Fridays are for Friends & Family 10.02.09

It’s time to make our weekly review of the online highlights of the past week. We start with a series of articles being written by Neil Cole, head of Church Multiplication Associates and author of Organic Church, among other things. Neil has been tackling the topic of multi-site churches in a series of blog posts. This critique has been inspired by the current trend toward seeing multi-site works as “church plants” (or worse, seeing them as replacements for church plants). Cole disagrees, as do I, with that assessment for a variety of reasons. To date, he’s posted five entries on the topic. You can read them here.

In my studies for a message last week on church planting, my new Twitter connection, Art Mealer, chimed in to let me know of an Interactive Map of the Early Church’s Ministry, and especially Paul’s church planting efforts, at his website. I found it very interesting; perhaps you will too. Get to the site by clicking here. While you’re at his site, you may want to check out his other church planting materials also.

This past week I came across a post by Perry Noble, pastor at New Spring Church in South Carolina. This blog post reflects on fourteen things that Jesus did NOT say that have crept into our “Christian” lives and  affect our relationship with God and with others. You can check it out here.

Do you remember THE NINES presentations, sponsored by Leadership Network, and shared via Internet on 09/09/09 starting at 9:09am? These taped “leadership segments” of nines minutes or shorter are now online and available for you to view again or for the first time if you missed them on that day. You can get to the site from here.

My daughter, Sarah, shared on her Twitter account something she discovered recently: LIFE magazine, one of the great photographic masterpieces in periodic literature, is now completely online (all editions). You can browse through the multiple years of pictures and articles by going to the site from here.

This past week many of you who keep up with my Twitter feed or my Facebook account know that my young, 3rd cousin, Gabriella Grace Jackson, down in the metro Tampa, Florida, area is fighting for her life. She has breathing problems and concerns about brain function and movement. I am once again asking for your prayers on her behalf. Would you lift up a prayer to the Heavenly Father, asking for strength and health in her little one-week old body? My undying gratitude is extended to you for helping with this request.

Fridays are for Friends & Family 08.14.09

Another week has come and gone, so with Friday upon us we turn our attention once again to what’s been happening of note around us on the Web this week. Let’s start with a very short video that has made every sports and news show this past week. The question everyone’s asking: is it real or not? What do you think?

On the denominational front this week, a new website has emerged authored by a handful of individuals, including our own BCM/D pastor/author David Phillips (see my blogroll on the side). The authors at missioscapes.com are all Southern Baptist pastors and leaders. They have started the site

Authors promise not to take selves too seriously

“with a series of posts designed to interact with a current important topic in SBC life, the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force.  This seven-part series, entitled ‘If We Were The Great Commission Task Force…’, will provide a means for us to share some ideas that we’ve had about the task force, providing positive fodder for discussion.  The purpose will not be to provide a critique of decisions made by the group (as evidenced by our writing in advance of decisions they will make), but what we would do if we were the group itself.”

You can check it out here. Search the Category “Denominationalism” for the GCR posts.

In church planting, if you’ve been following my blog for at least a few weeks you know that David Putman wrote a post about “mistakes” church planters make and I linked to it here. Following his post, I put up a couple of articles of my own dealing with this topic. Currently, others are writing on this too. Shaun King, planter of Courageous Church in Atlanta, a current practitioner, wrote on this from his perspective, too. His thoughts are different and will connect with some of you starting new churches. You can go to his article here.

In leadership this week, Leadership Network is hosting a unique training event called “The Nines” on September 9 (9/9/09, get it?), starting at 9:09am (that’s right).  It is

“a free one-day event that will take place totally on-line.  It is specifically designed for any church leaders who is interested in learning valuable things about church leadership….Leadership Network asked some of the church’s greatest communicators:  ‘If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?””

I’m planning to join the online training day and I want to encourage every church planter and pastoral leader to do the same. The lessons learned from over 50 key leaders in the American church will be invaluable. You can register for the FREE event here.

I’ll catch up with you all again next week!

Fridays are for Friends & Family 06.12.09

Time once again for our weekly excursion around the web! Have you seen this video that’s making the rounds this week? It’s been described as the best motivational video out there and reminds us that “if you’ve never failed, then you’ve never lived.” Check it out below.

Text-messaging is a big deal these days, especially to the younger generations. (My children would rather text-message than email.) Consequently, some one along the way has taken the time and the trouble to look at the Ten Commandments, if they had been text-messaged instead of carved into stone. Here’s what Fast Company magazine theorized they would be.

Our youngest child, Rebekah, seen here with her conductor, just completed her first year in the Preparatory Strings of the Annapolis Youth Symphony Orchestra. Two weeks ago was her final orchestra performance of the year and she did a fabulous job!  I am so proud of her and the hard work and talent she has invested. Rebekah is quite a remarkable young lady. If you have not heard her Strings perform, then you can do so by watching this video from an earlier concert this year; Rebekah’s exactly in the center of the orchestra.

Leadership Network, an organization that you need to know if you don’t already, has a number of church planting resources available to you for free. Most are research and reports that can help you be more effective in your church planting work. Dave Travis and Linda Stanley have done a great job with Leadership Network; I highly recommend them! You can find these resources by traveling from here straight to their website’s church planting section.

Twitter Picture of the Week

Ever have things that make you go “hmmmm?” This picture did that for me when it showed up on my Twitter feed last week.

I guess you never know what you’ll find on Twitter, wouldn’t you agree?

Podcast of the Week

This week’s selected podcast is one that I did with Dr. Joel Rainey, author of Church Planting in the Real World, not long after his book was published. This book, which deals with church planting from a non-megachurch perspective, has been a big hit on several seminary campuses. You can download or listen to our conversation here.

Church Planting Website of the Week

This week I’m highlighted another of our Baltimore church plants, The Garden Community, led by planter/pastor Joel Kurz. This church plant is in the heart of the city–the Mount Vernon area–and is making a great impact of families and the community for the Lord. Their website highlights much of what’s going on there, so check it out. Until next time!