Friday Favorites-10/16/09

Jonathan Herron had a couple of great posts based on stuff he heard at Catalyst 2009.
-This post from the session with Chuck Swindoll listed the 10 things he's learned in 50 years of ministry. So much wisdom there.
-And this post from the session with Andy Stanley on Healthy Church Teams. Trust on a team is huge!!!
I am really looking forward to the day when I am able to get to some of the great conferences that there are for pastors (Catalyst and Innovate are two on my wish list.)

The Long Road to a Million Miles

The internet can be a strange and wonderful place. You never know what you might find or where a particular series of links may lead. This morning I followed a path that led me back to the EPIC series we are finishing up at Lifegate this week.

It all started reading Jonathan Herron's blog. He had a few posts last week from the Catalyst 2o09 conference in Atlanta. That led me to the Catalyst site, where I stumbled onto Andy Stanley's twitter feed. So I headed over there to add him to my list of guys I follow and noticed that while he has something like 22,000 followers on twitter he only follows 42 people. So curious to see who these 42 people were that Andy thought were important enough for him to follow I clicked over to that list and came across a name I wasn't familiar with, Scot McKnight. That led me to his blog-Jesus Creed-where he had a review of Donald Miller's new book-A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Whew.

I finished Millers book a couple weeks ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Primarily because the theme of his book goes hand in hand with the current sermon series we're in at Lifegate-EPIC. In EPIC we've been talking about 3 relationships where you must be going deeper if you truly want to have a life that goes beyond the ordinary. In his book, Miller talks about the Story we all find ourselves in and the importance of understanding how the choices we make every day impact what kind of story we will live. If we are unaware of our choices and don't make them intentionally, most of us will end up living a mundane, mediocre, ordinary life or we can begin today to choose to live an EPIC story, a Story that matters, a Story that God can use to make a difference in the world.

What kind of Story are you living? Make it EPIC.

Friday Favorites-9/25/09

-Mark Batterson's post on success was a great reminder of what true success really looks like.

-I always love Dan Kimball's posts & this one on the latest (last?) book on the emerging church was no exception. Make sure you check out what he writes about tradition in the last half of the post. Great stuff.

EPIC

One of my favorite words for about the last 10 years has been epic. I can trace that back to two things: 1) This book by Len Sweet and 2) The EPIC service I had the honor of leading for almost 2 years at Lifehouse Church in Rocklin, CA.
Now the next EPIC chapter in my life and ministry: This Sunday we are starting a new series at Lifegate-EPIC: Surpassing the Ordinary. We will be spending the next 3 weeks looking at what it takes to have a life that goes beyond the ordinary. I believe that a life that is beyond the ordinary is a life that has some true depth and meaning, so we will be focusing on what it takes to go deeper in 3 key relationships:

Week 1: Going Deeper with God
Week 2: Going Deeper with Other Christ-followers
Week 3: Going Deeper with your oikos

Don't miss it-be sure and come check out the "epic" feel of the auditorium.

It should be EPIC.

Friday Favorites-9/18/09

Best blog post's I read this week:

-Mark Batterson's post on Spiritual Hunger was a real kick in the pants for me & my own desire to know God more.

-Curtis Honeycutt's Open Letter to Those who have Been Burned by church raises some interesting points. I would pray that Lifegate is the kind of church where those who have been burned by the church in the past would feel loved & welcome.

-Earlier this week I wrote a little about Clark Blakeman and the work he is doing with Second Stories. If you want to know more about why they do what they do check out his post here.

-Here is a post from Andy Crouch about the opening show of U2's 360 tour. If there was one show I could go to this year-this would be it.

Transforming Neighborhoods, Transforming Lives

God is at work.

Yes, I know He is always at work, but so often we miss seeing Him work for one reason or another. Today, I was thrilled to catch a glimpse of what He is doing in the body of Christ here in Portland, OR.

I was part of a Pastors prayer gathering for mid-Multnomah county (the story of how this group came to be is for another post) and sitting at one end of the table were three guys that I believe God is using in great ways to further His kingdom. Milan Homola, Mike VanDerVeen & Clark Blakeman. Three different guys, three different ministries but in one way or another God is using all of them to build His kingdom.

Milan is the Executive Director of Compassion Connect, a ministry he helped launch last year with the vision of seeing "many churches working together to transform their neighborhoods."

Clark has just launched his new ministry Second Stories, a non-profit that is "training churches with a process to move toward a collaborative engagement of neighborhood transformation.This is a facilitated process where missional, incarnational theology is woven together with best principles from community development practitioners."

Mike is working out of the East Portland Neighborhood office as an Americorp staff person to facilitate the idea of Asset Based Community Development.

Three different approaches but the idea is the same "Bringing up there down here". Helping the church engage their community, not just telling people about the Love of God, but showing them & in the process we building relationships. Each of these guys are helping us not just go to church, but be the church.

I'm honored to know each of these guys. I'm excited to see how God will continue to use them to build His kingdom & I'm praying that He will show us how Lifegate can be a part of what He is doing.

Friendship Sunday 2009

If you are in the Portland area please come and join us at Lifegate for Friendship Sunday. We've been encouraging our members to invite as many friends as they can to come for a great time of singing and to hear about how we can all have the kind of life we've always dreamed of.

Be here Sunday morning at 10:45 a.m. and then stick around for a community dinner right. It will be a fun morning followed by some great food.

And for all of you who call Lifegate home, don't forget to invite your friends. See you Sunday.