This week has been extremely crazy, as the Monk team is in town planning the future of Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. We now have over 750 churches and ministries using our system and growing rapidly! Secondly, I am wrapping up my two sessions for the GCA Conference on Message and Media: Communicating the Gospel in Our Post-Christian World. It will be held at John Piper's church next week. I haven't been able to finish a couple posts I'm working on, so here are a few links that have caused me to think:
Part-time pastors are making a comeback (another reason the Tentmaker Group is so necessary…)
Top 25 Church Planting Churches in America : Reformed vs. Reformational (David Fairchild)
A new book is released, entitled: Signs of Emergence
There are still those who cry for revolution, for a revival that will change things in a snap, make everything OK as thousands flock to church… But the days for revolution are over. The cry for revival is too often a cry for abdication: you do it all, God. Well God has done God's bit, it is the systems that now need to change. This is the faith we have signed up for: the Church as the body of Christ where we have real parts to play, real responsibilities.
Lastly, if you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to check out Tim Chester's blog : Reformed spirituality, radical ecclesiology. Chester and Steve Timmis are releasing a new book (not yet in America) called Total Church. I leave the summary to Mark Moore :
Total Church is one of those books that you hold in your hand and think two things after you've read it. First, Wow! This book says it all. Second, Wow! This book says it all. The first "wow" is the one you say while cheering and applauding that someone has said things that you have desperately wanted to hear. Each page drips with gospel understanding and real life love for the church. The second "wow" is the one you say while realizing that you pretty much have nothing new to offer the world at this point other than a copy of this book. The things you had been thinking about that seemed so "radical" and "refreshing" are now nothing more than restatement of what's been said.
