Why churches begin with the best of intentions to make disciples only to drift off course, falling back in pragmatic or programmatic ways of thinking? Probably because there's a culture problem argues author Brandon Guindon. Guindon points out that strategies for making disciples don't set the culture of the church. It's the other way around:…
In his book, The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande wants to eliminate mistakes through the power of a checklist. Gawande points out that people make a lot of mistakes, usually because of ignorance or ineptitude. People may not know what to do or they may fail to apply the knowledge they do have correctly (8). Further…
Ed Stetzer is the Southern Baptist church planting guru. Planting Missional Churches functions like a textbook for a seminary class on church planting. By missional, Stetzer means "doing mission right where you are" (19). For Stetzer, it means thinking like a missionary to our own American culture. A missional church then has a culture whereby it…
Alan Hirsch coined a lot of terminology to pretty say the same thing as every other church planting book ever written. Hirsch entitles his paradigm of ministry, "Apostolic Genius" (81) (I'm sure no pride influenced the name). Essentially Hirsch says that traditional church doesn't work anymore and what we need is church 2.0 which sounds…
Lincroft Bible Church can learn much about church planting in our own country by learning from the experience of global church planters. In their book, Global Church Planting, author Craig Ott and Gene Wilson thoroughly breakdown the task of church planting by providing "best practices" and "principles" for aspiring planters to follow. The first section gives the…
What do Christians believe? And what role, if any, do the teachings of Christianity play in helping believers live out their faith? It is precisely these kinds of question which Michael Horton attempts to answer is his systematic theology, The Christian Faith. In his book, Horton attempts to teach through all the major teachings of Christianity. He…
Reason for God by Tim Keller Great apologetics book. I use it all the time for my preaching in thinking of how to engage skeptical and postmodern people. Current on the trends in philosophy and sociology. Very good on the gospel. This is definitely a BUY. Proof by Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones Refocuses the infamous…
God’s people live for God’s mission. Scripture tells us that the church community as a whole is commissioned by God for mission: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of…
Raising Lazarus 