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Dangerous Calling Email – Bridging the Gap Within

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Here’s my email to Elders/Deacons at Crestview on 11/13/13:

As we look to wrap up this year and think about what it means to re-engage community, live in the already and the not yet and separate from the outside world (Chapters 6, 11, and 14 in Tripp’s Dangerous Calling), I loved the practical reminders Tripp gives for “vital gospel-in-everyday-life applications that every leader must preach to himself again and again”:
1) I do not have to be anxious that I will never measure up, because Jesus perfectly measured up on my behalf.
2) Because grace allows me to get my identity and security vertically, I am freed from building them on what people think of me.
3) I do not have to be haunted by what may be exposed about me, because everything that could ever be exposed has already been covered by the blood of Jesus.
4) I need to remember that my weaknesses are not in the way of productive ministry, but my delusions of independent strength are.
5) I can rest assured that God didn’t get a wrong address when He called me to ministry.  My spiritual neediness doesn’t compromise the message of the Gospel; rather, my need preaches it.
6) There is only one Messiah, and I am definitely not Him!

Rehearse these themes and rest in the liberating truth of the Gospel.

LRC Email – Another Important PSA from Our Sponsors

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alumni, sent out on 11/12/13:

Good Morning.  I was asked to write another brief word from the Leadership Reno County Alumni Association (we’re also on Facebook: LRC Alumni).  As you know, many of you reading this weekly email at one point went through the Leadership Hutch or, as it was later (and currently) called, the Leadership Reno County program.  What is Leadership Reno County about?  Well, like I’ve said before, that would be an interesting discussion, but one theme that emerges for me is equipping leaders in Reno County to make progress on issues that we care about deeply.  Many of you are in the trenches, behind the scenes, working to make our community a better place.  Leadership Reno County exists to help you make progress in your difficult work. 
A new class for the winter and spring is in the process of filling up.  As is usually the case when we are preparing for a new class, we are facing immediate needs for scholarships for our program.   The Alumni Association would like to encourage you to join them by renewing your membership before the end of the year.  This will ensure membership through next year and it will help our community by enabling others to make progress in their work.  You, most of all, probably recognize the change factor that comes once you’ve gone through the LRC program and, therefore, you will want to be a part of this opportunity.  Therefore, would you please send a $25 membership renewal fee payable to “Leadership Reno County Alumni Association” to the following address: Debbie Cowl, Treasurer
Leadership Reno County Alumni Association
 % First National Bank of Hutchinson
P O Box 913
Hutchinson, KS  67504-0913

Thanks for taking time with this important request.    

Weekend Recap – At Home and Abroad

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At the request of the Elders of Crestview, I was encouraged to get some time away with Meghan without children (although we brought Micah with us since he’s nursing) and we were gone this weekend.  We went to Grand Lake, OK and had some great time relaxing, laughing, living unhurried and talking through our current life situation.  It was refreshing, even though it was a short window.

There are numerous people who helped back home.  Grandparents watched the boys, a family in the church watched Lauren, people covered my duties at church and Mickey Zimmerman filled the pulpit for me, preaching Ephesians 2:1-10 on one of his favorite passages.  The audio of the sermon, which I entitled My Favorite Passage for him, is online.  He had some great applications at the end on how the Gospel of grace silences and moves us to action.

We’re coming off a great weekend, then.  I hope it was encouraging for you.

Podcast Recommendation: 5 Minutes in Church History

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Busy running around today, I caught up on a podcast I had subscribed to a while ago and am happy to recommend it to you.  It’s 5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols.  
Why?
1) It’s only 5 minutes.
2) It’s insightful.
3) It’s practical.
4) It’s useful knowledge for Christians to know.
5) It’s opening and closing intro song is cool. 🙂
Check it out.  I hope you find it helpful too…

Dangerous Calling Email – DVD Session 10 Review

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Here’s my email to the elders/deacons of Crestview on 11/5/13:

In last week’s email, we reviewed session 9 of our DVD curriculum with Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling series.  Today, I’m wrapping up the brief review of these final sessions with a summary of session 10.  Session 10 was entitled “Removing Pretenses.”  The major Scripture Tripp engaged was 1 Peter 5:6-11.  He unpacked what pretenses were and got into some main points:
·      We will blame situations or people for the separation we may have between our public ministry and our private lives. 
·      We all experience a loss of awe and feelings of arrival, but can fight these temptations by:
o   Remembering your place: humble yourself under the mighty hand of God
o   Resting in God’s care (He cares for you)
o   Taking the war of ministry seriously
o   Resisting (evil), no matter what
o   Trusting God’s sanctifying grace
Some questions:
1)    What is a pretense?  How do we use pretense to make ourselves comfortable with a separation between our public ministry and private lives?
2)    What changes would you like to see in your church ministry culture?  In yourself?
3)    What perceptions about yourself or ministry have changed as you’ve worked through this material?
Applications:
·      Which action do you need to be more mindful to incorporate into your life and ministry: humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God; resting in God’s care; taking the war of ministry seriously; resisting, no matter what; or trusting God’s sanctifying grace?
·      How can we build a healthy and effective culture of ministry together?

I trust these sessions have been good for us as a leadership team.  I’m going to do 2 more emails and then wrap up for the year.  Hope you have a great week living out these truths.

Review of Alec Motyer’s Preaching…

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Here’s a review of Alec Motyer’s book Preaching?: Simple Teaching on Simply Preaching:

I’m happy to give a very favorable review to Alec Motyer’s Preaching.  For one, as a pastor in a local church with responsibilities to preach each week, I find that any encouragement I can get to refine this skill is helpful.  On a deeper level, though, because of what I believe about God’s Word, preaching isn’t just a ho-hum, random activity for me.  Each week, I want to communicate the message that God has for His people.  It’s because these dual realities exist that I give a favorable review to Motyer’s work. 
This book is readable; it’s accessible.  The book doesn’t read like a heady expositional preaching textbook (which can be helpful, as well).  The content is laid out in an engaging way.  You almost anticipate what the next chapter should be and Motyer delivers the content that’s needed in light of the importance that goes with the work of preaching.
Another thing I loved was how each chapter is thoroughly Biblical.  There are numerous illustrations from the Bible itself.  It’s almost as if this book is a thrilling Biblical theology of expositional preaching at times.  As God’s Word is held out to help the reader, connections are made to the act of preaching.  It seems to me that this methodology allows the Holy Spirit to help teach us how to go about preaching through the Holy Spirit given gifts of this author.  This makes this little book of preaching of great value to the preacher as it flows out of our Bible reading.
Finally, the book ends with that grand capstone: Christ.  There’s a tension each preacher feels in wanting Christ to be seen and glorified yet realizing that each specific text might not explicitly call for a Gospel appeal.  Motyer makes some helpful inroads for helping preachers navigate this tension. 

So, for these reasons, I commend this work.  It will be helpful for pastors seeking to honor God in the preaching event.  It will assist lay leaders in understanding the importance of the preaching text.  And, for all, it will help us marvel at the grace that’s give by our great God in communicating through the medium of His Word.  

LRC Email – Anyone, Anytime, In Any Gap, Anywhere

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County Alumni for 11/4/13:

Been racing through the KLC’s Leadership Principles the past few weeks offering a review/reminder of the important things that define our activities of leadership.  Specifically, we’ve spoken of the gap that exists between our reality and where we’d like to be and seen how it’s not so much authority (which can be helpful/necessary at times in providing protection, direction and order) but engaging in the activity of leadership that will help us make progress.  Today, is the simple reminder that anyone can lead anytime, anywhere. 
You see when it comes to the gaps of our current reality and where progress needs to be made, we tend to default, I think, in letting the experts handle things.  We like to offer up all kinds of solutions on Facebook, coffee meetings and a host of other venues, but rarely do we get our skin in the game.  And, yet, this is what is necessary for progress to be made in the gaps of your world.  Anyone.  Anytime.  Anywhere. 

Today, what steps can you take to make progress?  What conversations, diagnoses, interventions or considerations could you pursue to help make progress on the matters of life that you face?  You can engage in an act of leadership today where you are.  This is a core defining principle that we believe.  So, why not engage in something in someway at sometime and see if it doesn’t help us make progress in those areas we care about deeply. 

Weekend Recap – All Things New

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My 11/3/13AM sermon, All Things New from Revelation 21:1-8, is now online.  The sermon sought to unpack and give encouragement from the realities of the new creation that will fully and finally be realized in the lives of believers someday.  I think there was a lot in this passage for unbelievers as well as pressing applications for believers to engage in.

Hope it’s encouraging and beneficial for you.

Halloween – Mocking the Darkness

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On the cusp of the customary All Saints Day
The Christ-i-an kinsfolk made mocking display.
These children of light both to tease and deride;
Don darkness, doll down as the sinister side.
In pre-post-er-ous pageants and dress diabolic,
They hand to the damned just one final frolick.
You see with the light of the dawn on the morrow,
The sunrise will swallow such darkness and sorrow.

(HT: Tony Reinke)

DC Email – Review Session 9

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My email to Elders/Deacons of Crestview on 10/29/13:

Thanks for the hard work last Tuesday, men.  For the next two weeks, I’m going to review the Dangerous Calling DVD sessions so that we can keep pressing on to application.  Session 9 was entitled The Danger of Separation.  Tripp read Ephesians 6:10-20 on spiritual warfare.  His key points:
·         One of the dangers of arrival is that you become comfortable with a disconnect between who you are in public ministry and who you are in private. 
·         Spiritual warfare is being waged in the little moments of life within our hearts. 
·         Since all of life is ministry, we are always in the role of ambassadors of Christ.
Following up on this, Tripp asked:
1) What are possible disconnects that may exist between our ministry persona and who we are at home, with family or in private?
2) What are some possible reasons why someone would become comfortable with a disconnected life?
Some applications:
·         Are you doing things you would be embarrassed for your brothers and sisters in Christ to know about?
·         If your spouse honestly wrote down 5 character qualities that described you at home, what would she write?  What 5 qualities would your children write down?
·         Is the culture of our church safe for those in ministry to confess sin?
·         Would you be quick to judge and condemn, or will you be quick to seek God and begin the process of restoration and forgiveness?

I hope as you consider this session that fresh grace comes to your life…