SteveO on Youth Ministry

Our good buddy Steven Staton, who's been steppin it up some here lately in the blogosphere, posted a great blog today on youth ministry called, "Two People Stuck on an Escalator." Check it out...and watch the video. Great analogy Steve.

The Faithful Pastor and the Faithful Church: an interview with Mark Dever

Here is an interview with Mark Dever that is pretty good and covers a few different topics.

Mark is a pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Chruch in D.C., and is also part of the Together for the Gospel crew, and started 9 Marks ministries.

BlogRoll

Seeing how the blogosphere and it's followers seem to be growing everyday...here's a list of some of our recommended daily reading material:

• PerryNoble.com
• Mark Driscoll
• Mark Batterson
• Internet Monk
• Monday Morning Insight
• Out Of Ur
• Steven Furtick
• Bible Belt Blogger
• Desiring God Blog
• Ben Witherington III
  
• Between Two Worlds
• Reformation 21 blog
• Stand to Reason blog
• Challies dot com
• Christian Research Network
  
• Green Baggins
• Riddleblog
• Jesus Creed
  
• Founders Ministries
  
• Triablogue
  
• Dr. Albert Mohler
• Team Pyro

If you have any other recommendations for the list...leave comments with the links.

Feature Blog:Simply or Merely? Comparing Mere Christianity and Simply Christian

Seeing how Mere Christianity is one of my all time favorite books, I found this InternetMonk Blog to be a great fit for this "featured blog." Make sure you go read the entire blog here.



Mere Christianity and Simply Christian are far more different than they are similar, and comparisons of one to the other are probably not necessary. Both have a role to play. Here’s my assessment of which is the better book when I look at both in various ways.

Best Conversation Starter With A Non-Christian: Lewis. Hands down. His logic, voice, illustrations, humor and unforgettable conclusions are as provocative as ever.

Best Apologetic: The answer here depends on how we define apologetics. Both Ravi Zacharias and James White are apologists. In the sense of making an appealing and convincing case, I give the nod to Wright. If I were voting on the strength of individual arguments that might “score points,” then Lewis.

Readability: Lewis’s prose is accessible, but less and less as time goes by. Still, if I had to give one of the two books to the average literate adult in my home of Clay County, I’d go with Lewis. Much of Mere Christianity is still accessible to even a high school audience. Wright goes deeper, and even when he is writing a non-scholarly book, he sounds more like an Oxford professor than a blue-collar pastor. (That’s not a bad thing. I just think Lewis was able to talk with ordinary people in an unusual way for such a scholarly giant.)

Best Presentation of Jesus: Wright has a lot more to say about Jesus. His sections on Jesus are outstanding summaries of the current state of Jesus scholarship. Lewis keeps his discussion of Jesus almost entirely on the incarnation and the atonement. Wright does the better job here.

Best Overview of the Faith: Wright. No contest. This would be an excellent book for a “Christian Theology 101” weekend or short class. Lewis never intends to overview the whole Christian story.

Most Successful at What Was Attempted: I think Lewis wrote a great book somewhat by accident. Wright, on the other hand, set out to produce a simple, accessible overview of the faith, and I think he succeeded completely. Wright gets the nod.

Most Theologically Conservative: Lewis simply doesn’t show his hand at many issues. Wright is orthodox, but certainly doesn’t buy into fundamentalism, or even some of the common assumptions of conservative evangelicalism. Lewis wins here, but on presumption. Wright is no liberal on the essentials, that’s for sure, and much of his contribution is to get beyond these labels to something more useful.

Best Organization: Lewis’s chapters build on one another at key points. Wright’s book is elegantly harmonious and exceptionally crafted. Wright wins.

Can Only Buy One: Go to Amazon and buy both used. No way you need to make that choice.

The TV Evangelist Who Sent ME Money: Featured Blog

Ran across this blog over on Frank Lockwood's Bible Belt Blogger. It was interesting enough that it deserves to be our featured blog this week...so read it below. Who knows...maybe a TV evangelist will send you money!
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I gave my first donation to a TV evangelist when I was nine years old. The preacher was Rex Humbard of Akron. My tax-deductible contribution totalled 27 cents. I received urgent fund raising appeals for the next three years.

Since then, I’ve seen requests for money from Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts and Franklin Graham. But this week, for the first time ever, a TV preacher SENT MONEY TO ME.

Pastor Bob Tilton of Tulsa, Oklahoma mailed me a crisp new $1 bill from the federal reserve bank in Minneapolis along with an upbeat, computer-generated letter.

“I TELL YOU, FRANK, THIS IS YOUR TIME!...Frank, hold this “seed dollar” in your hand as you continue to read the words: “IN GOD WE TRUST.” I sent you this dollar bill as a seed to help you Prime the Pump for the wellspring of blessings that will flow like a river out of you.”

To get those blessings flowing like an Oklahoma oil well, Pastor Bob said I need to take that dollar and mail it back to Tulsa—along with my best gift of $29, $49, $199 or $499.

“Frank, when I receive your answer back, I am going to send you some anointing oil to help you believe God for a continuous miracle. When you receive this anointing oil, anoint your wallet and all your bills as our Point of Contact...for your CONTINUOUS MIRACLE.”

Pastor Bob used to air on television stations across America. But after Prime Time Live aired damning allegations of ministerial misconduct, he faded from the screen. He’s back however (with his third wife and four french poodles) preaching his get-rich-quick spiritual schemes on BET. I caught his show on a recent trip to Arkansas and called the toll-free number. Now, he says, I too can reap financial blessings.

Many TV evangelists seek donations. But Tilton goes after those who are poor and struggling. His letter asks “How much do you need to pay all your debts? Write your answer here: $ _______”

Then it asks, “What is your biggest debt?_______________”

For those scraping by, he writes: “If it’s just impossible for you to give $29 along with this dollar bill, then give the closest thing you have to that and send it...”

It’s a spiritual pyramid scheme. But when Pastor Bob sowed money in my life, I’m afraid it fell among thorns.

Pastor Bob urged me to leave this new seed faith dollar in my Bible overnight and then mail it back to him. But I sowed it in a Herald-Leader soda machine instead (after inspecting it carefully to make sure it wasn’t counterfeit.) Just as Esau threw away his inheritance for a bowl of pottage, I traded my shot at “unlimited blessings, unlimited miracles, unlimited prosperity” for a cold, 65-cent can of Diet Coke. With the remaining 35 cents, I made a down-payment on a Mounds bar.

Pastor Bob, if you’re reading my blog, please SEND MORE MONEY. Don’t be stingy—mail me “YOUR BEST GIFT”—and a copy of your free book Learn How to Pay Your Bills—Supernaturally!

(Yes, he’s really written a book by that title. And yes, he’s offering it for free on his website.)

(Link to original post)

Featured Blog of the Week

Gary Lamb

Blog: Mad Babble From a Church Planter

Lessons learned from NOT attending church...

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1. The large majority of people DO NOT go to church - Every pastor who has ever said we don't need more churches or that their church is reaching the community just fine is simply an idiot. I got the family up this morning and took the family to eat breakfast and run some errands and every place we went to was SLAMMED. Driving through the neighborhood I saw the large majority of my neighbors home. The church parking lots were empty as well. As pastors we are in church on Sunday mornings and as a result we don't see the facts about our community. The large % of people are not in church and see no point in it. The church better wake up and accept this fact and they better do it soon.
2. Men don't go to church - Yep, this is my hobby horse and I make no apologies about it at all. I would say there were 3 men out for every one woman we saw. I heard three different men at three different times at three different places make some type of comment about the wife and kids being at church. The church has become to feminine in it's methods and practices that men look at it as something women do and the kids should do. This is a hill I am willing to die on and as such RSC will always focus on reaching men because if you reach the man, you reach the family.
   

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Feature Blog of the Week

Yeah so being the single guy that I am, as soon as I ran across this blog the other day I knew it had to be the featured blog of the week. Oh and let me remind you that I didn't write this blog, I wish I did...except for the fact that Perry was slappin me around with some of these comments, so just remember that as you read this because I wish I had the whole single dude thing down as he describes it...

Perry Noble

Five Things A Single Dude NEEDS To Know…

OK guys…here we go…I’ve been wanting to do this one for a long time. Please keep in mind that I made TONS of mistakes as a single dude…so these lessons are NOT all as a result of my success stories. BUT…I did manage to do some things right…and I have a red hot wife to prove it. (Thank You Jesus!!!)

#1 - If You Are Interested In A Girl…YOU Need To Talk To HER.

The Bible says in Proverbs 18:22 that he who FINDS a wife finds what is good (AMEN!) Men…it is up to you to FIND a wife…that means YOU are to be the one to initiate things…if you want to be the leader IN the relationship then you should take steps to be the leader at the beginning of the relationship!

This means, if you are interested in a girl…you talk to her!!! You don’t call HER friends and ask them to drop hints for you…unless you are a pathetic wimp. You don’t get YOUR friends to drop hints to her friends. BE A MAN! If you want to ask her out…ASK HER OUT! Trust me…her friends don’t want to talk to you about it anymore…and if you keep bothering them they are going to tell HER to stay away from you!

continue reading the other 4 things....

Feature of the Week- Oxymoron-Liberal Evangelical

Tony Campolo on "Being an Oxymoron"


(excerpt from the Huffington Post)

A few weeks ago I was a guest on Steven Colbert's popular television show, The Colbert Report. He introduced me as an Evangelical who is liberal on social issues. Then he added, "He's a living oxymoron!"

Sadly, his words reflect the way Evangelicals are regularly perceived. Here in the United States, Evangelical Christians have become so married to the Right wing of the Republican Party that it is hard for those outside our faith community to imagine that a significant minority of Evangelicals have socially liberal politics.

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The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism--then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

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Featured Blog of the Week

Michael Spencer: www.internetmonk.com



Thoughts on One SBC Church Split

In thousands of SBC churches, there is a story no one wants to put it in the papers. It’s the story of people with money, people with local and family power, men who want to control churches and have the church staff dismissable at their call. It is the story of repeated attempts to circumnavigate the congregational processes and influence churches in ways that are never acceptable in a New Testament church. How many pastors are acquainted with that story?....

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Featured Blog of the Week

Perry Noble: www.perrynoble.com


Can God Be A Pain In The Butt?

OK…this is awesome! I had this thought in my quiet time yesterday–that God can be a pain in the butt to those who are most opposed to Him…that you do not have to fight His battles…that He’s a really big God and can take care of Himself. This all came from I Samuel 5:1-12.

See, here is what happened…the Israelites were getting their rear-ends kicked all over the place by the Philistines. SO…they had this idea, “Let’s take the Ark of the Covenant into battle–then we will win.” (Basically they were attempting to use God as a good luck charm–which always turns out bad!)

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