every man's battle video

The Every Man's Battle Video study is designed to be an integral part for men when it comes to living a life of sexual integrity. The book, workbook and DVD (all included in the curriculum kit) make a complete resource to help men win the war on sexual temptation - individually and corporately.

This kit is a fantastic resource for every men's ministry to have and use. The authors (Steve Arterburn & Fred Stoeker) quote a stat that 10% of men have no temptation with lust and 10% are sexually deviant. That leaves 80% of all men who vary in their struggle with sexual purity. I do not find myself in either category of 10%, but squarely in the high end of the 80%. I found this material to be incredibly helpful in theory and in practice. I began working through this curriculum a few weeks ago when it first came available and I can honestly say that not a day has gone by where I did not rely on one or more of the principles from this kit to keep my eyes, mind and heart clean and pure.

The premise is that this is a fight that every man faces and that every man can win. It is not something that goes away as you get older, or married. It is a sin that, left unaccounted for, will grow and fester. Mr Arterburn and Mr Stoeker present their material in an easy to understand way and filled with Scripture. They define sexual purity as not receiving sexual gratification from any other source than your wife. That is abnormal to our cultural mindset. Pornography, masturbation, sexual fantasies, extra-marital affairs and sex before marriage are accepted and even considered normal.

God calls us to be holy, to be pure. And if God calls us to this, than it is something that, through his power, we can accomplish. I firmly believe that this material in the Every Man's Battle will help significantly. Check it out for yourself. Below is a trailer from the video series. If you struggle with purity or are involved in a men's ministry, this material will be of great use to you.

Lessons for Faith Communities

Since I update the website for NextStep Resources, all the new books that arrive pass by my desk, so they can be entered on the website. Early last week four books came across - The Covenant, by James Garlow, When Life Doesn't Turn Out the Way You Expect, by Lawrence Wilson and Jerry Brecheisen, Answers for Chicken Little, by Dan Boone, and Why Me?, by Lawrence Wilson. Many times, I'll hold books back that lokk interesting and that I wish to look further into before they go out into the store. These did not fit that bill. I barely took note of them as I put them up on the web. Then, later last week, four DVD studies came in, by the same titles. Always on the lookout for new DVD Bible study curriculum and resources, these did catch my interest.
I was disappointed, however, once I viewed them. The studies themselves are little more than book discussions, with about a half dozen talks on each DVD by the author about the topic. The author is talking in front on a green screen background and gives anecdotes and a general overview of portions of his book. They last around 5-8 minutes long and provide no real discussion questions or added insight.
As I mentioned, none of the books interested me personally, so I would not really wish to do a book study or discussion on those books. Even if these had been done with books of interest, however, even then, I think it would be a stretch to use these in a study group setting. I remember a few years ago being in a small group which did the 40 days of purpose. Each week we met, I was one of two people who had read any portion of the book. Even this past year, I led a small group through Andy Stanley's little book, Fields of Gold - a book on stewardship, but a very good one, and a very short one - and only my wife and I had ever done any of the readings. The people were interested in the topic, and we had decent discussions, but I could not get them to read for the life of me.
I guess all that to say, offering a book discussion study on books of meager interest (the topics are somewhat interesting, but I would rather read people I know and trust on these subjects), is not something I get too excited about.
Check them out for yourself and prove me wrong, though. The DVD studies are titled the same as the books:
Answers for Chicken Little (a study on Revelation)
Why Me? (a look at suffering and a Good God)
The Covenant (how God's love changes our lives)
When Life Doesn't Yurn Out the Way You Expect (moving past disappoint ment)

Faith Under Fire

From October 2004-June 2005, Lee Strobel hosted a CNN news talk type TV program entitled Faith Under Fire. He, along with Gary Poole and Zondervan have put together four, four-session DVD's with talks and debates from that original television show. I recently reviewed the second in the series, Faith & Facts. In this study, groups will go through the histoic reliability of the Bible, heaven, hell and the science of creation.

A mission statement for these studies might be a question - "Does the Christian faith stand up to tough scrutiny?" The topics are not debated against a straw man or even decided conclusively at the end of each session. There are two sides presented on an issue, done by people very knowledgeable in their field, who generally disagree with one another, but civilly promoting their viewpoint. At the conclusion of the video segment, Lee Strobel offers his viewpoint on the matter, but ultimately, the final decision of what to believe lies in the hands of the participant.

The videos are spaced out in-between various participant discussion times, with open-ended questions for groups to dig into the heart of the matter at hand, provided in the participants guide.

This is not a Bible study, per se, but a topical discussion meant to get participants talking about what they think about these subjects. Groups will interact with Scripture, theologians, non-Christian thinkers and one another. The DVD does most of the work, so leader's need not be worried about having answers to these subjects. They serve are facilitators who welcome all thoughts and guide the discussion.

Below is a video sample from Zondervan for this series.

The Culturally Savvy Christian

I saw this book and was immediately intrigued. I had never heard of Dick Staub before (the jacket cover tells me he has a national radio show that has been on for 15 years), but even so, I picked it up. Am I glad I did. I found this book to be a great read and a very challenging one at that.
At first it seems like an updated version of Niebuhr's Christ and Culture, but I found it to be that and so much more. Mr. Staub interacts with a lot of scripture and to a lesser extent much popular culture. A definition he uses to divide the book into three sections (talking about faith, culture, and the two in relation to one another) is:

The culturally savvy Christian is serious about faith, savvy about faith and culture, and skilled in relating the two.

He opens by talking about being savvy about faith and culture. He (rightly) talks about how many people can quote lines from their favorite movies, TV shows, and/or songs than verses from the Bible. I have found this to be true in my circles and, sadly, in my own life. I must say that I found the opening chapter rather depressing - in the sense that we all let such a magnitude of mindless "amusement" (which Mr. Staub says could be defined as 'to be absent in mind'). He then looks at the soullessness of popular culture (celebrity-driven, money-centered, spread by marketing and sustained by technology), but does not at all suggest turning our backs on culture, but rather, engaging it with the soulfulness of Christ.
He then turns to talking about getting serious about our faith. He bashes what he calls "Christianity-Lite". Too often we are not shedding light into darkness, but living duplicitous lives at church and away from church. Mr. Staub says that we need to have God's deep presence, His transforming presence, as well as His loving presence, and explores each one.
Lastly, Mr. Staub offers action on how to maintain a serious faith and actively engage culture - to transform culture, create soulful culture. We do this by countering culture like aliens, ambassadors, and artists. Mr. Staub is very interested in the hope that serious Christians can not only transform culture but also create culture. He is not interested in our Christian sub-culture, but in leading culture with our art, values and creativity.
I would agree with N.T. Wright who writes a sentence of recommendation for the book - "This is an urgent book for our times - and for our health."

Other books of interest touching on this subject:

Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts & Interpret Trends, ed. by Kevin VanHoozer
Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue, by William Dyrness
A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, by Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor
Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue, by Robert Johnston
Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture, by William Romanowski

1 Corinthians

After listening to Mark Driscoll's series on Ruth, I wanted to go through a book of the Bible reading in a commentary and listening to his sermons on the same passage. Mr. Driscoll has a series on 1 Corinthians which took 9 months actual times to go through. The trick was to find a good commentary that was engaging and solid. I wanted to try something different than my favorite series - the NIV Application Commentary - so I grabbed my New Testament Commentary Survey by Carson and looked up what he said. Dr. Carson writes,
"The best commentary on the Greek text of 1 Corinthians is Anthony Thiselton (NIGTC; 2000, / $80.00). The work is very impressive. Over 1,400 pages long, it could easily have been a ponderous volume of massive learning and impenetrable prose. But Thiselton has outdone himself. Every section I scanned was well written, accessible (for readers of this sort of series!), and penetrating."
I am not a reader of this sort of series. I have tried to take Greek twice (as well as German and Spanish) and am not easy learner of languages. However, Anthony Thiselton has published "A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Commentary" on 1 Corinthians through Eerdmans. This was much more my speed, with less linguistic emphasis, and more practical outgrowth. However, well done it is, I still found it difficult to muddle through, so I put it aside for Craig Blomberg's 1 Corinthians commentary in the NIV Application series.
This was not a good choice. I found this to be a very week volume in the series and found it to be dry and lacking engagement. Dr. Blomberg is a very good scholar of the Gospels, but I found his treatment of Paul's letter very uninspiring. However, Dr. Carson reports it to be "the best of the middle-level commentaries."
I had never read any of the works in The Bible Speaks Today series, but was always intrigued by it. Even though Dr. Carson mentions David Prior's The Message of 1 Corinthians only in passing, I picked it up and worked through it. I found Dr. Prior's perspective to be very interesting, having pastored in both South Africa and Oxford. His writing was engaging and informative, as well as giving me different takes on the passages than what I was listening to with Mark Driscoll. I found it to be a very fresh exposition.

John Stott on The Bible & the Christian Life

John Stott is one of the great thinkers, writers and preachers of our era. Zondervan has packaged a DVD seminar series of Dr. Stott's in which he speaks to the authority, interpretation and use of Scripture. They bill it as groupware, which is their small group type material, but it is different for any of the other small group groupware material of theirs I have come across.
If you are familiar with the DVD studies that Dr. John Piper or Dr. Tom Wright have put out (with Multnomah and IVP respectively), then you will have an idea of what to expect, format-wise. The six sessions on this DVD are six 45-60 minute talks which Dr. Stott presented at All Souls Church. In these, Dr. Stott presents his teaching on
1 The Authority of the Bible
2 The Nature of the Bible: Double Authorship
3 The Interpretation of the Bible
4 The Problem of Culture
5 Developing a Christian Mind
6 Making an Impact on Society

The "study guide" included is an outline of the lectures and three questions offered for discussion and reflection. I do wish that this was a bit more developed. The questions are good and I think lend themselves to enhancing discussion, but I think it could be done even better.
One of the aspects of the DVD studies which Multnomah puts out from North Point Ministries is having the questions for discussion actually appear on the screen. I would like to see the questions for The Bible & the Christian Life appear on the screen at an appropriate time just after Dr. Stott has spoken about what the question refers to. With each session lasting 45-60 minutes, there is so much that can be gleaned, that if you were to take the time as his is speaking about it, I think it would enhance the comprehension, as opposed to asking all the questions at the end of the session. (This can easily be done by the leader of the study by simply pausing the DVD an injecting the questions, but it would be a nice feature if the DVD did this automatically).
The authority of Scripture and what we believe about Scripture is very important and Dr. Stott does a wonderful job in making these concepts intelligible and applicable.

Holy Discontent

What makes you righteously angry? What injustice, practice, teaching, through-process or reality gets under your skin and gnaws at your heart? Bill Hybels calls these our holy discontent. He says that there are certain things which everyone needs to be helping out with, serving, and generally doing, but there is one thing which God has given you in particular which, as my dad says, "chaps your hide".
This is a fire God has placed within you, because he wants you to get on board and help bring about change in that area. For Pastor Hybels, God placed the discontent in him that he could not bring his unbelieving friends to church, because they would not be remotely interested - he barely was. So he draws from the discontent that God gave him and founded WillowCreek Community Church to be a place where people could hear about the gospel in a place they would want to come to.
Pastor Hybels tells story after story of people who have found their holy discontent and have gone on to do tremendous things to change that for the glory of God. He talks of us having "Popeye Moments" - "That's Alls I Can Stands, I Can't Stands No More!", and we can either complain about it or do something about it. Mr. Hybels believes that God has given us these moments so that we will do something about it.
What gets under your skin and itches like the devil? That discontent is holy and can be used of God to help change the world. Holy Discontent is a great book and one that leaders and lay people alike will find practical and challenging.

Top Ten Books on Teaching

Yesterday, Scot McKnight posted his top ten books on teaching and education. Here is the link if you are interested. Jesus Creed.

The Way of the Master

I recently viewed The Way of the Master basic training course. In this course, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron propose to train participants to "seek and save the lost the way Jesus did." Their approach is an in your face, "where would you go if you die?", street preacher approach.
Growing up, I went to a Christian school which was affiliated with Bob Jones University. I went out on Wednesday nights before Wednesday church through neighborhoods witnessing door-to-door. We would pass out tracks, ask the "where would you go if you die?" questions, and generally annoy people who had just gotten home from work.
So you see that I have some baggage with this approach. I will admit that I think some people are suited for this approach, and that some people do in fact come to know Jesus this way. I am not suited for this approach (I learned that when I reviewed the Becoming a Contagious Christian curricula a few weeks ago here).
My issue with The Way of the Master curriculum is that Cameron and Comfort feel this is the only way (at least that is how it comes across)to evangelize, and that if you try friendship evangelism, you are not really being a friend. I disagree. These guys just come across as arrogant and condescending. (See below, The Atheists Nightmare).



I applaud their passion for people and wants to lead people to Jesus, but cannot recommend this curriculum. You can find out more on their website, The Way of the Master.

Hope in the Dark

This photo journal is a great book with wonderful thoughts, sayings, and engaging photographs of people, places and things in the continent of Africa. Jena Lee, director of Blood:Water Mission and Jeremy Cowart, a very talented photo journalist, travel to Africa and Hope in the Dark is the outgrowth of that trip.
Ms. Lee writes many of her thoughts as well as sayings from the people themselves which they met. One of the most poignant thoughts Ms. Lee shared was this:

*****Decisions I must make on any given day:
- blue shirt or pink cardigan?
- tall soy chai latte or grande caramel macchiato?
- text message or call?
- eat out or frozen dinner?
- reality television or headline news?

*****Decisions SHE must make on any given day (opposite page shows an African woman)
- blue dress or blue dress?
- river water or puddle water?
- walk once for four hours to get water or walk twice for eight hours to get more water?
- sleep with the fisherman who will give food in return or let orphaned grandchildren go to bed hungry?
- persist through the struggle or give up?
- curse God or praise him?

This is a beautiful, touching and inspiring book. Africa is a bleak place, but the people there have much hope. This book will offer you that same hope and inspire you to give hope to people who have none.

Preaching the Cross

In 2006, Mark Dever, J. Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, and C.J. Mahaney held a conference - Together for the Gospel. Each of them is from a different denominational background, but all agree on the essentials of the gospel & leave the minor issue disagreements aside. They are all friends and decided that a conference highlighting the gospel. They also decided to invite a few of their "heroes" - John Piper, John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul.
Preaching the Cross comprises the main sessions of that conference. Mark Dever introduces the volume - how the book (and conference) came about, how the four of them met, and their background, and a little about their heroes. Then the book has each of their addresses in that conference, re-written, or tailored for publishing.
Each gentleman talks about the Cross in preaching, but all from different angles - justification, the Old Testament, with humility, etc. The Cross is the central event in our faith and these men point to importance in proclaiming it regularly.
The chapter by C.J. Mahaney was terrific. He wrote about the two priorities of a pastor - watching you life and watching your doctrine. It is not enough to just watch one or another , they must be equally focused upon. He writes about the consequences of not following through and the fact that this balance is something that we do not ever have to stop watching. Another important point made about this was the fact that watching these two things cannot be done alone. We need accountability and models.
This is a great volume and one for the encouragement and challenge of every pastor. I also encourage you to visit the T4G blog and think about attending the 2008 conference.

Just Generosity

When many of the Christians I know get to talking about money, and generosity, the main outgrowth of that is tithing. In fact, in prior small groups, and youth group meetings, I have asked questions regarding giving and generosity, and not one person has talked about any other aspect of giving other than tithing. By no means do I want to discount tithing, but from reading the Scriptures, tithing is the starting point for generosity - with God and with others.
In Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America, Ron Sider explores in depth the depth of poverty in America, the Biblical foundations for addressing the problem, lays out a detailed agenda for ending poverty in America and looks at specific areas that must be addressed in wiping out poverty. The issues which must be addressed are wages, family, health care, education, and welfare.
Mr. Sider's vision is for faith-based organizations and people to collaborate with businesses, the media, institutions of higher learning, and the government to defeat poverty in our nation. He calls us to fulfill our civic duty, thinking us all as part of a larger community.
This is a thorough work, one that will impact you regardless of your economic level. We see that God has given a mandate throughout Scripture to care for the poor and we as believers need to take that to heart. This book will be a good starting place to jump start you and your ministry in catching a vision for those trying to overcome poverty.

I Sold My Soul on eBay

A little while ago an atheist gentleman made headlines by putting his his "soul" up for auction on eBay, the popular online shopping and auction website. Technically, he did not put his soul up for bidding, but for every $10 bid, he would attend one hour of church service. Jim Henderson, author of the book Evangelism without Additives and the creator of the website Off-the-Map.org, bought the soul of Hemant Mehta for $504. That meant that Mr. Mehta would be committed to attend church once a week for a year.
Mr. Henderson asked Mr. Mehta to visit different churches ranging in size, location, denomination and philosophy in order to help churches learn how unchurched people see them. I Sold My Soul on eBay is the telling of the auction, Mr. Mehta's background and belief's (Jain turned atheist), his visits and critiques of some of the churches he visited (includes a EFCA church, WillowCreek, Mars Hill Bible & others), and finally, his thoughts on what the church is doing right, what it is doing wrong and what it would take to convert him.
I found this book to be interesting, entertaining, and infuriating.

Entertaining:
I enjoy learning about other religions and different cultures. I have never had any exposure to the Jain religion, and had no idea what beliefs they held. I also quite enjoyed the stories Mr. Mehta told of his experience with the auction, the publicity he unexpectedly received and a little more about general atheist philosophy. Mr. Mehta is an good writer and seems like a very intriguing person.

Interesting:
Many of the helpful comments Mr. Mehta observed are ones that you or I could have made. We would want to see passion and enthusiasm from the worshipers. Churches can always do more to serve the community they are part of. Don't get bogged down with tradition and ritual (when to sit, when to stand, when to sing along, when to listen, etc)
Many of the other comments Mr. Mehta made were criticisms which I found funny because they were things he did not like - but as an unbeliever, he should not have! He was critical of pastors using the Scripture too much in their sermons, preferring LakeView Church's(Joel Osteen) "more relevant" style, without "having to reference the Bible as much." He felt too much time was devoted to singing. Of course an atheist would think worship of a deity would be a waste of time.
The two most helpful observations Mr. Mehta had were that in some churches there was a sense of elitism - a country club mentality of I'm in & you're out. The other was more opportunity for dialogue with opposing viewpoints. I don't know that the Sunday service is the right venue for that, but I think it important for people of differing beliefs to have a platform to converse and see the other side.

Infuriating:
As I read, I could not help but think of a food critic. Mr. Mehta came into different churches with his notepad making notations of things he liked and disliked. My thoughts also went the fact that if Mr Henderson were less interested in using Mr. Mehta for his research in making church appeal to the unchurched (which I am not sure should be done anyway), than in saving Mr. Mehta's soul, he would have sent him to one church for a year, and had him build some kind of relationship with the church body and it's leadership, rather than be a church critic.

I did find this book to be helpful in seeing the perspective of lost people (a term which "offended" Mr. Mehta - and should. The gospel is foolish & offensive to the lost), but I also believe that we should not cater our worship to them. Our worship is directed to God, for God and is to be about God. Non-believers, and especially atheists will not like that, regardless - and that is all right. He rightly mentions that we should be less inward focused and more community focused. It is in that reaching out to the community where we can be sharing our faith and leading others to Jesus, instead of letting their seeker church do the work of reaching the lost.

We need to be doing the work & the church needs to be equipping the people to do the work. Christians simply cannot sit back and pray that they're friends, family and neighbors would come to church with them and find Jesus. They need to also present Jesus to them everyday.

The Big Idea

The leaders at Community Christian Church in Naperville, Il felt that people in their church were literally getting pummeled with information. Every week, families would be learning different topics and subjects - all of which centered around Scripture, but all usually different. From toddlers learning about Daniel in the lion's den, to elementary students studying the sermon on the mount, to teens being taught about purity, to adults digging into the doctrines of Romans, everyone was getting different information - and that was before the main service even began.
The leaders saw that people could leave with a dozen or more various bites of information and conflicting ideas. So they decided to boil everything down into one Big Idea. What is the one thing that you would like your people to get, understand or do? That is the Big Idea which you should spread across the board in every level of ministry. This way all members of the church and family are on the same page and also can continue the conversation after the service.
This is an across the board concept your church can use with preaching, Sunday school, children's second hour, small groups, and any other ministry your church has. The authors are trying to help your church become "communities of transformation, not information."
You can pick up the book, The Big Idea, at nsresources.com for 20% off and also be sure to check out or subscribe to the podcast the authors do. also called, The Big Idea.

NextStep Forums

Just wanted to let you all know that we have just started a message board for readers and church workers. Here is the link. Start up conversations with other ministry workers and talk about what books you are reading, what resources you use and general church ministry. I hope this is something that you will find profitable and useful!

This message board is hosted by EFCA Equip which provides training and development for ministry leaders locally and abroad. Available are live seminars, collaborative work spaces, ministry resources, and much more. When you click on the link, if you are not registered with EFCA Equip, you will be asked to and then you can proceed.

Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches

I am a big fan of the counterpoints series by Zondervan. I find it interesting and challenging to read viewpoints of people I see eye to eye with as well as people I respect, but do not agree with. Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches is a book in the tradition of the counterpoints series. In this book, Dr. Robert Webber gathers five pastors who are all in the thick of emerging church ministry (emerging ministry being ministry to those 35 years old and under, NOT emergent ministry). All of these pastors are church planters, three are evangelicals and two are emergent.
Each of them were directed to write about three topics and how different aspects of theology effect those topics. The three topics? Scripture, the atonement and the Trinity. The different aspects of theology? Biblicist theology, incarnational theology, missional theology, embodied theology, and communal theology.
Each of the authors writes their chapter and then has each of the other four write a response to it. All five of the writers are familiar with one another, if not good friends, and the remarks reflect that friendly attitude, even when the writers vehemently disagree. The reader can tell that this is a discussion many of the writers have had with one another in person and will continue to have in the future.
Each of the writers have presented very good chapters and both the writers I do not agree with and agree with made me stop and search the Scripture myself and confirm for myself what the Bible says. I also agree with John Burke's initial response to Mark Driscoll's chapter - "I think Mark just made this book worth buying." And although I do agree with that - I would strongly encourage you to read the rest of the book. Especially the pastors you might now agree with. I always find it good to read something that makes me think, makes me reflect on what and why I believe, and each person in this book does that.

Discuss this book on the NextStep Message Boards. Link

OT / NT Commentary Surveys

So the other day, I was looking for a good commentary for a study I wanted to do on the book of Ruth. As I have mentioned before, I am a big fan of the NIV Application Commentary, bit I was looking for something to supplement it. I know the NICOT series is among the best, but I have no language skills and have never even attempted to take Hebrew (Greek was a mess for me).
I picked up the newly revised Old Testament Commentary Survey by Tremper Longman III. In this book, Dr. Longman evaluates at least a dozen and most times many more commentaries for each book of the Old Testament. Each commentary has a brief description, 5 star scale rating and indication on who is best suited for the commentary (minister, layperson or scholar).
I found the format to be very helpful. Also, in the appendix of the book, all the five star rated commentaries are listed. They are broken down into one volume commentaries, series commentaries and individual commentaries.
The format in the Old Testament Commentary Survey was much more appealing to me, than that of the New Testament Commentary Survey. Dr. Longman offers an easier listing (for me at least), than Dr. D.A. Carson. Dr. Carson writes his survey in a more narrative style, as one would expect him if you were having a conversation with him about commentaries on the book of Titus. Dr. Longman has more of an informational list, broken up outlines style.
In the end, I decided to reference the Bible Speaks Today commentary of Ruth as well as the Tyndale OT Commentary. NICOT was rated the highest for the book of Ruth.

Epic Church Kit

I am a sucker for a good story. A few months ago, I was absolutely sucked into the world of Alagaësia by reading Eragon . This is a wonderfully told story (by a teenager, no less!) of adventure and mystery. Star Wars has did that to me as a little boy, The Lord of the Rings does that. The Chronicles of Narnia still draw me in, even though I have read them at least a dozen times each. Most of us love good stories.
John Eldredge believes that we are living in the middle of the great story, the story which all other stories are based upon. This story tells of love, evil, struggle and ultimately, redemption. God is telling this story and we find ourselves in the thick of it. The problem is that too often, we do not think of ourselves in the context of the larger story, we limit the story to our own tale.
The Epic Church Kit is a six week small group study that takes the participants through the greatest story told - the Gospel. It is an "Epic" story and we are part of it. Mr. Eldredge wants hearers to understand that we are emerged fully into that story & have a role to play. In the six sessions, the participants are further lead through the telling of the story by watching a live performance of Mr. Eldredge. Then there is a brief, deeper look at what that part of the story means by Mr. Eldredge. After this, participants dive into discussion of what they have just seen. The material and the questions both lend themselves to great discussion and interaction between participants.
I really feel that Epic is an important and well done study, however, I am a bit disappointed by the lack (in my opinion) of actual Bible study. Granted, the entire study is essentially about the Bible, but I would have hoped for more in depth look at the story. Maybe the point is to have people be so interested in the story that they are driven to it themselves, but the sessions were less Scripture text centered than I would have hoped. It is something that could definitely be weaved in by an experienced leader, but it would need to be added.

A New Kind of Church

Change is an extremely difficult pill to swallow for many churches. Some churches change too quickly and alienate people, some change too slow and simply die off. Aubrey Malphurs in one his best books, A New Kind of Church, writes on the theology of change. Dr. Malphurs looks at the changing culture (pretty much every religion save Christianity is growing), and how different churches change (and should they?).
The meat of the book looks to develop a theology of change for churches. Dr. Malphurs looks to help the church get healthy. But this is not something that can or should be done without help. Churches need to develop the aforementioned theology of change as well as a theology of culture, and understand what a local church actually is.
Dr. Malphurs basically says that churches need to adapt (in methodology, not theology) in order to have any kind of impact. "A church's view of change will have a major impact on its ability to minister." Dr. Malphurs says that a good theology of change consists of function, form and freedom.
Functions are those mandates upon all churches which never change, are timeless and nonnegotiable. Among these would be the five purposes (whether you are a Purpose-Driven church or not). Forms are just the opposite - those things which are negotiable, which can change and are not mandated by Scripture. Among these would be types of evangelism (bus ministry, Sunday school, door-to-door witnessing, etc.), translation of Scripture used in preaching ministry, and such. Freedoms look at the implications and limitations of forms and change itself.
Having a theology of culture is also vital. For more on this concept, seek out the book Everyday Theology, edited by Dr. Kevin VanHoozer. It is an excellent work on the necessity of interpreting culture and how to read cultural trends.
Dr. Malphurs also stresses the importance of church consulting. This is something I can vouch for, a little. My dad, Jim Fann, works in Church Health for the EFCA and this is what he does - consult churches on models of ministry and developing theologies of change and such.
I have traveled with him on occasion and heard him speak to churches about many of the same principles Dr. Malphurs lays out in his book. Getting an outside consultant has proven quite useful to churches and being able to evaluate their situation and help churches move forward is what they do.
This book is also equipped with a couple audits and evaluations which will help you decipher what the readiness of your church is for change as well as a ministry values audit. This is a very helpful and practical book.

How to Treat a Staff Infection

Staffing, whether in a business or church, is no easy task. I have been a staff member in both scenarios and both as tricky in various ways. I have found that churches are generally more tentative in hiring (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not) and that in both paid and volunteer staff at churches, there is a good deal of turnover.
In their new book, How to Treat a Staff Infection, Dr. Craig Williford (president of Denver Seminary) & his wife use a medical metaphor to help churches handle any staff issues which may come up. And as in actual medicine, preventative measures are very important in side-stepping potential problems before they arise.
Just as each person has different tolerances for pain, different allergies, and different physical make-ups, each church is equally as diverse. So, instead of giving step-by-step directions on how to handle staff issues, Dr. Williford shares stories from his own experience and offers guidance and general principles to help your unique situation.
Dr. Williford makes the point that if you have not had staff issues, you will. Every church will face them (even Jesus among his disciples!). This book offers sound advice for those who would like to either be preventative or need help in an emergency.
One of the most helpful chapters was on "bedside manner". This chapter discusses the ways to appreciate your staff (and have them know they are appreciated). I have been in positions where I know I am appreciated (where I am currently) as well as places where I wasn't sure.
Letting your staff know they are doing a good job and that you feel they are an important part to the ministry and vision God has given you is so helpful to those hearing it. As you know, ministry can sometimes feel like a job & people wear you down. Hearing that you are appreciated is definitely a huge boost to your morale.