I’m seeing a lot of “negative” lists popping up now. They are all written in sarcasm, but it’s kind of interesting to see them, from “10 Ways to Keep Me Away From Church on Sunday AM” to “9 Ways to Persuade Me That Reading the Bible is Evil”. It’s kind of related to the Satan billboards by LifeChurch.tv. Interesting trend, nonetheless.
Finally! A high-quality contact manager for the web that doesn’t suck. It’s put out by the same people that brough us Campfire, Backpack, and Basecamp: 37Signals, and it’s called Highrise. It’s the same overall format as the other program, so it’s somewhat familiar out the gate. And it handles tasks seamlessly with contacts as well.
What can we use it for? Of course there are the usual contact uses: database of other pastors, database of congregants, etc; but with Highrise, you can keep track of phone calls, visitations, etc. I can see it in any ministerial context, really, such as coaching or even youth ministry.
It’s really a great tool, and I’m excited and relieved at the same time. You can find it here: highrisehq.com
We are about to wrap-up and finish an expositional series on the book of Matthew here in Eastern NC. I’m collecting my notes, pouring over some more commentaries, and writing my own commentary on the book of Matthew. One of my life goals is to write a Biblical commentary. Need to get started, I’m already a little behind. 
If you’d like it when I’m done, just leave a quick comment.
I’ve read many places, and pretty much agree, that the church plant in it’s early stages, no matter what people say, doesn’t follow and build off of the vision of the leader. The infant church plant instead builds off of and follows the leader himself. What does this mean? The leader must be the vision in flesh. He must embody the vision in every aspect possible, so that as the church plant grows, it can wean off of the leader and onto the vision. Off of infant milk, and onto solid foods, as the Apostle Paul would write. People are drawn to the leader in the early stages, but if the leader embodies the vision, they will transition easily.
This also means, however, that the leader of a church plant must be able to say, as Paul did, “follow me, because I follow Christ”. The church, being built around and off of it’s leader, must be built on Christ as well. Notice that if the leader is a fully devoted follower of Christ and he embodies the vision, then the vision is Christ-centered. Isn’t it nice how things fit together like that? But to a church plant, who reaches mainly non-Christians, being Christ-centered is hard (even impossible) to achieve without the leader being a carbon copy of Christ sans atoning capabilities. The leader of the baby church must also be a lover of Scripture, if the church is ever going to love Scripture. He must be a prayer, if the church is ever going to have a praying culture. We so often neglect these things, and look at “personality” of the leader and “style” of the church. Yes, they are hand in hand, but the redemptive and disciplinal qualities (or lack thereof) of the leader are integrated into the church plant as well.
There’s a lot of thought going around concerning the function of the church in today’s world (and indeed in any world across time). I’ve put some thought into it myself (for obvious reasons), and have come to this conclusion: the Church is meant to create a Christ-centered counter-culture. Wow! What a great revelation, Derek! You’re the first ever to think that up!
We have all been hearing this for a while. But only a handful of leaders are really talking about how to go about creating a theocentric culture. The answer, of course, lies in Scripture. God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and then again He gives this command to Noah. Jesus teaches His disciples to be in the world, but not of it. He tells them to be as salt and as light. He instructs us that He who is in is is greater than He who is in the world. The answer to the question of how we create a Christ-centered culture is simple: the Church is to create Christ-centered people. This is the Great Commission (go and make disciples). We, the church specifically as an institution of the Church at large, are to be fruitful and multiply among people, who are then acting as the Church at large and creating a counter-culture which is Christ-centered. When we, the church as an institution, focus away from people (the real Church), we lose our mission. We lose our focus, and in the end, we will lose the culture war of our time.
Lesson? Focus on the mission: focus on people.
I'm a Christian/husband/church planter in Greenville, NC. I love my King, my wife, and my church (in that order). This blog is my place to put thoughts, encouragements, things that depress me, and an all-around mental dump-off for me. Hope you enjoy it...
