I spent last night representing Church Planters of the Rockies at Valley View Christian Church's missions fair. There were about 15 of us there ... ranging from a Bible translater in Africa to Camp Como to guys like me. Scott Bloyer was also there. Scott is the lead pastor at Elevation Christian Church in Aurora, a church plant that started on October 10, 2010, and is doing really well. Last year alone, they baptized over 60 people! In December they moved to a larger school that would give them a greater potential for growth. In less than two years they are averaging nearly 200 people a weekend. In a few months they will be launching a video campus inside two of Colorado's prisons. Did I mention things are going really well? They have done all of this with a barebones budget for marketing. Typical of a new church, they started…
Read More
Here is the audio of my most recent sermon -- Beyond Words: Taking Faith from Lecture to Lab. To view notes from YouVersion, click here.
Read More
Last weekend, my communion meditation talked about things that have been discovered by accident. The list includes: LSD Corn flakes Penicillin Microwave ovens Silly Putty Post-it Notes Play-Doh Viagra The Slinky And there are others. It's a testament to the creativity of God and human ingenuity that many of the technological breakthroughs we enjoy were the unintended consequences of someone's tinkering around. In a sense, they were just accidents. That may work when it comes to biology, but it's not the best way to discover your eternal purpose. Few people answer the question "Why am I here?" by accident. It's not they set out to find the best BBQ sauce and end up discovering the meaning of life (though, I have to admit, a good dry rub adds meaning to life). Some wait for their purpose to fall into their lap. Others act like it all depends on them. Neither…
Read More
Yesterday's post about Max Lucado made me think of other books that influenced my thinking and behavior as a young believer. I'll share the list below. Some may not mean anything to you; it's likely you may not have heard of a few of the authors. That's probably more indicative of my experience than your's. These were the books I needed to read. So ... here it goes (in no particular order): I Just Want to be a Christian by Rubel Shelly Discipleship: The Multiplying Ministry by Milton Jones Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Power for Living by Jamie Buckingham The Cruciform Church by Leonard Allen The Worldly Church by Leonard Allen The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman How about you? What were the books that influenced your faith development? ---------------------- If you've never seen the movie about C.S. Lewis, I'd recommend it.…
Read More
For ninety-nine cents I couldn't pass it up. That's how much paperbacks cost at Goodwill. Granted, most of them are worth about ninety-nine cents. Romance novels, even less. Not this one. This particular book did for me something few books ever do: it changed the way I live. It did so by changing the way I viewed Jesus. As a teenager, for the first time, Jesus became a living, breathing person to me. With words and images, it painted color between the black and white lines of scripture. It was Max Lucado's "No Wonder They Call Him the Savior". Over the years, I have given copies of this book to new believers and non-believers alike. As my two daughters have grown older, I have thought about getting them a copy as well. And there it was -- for only ninety-nine cents. My oldest is about the age when I first…
Read More