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.

The biblical proverb reads: “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” Indeed, the worth of an excellent wife is beyond price, but an excellent wife is not born on her wedding day. She becomes excellent step by step, year by year, by walking in the direction of excellence. This kind of worth does not simply fall upon you, it is cultivated over time.

Charm & Beauty

There are many obstacles to becoming an excellent wife. The Book of Proverbs is littered with them. Proverbs 31 closes with two obstacles–charm and beauty. Not what you would expect. Doesn’t the excellent wife dazzle her husband with her beauty and charm, her looks and her wit? Maybe, but that’s not what makes her excellent.

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Prov 31:30). A woman who fears the opinions of others runs to the refuge of “beauty” instead resting in the refuge of her God. Inadvertently, she makes a new god out of her looks. She obsesses with her face, her figure, and her fashion not with wisdom, faithfulness, and godliness.

Charm makes a bad god too. A woman who fears losing the limelight chooses charm over faithfulness. She attempts to lure the light—attention, approval, or applause—in discreet or overt ways. Her comments bend conversation in her direction. Her attire bends the eyes of men towards her body. Her preoccupation is not: “How may I bless others”, but “How may I capture their attention?”

The More Excellent Way

There is a way forward in becoming an excellent wife. It has to do with fear. The excellent wife, the woman who is worthy of praise (not who tries to get it) is a woman who fears the Lord. What does it mean to fear the Lord? Is it cowering in the corner in prudish silence? Or perhaps a general terror of the judgment of God? Neither. Then what?

There is a kind of fear that a daughter has of her father, a deep reverence and respect and admiration of his authority in her life. This fear isn’t sinful; it’s trusting, hopeful. It’s not the fear of a servant but the fear of a son. A woman who lives under God’s authority, who trusts in his providence, no matter how bitter it may be, is an excellent woman, a woman worthy of praise.

This kind of fear gets tested in marriage. My wife has had reasons not to trust me at times (seasons of confusion, anger, selfishness), but she knew that she had every reason to trust God, her heavenly Father. See, a woman who holds her highest respect for her Creator is freed under his protection and love to honor her husband. When her source of acceptance and love fits securely in the arms of an unfailing Father, she is freed to be an excellent wife. When her husband fails her, her world does not fall apart because she trusts in the God who put the world together. This kind of fear isn’t daunting; it’s delightful (Isa 11:3).

My Wife of 10 Years Today

Many women have done excellently, but you my dear, you surpass them all. You bear the beauty, the trustworthiness, the wisdom, the enterprise, the mercy, the kindness, the strength, and the faith of an excellent wife. Thank you for fearing and trusting God more than you fear and trust me. Thank you for not relying on charm and beauty but on grace of God. Thank you for laboring to bless others and placing me in the center of your blessings. They are innumerable. Indeed, an excellent wife is hard to find, and I have found one. These ten years have been a gift I do not deserve, your companionship beyond what any man could imagine. I love you. Here’s to many more decades!

Boundless ran my newest article “Gospel Identity: We All Have Identity Issues” last week. Picking up on my own battle for identity in Christ, and some fresh research on Chuck Palahniuk, this article presents an honest struggle against the “identity-of-the-moment.” An excerpt:

I sat in my office sulking. My day had been so demanding. My week tiresome. My month an all out marathon, minus the fans.

Pastoring eternal souls, preaching week after week, leading leaders, and being on mission is demanding enough, but occasionally the demands pile higher. As a pastor, I am a sinner that counsels sinners. This means that, despite our common hope in the gospel, there are times that I fail to apply my own gospel counsel to my own soul…{Read the Rest}

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets for the Alpha Rev/Music for the City Release party at La Zona Roza tomorrow, do it now. Alpha Rev is headlining the Music for the City Vol. 1 Release. Both albums will be available at the show tomorrow.

• Get Tickets Here
• News 8 Interviews lead singer Casey McPherson today
• Music for the City share entire line-up of bands…

Music for the City is releasing their first compilation album of local, rising artists in Austin, TX. The line-up of artists is as incredible as it is diverse.

As with everything that MFC does in 2010, profits go to AUSTIN CHILDREN’S SHELTER and SAFEPLACE in an effort to reduce abuse and neglect of Austin’s women and children. Come out on May 8th for an great show and an even greater cause!

The Release Party will be headlined  by Alpha Rev, Saturday, May 8th @ La Zona Rosa

Get Tickets Now!

…with special guests Aaron Ivey, The Soldier Thread, Quiet Company and Songwriters in the Round with Matt McCloskey, Miranda Dodson, Jason Poe, and Jordan Whitmore.