Missio Dei Suburbia

Money's Tight, Nothin' Free. Won't Somebody Come and Rescue Me?

Thanks to SRV for the post title - here's a bit of background music for you.

As people experience the psychological and financial impact of a recession, here's a summary of what we've laid out at our church to help people think through what to do about money.

The Scriptures are deadly serious about money - take the same approach.

There's a reason Jesus talks so much about money in the gospels. In my estimation, the most comprehensive resource on what the Scriptures teach about money is Randy Alcorn's Money, Possessions and Eternity.

What you do is driven by who you are.

Your identity shapes your activity. For us as a church, that means we make decisions about money in the light of our identity as missionaries in community empowered by the gospel.

What you do with money is a community project.

Because we are so easily deceived about what constitutes what we need versus what we want, we need other people who know us and love us enough to listen to us and ask good clarifying questions.

Pursue simplicity and generosity.

The biblical pattern when finances get tight is not to maintain and save. Without dismissing the issue of savings, the pattern throughout the Scriptures is to live simply and generously.

Take one more step.

Biblical simplicity and generosity pushes the envelope of what culture considers to be normal. If the gospel creates a people who cut against the grain of societal standards, that means that the followers of Jesus will be more rigorous in their pursuit of simplicity and more lavish in their generosity than their friends and neighbors who don't know Jesus.

Depend on the grace of God in the gospel.

Rigorous simplicity and lavish generosity is impossible apart from God powerfully rewiring how we think and feel about money. And the issue seems to come down to this - money exists as currency that purchases our greatest security, comfort and satisfaction. The question is whether we find those things in a life that is centered on God or some other source of hope and delight.

Driscoll on Building A Theological Library

From The Resurgence:

Building a Theological Library

• Glynn, John. Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources
• Longman, Tremper, III. Old Testament Commentary Survey

Reading through the Entire Bible

• Mears, Henrietta C. What the Bible Is All About
• Fee, Gordon D, and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

How to Study the Bible

• Doriani, Daniel M. Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible
• Duvall, J. Scott and John Daniel Hays. Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
• Longman, Tremper, III. Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind

Bible Dictionaries

• Marshall, I. Howard. New Bible Dictionary
• Unger, Merrill. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary
• Tenney, Merrill. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible

Topical Bible

• Nave, Orville J. Nave's Compact Topical Bible

Cross-Reference

• Torrey, R.A. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Bible Atlas

• Brisco, Thomas C. Holman Bible Atlas: A Complete Guide to the Expansive Geography of Biblical History
• Pfeiffer, Charles F. Baker's Bible Atlas

Community or Bowling Alone?

Collin Hansen writes about the uncertainty that surrounds the relationship between a struggling economy and people's desire for community. Optimistically, Christians believe that an economic unraveling will go a long way to convincing people that they need each other. Pessimistically, it appears that we're not looking to share our struggles but to hide from each other and watch a different favorite TV show every night in isolation from our friends and neighbors.

The church has an opportunity to cut against the grain of culture and learn how to live in community. But let's be careful - because far too often, community in the church is disconnected from mission and has no intention of gathering in people who don't know Jesus into our life.

Quoting Robert Putnam, who wrote Bowling Alone, Hansen writes:

As Putnam observes in Bowling Alone, the demands of private piety and church-based service can insulate evangelicals from the needs outside their homes and churches.

"Most evangelical volunteering, however, supports the religious life of the congregation itself—teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, ushering at worship services—but does not extend to the broader community as much as volunteering by members of other faiths," Putnam writes.

Worshiping God is a worthy priority, of course. The very act can even attract outsiders to investigate what marks our faith communities as unique. But if we depend on this outreach method alone, our churches become safe havens for respectable Christians. We give alms, but we do not give ourselves. And our neighbors will never learn what kind of life-giving community they could find inside.

Baby Steps

I'm reading - and my mind is churning over - Skye Jethani's The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity. Ed Stetzer recently did an interview with Skye that produced this quote:

We've embraced the mission of Christ, but we simply cannot wrap our minds around how to do what Jesus envisions.

That sentence pretty much sums up my life and our story as a church.

Maybe We Need To Find Another Song To Sing...

One of our great challenges as a church is to approach community as a way of life, not just as a disconnected series of events. We are finding this to be a rich discovery that sometimes threatens to leave people behind.

Apparently we're not alone - from Bob Thune, Lead Pastor of Coram Deo in Omaha:

When we planted Coram Deo, we made the radical assumption that people would actually be willing to pursue intentional community. Perhaps this assumption was faulty. Though many people in our church have made intentional decisions to be in community with one another, many others have not. The objections are generally the same: busyness, crazy work or school schedules, family obligations. But could it be that what keeps us from community is not that we are “too busy,” but that we are simply not disciplined?

Keep reading...

Bigger Is Better

One of my best reads in 2008 was Paul Tripp's book, A Quest For More: Living for something bigger than you. Justin Buzzard posted a helpful overview of the book:

I found it helpful how Tripp stated the big idea (he calls it "the bottom line") of each chapter at the outset of each chapter and finished each chapter with a "final question."

Below are both the 17 big ideas and the 17 final questions of the 18 chapter book (above is the table of contents). It's worth your time to work through this list. It's worth your time to work through the whole book.

1. You were created to be part of something big. What is the big thing that you are living for right now?

2. Sin causes us to talk about more, but to settle for less. What is the "less" that tends to capture your attention?

3. Since sin has damaged everything, God calls us to be concerned about everything. Have you treated the size of God's grace as if it were no longer than the size of your personal concerns?

4. Each of our lives is shaped by the war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self. What earth-bound treasures and anxiety-bound needs tend to control you and your responses to life?

5. You and I are always being civilized and civilizing others into the culture of some kind of kingdom. In what ways do you try to get the people around you to follow the rules of your kingdom of self?

6. The most dangerous thing about the kingdom of self is how easily it masquerades as the kingdom of God. In your everyday life right now, where are you telling yourself that you are living for God when you are really living for yourself?

7. Sin causes all of us to shrink the size of our lives to the size of our lives. Has the energy of your life been expended in the narrow world of personal wants, needs, and concerns?

8. Big kingdom living mean living with Christ at the center of everything I think, desire, say, and do. What tend to compete with Christ for the center of your world?

9. In calling us to die, Christ is actually rescuing us from death and giving us real life. In your everyday situations and relationships, where are you finding it hard to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ?

10. At street level, big kingdom living is Jesus-focused living. What is the focus of your life's energies and intentions?

11. This side of eternity, there should be a dissatisfaction in all of us with the way things are. What are the things that make you groan?

12. God calls us to the vertically interactive lifestyle of living in moment-by-moment harmony with him. Where in your life are you tempted to write your own music rather than making harmonious music with the king?

13. Big kingdom living is all about the humility of seeking forgiveness and the grace of granting it. Do you find joy in the liberating lifestyle of seeking forgiveness?

14. Life in the kingdom of God is like waiting for the love of your life to return. Where in your life are the "other lovers" that compete with your love for Christ?

15. Jesus calls us to offer him everything so that we can be free from the things that have a hold on us. Whose kingdom are you making sacrifices for right now?

16. Life in the big kingdom is all about being good and angry. Right now, where do you live every day, whose kingdom does your anger serve?

17. True hope, the kind that will never disappoint, is never hope in a thing, but hope in a person. Where do you tend to look for daily hope?

Time Well Spent

From the Sovereign Grace blog via JT:

Tony Reinke:

Spanning more than four months on the blog, C.J.’s 17-part series on biblical productivity has finally concluded. Via email and in personal conversations many of you have requested that the series be provided as a single document to make it easier to print and read. And today we are making this entire series available as a single 36-page document. You can view and download the PDF by clicking here (0.6 MB):

Index of posts below:

1. Are You Busy?
2. Confessions of a Busy Procrastinator
3. The Procrastinator Within
4. Just Do It
5. In All Thy Ways
6. The Sluggard
7. Time. Redeemed.
8. Roles, Goals, Scheduling
9. Roles (Part 1)
10. Roles (Part 2)
11. Goals (Part 1)
12. Goals (Part 2)
13. Goals (Part 3)
14. Goals (Part 4)
15. Scheduling the Unexpected
16. The To-Do Lists Are Never Done
17. Self-Sufficient

Book Lists: Personal Evangelism and Biblical Counseling

Chris Walker recommends the following books on personal evangelism:

• Questioning Evangelism, Randy Newman
• They like Jesus, but not the Church by Dan Kimball
• Confessions of a Reformissional Rev by Mark Driscoll
• Reimagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey by Rick Richardson
• Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) by Martha Rese
• unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters
• Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People who Aren’t Already Interested by Nick Pollard.
• Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg.
• Just Walk Across the Room, Bill Hybels
• Just Walk Across the Room (Spanish), Bill Hybels
• Simplemente acercate a ellos: Pasos Sencillos Para Guiar a Las Personas Hacia La Fe, Bill Hybels
• Hitchhiker’s Guide To Evangelism: Bill William Tenny-Brittian.
• The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever
• A Forgotten Gospel by Mark McGrath
• Tell It Often-Tell It Well: Making the Most of Witnessing Opportunities, Mark McCloskey
• Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style, Mike Bechtle
• True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In, James Choung

Driscoll recommends these books on biblical counseling:

• Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (P& R, 2003) by David Powlison
• Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community (New Growth Press, 2005) by David Powlison
• Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave (P & R, 2001) by Edward T. Welch
• When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man (P & R, 1997) by Edward T. Welch
• Blame It on the Brain? Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience (P & R, 1998) by Edward T. Welch
• Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (P & R, 1999) by James C. Petty

Any books you'd add on evangelism and/or counseling?

10 Qualifications for Church Planters

Scott Thomas lays out the ten qualifications of church planters - men who plant reformed, missional churches that plant churches.

1. Spiritual Vitality
2. Theological Clarity
3. Clarity and Strength of Calling
4. Strong Marriage and Family Life
5. Relationship Building
6. Leadership Abilities
7. Emotional Stability
8. Missional Lifestyle
9. Disciplemaking Skills
10. Entrepreneurial Aptitude

You can read the whole post here.

Gospel Coalition Notes - Keller, Piper Driscoll

The Gospel Coalition National Conference began yesterday - here are notes/manuscripts from several of the main sessions:

• Tim Keller
• John Piper
• Mark Driscoll

You can watch the live webcast today here. Audio and video from yesterday's sessions should be available later today.