Discipleship

Recommended Reading & Resources

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Over the past few months I’ve read a few books and tuned into a couple of podcasts, which I’ve found challenging both in my personal pursuit of  Jesus and in my approach to church planting.  Hopefully you’ll find the following resources helpful too.

BOOKS

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream by David Platt.  This book is as challenging as the title sounds.  After having some time to reflect on this, I believe it’s the most practically challenging and convicting book I’ve read in the past decade.  I realize that much of what David Platt writes does sound very radical- but no more radical than anything Jesus says to would be disciples.  I think every person who is serious about following Jesus and joining His mission to this world should buy and read this book… then ask for the grace to live it out. On a side note: I met David on a trip to S.E. Asia this past October.  I can honestly say after being around him for a few days, that he is the real deal.  That’s why I decided to pick up the book.

The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning.  A couple of friends have recommend this author and now I can see why.  He cuts to the heart of who Jesus is and what it means to know and follow Him.   Manning definitely does not come from the “normal” evangelical background  as a former Franciscan priest and recovering alcoholic.  His approach to contemplative spirituality sometimes perplexes me, but I enjoy reading authors who come from a different perspective and challenge my preconceived notion. This quote provides a good glimpse of what’s inside this book: “Littered along the Calvary road will lie the skeletons of our egos, the corpses of our fantasies of control, and the shards of self-righteousness, self-indulgent spirituality, and unfreedom.” (p. 9)

Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom.  As I began praying through the idea of starting a church that functions as a network of Home Fellowships serving the Burlington community, I knew I was not the first person to have an idea like this.  After doing some research, I discovered these guys who had taken a similar approach in Sheffield, England, with both an established church and a church plant.  If you’re considering a similar approach to ministry and/or church planting, you’ll learn a lot from their experiences and insights.

 

PODCASTS

GodPod by St. Timothy’s Theological Center in London, England.  My brother Brian who’s a Phd student at Cambridge clued me into this podcast.  Every week they address questions from listeners, and they don’t shy away from the challenging or controversial ones.  I don’t always 100% agree with every answer, but they challenge me to think through what I believe and why.  The British accents don’t hurt either- for some reason the Brits just sound more intellectual and witty.

Timothy Keller Podcast – pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  Keller knows how to exegete the scriptures and understands post-Christian culture.  The proof is not only in his sermons but the impact Redeemer Church is having through church-planting, serving the city, and influencing the Manhattan culture.  I’ve gotten a little tired of  Christian rock-star pseudo scholars asking lots of questions and giving fuzzy convoluted answers.  You won’t get that with Tim Keller.

The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast– pastor of NorthPoint Community Church in Atlanta, GA.  I think Andy Stanley is one of the best communicators I’ve ever heard and he gets organizational leadership.

 

RANDOM VIDEO

This video has no true spiritual or ministry value.  I just found it funny.  Although I generally don’t make fun of other pastors, I sometimes make exceptions for Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O2qHzQYVtw

 

Tilling, Sowing, Watering, Reaping

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It’s very easy to get caught up in the go big, go fast, or go home mentality as a church planter.  Almost every story you hear of church planting success is of how a gifted leader started with almost nothing and it just blew up overnight.  If we changed the terminology just a little, it often sounds like we’re describing a high performance sports car and its zero to sixty time.  Seldom do we hear a leader share about long years of faithful labor with little initial fruit, but how God was still at work anyway.  I have to admit that I am also often enamored by the bigger-faster-is-better church stories.

I believe the issue is that in ministry circles we often focus on reaping as opposed to the tilling, sowing, watering, and cultivating that must occur before we reap.  In other words we want to see the result of people embracing and pursuing Jesus without putting the work into the rest of the cycle.  Something that feeds this mindset is that we hear amazing stories of people responding to Jesus and ministries growing and all too often even the people sharing the stories may miss that this is most often the byproduct of a long-term investment in people’s lives.

On Wednesday mornings I meet with a small group of ministry guys here in Burlington.  One of the guys was sharing from John 4, where Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at the well.  I won’t go into all the details of why that alone has great significance, because something else stood out to us.  This Samaritan woman responds quickly in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and her need for Him.  The scripture also clearly says in verse 39, “from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of  the woman…”  A lot of people were deciding to follow Jesus.

But Jesus says something very interesting to his disciples in the verses preceding this:  35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Jesus wants the disciples to know that the spiritual harvest they are experiencing is the result of a long-term process and other people’s labor.  Other people have gone before them- tilling the ground, planting the seed, watering the soil, and now they are seeing the harvest.

Big Question: How does this apply to you and me? I’ll answer this for me and hopefully that will help you answer the question for you.

*I need to be faithful with the small but significant doors God has opened in people’s lives around me. With each relationship people are at different points in this process.  In Burlington the focus is overwhelming tilling and then sowing.  This practically means serving people sacrificially, opening my life to others, building long-term relational credibility, and sharing about Jesus as they are open and willing to listen.

*I need to have a long-haul view of investing in people’s lives. I’m not a farmer, but I’m pretty certain the people hearing Jesus’ words from agrarian lifestyles 2000 years would have instantly connected Jesus’ words about sowing and reaping as real work.  If I’m go to invest in people who have a negative perception of Christianity and little knowledge of the gospel, then I must be willing to make a long-term investment as I walk with them through this process.

*I need to recognize and celebrate God moving in people’s lives. I often focus on celebrating the reaping phase without taking the time to celebrate all that God has done in someone’s life leading up to when they decide to follow Jesus as Lord.  Each relationship, each opportunity to sacrificially serve someone, each conversation about spirituality, each opportunity to pray for someone, each sharing of my story and more importantly God’s story is evidence God is at work.

Please pray…

Pray that we’d be sensitive to what God is doing in our relationships.  We meet people everywhere from cafes to the YMCA kids gym.  We want to make the most of these friendships.

Pray that we’d be wise with how we serve the Old North End’s refugee community- especially through the Kids Alive ministry and beginning an English class with Somalians in the Riverside housing community.

Pray that I would be discerning as I build relationships in Burlington’s community service and non-profit sector.  I want organizers, volunteers, and those we serve to see that Jesus defines how and why I serve the least of these.

Pray for God to draw others to join our core group who are passionate for Jesus and willing to make a long-haul investment in others.  We’re launching our initial Home Fellowship on March 13!

BTW, check out my wife’s latest post: http://www.gainingpounds.blogspot.com/

Reminders moving into 2011

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Well, the holidays are over.  The past two weeks have been so good- great time with Christin & Jude with lots of time to relax and get revved up for 2011.  Our biggest news is we found out that our baby due on May 6 is a… girl.  We’re super excited, although I’m realizing I have completely no idea what to do with a little girl.  Nothing like on the job training =)

With 2011 now here, I’ve spent the past few days reflecting on God’s activity in 2010 and looking forward to what He has in store for us in 2011.  I’ve especially prayed and thought about what is required of us to engage Burlington with the gospel.  Much of what God is teaching and reteaching me is rooted in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27.  Although this is an ongoing process and probably not new info, this has served as a good reminder of where my focus and the focus of our core group needs to be in the upcoming months.  Hopefully, it will also give you some clues on how you can be praying for us and our work in Burlington.  Maybe it will even help you as you seek to serve God where He has placed you…

REMINDERS ABOUT ENGAGING OUR COMMUNITY WITH THE GOSPEL

*Grow in our intimate (as well as our intellectual) knowledge of the gospel. This is a life long process which requires experiencing the gospel, studying the gospel, and meditating on the gospel and its application to our lives.  Even if our knowledge may seem relatively small, it must be real and fresh in our own lives.  If we don’t continually “preach the gospel” to ourselves, we can easily default towards empty religious moralism.  Remember: most people’s objections to the gospel are personal in nature, not intellectual.  This makes our own continuing personal experience in the gospel vital to engaging others.

*Develop a mindset of sacrificial service. Jesus said he came “not to be served, but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many.”  He also made it clear that as His followers we have the greatest influence when we sacrificially serve others (see Matthew 20:20-28).  Two brief thoughts on this topic:

  1. This begins with the spiritual family. We need to learn to serve each other in the context of Biblical community so that we are inviting others into an environment where sacrificial service is naturally modeled.
  2. This can actually become more difficult (although not impossible) to live out when Christians become a dominating force in the culture. All too often we see that power corrupts and draws well meaning Christians away from a service mindset.  Exceptions do exist who display great humility and sacrifice in their leadership roles.

*Know the community.  Know the culture.  We need to know the needs, hurts, fears, dreams, beliefs, values, and spiritual temperature of the community and culture (including subcultures) where God has placed us.  Secondarily to studying the scriptures, we need to study our community, so we can see where the two intersect.  One of the greatest barriers to this happening is Christians becoming an insulated subculture rather than a force of transformation in the larger culture.

*Do life among the people. Discipleship happens life on life. From everything we see in scripture, discipleship often happens pre-conversion.  This requires living a life that intersects with others- through work, play, raising a family, making a home, and purposely developing friendships. Studies repeatedly show that the #1 influence on people making a personal commitment to Jesus is close friends and family members.  Living life among  the people God has called you to serve allows you to share your life and the gospel in ways that doing ministry from a safe distance can never offer.

*Be purposeful and faithful with opportunities. We can sometimes try to do everything at once.  Most of the time God desires us to simply be faithful with what may seem like the small opportunities He provides.  We learn from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25  that as we’re faithful with what God entrusts to us (no matter how big or how small), He gives us greater responsibility.  When the community around us sees us approaching the little things with excellence, we gain credibility, trust is built, and more opportunities follow.

*Maintain a marathon mentality. Very little that happens fast really lasts.   We need  to remember when scripture describes life and ministry as a race, it’s never depicting a sprint but a marathon.  Everyone I’ve spoken to that has run a marathon says it involves a great deal of preparation, perseverance, and even pain.  I’m sure a similar mentality is required by a hard working farmer who wants a fruitful harvest.  Seasons of tilling the ground, planting the seed, watering the soil, and cultivating the young plants all precede the actual harvest.  There is a reason scripture utilizes marathons and farming as metaphors for gospel ministry.

*Saturate everything in prayer. Bottom line: we do not have what it takes to accomplish what God has called us to do.  Without His intervention, failure is certain.

As always, thank you for your continued prayers and support.

NUMBERING MY DAYS

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Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Ephesians 5:16-17

Every once in a while I meet someone who sees right through me and recognizes something about me that I don’t even see.  Last week I ran into one of the Point’s members, Tammi Zimmerman.  I said something to her about me being in a cynical, sarcastic mood and Tammi made an interesting statement: “As your prepare to leave New Brunswick and move to Burlington, do you find that stuff bugs you that didn’t before… Stuff that you used to just deal with, but now you’re really glad that you won’t have to take it with you… and there may even be some things you just don’t want to invest in because you know you are leaving.”  At first, being the incredibly super spiritual pastor that I am, I wanted to say “no, definitely not.”  But after just a few seconds, I recognized a great deal of truth in Tammi’s observation.

She was right.  There are a few things I will not miss about New Brunswick:
*Alternate side parking on street cleaning days.
*Gray two day old snow during the winter.
*No left turns on George St. in downtown NB.
*Used Goya soda bottles littering my front lawn.
*Pedestrians who cross the street with no warning.
*All of the creative uses of the “f-word”- noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, and some I’m not even sure about.

She was also correct that a temptation exists for me to disconnect, withdraw, and not invest in the people and opportunities right in front of me.

But for some crazy reason, I still love this city with all of its annoyances.  I love the ethnic and cultural diversity.  I love that I count college professors and homeless people as my friends.  I love that I can touch my neighbors house outside of my hallway window…
and I still believe God cares about this city and has big plans for His people here. I still want to be a significant part of God’s activity here and make the most of this short time God has entrusted to me- I don’t want to withdraw and coast for these last 3 1/2 months.

Please pray that God will give me wisdom with the following questions:

*Which nonChristian friends do I need to be more intentional with in sharing Jesus?

*What leaders and potential leaders should I spend more time and energy investing in?

*What practical steps can I take now to strategically and structurally prop up the Point Church for future success?

*How can I leave my friends, neighbors, church, and community with the clearest picture possible of who Jesus is and what He is about?

I want to make sure this time counts!

Moses’ Prayer 4- God’s Presence

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“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from her  here.”

-Exodus 33:15-

As I reread this scripture today, I cannot help but wonder if I sometimes become more passionate about completing the task and accomplishing the mission than about knowing and experiencing Jesus.  Moses realized that the Promised Land (and really any blessing from God) meant absolutely nothing without God’s presence.  Moses only wanted the Promised Land if it was the byproduct of knowing and following God.   I believe the BIG DANGER for me and every church planter is that starting a successful church can become more important than knowing, experiencing, and following Jesus.

The gut level question I must ask is do I really want to know and experience Jesus more than anything?

I’m reminded of some statements by Godly guys from scripture:

David- Psalm 42

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Isaiah 26

8 In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you…

Paul- Philippians  3

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

“How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

-Exodus 33:16-

Moses understood that the only thing that set him and the Hebrew people apart was the presence of God.  Whether I’m doing life and ministry in Atlanta, New Brunswick, Burlington, Mexico, Haiti or Indonesia, the only thing that sets me and the people I’m leading apart is the presence of God.  In fact, we can have the most talented people, abundant resources, cutting edge strategy, and even be doing all the right things and without God’s presence it just won’t matter.  It is only as God leads us and works through us that we can become the aroma of Jesus to the world around us (2 Corinthians 4).  It is only as we know, experience, and follow Jesus that we can make an eternal difference where God has placed us.

Here are some specific ways you can pray for us this week:

*Ask God to give me the discipline to guard my daily personal time in prayer and the scriptures as I’m experiencing the busyness of transitioning out of my role in NJ, preparing for Burlington, and just the daily grind of life.

*Ask God to give me a greater hunger to know and experience Him- that He would bring me to the point that He is what I desire more than anything.

*Ask God to give those who are considering joining our church planting team clarity and confidence as they seek to know God and His will.

*Ask God to prepare all those attending our Burlington Vision Trip on June 11-13.  Ask God to give all of us eyes to see what He is doing and wants to do  in Burlington.

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Moses’ Prayer 3- The Path

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Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in you sight.  Consider too that this nation is your people.

Exodus 33:13

As I reread Moses’ prayer today, I am struck with the humility with which Moses asks God to continue revealing His ways.  If anyone had first hand experience of watching God work, it was Moses.  Here are a few examples:

*God speaks to him through a burning bush.

*God uses Moses to prophesy 10 plagues on Egypt.

*God works through Moses to split the Red Sea.

*God gives Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai.

*God speaks to Moses as a man speaks to a friend.

Moses had seen God do some amazing miracles.  Moses was the first person to read God’s law.  Moses had an incredibly intimate knowledge of God… Yet he prays, “please show me your ways.”

Here are a few lessons from this prayer:

1)Learners make the best leaders.

If Moses realized he had not arrived, then there’s a good chance we have not either.  Throughout scripture and history the best leaders are those who posture themselves as life-long learners.  Solid spiritual leaders continuously lead out of the overflow of what God is teaching them.  The moment I begin leading from my own well of wisdom, that’s a good time to JUMP SHIP and RUN!

2)Keep an open hand with assumptions.

Most of the time our assumptions are based on past experiences and what we see, think, and feel. My experiences from the past 6 years with the Point Church give me an idea of what God can do, but I must realize He is not limited by that.  I must remember that God operates outside of my experiences and my perspective, and He maintains the freedom to surprise me with His activity at any moment.

3)How matters as much as what.

Moses knows the Promised Land is the goal.  He also knows how they get there is important to God.  Embracing pragmatism over scriptural principles is always a temptation, and every time I choose pragmatism over principle I eventually regret it.  Maybe this is because scriptural principles are always pragmatic from an eternal perspective.

4)Scripture trumps everything.

When I make a decision, take a step, or choose a path based on my feelings, the latest greatest human strategy, or popular opinion without filtering it through the lens of scripture, I am basically telling God, “I know more than you.”  Still as I read the Bible, I come across scriptures that seem confusing and just don’t make sense to me.  90% of scripture, though, is incredibly clear and I need to make the decision whether I really believe or not.

If you have not made up your mind before you get started that the scriptures are sufficient, you will sell out. Because it will be the scriptures plus…

Matt Chandler, Pastor- The Village Church

Here are some specific ways you can pray for us this week:

*Pray that I will take on the posture of a learner- teachable to God and other Godly leaders He chooses to place in my life as we move towards Burlington.

*Pray that we will have an open hand with our church planting strategy as we get to know the Burlington community and see more of how God is at work.

*Pray that everything we do (not just church planting) would be rooted in scripture and the Gospel: our marriage, raising Jude, managing our money, serving others around us.

*Pray that God will give us a smooth transition in our last four months here in NJ as I transition out of my pastoral role at the Point,  new leaders step up with the church, we attempt to sell our home, and we prepare for the move to Burlington.

*Pray that God will strengthen mine and Christin’s marriage more and more every day.

Moses’ Prayer 2- The People

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Team “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me…”

Exodus 33:12a

Moses knew God had called him to lead the people into the promised land, but he also knew he could not do it alone.  Moses is pleading with God, let me know who you will send with me.

I believe as Moses is praying this prayer he remembers his father-in-law, Jethro’s, advice in Exodus 18:18-27. Jethro sees Moses trying to lead all the people by himself and says,  What you are doing is not good.  You and the people will wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you.  You are not able to do it alone.  His father-in-law wisely knew Moses needed a team of capable, trustworthy, Godly leaders around him.

We see this pattern throughout scripture.  King David had his mighty men.  Jesus had his 12 disciples.  Paul always had a team of people involved in his missionary journeys and church planting ventures.

This idea of needing others can be tough sometimes.  If you are a church planter or know a church planter, you know we tend to be an independent, renegade, stubborn bunch.  I’m no exception.  If it wasn’t for God’s intervention I’d probably try to be a one man team (and a not very effective one either).

When I was 22 years old, fresh out of college, New Canaan Baptist Church offered me a job as their Youth Minister.  Initially I had this idea that I could be this amazing one man show for Jesus.  During that first year God did some amazing things.  We saw unchurched students embracing Jesus as Lord and Savior.  The youth ministry was growing numerically at a fast pace.  Only one problem: at the end of the first year I was about to have a nervous breakdown- I was hitting the wall.  Why?  Because although God had led me to become a youth minister, although He had given me a big vision for our community, although God was doing amazing things all around me,  I also realized I did not have what it took on my own.  I needed a team around me.  A team with people who were strong in the areas I was weak.  A team who would pray with me, encourage me, and hold me accountable.  A team who wasn’t afraid to get their hands dirty in doing real ministry.  A team who had this same sense of mission and calling from God .

Since that moment I have never attempted to lead a ministry without a team.  I cannot have imagined starting the Point in New Brunswick without our team of servant-hearted leaders, and I know I will equally need a team for this new work in Burlington.

Here some specific ways you can pray for us this week:

*Two couples and two single adults from the Point Church and one family from the Toronto area (yep I mean Canada) are prayerfully considering moving their lives to Burlington.  Pray that God would give each of them clarity concerning what He is leading them to do.

*Pray for Matt & Tirzah, one of the couples, who are expecting their first child any day now.  Also pray that God will provide Matt with an engineering job near Burlington in the near future.

*Ask that God would raise up more “workers for the harvest” to join our team in Burlington.  People who are committed to Jesus, who understand Vermont’s progressive culture, and share the same sense of mission and calling God has given to us.

*Ask God to provide financial partners, both churches and individuals, who will support this new church in Burlington during it’s crucial beginning phase as it gets off the ground.

Moses’ Prayer 1-

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“See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in my sight.’  Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me you ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.  Consider too that this nation is your people.”

Exodus 33:12-13

Many times when I’m not sure how to pray, I’ll take a look at specific prayers of people in the Bible.  I figure that’s always a solid place to start.  One of the prayers that God leads me back to over and over again is a prayer by Moses in Exodus 33.

God has given Moses a mandate to lead the people of Israel into the promised land, which was no small task.  They were a ragtag group of former slaves with no real military experience who were on their way to take over the land of Canaan (a.k.a. the promised land).  They also had a penchant for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.  Exhibit A would be building a golden calf to worship and engaging in all kinds of immorality as Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments.  I imagine they were breaking each commandment just as God was writing them with his finger on the stone tablets.  It is just after the golden calf incident that Moses prayers this desperate prayer in Exodus 33:12-13:

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in my sight.’  Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me you ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.  Consider too that this nation is your people.”

It’s pretty obvious from this prayer that Moses knows he is in over his head.  In fact, if you read through the Old Testament book of Exodus you’ll see that as Moses seeks to follow God and responds to what God is doing, he is constantly finding himself in over his head.  God keeps bringing this guy back to a place of desperation and dependence.  I believe if we take a step back and look at the narrative of scripture, or at people throughout history that God has used in significant ways, or even at our own lives, we’ll see this pattern: God keeps bringing those who desire to be used by Him back to a place of desperation and dependence.

Although this is far from exhaustive, here are a few of my opinions on “WHY?”

1)Most of the time we’re in over our heads and we just don’t know it.  Unless God puts us in situations that are obviously too big for us, we can quickly think we have it all together with our jobs, school, friendships, ministries, and marriages.  Think about it: when was the last time you desperately prayed for God to move in a significant way  at your work place, through your friendships, in your marriage, in your church, or simply to use you to make a major impact in the world around you?  Just to be clear- the idea that we have everything under control and that we have it all together is just an illusion anyway.

2)When God does significant things in and through our lives, we can unwittingly move towards arrogance and a sense of entitlement.  If we are not careful we can develop a mindset that we deserve God moving in our lives and somehow He owes it to us.  The journey of faith can quickly become more about God responding to us, our dreams, and our desires rather than us responding to His will and His activity.  We reduce God’s role in our lives to nothing more than a Genie in a bottle who is waiting to fulfill our wishes.  Is that really the kind of God we want to know, worship, and follow?  I certainly hope God and His plans are bigger and better than the bottle I try to confine Him to.

3)If we cease to be desperate for and dependent on God, we miss experiencing the one thing in the universe that is most valuable and satisfying.  Nothing compares to knowing God and experiencing Him working in and through our lives- NOTHING!

I believe Pastor John Piper has made this point much better than I ever could hope to. These quotes from him have challenged me to the point of tears:

“Woe to us if we get our satisfaction from the food in the kitchen and the TV in the den and the sex in the bedroom with an occasional tribute to the cement blocks in the basement! God wills to be displayed and known and loved and cherished and worshiped.”

“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”

“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? ”

As Christin, Jude, and I move towards Burlington, it’s easy for me to realize God is placing us once again “in over our heads.”  I know I don’t have what it takes ad that I desperately need Him.  May God give me that same sense of desperation and dependence on Him in my marriage and family, with my temporary part-time gig at the Census Bureau, in my ministry here in New Brunswick, and with the opportunities that are all around me every day to impact the world for Him.

May God bring us all back to a place of desperation and dependence.

THIS WEEK please pray for us as we travel to the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. This is the largest church planting conference in the nation.  Please pray God will use this week to better strengthen and equip us for the journey ahead.