The Resurgence posted on my talks at the Missional Living Conference. Several people have contacted me about the broken or incorrect links there. I sent the corrections to Resurgence but also wanted to provided the correct ones here. Hope they are helpful!

• The Gospel & American Christianity: This message deconstructs the dualism of American Christianity in order to reconstruct a whole Gospel around Jesus Christ as Lord.
• Community in American Christianity: This message demonstrates the communal character of the Gospel, unpacking very practical ways to cultivate “steady state community.”
• Everyday Mission in America: This message shows how mission is not optional but essential, spending considerable time on how to live “everyday life with gospel intentionality.”
• How a Church Renews a City: This message shows how Gospel communities on mission is God’s design to renew cities.

The word “grow” has evolved into an unnoticed metaphor in the English language. We talk about growing our gardens, growing our savings, growing our leadership, the growth of our children, the growth of our business or ministry, and even our own spiritual growth. But what does it mean to truly “grow”?

The call to spiritual growth is ubiquitous in Scripture. Adam was created to grow in his love for God and for Eve. Israel was commanded to grow into a holy, worshiping multitude (Gen. 48:16). The prophets rebuked and praised Israel for their failure and success in growth (Isa. 17; Jer. 12). Jesus compared our growth to seeds that bear thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold (Mark 4:8). Peter commands us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).

Spiritual growth is clearly a biblical theme, but it can be difficult to detect, frustrating to foster, and even painful to experience. When we place our growth in the context of messy relationships and demanding work, it gets even harder. A demanding deadline or an unsympathetic friend can seem like an obstacle to growth instead of an opportunity.

Read the rest of the article at The High Calling

Check out the new website: www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com!

This is just the beginning of a discipleship resource site. We will be adding new books and resources this year. It currently features Fight Clubs, a way to promote grace-driven discipleship in your life and church. Some of the current features include:

• Blog, Twitter, and Resources page that include articles, audio, & video.
• An IN CHURCHES page that links to examples of other churches implementing Fight Clubs.
• Preview the Book, order a Sign, or check out the FAQ.

Check out our new website www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com and the book, Fight Clubs: gospel-centered discipleship. Learn what a Fight Club is, preview the first two chapters for free, get free Fight Club resources, or just weigh in on how God is using Fight Clubs in your life.

In evangelical subculture the ubiquity of the Great Commission is matched by the poverty of its interpretation. Matthew 28:18-20 — the command to make disciples of all nations — is frequently summoned to validate countless and sundry discipleship and evangelism programs, ideas and practices, often ignoring the full meaning of the text. It has contributed to the failure of discipleship.

All too often discipleship has been conceived as pietistic (shared spiritual disciplines) or evangelistic (call to soul winning). This approach to discipleship is not only a failure to grasp discipleship but is also incomplete. As a closer reading of the Great Commission texts will show, discipleship is much, much more than pietism and evangelism.

Read the article “Missional Discipleship: Reinterpreting the Great Commissions“

Church planters often know the “latest book to read.” We reference pragmatic books constantly. But are we reading the right books?

Pastors and church planters can find it difficult to read the books we need to read. We are often overwhelmed with emergency reading—reading in areas of the church where we are deficient (e.g. children’s ministry, church discipline, missional church, counseling, best practices). We scour blogs and books for practical insight, inevitably digesting half-baked ideas and practices.

If we aren’t careful, we can get indigestion by consuming this stuff. Our diet devolves. We get bogged down in best practices instead of diving deeply into the Bible and our culture…As theologian-missionaries, we should all strive to cultivate and practice a theology that is missiologically oriented and a missiology that is theologically grounded. Not all missiologists follow this difficult, interdisciplinary path. Sometimes the integration of theology and missiology is up to us, the practitioners. We possess the high calling of shepherding the church in truth, wisdom, and love. Read the rest of this article to get a little help can go a long way.

Read the Rest of “Reading Good Missiology“

Do you ever struggle with questions about faith and work? How excellent is excellent enough? Where should I draw the lines in ethical situations? Where does “evangelism” fit into my vocational responsibilities? Is there eternal meaning in my work?

With the demands of work and faith, it’s much easier to keep our work separate from our faith, to compartmentalize our lives — family/church/work — but biblical faith won’t let us, and for good reason.

Read the rest

The 2nd quarter of City Seminary starts on Monday! It’s not too late to register for Gospel Relationships: a mess worth making or The Titus 2 Woman: Living a Godly Life. Register Here.

3 Reasons to take Gospel Relationships

• If you ever struggle with Busyness, Conflict, Pleasing people, Marriage & Singleness or Parenting? Gospel Relationships will equip you to understand how to relate to others in the strength and grace of the gospel in these demanding and difficult areas of life! Most people have not been adequately trained in all of these areas. This course will train you how to think true thoughts and act in grace towards others. I wish I would have had it in my 20s!
• If you want to better understand “the Gospel” and how it really affects everyday life. This course will show how the gospel of Christ is not a LCD, a lowest common denominator of the bare minimum facts necessary to get into heaven, but rather a TOE, a theory of everything that has explanatory and transformational power for everything from human motivation to work and culture.
• If you are or aspire to leadership in Austin City Life this course is required. We believe so strongly in the value of this class that it is a requirement for City Group leaders and Staff.

2 Reasons to take The Titus 2 Woman

• If you are a woman then you should take this class, seriously. The reason I have such a godly wife and a delightful marriage is because my wife took this class (an applied it) before we got married. Over and over again, she goes back to the wisdom and instruction of God’s beautiful design for women laid out in the Scriptures, which is a source of constant blessing to me.
• If you want to make disciples of other women that help them be who God has created them to be. This teaching is basic Bible for godly womanhood and profound for making disciples in your life. Many women have a very distorted understanding of who they are in Christ. This study will help clarify your identity and role in Christ.

REGISTER HERE!

The Missional Church is not enough because when the focus of the Church is mission, we are destined to retreat, tire out, and fail. What then are we to do? Surrender and blend into our cultures with the hope of missional memory loss?

As I see it, there are two kinds of simplicity: one that ignores complexity and the other that understands complexity. The former you might call “Black & White Church”. The latter you might call “Grey Church”. I want to be a Grey Church.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of Two Kinds of Simple Church.