General

Giving is an outward expression of what is going on inside of you. For Christ-followers who have been touched and redeemed by the grace of God, giving to others is simply an outflowing of that grace.  It is a recognition that we who have freely received must freely give.

This past weekend I spoke on spiritual growth at Mountainview (catch the podcast here) as part of our "The Passionate Life of MRS GREN" series.  I spent most of the teaching time debunking common spiritual growth myths. Myth number one: Spiritual growth just happens.  You don't have to do anything, it just happens.  While that might be nice, it's not true.  It would also be nice if simply walking in the vicinity of the gym would make my muscles pop out.  I'd settle for having to walk within the shadow of the gym. The truth is: spiritual growth begins with a choice.  In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul praises the Philippian church for being obedient both in his presence and absence.  But he doesn't take it for granted that they will always be faithful.  That's why he encourages them to continue to be obedient.  Even as we mature, it still takes a…

The following is a paragraph from "How do we encourage busy people to volunteer." A year or so ago we borrowed an idea from Fellowship Church, got creative with our own label, and now host periodic “VolunTOUR” opportunities. Guests and members can tour the campus, getting a “behind the scenes” view of the many “first serve” volunteer roles at Granger. We’ve seen the best results with this strategy. It won’t be our last though. I’m sure it’ll change again.

Here is a good post for anyone who leads worship at a local church.  It's from Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church in Atlanta.

A blog post from Seth Godin worth repeating (especially to churches): ********** Who spreads your word? In order for an idea to spread, someone has to do the spreading. In the dark ages (ten years ago), the only way to spread your idea on a large scale was to do it yourself. Lots and lots of ads. Today, marketers get all sweaty thinking about how this happens magically, virally, for free. If it were only that easy. What's interesting to me is that different products and ideas are spread by different groups of people. There isn't just one professional association of idea spreaders, with everyone else being passive. If your authentic little Welsh restaurant gets hot, it's going to be because the chowhounds, the folks who love to talk about the next great place, are buzzing about it. On the other hand, if your blog gets a lot of traffic,…