Missio Dei Suburbia

NT Wright on Everyday Life

Short interview with NT Wright on how individuals and churches honor God in everyday life.

You must always come back to prayer, worship, and Bible study. Make sure that Christians are not going hollow in the middle individually or corporately.  But, then let it flow out. First, focus on mission. Second, grow leadership. Third, encourage discipleship.  Then, act collaboratively. That means the church helps the local education authority, the local housing committee, the police force, whatever it may be. Let’s work with everyone who we can. 

You can read the entire interview here.

Driscoll on Building A Theological Library

From The Resurgence:

Building a Theological Library

• Glynn, John. Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources
• Longman, Tremper, III. Old Testament Commentary Survey

Reading through the Entire Bible

• Mears, Henrietta C. What the Bible Is All About
• Fee, Gordon D, and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

How to Study the Bible

• Doriani, Daniel M. Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible
• Duvall, J. Scott and John Daniel Hays. Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
• Longman, Tremper, III. Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind

Bible Dictionaries

• Marshall, I. Howard. New Bible Dictionary
• Unger, Merrill. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary
• Tenney, Merrill. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible

Topical Bible

• Nave, Orville J. Nave's Compact Topical Bible

Cross-Reference

• Torrey, R.A. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Bible Atlas

• Brisco, Thomas C. Holman Bible Atlas: A Complete Guide to the Expansive Geography of Biblical History
• Pfeiffer, Charles F. Baker's Bible Atlas

Christ Community Church - Tribe or Mission?

The next few months are going to determine the identity and rhythm of life for Christ Community Church - will we embrace and live out our existence as a tribe or a mission?

From Tullian:

There’s a radical difference between tribal and missionary mindsets. The highest value of the tribal-minded is self-protection. Since these people feel safest around those just like them, they ask, “How can I protect myself from those who are different?” They intentionally surround themselves with those who think the way they think, like the things they like, and despise the things they despise.

We all seek out sameness, as John Seel notes: “We cope by settling into our safe intellectual cliques—our favorite blog, cable channel, or e-zine—where our own views are reinforced and applauded. Without really trying, we can easily lose sight of the wider horizon and fail to listen to those who do not think as we do.”

As a result, tribally minded people live with a sense of superiority, looking down on those who are unlike them. This is the “fashionable” posture of our culture.

In contrast, the highest aim of mission-minded people is not self-protection but self-sacrifice. Mission-minded people exist not primarily for themselves but for others. They’re willing to set aside personal preferences in service to those with different preferences. They’re willing to be inconvenienced, discomforted, and spent for the well-being of others.

Struggling to Live on Mission?

Why do we have such a hard time living among non-Christians and loving them into the kingdom?

From Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart you need not train him to witness; he will do it. He will know the power, the constraint, the motive; everything is already there. It is a plain lie to suggest that people who regard this knowledge of the love of Christ as the supreme thing are useless, unhealthy mystics. The servants of God who have most adorned the life and the history of the Christian Church have always been men who have realized that this is the most important thing of all, and they have spent hours in prayer seeking His face and enjoying His love. The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century. God forbid that we should ever make of activity an end in itself. Let us realize that the motive must come first, and that the motive must ever be the love of Christ.

(HT: Adrian Warnock)

How'd All These Students Get Here?

This article by Stetzer and Jason Hayes pretty much sums up what we hear from the 18-25 year olds that are connecting with us at Christ Church. What we say:

• Embraces the reality of doubts and struggles;
• Owns up to our individual and collective junk;
• Leaves us with great hope in Jesus.

There are other reasons why people are driving 20+ minutes and passing by lots of other churches on Sundays but this one's the most counterintuitive and most consistent response we hear from students and other men and women in their 20s.

A Better Way to Do Groups

How do you get groups that embrace community and engage in mission?

Groups that focus on community and not mission will most likely never get to mission.

Groups that focus on mission do community because they have to since community is the primary means of mission.

Anyone else see what needs to happen?

God's Goal is Your Pleasure

From 'Divine Support' in The Valley of Vision

Keep me walking steadfastly towards the country
    of everlasting delights,
    that paradise-land which is my true inheritance.
Support me by the strength of heaven
    that I may never turn back,
    or desire false pleasures
        that wilt and disappear into nothing.
As I pursue my heavenly journey by thy grace
    let me be known as a man with no aim
    but that of a burning desire for thee,
    and the good and salvation
        of my fellow men.

Why is this the land of pure delight? Because there is where we come face-to-face with the God who satisfies every desire (Psalm 16:11).

The Direction of Doctrine

Doctrine must not only be practical, it must also naturally point us to Jesus Christ.

Ed Welch, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave. 40.

Christianity sans Coercion

'...no one gives himself freely and willingly to God's service  unless, having tasted his fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship him in return.'

John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion, 1.v.3

Grace and Suffering

Grace withers without adversity. The devil is little more than God's drill sergeant, teaching us to handle our weapons.

- Adapted from Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ, 1909.