Above is a video interview with Jeff Vanderstelt. This is part of a promotional package for a book called A Field Guide for Everyday Mission: 30 Days and 101 Ways to Demonstrate the Gospel. I am currently reading this book and I will begin a series of posts based on this book in the next few days. I feel the straight forward approach to living on mission presented in this book will make for great conversation and thought.
For now please enjoy and be challenged by the interview with Jeff.
The Power of Habit (Doubleday Canada, 2012)
This is a book that I have found very helpful in understanding and addressing bad/unproductive habits as well as habitual sin. It is a business book and I don’t like to recommend business books often, but this one is worth the read for those who want to understand the forming and reforming of habits.
“A Helpful Message on Changing Habits With Application Toward Habitual Sin In Our Lives”
by Andy Stanley
Sorry, listening to the audio on this website requires Flash support in your browser. You can try playing the MP3 file directly by clicking here.
In a few weeks I will have the distinct privelage to be with a handful of other NAB pastors under the teaching leadership of Jeff Vanderstelt. I have known Jeff for many years since he was a youth pastor in Seattle. He is an amazing leader with an amazing passion to see the Kingdom of God grow and multiply. I know that I will be challenged with the two days that we will be with Jeff and his church family at Soma in Tacoma. The video above is a snippet of the teaching we will be receiving.
I am very excited to be walking through the Gospel of Mark as a community in this new year. I, as I said during my sermon on Sunday, always enjoy walking through the Gospels. This study of Mark will be a fun and challenging journey. I hope to be able to use this blog as a spot for further notes and thoughts.
Here is a great video that gives a good Biblical foundation for Biblical hospitality.
To Him I owe that I am not still in hunger, thirst & nakedness. Into those I brought myself; it was He who delivered me.” -John Newton
As we multiply disciples in our homes, we prepare our children to repeat the multiplication process outside our home buff.ly/1oldAIR
Tweet from @GCDiscipleship
I have said for a long time that “discipleship happens at the kitchen sink.” I believe this to be true for our children and for those God has arranged to cross our path on a regular basis. It is in the rhythm of ordinary everyday life that God brings about extraordinary changes in the lives of those we walk life with. While we wash dishes and do yard work God provides the opportunity for us to share the fabric of our faith with others.
I learned many years ago as a young youth pastor that it was hard to sit across from a young person and get them to open up to you, but if you were active in some pursuit with them they would open up to you. This pursuit could have been throwing a football, shooting hoops, washing dishes, setting up for an event, raking leaves for a senior or anything other of a million things we could do together.
I remember when I realized that was true with friends as well as my youth group. It was while cleaning the kitchen with a friend that I was able to enter easily into a spiritual conversation. In the flow of an everyday activity I was able to intertwine a discussion on this persons view about God and his involvement, or seemingly lack of involvement, in their present situation. This simple conversation was a springboard for a season of heart to heart discussions that would make us both grow in our understanding of God and his place in our lives.
I know that this information may not be revolutionary to some who read this, but for others, this kind of ordinary life conversation is something yet to be experienced. For those on either end of the spectrum I think that there is one thing that we need to master to make sure that we don’t miss out on a single opportunity to deepen the spiritual richness of our relationships, and that is the art of hospitality.
I believe that hospitality, while a natural gift for some, needs to become something that we all work towards. I believe this is a lost art that needs to be restored to and through the Body of Christ. I feel that Joanne and I have or at least have been able to develop the gift of hospitality. We love to have people in our home and yet there has been a dry season of entertaining and sharing life with others in our home. What has caused this season? Simply being to busy.
I recently read an article by Jeff Vanderstelt an old friend from my youth ministry days. In the article Jeff addresses the lost art of Gospel Hospitality. He gives this very unique and interesting definition of Gospel Hospitality:
In light of the Gospel, we might define hospitality as the creation of a space that allows people to BE themselves, to BECOME renewed, and to DO the works God has saved them for. When we properly exercise hospitality, we welcome people to be themselves in the warmth of the light of Christ, to become renewed by being changed by the work of Christ, and to do works we have been created for in Christ.
This definition and the article as a whole has given me much to think about. I will write more later, but I encourage you to click here to read the complete article by Jeff on the Gospel Centered Discipleship website.
I found this article to be a simple reminder of why we need to remain about the work of the “Great Commission”. I found Myths 2 and 3 to be particularly timely reminders for me. Read Post
Over the Christmas break I had the privilege of reading a great book entitled “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg. It is a very interesting book on habits, the forming of habits and the reforming of habits. It is a bit scientific in the beginning (which I actually enjoyed) as it addresses the anatomy of habits, but transitions into helpful advice on how to set good habits and change bad or undesirable habits into productive habits.
It has been a long while since I have read a “business” book, but I found this one very interesting as I made the application to the curse of habitual sin in our lives. It made me realize how ingrained some sins and unhealthy habits are in our lives. So much so that we are often two to three steps into the sin before we even realize we are headed that way.
I will be writing more about this in the next few weeks as I have been spending much time thinking on this topic and know the struggle that we all find ourselves in with regard to sin habits.
For now though I wanted to share the podcast interview with Charles Duhigg conducted by Pastor Andy Stanley. It is brief and just begins to touch on the topic, but I found it interesting.