“To ask how the principles of gospel, mission and community apply to church planting is to ask the wrong question. Mission and community do not apply. Church planting is the outworking of mission and community. It is the point where mission and community intersect. It is by definition a missionary activity, arguably the missionary activity of the core missionary activity. It ensures mission is at the heart of church life. But church planting is by definition a church activity. It defines missional activity as forming and building churches. Church planting puts mission at the hear to of church and church at the heart of mission.”

The new issue of Image is now out. Here are a few items from this issue’s table of contents, along with a blurb about Image.

Image, a literary and arts quarterly, is a unique forum for the best writing and artwork that is informed by—or grapples with—religious faith. We have never been interested in art that merely regurgitates dogma or falls back on easy answers or didacticism. Instead, our focus has been on writing and visual artwork that embody a spiritual struggle, that seek to strike a balance between tradition and a profound openness to the world.

From the table of contents:

• Leslie Leyland Fields on the Opposite of Live
• Jesus Is Real We Deliver: Sam Fentress’s Americaesus Is Real We Deliver: Sam Fentress’s America

This is an important question. Is social action, for Christians, an end in itself or a means to conversion? Can we give a “cup of cold water” with out giving it “in Jesus’ name” and the action still be eternally signficant? Or when we give cold water without the warm gospel, do we just fit people for hell?

This is a very important question, which affects our view of the city and the gospel. As a churchplanter among the highly talented and often wealthy Creative Class, Chester and Timmis’ words are a great reminder of the biblical focus on the poor:

We are not to prioritize our rich neighbors. Our focus is to be on the poor and needy. Indeed part of our evangelism to the rich is evangelism to the needy. We subvert their preoccupation with power and success as they see us loving the unlovely. We expose their selfishness and self-righteousness when they see us eating with outcasts. They begin to see Jesus living through us.

I just received four new books from Eerdmans today. Click images for more info.