Today I spent some time at a local airport that mainly serves small private planes.

There’s a flight school that gives instruction in a hanger right there off the runway. New pilots are commissioned after going through training that teaches the basics and live in-the-air lessons.

As I head out to a weekend retreat this week, I share some of the reflections about the spiritual highs that we may experience after an amazing Christian conference, church retreat or even after hearing a famous preacher’s semonic mastery in the pulpit.

But there’s one crticial lesson of flying high that pilots are taught in flight school which God’s people may benefit from regarding their own personal faith journey. Check out this short video where I share my thoughts. . . (more…)

It’s summertime, and for some that means a breath of fresh air and a chance to pick-up a book or two.  I recently asked a colleague of mine, Benjamin White who is a part of Circle of Hope to share one of his recent reading list selections with us.  His take on Karl Barth’s sermon collection, Deliverance To Captives,  gives it respect, but doesn’t default to just sycophantic praise.  While so many pastors and seminary students are drawn to Church Dogmatics and other Barth works, sometimes the best way to get to know someone is through the experience of sermonic listening (or reading!).  Enjoy Ben’s book review. . .

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Barth writes just seven sentences in the “remarks” he says suffice as an introduction to this collection of sermons.  The sermons were preached primarily in the Prison of Basel in Switzerland to what Martin Schwarz, the chaplain of the prison, in his addition to Barth’s introduction called a “critical, presumably even not very ‘Christian” audience.  Barth served as occasional guest preacher between 1954 and 1959.

The title, Deliverance of the Captives, obviously speaks to the state of the audience.  They are literally captives, but Barth recognizes and preaches that we are all captives to our sin and broken humanity.  The nature of his audience at the Prison of Basel serves as a parable for all of us and warrants publication.  The gospel message of deliverance from captivity is just as needed within the prison walls as without.  Barth’s preaching to these men in this particular circumstance serves as a sign to all.  We are called to preach deliverance to the captives so Barth went to the captives and proclaimed a message that goes beyond the realm of physical captivity.  If these men may be freed, so may we all in Christ Jesus our Lord. . . (more…)

Are you a liar?

NO!  Of course not…not at least to others!

But what about to yourself?   According to Dave Ramsey, most people are being dishonest. . . with themselves — about money and finances.

Financial honesty is something that many people — including Christians — need to face up to.   The good news is that the transformation to a life of integrity regarding money is something that can be learned. 10% knowledge, 90% behavior!

This past year, I had the chance to experience the Dave Ramsey in-your-face-no-holds-barred approach to bringing financial peace back into the picture for upright Christian living.  I led about 50 people through his 3-month Financial Peace University program locally.  For anyone that is struggling financially, hiding from their own debt, or just plainly confused about how to manage their finances, Dave Ramsey’s message is pretty solid.  After going through it all, it really was amazing to see that the life changes are real and for some, completely transformational.

The key to Ramsey’s teaching is a very concrete simplified system - that doesn’t assume you are debt free.  It is very practical and fully of direct commands for participants to do or not do.  Follow the formula, and you will become debt free. Seriously.

One of the tools I wish I had available when teaching the Ramsey system would have been a big fat compilation of FAQ’s regarding the various topics covered.

Voila.  It exists!  And this year, an updated version of the same title book has been released.  Dave Ramsey’s The Money Answer Book offers quick 1-page answers to the most common questions he gets from  participants and followers on his TV, Radio and FPU programs.

It is organized into the various categories Dave Ramsey focuses on in his overall teaching, including budget planning, saving for retirement or student tuition, or personal buying matters — even building wealth and charitable giving.  Each section has dozens of specific questions that are answered in a simple, succinct manner.

You won’t get the full picture reading this book cover to cover, but you will gain a better understanding of his view of personal finance management.  It’s an easy read because you can pick up the book and start at any chapter, any question.

Anyone that has been exposed to Ramsey’s mantras, whether in person at an FPU event, or through his various multimedia offerings, will immediately like this book.  It is easy to read and easy to understand.

If you are currently going through Ramsey’s envelope system or any other part of his money model, or need a quick refresher as a form of encouragement, I recommend The Money Answer Book for you.

QUESTION: Do you believe the Church should be teaching people how to manage their money?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a review copy. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

If you’re in the midst of planting a church you’re probably:

A) in need of sleep

B) in need of funds

C) in need of a website to tell the world

Sorry pastors, I can’t do anything about your dreams for being able to actually find time to have dream aren’t real just yet! haha!

But here’s a generous offer to help you with the the last item on this list above — a free website to spread the word about your new ministry in town. . .

One of the better known church website companies is Site Organic, which offers a very dynamic content management system for church websites.  They ain’t super cheap if you are looking at absolute dollar figures, so most church plants can’t benefit from services from companies like SiteOrganic.  For example, their pricing ranges from $1,200 — $3,000 per year on a recurring basis.  That’s A BIG CHECK to write for most new church plants.

But what you do get is a very rich content management system that is capable of all the bells and whistles you see on the largest church and ministry websites on the web today.  Even their most affordable packages provide aesthetically pleasing designs — ones where you certainly won’t be embarrassed about in representing your church to the community you are investing in.

The GOOD NEWS here is that Site Oragnic is giving away their services for free to church planters.

As long as you have less than 300 people adults attending your church to date, and it’s been less than a year (or even before you launch your official first worship gathering), you’re all set to benefit from the free offer.

The fine print is that it’s technically not completely free.  You do have to pay a $99 start-up fee, which is basically aimed to weed out the freewheelers and anyone that isn’t seriously planting a church right now.  But the rest is really free.  You’ll get over $2,500 in free services with no obligation to continue at that package rate, nor at all period after the first year.

If you’re planting a church, this gives you some breathing room to establish your core community.

Assumably, if you’re church plant is even semi-successful, you will have gotten some sort of financial stability after another year of existence — at least enough to to have the beginnings of financial options so that you can decide what to do about your web presence.  If you’re church plant’s time is not meant to be in the here and now, you’ll know that too after another year from now and you won’t be in need of web services much longer at that point.

Having personally seen SiteOrganic being used live in the church website setting, I can say that you won’t be disappointed by this offer.  It’s one less thing to think about so you can focus on the more important tasks at hand in launching your ministry.  Enjoy!

QUESTION: Does your church currently use a 3rd party website service like Site Organic, or do an internally owned and managed website?

Please share your experience with other ministry leaders and leave a comment below!

Whenever I am doing exegetical work on Scripture passages, it becomes painfully aware how short my bookshelves are in length.  It makes you want to go to one of those massive theological book sales and buy out the whole place - especially when books are only $5/all you can fit into a box.  But I wouldn’t even have a place for all those books to live in my home library.

The other alternative is to repeat the back and forth and back and forth to the library where they house complete collections of commentary series, Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries.   But sometimes you find yourself playing hide and seek when you find that the one volume you need is missing from the shelf - either being used by someone, or waiting in a lonely corner of the library, waiting to be picked up and re-shelved.

I recently decided to take the Google-generation approach to initial research and have tried out the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary on CD-ROM (yes people, software is still published on CD-ROMs in some parts of this world).

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. . . (more…)

It’s been awhile since we posted a freebie twitter background. . .since Valentine’s Day.

If you’ve been on Twitter for a bit, you’re background probably hasn’t been changed recently.

Here’s your chance to throw up a fresh look for your Twitter backgdrop.

Just download the free Tweetback image and follow the instructions below to install it on your profile.

If you don’t like this one, there’s plenty of other free Christian Twitter Backgrounds available in our Twitteratti Tuesday Series. . .

RIGHT-CLICK>SAVE LINK AS… to DOWNLOAD this free background image

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your new background image
5. Save your changes!

QUESTION: HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR TWITTER BACKGROUND MORE THAN ONCE IN THE PAST YEAR?

Just got my hands on the world’s latest Bible translation of the New Testament: The Voice from Thomas Nelson Publishers - in joint production with the Ecclesia Bible Society, headed by Chris Seay.  For the academics and Bible nerds out there, be warned, you’re in for a ride.

That’s because The Voice is more of a retelling of the Bible for the new generation than a new academic translation of the text.   After the first time you sit down with the Voice Bible, you’ll notice some really distinctive devices that are used:

• screenplay formatting so that you know who’s talking and with what type of tone, attitude or force of message
• color-highlighted text to help readers follow along with what’s going on in the passage
  
• devotional commentary intentionally using modern day language and concepts
  
• explanatory book introductions and notes within chapters gives context and details normally found in footnotes - again put in plain English

The “translation committee” drew from traditional academic scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and other artists.  The collaborator list includes heavyweights such as Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet.  They have the standard ivy tower theologians on the list too so that critics can be satiated, or at least rebuffed.  Because of this unusual cast of characters, the final product captures your attention from the first words you read aloud (which by the way is also one of the assumptions in the writing - that it will be read aloud in public settings similar to the oral tradition of the text) whether in public worship, in more intimate bible study groups, or even when you are reading it by yourself.

But sometimes it’s better to see it than hear it.  Here’s an example of just how differently The Voice audaciously retells the story:

THE VOICE TRANSLATION : John 3:16-17

¹⁶ For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. ¹⁷ Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction.

THE NRSV TRANSLATION : John 3:16-17

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

See the difference? Personally, I found this translation refreshing.  While the publisher claims it is written so that it can easily be read aloud, I really like how The Voice is attentive to the reading experience. I did not find myself re-reading parts of a chapter over and over as I do sometimes with other translations.

The Voice Bible which Thomas Nelson sent to me as a review copy was a paperback with heavy off-white pages.  It is well laid out visually.  Even though it has screen play foratting, etc, it reads really well – not one verse at a time for reference, but read — as in sit down and read the book just as if it any of your other narrative books in your library.  And unlike the NIV, this translation is pretty accessible in the fact that it is available for 8 bucks on Amazon right now. (Supposedly all profits also go to missions-based activities/ministries too).

If you like The Voice NT, they are working on the OT translation as we speak.  In fact, you can get the [NT + Psalms + Proverbs] during the summer of 2010 (pre-orders already being taken).

Is this a replacement for your NRSV, ESV or RSV Bible?  Probably not just yet.  But is it a dynamic voice you should add to your casual Bible study praxis or study group discussions? Definitely YES.

QUESTION: What translation of the Bible do you own or carry with you?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a review copy. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This year’s SuperBowl became the laboratory for a church experiment without many people know about it.

The Doritos crowd-sourcing platform enabled Mosaic Church to gain an instantly wider audience because of broadcast TV’s reach.

Mosaic is not your regular local church — they have access to resources and funding which most other churches don’t.

You can get your church onto TV — even national TV — for as little as $150.00. SERIOUSLY.

But this video reveals something which got me pretty excited — because it really marries both worlds that I have been living in — online marketing via Google Adwords and church ministry.

Because of the targeting and control that enables you to select specific TV programs, this is going to become an increasingly interesting tool that could be an efficient means to spread awareness about your ministry or church to your greater local region.

Google Adwords allows advertisers to control geographic targeting right now to the point where I have been able to restrict exposure of my church advertising campaigns on Google to within 50 miles of our zip code.  If you are located outside of the target zone, you see our ads at all — and I won’t be charged at all.  The same type of geographic control when it is applied to TV ad buying over the Google Ad Network should make it even more enticing for churches.

Watch this video below to see the results of an experiment where they created a single 30-second ad and ran with a $150 ad spot budget:

QUESTION:  Does this make you MORE or LESS interested in church marketing to include TV ad campaigns for local churches?

Do you have a life verse?  What about for your ministry?

Perhaps a resounding metaphor that clearly identifies what your organization is called to in our culture?  Or a visual icon other than a standard logo?

Mustard Seed Generation, led by Dr. Josephine Kim of Harvard with Pastor David Jung, sports a neat visual identity which takes it all and wraps it into the “1 > 99″ textual image.

It’s perfect for t-shirts — take a look!

What I love about this visual representation of Luke 15 is that it takes most people a minute or two to figure out what it is referring to and you can almost see the light bulb turn on over people’s heads.

The neat part about this design is that when you look closer, you’ll see the tiny repeating “lost lost lost lost” and “found found found found” overlapping the “1″ and “99″ on the shirt.

It takes time to find something that speaks to your organizations DNA through and through.  But when you get it, you’ll know and it is a powerful tool to represent all that your ministry is called to do.

Don’t you love it?  Way to go Mustard Seed Generation!

Do you have any neat examples of visual identities for you ministry?  Please share them with us below!

This week, my bible study group kicked off a new 8-week series.

Our group is sitting down with Tim Keller over the next two months to go through The Prodigal God DVD-based study curriculum.  I’m excited since going through the book in a group will most definitely be different than my first read of the book when it first came out.

Our first group discussion already brought out some tangible thoughts and questions to chew on:  Just how do you know if you are really relying upon God for all your needs?  Repentance is a concept easily associated with the younger son’s position, but how can I come to a place of repentance for righteous living?  Do we all need to be able to identify with both sons? . . . and many more.  A lot of the questions started to veer towards how can I ensure that the Gospel is reflected in my life — my daily living?  It’s going to be a great study series for all of us.

But today, I have something to get even more excited about.

I found that latest DVD Bible Study curriculum put out by Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church — and it’s called: GOSPEL IN LIFE!

The materials include the Gospel in Life book by Tim Keller as well as an 8-lesson group study guide curriculum to go along with the book.

This is an intensive 8-session course on the gospel. It will the group members explore and understand how it is lived out in all of life—1st in your heart, 2nd in community, and 3rd out into the world. In each session, Timothy Keller presents a 10 minute teaching segment on the gospel. Session 1 opens the course with the theme of the city: your home now, the world that is. Session 8 closes the course with the theme of the eternal city: your heavenly home, the world that is to come. In between, you will look at how the gospel changes your heart, changes your community, and changes how you live in the world.

Each lesson is broken down into a little over 1 hour each:

• 10 Minutes: A summary of the previous session
• 20 Minutes: the actual Bible study
• 10 Minutes: A teaching video by Timothy Keller
• 25 Minutes: Discussion questions about the message
• 5 Minutes: An introduction to next session’s homework

Session 1: City - The World That Is

Session 2: Heart - Three Ways To Live

Session 3: Idolatry - The Sin Beneath The Sin

Session 4: Community - The Context for Change

Session 5: Witness - An Alternate City

Session 6: Work - Cultivating The Garden

Session7: Justice - A People for Others

Session 8: Eternity - The World that is to Come

QUESTION:  WHAT BIBLE STUDY CURRICULUM ARE YOU CURRENTLY USING IN YOUR SMALL GROUPS? If you have a link to the publisher’s page for it too, please feel free to share it here too!