PlantR: From Planting to Movement

Posted on January 12, 2009

It’s easy to get stuck planting your own church. With so much to do in the first couple of years, it’s difficult  to think beyond the boundaries of your own plant. The funny thing is that most church plant visions are bigger than their own church, like ours—“redemptively engaging peoples and cultures“? Or what about “To call every person to the Life Change found in Jesus Christ”? Yet, if our visions are going to translate into reality, planters need to work in partnership with like-minded leaders, churches, planters, and organizations to see their God-sized visions fulfilled.

In Austin, we are discovering planters who want to think beyond planting to city renewal. The remarkable level of kingdom-mindedness has fostered an attitude among planters that suggest moving from planting to movement is possible. With churches and plants partnering together, we envision a Christ-centered, context-sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond. This is the vision of PlantR, a trans-denominational network committed to helping church planters plant and reproduce healthy missional churches.

PlantR is coming into its first full year as a formal network. We have a lot of dreams about seeing this vision fulfilled. But what is most exciting is the people who are willing to partner across theological and denominational lines to bless a city in the name of Christ. Our cool new website, designed by John Chandler at Strange Idea Labs, is up and is filling out. Consider joining us by:

We need your help to reach this city! Look for more thoughts to come on moving from planting to movement in the future. I will be co-leading a breakout on this topic at the Missional Community Leader Conference on Feb 6-7.

The New Atheism

Posted on January 12, 2009

I recently spoke on Atheism. Here are a few nuggets I picked up along the way that I didn’t share in that message:

New Atheists Aren’t So New

“The new atheists are “new” primarily because they share in common the conviction that the latest advances of scientific discovery and thought make belief in God unnecessary.” And, Haack adds, because they are heavily evangelistic about their faith. The way to deal with their aggressive proselytizing and name-calling is to: “Exude quite confidence in the gospel, not arrogant combativeness towards those who oppose your beliefs.” – Denis Haack, Engaging New Atheists,” Critique vol.4, 7. A helpful piece on how to engage atheists.

Atheism Nor Theism Can Be Proved

Failure to rationally prove the existence of God doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist; it simply means one failed at a rational argument. Atheism, like Christianity, requires faith. Atheists believe that God does not exist, but they cannot prove it. The real question is which worldview rings true and offers the highest good.

Self-refuting Nature of Natural Selection

Natural selection works on the principle of adaptation, which means that a better human with a better idea about how things came to be will eventually evolve. If that is the case, what faith can we put in Darwin/Dawkins theories about human nature and the existence of God? On the other hand, if we are made in the image of God with reason and a soul, created to relate to God, then we rely not on theories but his self-revelation. For more on this point, see Plantinga’s article, “The Dawkins Confusion

Christ Against the Powers

Posted on January 12, 2009

Christ against the what? Yeah, the powers. That’s what the Bible says: “He is the head of all rule and powers” (Col 2:10, 15). What are the powers and how is Jesus against them? Before you check out on this post thinking it’s a tirade against our evil culture, consider a few things first:

  • Real or perceived, powers exert considerable influence in our world.
  • We are all subject to some power, the question is whether or not it is true and good.
  • No one is truly his own master. We all serve somebody.

Christ claims to be the power over the powers, the one true Lord of all. If that is true, it should affect everything from work to watching movies. The problem, however, is that many of us are caught up honoring “little powers”—the powers of materialism, consumerism, patriotism, atheism, and so on. If Jesus is Lord then life will be radically different. In fact, Jesus takes his power makes God our debtor. The all-powerful God harnesses his power for the good of those who hope in him. St. Augustine wrote:

Excessive payments are made to you, so that you may be our debtor…You pay debts, although you owe no man anything; you cancel debts, and lose nothing. What have we said, my God, my life, my holy delight? Who will give me help, so that I may rest in you? Who will help me, so that you will come into my heart and inebriate it, to the end that I may forget my evils and embrace you, my one good? (Confessions I.4-5)

God has become our power, even our debtor, to make good on his promises of salvation, peace, and joy. Christ has paid our debts and offers us infinite credit in his promises. He made us new that we may forget our evils and embrace him as our chief good, our holy delight. For more on this topic see Sunday’s message and manuscript.

Bad News, Playboy is in Trouble

Posted on January 10, 2009

The economy is apparently hitting the Playboy pornographic empire, at least according to an article in December in Business Week.   The magazine which was famously described as being good for women, providing that women knew what they were good for, is struggling, but before you crack open the champagne, it is no cause for rejoicing those who deplore what it represent: the problem Playboy faces is twofold — the `softcore’ content on which it made its reputation is now so mainstream that equivalent material can be found in many magazines that would never be considered pornographic; and it cannot compete with the harder, more explicit stuff that is now easily available to any ten year old child with a computer and a modem.  As one pundit on Tina Brown’s politics and culture webpage, The Daily Beast, asked, `Who buys a skin mag these days?’

Read the rest here.