Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

This is a tiny little book of letters and memoirs from brother Lawrence. He was a Carmelite monk who was first a soldier and a hermit.  God had his hand on Lawrence’s life and we benefit greatly from his humble and holy approach to Christian spirituality.  Personally, I really adored this book, yet the dualistic [...]

Mancini, Church Unique 4: Advancing Vision

The fourth section of Church Unique concerns the movement from articulation to real-live traction of the church.  Getting the church moving in a unified direction and daily delivering vision to people.  The church must be strongly opposed to status quo because of such a heartfelt commitment to the vision.

p.219, “If your church is more than [...]

Mancini, Church Unique 3: Articulating Vision

In the third section of Church Unique, Mancini helps the reader to effectively communicate the mission/vision.  He takes a missional approach to the mandate, values and strategy of the church.  This leads to strong and effective metrics and a visionary life in the church.  The end game of this part of the process is that [...]

Mancini, Church Unique 2: Clarifying Vision

The second section of Church Unique leads into the movement from task focus to contribution focus.  Helping people see they are doing more than making bricks; they are building a beautiful cathedral!  Mancini walks through the ways to discover God-given vision and how to navigate the discovery process.
Here’s some of my highlights:

p. 55, Mancini begins [...]

Mancini, Church Unique 1: Recasting Vision

I super love this book.  Mancini (founder of Auxano, a church consulting group) presents a stunning look at what’s next after the church leadership model based on business principles and he doesn’t land in a laissez-faire wonderland where pastors no longer have to work hard (he actually says they will have to work harder!).  I [...]

MMC June 13, 2009

weekend in review: I had a fab weekend.  Highlight had to be hanging out with Grovers last night, talking dreams and talking about REAL live church ministries that are filling out and happening.  The Grove Band is premeiring at Annual Conference on Tuesday night this year, which we are looking forward to.
Also had fun refinishing [...]

Frost and Hirsch, ReJesus

When I did my church planting assessment (before they were positive, encouraging, affirmations, it was recommended that I eat up as much Frost and Hirsch as possible.  So, because of my addiction to being awesome, I have read as much of them as I can handle and find them really encouraging and provoking.
This [...]

Rice, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

I was at Goodwill looking for a baseball glove when I saw a used copy of Ann Rice’s book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt on the shelf for just 3 bucks.  Apparently, Ann Rice got famous writting vampire books and now she’s written a couple fiction books imagining what life was like growing up [...]

MMC – July 6, 2009

weekend in review: July! – awesome!  This weekend I celebrated 10 years of being married to the indescribable Heather!!  What a wild trip it has been – who would have thought we’d be where we are, doing what we do, with 2 amazing kids – our lives continue to be a testament to God’s provision [...]