I Got One!!!

I am happy to report that I purchased an ESV Study Bible today from Westminster Books for 40% off. Go get yourself one!!!

Food for Thought

Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)

1. 90% - Pastor/Preaching
2. 88% - Doctrines
3. 49% - Friendliness of Members
4. 42% - Other Issues
5. 41% - Someone Church Witnessed to Me
6. 38% - Family Member
7. 37% - Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
8. 25% - Relationship Other than Family Member
9. 25% - Sunday School Class
10. 25% - Children’s/Youth Ministry
11. 12% - Other Groups/Ministries
12. 11% - Worship Style/Music
13. 7% - Location

Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)

1. 58% - Doctrine/Theology
2. 53% - People Caring for Each Other
3. 52% - Preaching
4. 45% - Friendliness
5. 45% - Children’s Programs
6. 43% - Helping the Poor
7. 36% - Denomination
8. 35% - Like the Pastor
9. 26% - Sunday School

Top 6 Things that Keep the Formerly Unchurched Active in the Church
(research conducted by Ranier)

1. 62% - Ministry Involvement
2. 55% - Sunday School
3. 54% - Obedience to God
4. 49% - Fellowship of Members
5. 38% - Pastor/Preaching
6. 14% - Worship Services

Jesus, the friend of sinners - and so much more

Christ isn't just our friend. To call him supremely that is to damn him with faint praise. He is our friend, but he is so much more! By his death on the cross Christ has become the lamb that was slain for us, our redeemer, the one who has made peace between us and God, who has taken our guilt on himself, who has conquered our most deadly enemies and has assuaged the personal, just wrath of God."
~Mark Dever

Love?

I just finished reading the first chapter of Mark Dever's book The Gospel & Personal Evangelism. I like what this book is doing to me, but it is a bit painful. The first chapter is titled Why We Don't Evangelize? 

Dever has a section in this chapter in which he challenges the reader to Plan To Stop Not Evangelizing and he give twelve steps to implement that plan: pray, plan, accept, understand, be faithful, risk, prepare, look, love, fear, stop and consider. 

The following is from the section on love:

We are called to love others. We share the gospel because we love people. And we don't share the gospel because we don't love people. Instead, we wrongly fear them. We don't want to cause awkwardness. We want their respect, and after all, we figure, if we try to share the gospel with them, we'll look foolish! and so we are quiet. We protect our pride at the cost of their souls. In the name of not wanting to look weird, we are content to be complicit in their being lost... 

...As Jesus said, 'Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks'. How much evangelism do we find flowing our of our mouths? What does that suggest about our love for God?

These are some difficult words to hear and many will not ask themselves the hard question. Rather, they justify their inaction and lack of evangelism. 

The greatest act of love you can ever show a person is to share the life transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with people.

Let us stop excusing ourselves and start loving the LORD we claim to serve. I must go now and repent and then seek to share Christ with someone in this coffee shop.

A Good Book

Engaging with the Holy Spirit by Graham Cole

I was really eager to read this book for two reasons. First, because there is a great need for clear teaching on the Holy Spirit in our day. Second, because I had the privilege of studying under Dr. Cole while I attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

The book seeks to answer six questions regarding the Holy Spirit:

1. What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
2. How may we resist the Holy Spirit?
3. Ought we to pray to the Holy Spirit?
4. How do we quench the Holy Spirit?
5. How do we grieve the Holy Spirit?
6. How does the Holy Spirit fill us?

Along with good straightforward teaching on the Holy Spirit, Dr. Cole also gives us a lesson in theological method. I found this book to be greatly helpful in my own understanding and a great benefit as I teach others on how to live a Spirit-filled life.

I highly recommend it!

Read the forward, introduction and first chapter.

Thought Bomb

Could it be that our evangelism languishes, our preaching loses authority, and our congregations lose focus because we don't have the doctrine of hell to set our face like a flint toward Jerusalem?

~Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be

What is God interested in?

God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort. He more greatly delights in the integrity and purity of his church than in the material well-being of its members. He shows himself more clearly to men and women who enjoy him and obey him than to men and women whose horizons revolve around good jobs, nice houses, and reasonable health. He is far more committed to building a corporate “temple’ in which his Spirit dwells than he is in preserving our reputations. He is more vitally disposed to display his grace than to flatter our intelligence. He is more concerned for justice than for our ease. He is more deeply committed to stretching our faith than our popularity. He prefers that his people live in disciplined gratitude and holy joy rather than in pushy self-reliance and glitzy happiness. He wants us to pursue daily death, not self-fulfillment, for the latter leaders to death, while the former leads to life.

~D.A. Carson - A Call to Spiritual Reformation

The Acts of the Apostles

Today was a great day for mail. I received that familiar box with the Amazon logo on the side. I was especially excited about this arrival because the box contained the much anticipated new commentary on The Acts of the Apostles by Darrell L. Bock from the Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament Series.

When I finally got a chance to open it up and take it for a test drive I was extremely tired and ready for bed, but it was only 7:00. My goal for the night is to make it to 8:30 before I turn in so I decided to start reading through the Introduction. It is filled with the usual commentary stuff and much of it I am familiar with from my research in Acts for my Th.M at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

It got really interesting as I read Bock's overview and theology of Acts sections. In the overview he talks about four issues that dominate Luke-Acts. The forth issue caused me to stop and ponder its meaning for a while.

(4) Finally, there is the story of various faithful witnesses who respond to Jesus in the face of opposition. Whether this theme concerns Peter and John, Stephen, Philip, Paul, or Barnabas, the book is filled with those sharing in the calling to take the message of fulfillment to the end of the earth. They serve as examples for those who carry out the mission of God. (Bock p.7)

I realized that as a church planter I am one of the many who are carrying out the mission of God. Thinking about this has caused me to rejoice in my calling as a church planter and it has encouraged me with the knowledge that I am a part of something truly magnificent! I am part of a legacy of church planting that goes all the way back to the time in which Jesus Christ walked the earth; a time when Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Apollos gave their lives to the preaching of the gospel and the planting of churches.

I knew that I was doing a work here that is beyond me and bigger than me and tonight I am praising God for opening my eyes a little wider to this reality.

I am on a Journey to the End of the Earth! I am also on a Journey to my bed because it is now 8:37 ~ Goodnight!

Soli Deo Gloria

True Saving Faith

"This is what true saving faith is like...First, you must wholeheartedly believe the truth of the gospel, and love that truth. Second, you must desire Christ and his salvation about everything else, and whole heartedly receive him."

"True saving faith means that you come to a deep, heartfelt conviction of how precious Christ is, and 'account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and coun them but rubbish, that you may gain Christ and be found in him."

True saving faith also means that you love every part of Christ's salvation - holiness as well as the forgiveness of sins."

Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

Challies Dot Com December Giveaway

Challies Dot Com is giving away a great resource this month.



Enter to win and if you would be so kind enter my referral number 40794

Update: I won third place!!! Pretty Sweet!

Free Audio Book

Christian Audio is offering Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross free this month.

Good Reading

The Great Work of the Gospel
by John Ensor

This is another book that focuses on Gospel-Driven Living. It is deeply theological and practical. The subtitle of the book is How We Experience God's Grace. Ensor's presupposition is that, "Only a truth-soaked mind can reshape our opinions, attitudes, responses, and decisions." Therefore if we are to experience radical gospel transformation we must be saturated with the truth of the gospel of God's grace.

This book has helped me to have a deeper understanding of the truth of the gospel and a more vibrant experience of the grace of God. I highly recommend it.

Alone With The Lord: A Guide for a Personal Day of Prayer
by Gordon T. Smith

This short little book provides a lot of wisdom and insight in the practice of prayer. Smith lays out a plan for a day set apart for personal prayer. This book is valuable to all who desire a deeper experience in their practice of prayer.

Free Audio Book

Christian Audio is offering Jonathan Edward's Religious Affections free this month.

Free Book.

You can download a copy of John Piper's The Future of Justification here for free! If you don't have time to read the whole book read the intro, ch. 11 and the conclusion.

Some Good Recent Reads

The Intentional Church
by Randy Pope

Randy is the Pastor of Perimeter Church in Atlanta, Georgia and a regular presenter at Global Church Advancement's North American Church Planting Seminars. This excellent book lays out a plan for developing an intention ministry structure.

This is a highly valuable book and is one of those must reads for any pastor who is responsible for the strategic planning of any ministry. Randy is also available for Intentional Church Conferences.


Big Dreams in Small Places
by Tom Nebel

Tom is a seasoned church planter, church planting coach, church planting director and has now reached the level of guru in the world of church planting. He is also a regular presenter at at Global Church Advancement's North American Church Planting Seminars

Tom makes a compelling case for the need to plant churches in small communities as a catalyst for developing church planting movements.

This book is greatly helpful in identifying the characteristics of small town life and how to reach people in these communities. The greatest strength of the book is its instruction on how to launch a church planting movement.

Check these books out. They are well worth the time and you will be wiser and more effective in ministry as a result of your investment.