Author: Jonathan Dodson

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading this book. I am still ruminating. Keyes’ work is a creative, thoughtful and, at times, penetrating examination of an all too often unchecked, unhappy virtue of our post-modern, post-Truth age. Through a sustained, cogently argued thesis, Keyes addresses our modern cynicism philosophically, culturally, biblically, and most of all experientially.

More than once, I was brought to repentance and awe before our transcendent and terrestrial Christ as I was presented with the biblical alternative to cynicism–“redemptive suspicion, limited by humility and tempered by love and mercy.” Not all books affect all people the same way. For some Seeing Through Cyncism may not have this power. Yet, at the very least, Dick Keyes of L’Abri fame will pique your interest and equip you to redemptively engage cynicism in Seeing Through Cyncism:A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion. Read more…

“Spiritual exercise is like jogging. You often do it gladly. But you are no hypocrite if you jog even when you don’t feel like it.”

Neal Plantinga, “The Shape of A Godly Life” in Beyond Doubt, 263.

Below is some outstanding advice for all Christians, but especially for churchplanters on living missionally.

How to Enter Your Community Missionally

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. First impressions are critical to any new venture. Some experts say that within three seconds people have made judgements about you – looking at surface clues to size you up. Others say that within seven to seventeen seconds of interacting with a new acquaintance their opinion is formed. If we as leaders are going to enter a community missionally we need to consider our attitudes, actions and appearance. Years ago I picked up these five ways for entering a community from Dr. John Fuder. Each one, taken seriously, will properly position any pastor or church planter to effectively enter a new community. When entering a community we should:

• Intercessor – One must humbly petition heaven for their community. Asking God to reveal himself to the community and to reveal to the planter how He is at work already in that community.
• Learner – One must enter as a student of their community and the cultural make up of that community. Asking good questions to community leaders and long time residents is a good place to start.
• Servant – One must enter with the mindset of a servant. Church planters should not just enter a community to serve individuals but to discover ways to serve the community as a whole. Some communities see churches as takers in a community and not givers. Church planters have an opportunity to change that mentality.
• Friend or Ally – One must go into a community for the purpose of building long lasting relationships and fostering healthy partnerships. Informal and formal alliances will be crucial for you to gain creditability among those you are trying to reach.
• Story Teller – People love stories and telling God’s story is the reason we are entering the community. Church planters and pastors need to learn how to tell three stories well: 1) Their personal faith story. 2) The story of their call to the community. 3) God’s story of redemption.

Taken from Gary Rohrmayer, churchplanting guru. Gary is the BGC churchplanting director, author of First and Next Steps curriculum and contributor to 1000s of churchplanting efforts. Another outstanding resource for filling articles of incorporation to how to build a launch team in Coachnet.net, of which Gary is a part.

Christianity Today just published an interview with N. T. Wright focusing on the material and methods of his new book.

When I first read Simply Christian I found the apologetic in the first four chapters rather weak. This article clarifies Wright’s apologetic method–not A plus B equals C, but painting the power of a compelling story of which we are all a part, for everlasting good or ill. The latter half of the book, in my opinion, is a good introduction to biblical theology.

Here are a few quotes from the article:

On his “postmodern” method over and against the “modernist” approach of C. S. Lewis:

“And if the argument has a compelling force, it’s not the force of A plus B equals C, where there’s no escape. I want you to try seeing yourself as part of the picture that we’ve painted. Or try humming one of the parts of this symphony that we’re writing, and see if it doesn’t make an awful lot of sense while nonetheless being very challenging.”

On defunked approaches to knowing God:

“In other words, don’t assume that you’ve got God taped, and fit Jesus into that. Do it the other way. We all come with some ideas of God. Allow those ideas to be shaped around Jesus. That is the real challenge of New Testament Christology.”

On the worship & the mission of the Church:

“Because the great emphasis in the New Testament is that the gospel is not how to escape the world; the gospel is that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Lord of the world. And that his death and Resurrection transform the world, and that transformation can happen to you. You, in turn, can be part of the transforming work.”

“The key to mission is always worship. You can only be reflecting the love of God into the world if you are worshiping the true God who creates the world out of overflowing self-giving love. The more you look at that God and celebrate that love, the more you have to be reflecting that overflowing self-giving love into the world.”