotypes? The 4/2 issue of The Economist has a sterotype-busting headline: “Black flight.”
They note that lower income migrants are leaving the inner cities and moving to the suburbs, but discovering “poverty, crime, and poor social services” when they arrive.
“In the past decade, poverty has increased more than twice as fast in the suburbs as it has in the cities.”
Goodbye, suburban stereotypes. Goodbye, white flight. Hello, new church planting opportunities.
The full article is available online.
Just a reminder that registration is open for the National Church Planting Conference in Mentor, OH Jun 15-17. Dr. Bruce McAllister and Dr. Dick Fellars will be speaking. Keep in mind that we are also starting a new church planting Boot Camp that will be held during the day on Wednesday, June 15 (the conference begins that evening). You can contact me if you’d like more information. Here are the basics:
2011 Church Planting Boot Camp
by Arch Ministries
An intensive, one-day seminar overviewing the major issues that church planters will face in preparing for and launching a church plant. The focus will be upon evaluating areas of weakness, understanding available resources, and developing a plan to prepare for a healthy church plant.
The boot camp is designed for
• men considering church planting
• men preparing to church plant
• team members preparing to help with a church plant
• pastors of churches who want to get involved with church planting
Time & Place:
Grace Church of Mentor, OH
8:30a-4:30p on Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lunch will be provided.
It has appeared that urban centers have become “cool” for young adults, and new census figures validate that observation. In most of the nation’s largest cities, the young adult population is growing much faster in the city centers (remember that old term “inner city”?) than in the rest of the metro area. This is a remarkable change, to which church planters should pay careful attention:
(USA Today)
Though I’ve been tempted to thoroughly ignore the NFL labor brouhaha, an article by Rick Reilly at ESPN provided some poignant reminders of why it really does matter for pastors. He lists winners and losers if the 2011 season doesn’t happen. One of his winners:
And one of his losers:
Imprecatory prayers, anyone?
If the truth is all-important and powerful; and if Satan is the great deceiver intent on spreading every lie possible; then it makes sense that Satan would delight to handcuff the messengers of truth by undermining their motives, compromising their purity, or distracting and diverting their energies. This would especially be true of those who had the greatest opportunities to learn how to study the Scriptures, and have the greatest gifts for teaching them.
I just picked up the February 26 edition of World, and Joel Belz’s editorial about Egypt contains a can’t-miss reminder for pastors:
Peace and tranquility feel so good, and are such compelling commodities in our embattled lives, that we lose track of how easily we trade other values away just to enjoy the calm of the moment…. Yet there comes a time … when it all tends to blow up in your face.
I suspect that nearly every pastor will read those words and cringe, because you’ve been there (as I have) too many times. So it’s a good time for a checkup: what price am I paying for peace and tranquility in my church? What other values have been minimized in the process? Is this a God-honoring peace and tranquility?
