Attending the House2House mini-conference today with Tony and Felicity Dale. I firmly believe that Sent Church will be a network of house churches scattered across our region. I’m excited about learning from these pioneers of the house church movement. This afternoon will begin the Greenhouse training with Neil Cole.

Excited about our new message series that starts on Easter. IDOL Factory will be an eye-opening journey exploring the First Commandment. John Calvin wrote, “The human heart is a factory of idols… Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” You might be shocked at some of the subtle things that might be replacing our devotion to Christ. Idolatry is not about statues or religious trinkets, it’s a matter of the heart.

This coming year we have committed as a church family to grow together as disciples of Christ. We are embarking on a year long endeavor to read through the Bible. We are using the ESV Daily Bible Reading plan and I am encouraging every one to journal their daily devotionals using the R.E.A.P. (Read, Examine, Apply, Pray) Bible study method. [...]

Tony Morgan posted Phil Cooke and Brad Abare’s “5 Warning Signs of a Personality-Driven Church” in his blog today. The full article they wrote is in the current issue of Outreach Magazine.

Here is a summary of the 5 warning signs they identify:

Lord Save Us From Your Followers, Dan Merchant’s much anticipated documentary about Christianity’s PR problem, opens today in select theaters. It will no doubt spark tremendous controversy and hopefully, much conversation. Go to the website and watch some of the clips and follow the story. Here’s the movie trailer:

Did that get your attention? ChurchCrunch had a post yesterday on how we oversell things in ministry by the big words we use and how that has spilled over into the technological front. He showed a mashup of Apple’s keynote and their excessive use of these words. I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many [...]

Yesterday marked a very important milestone in my life. Pastor Sam announced to our congregation that at the end of the summer, I would be transitioning out from my role as executive pastor at The Gathering Place, to launch out on a business endeavor and to pursue the call of God on my life. I am overwhelmed by the support [...]

It’s hard to put in to words the closing session of Exponential. I felt like I was part of UCF smackdown. Francis Chan brought the sledgehammer to this session. He pastors Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is the author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God I first heard Francis at Catalyst ’07 and his message there [...]

What can I say, Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv, has got to be one of my favorite speakers. LifeChurch.tv has been on my radar for about 6 years now and I have been following their multi-site strategy for some time now. We had two back to back sessions with Craig and it was like drinking from a fire hydrant. [...]

Erwin McManus has been a big influence in my life. His writings and teachings have expanded my understanding of God, life, culture and what it means to be a Christ follower. His church, Mosaic, is largely considered one of the most innovative churches in America. Erwin is a futurist, I would dare say, a modern day prophet. He is articulate [...]

This was my fourth year attending the Exponential Conference here in Orlando. I spent the last two weeks reflecting on what was unpacked during those three days so I thought I would get some of the main highlights down. Each year I get a renewed reconfirmation on my calling as a minister and further clarity as to my future. This [...]

Continuing with the previous conversation on Michael Spencer’s article on The Coming Evangelical Collapse, I will share some of my observations. Refer to the previous post for links to the article. Michael makes 7 points as to why he believes the collapse is inevitable – read those here and come back for my take – go ahead – I’ll wait. [...]

The blogosphere was set ablaze over the past week with the publishing of InternetMonk’s article on “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” in the Christian Science Monitor. You can read the CSM article here. The original post from Michael Spencer, a.k.a. Internet Monk, can be found here, here, and here. Michael postulates about the demise of evangelicalism and the rapid onset of [...]

Phil Cooke had a post, here, about his predictions for ministries and non-profits over the coming year in light of our current economic climate. I’ll post his observations and my comments. 1) The “easy way out” will be big. Prosperity and gimmick guys will do well. It’s because too many people look for easy answers in a tough economy. ME–How [...]

Steven Furtick had a great post here about a topic I unfortunately know about and have seen often. He has a very sobering quote that someone shared with him that is quite true: There is very little that we do in the Spirit that we cannot fake in the flesh! Being part of the Charismatic movement, I have been exposed [...]

What a great opportunity I had yesterday to meet with Dr. Ron McManus of Kingdom Financial Services. Dr. Ron served as President of the Center for Church Leadership of the General Council of the Assemblies of God and was also a former President of EQUIP under John Maxwell. A humble man with great wisdom. We have been speaking with him [...]

Yesterday was Human Trafficking Awareness day. Over the last several months it’s as if the Lord has been placing the travesty of human trafficking and the sex slave trade on my radar. This has got to be one of the main things that the Church of Jesus needs to lead the charge in — ending this horrific modern day slavery. [...]

Excited about the direction of our young adults ministry for the new year. It was great sitting with our core leaders and in a matter of 30 minutes of conversation, some of the haze I was encountering about the future of that ministry cleared up. This is the power of collaboration. No one person has all of the answers. In [...]

Great article in the current issue of FastCompany on how Cisco is thriving even in today’s time of corporate upheaval. 26 billion in cash in the coffers and they are poised to enter new markets and gobble up rivals. CEO John Chambers has led a revolution of sorts through a massive reorganization effort over the last few years. This portion [...]

This is definitely one of my goals this year, to read through the entire Bible as a personal devotion, that on top of regular Bible study for sermons and teaching opportunities. YouVersion from LifeChurch.tv is a fantastic online resource and they have a great reading plan that I can take advantage of from my web-enabled G1 phone. We need a [...]