Deacon Candidate Interview Questions

Posted on October 2, 2008

In preparation for our Fall Deacon Training, I found these interview questions from Tim Keller very helpful:

  1. Purity. Are you leading a sexually pure life? (What do you consider a sexually pure life?)
  2. Possessions. Do you understand the Biblical tithe to be for Christians of the giving to the Lord’s work? Are you giving out of your income in Biblical proportions, or are you moving toward that standard?
  3. Personal walk. Describe your prayer and devotional life. Has God been real to you in prayer of late; is your relationship with him vital? Is anything hindering your communion with God? Are you making progress against it?
  4. Ministry Involvement. Tell us of how you have been involved in people’s lives in ministry through _____ or through other organizations in the City. Do you have any non-Christian associates that you are regularly praying for and sharing faith with?
  5. Office affinity. Describe for us the duties of deacon/deaconness. How do your gifts, abilities, interests fit this office?

Taken from the Redeemer Church Planting Manual

Kate Moss Statue

Posted on October 2, 2008

The British Museum has unveiled a new statue in their Statuephilia exhibit. Sculptor Marc Quinn crafted a solid gold statue of Kate Moss, said to be the largest gold statue created since the time of Ancient Egypt. The statue is uncomfortable in posture, exposure and cost, a hefty $3 million dollars.

Quinn’s commentary on the statue: “The sculpture is really about whether we make images or they make us. It’s about trying to live up to impossible dreams and immortality.”

Perhaps making more of a commentay on our time than he intended, Quinn’s remarks fail to justify a solid gold statue of this value when there are so many other things that could have been done with that money. Was solid gold really necessary? The near anorexic version of Kate is also telling of contemporary views of beauty, especially when Quinn claims she is the “ideal beauty.”

Church Planting Manuals Reviewed

Posted on October 1, 2008

Here are some recommended CP manuals on the nuts and bolts of planting.

First Steps

Gary Rohrmayer has planted tons of churches and wrote a helpful course called First Steps: Missional Church Planting. First Steps is strong on the nuts and bolts and guides the planter through six stages of the first year of missional church planting. These stages include:

  • Relating to God and Others
  • Networking and Gathering
  • Building a Launch Team
  • Designing Worship Services and Ministry Strategies
  • Launching Public Services
  • Establishing the New Community and its Ministries

Another one of its strengths is that it is principle, not model driven. So, it accommodates a variety of models and encourages contextualization. Though the course is launch driven, some of the templates for budgets, position descriptions, financial accountability, etc are helpful jumping off points. You can also purchase a membership at CoachNet that allows electronic access to the entire workbook and PDFs and take the course.

Redeemer Planting Manual

Tim Keller’s Redeemer Church Planting Manual is incredibly strong on missiology and philosophy of ministry. If you really want to know how to become lead missionary that cultivates a church of missionaries, follow Tim’s approach. At times, it is overwhelming (and I have background in Anthropology!), but there are a lot of riches to be found in this manual.

Exploring the Land

Exploring the Land focuses on understanding your target people and culture(s). This book was written for reaching unreached peoples, which is why it is so helpful for domestic church planting. It forces to ask questions that we think we already have answers for, forcing you to do the hard, loving work of contextualization.

Church Planters Toolkit

Bob Logan’s Church Planters Toolkit is a standby that offers a lot of pracitcal helps and is used by the Evangelica Free Church. Logan has actually transformed some of his personal convictions about methodology and is now planting more organically. He co-wrote an expensive book on this with Neil Cole called Beyond Church Planting.

Dynamic Church Planting Handbook

Dynamic Church Planting Handbook is built around strong theological and pastoral foundations, but with modern methods. I found myself continually challenged to rely on the Holy Spirit, plant in spirtual health, and plant for the Glory of God when reading this manual. Some of the nuts and bolts were disappointing, however.