The beauty of love stands behind all things: Tom Wright on the heart of worth-ship.

“The beauty of God is the beauty of love; love in creation, love in re-creation of a world spoiled by sin. It is the same love; which is why all the beauty of the world, the beauty that calls forth our admiration, our gratitude, our worth-ship at the earthly level, is meant as a set of hints, of conspiratorial whispers, of clues and suggestions and flickers of light, all nudging us into believing that behind the beautiful world is not random chance but the loving God.“ - Tom Wright, For all God’s worth: True worship and the calling of the Church, pg. 12.

(Photographic art by Tony Stiff, piece entitled “California nights at 200 ft.“)

What can Jesus table fellowship practice’s teach us about being the missional church?

What can Jesus table fellowship practice’s teach us about being the missional church? Click here to download a PDF formate of a recent Keynote I delivered on this subject with Luke 15:1-2 as me main passage.

A couple of wedding pics from my sister and new brother. I was honored to marry them on the 19th this month!

I had the supreme pleasure and honor of marrying my sister-in-law to my now brother-in-law on the 19th of this month. One of the best parts of being a pastor for me has been doing the weddings for my Jess’s brother and also now her sister. Such a honor. Thank you Jenna and Justin for the invitation! Here’s a few pics.

We did the wedding ceremony at our grandparents inter-coastal home with just family. I absolutely loved the small wedding setting. It felt so intimate and meaningful to celebrate with just the closest people in Justin and Jenna’s lives.

The reception was held at the Vinoy, one of the most famous hotels in the Bay area. Really beautiful, elegant, old world vibes throughout the place, and the meal was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Justin and Jenna did an amazing job choosing the place and the meal layout.

Jess and I at the Vinoy. Little Cali was with us to. She ended up crashing before we left so we had to have the hotel bring some beach towels down to lay her on. Funny/sweet family memory.

Jenna and Justin cutting their cake. It was a Key Lime wedding cake made by one of the better Bay Area Key Lime cake bakers. What’s perhaps most amazing about their wedding is that they were able to do almost all of their planing from a distance. Their photographer is one of the best I’ve seen, friends of ours who we co-lead the Young Marrieds Ministry with at Grace Christian Fellowship – Brian and Angela Sackett of “Loving Legacy Photography.” (The pictures above I took, not them, theirs are much better!)

Here’s a few of the best books I’ve read in 2009. What were yours?

SOME OF THE BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2009

Best book I’ve read this year - Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch

Best New Testament Biblical Studies book - Seeing Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

Best Old Testament/Biblical Theology book – The Servant King by T.D. Alexander

Best book on missiology - Mission in Christ’s Way by Lesslie Newbigin

Best book on ecclesiology – Deep Church by Jim Belcher

Best book on hermeneutics - Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul & The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture by Richard B. Hays

Best book on apologetics - The God I Don’t Understand by Christopher J. Wright

Best book church history related – The Apostolic Fathers by Michael Holmes

Best pastoral book – Can You Drink this Cup? by Henri Nouwen or The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

Best sociology book - The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman

Best business book – Tribes by Seth Godin

Best entrepreneurial book - The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

SOME BOOKS IN 2010 I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO READING

Chosen by God for the Sake of the World: A Missional Ecclesiology for Today by Michael Goheen (forthcoming by Baker Academic).

Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God by Daniel Kirk.

The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John H. Sailhamer

After you Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N.T. Wright

The Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the Church by Leslie Newbigin (Reprinted edition)

Against the Tide by Miroslav Volf

Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim

Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell

The Purple Cow: Transform your business by being remarkable by Seth Godin

Situational Leader by Paul Hersey

Cultural Intelligence: Living and Working Globally by David Thomas & Kerr Inkson

Downtown Owl: A Novel by Chuck Klostermann

Michael Goheen on how we all live from a story, and what it means to live from the Biblical Story.

Follow up this short video by reading Michael Goheen’s great book, “The Drama of Scripture.” Easily one of my favorite reads on getting a sense of one way to approach the biblical story.

What is ‘Discipleship’? Here’s my answer in a 4 1/2 minute video and a 4 page handout…

Here’s the 4 page handout as well on “What is Discipleship?“. I used the first half of this handout recently with a small group of people I’ve known for awhile, the discussion went really well. Christians who’ve been struggling to make sense of their faith over the long haul of life are attuned to the importance of having clarity on what discipleship is. Someone that night actually brought up the point that when we treat discipleship like a destination how we think about being Christ disciples and how we go about making disciples changes. When, however, we treat it like a journey we follow Christ on it becomes a far more personal, encompassing reality in our lives, and in the lives of the people we encourage to become disciples of Christ. I borrowed that idea from our discussion and tried to illustrate it in the stock footage of the train ride in the video above.

Feel free to use these if you like. Love to hear any feedback you have on them.

I’ve just taken a call as an Associate Pastor at “First Presbyterian Church” in Roseville (north Sacramento), California!

Greetings friends. As many of you know who’ve been reading here I have been searching for a new pastoral call. I am happy to say the search has ended. This past week I received a call to be an Associate Pastor at “First Presbyterian Church” in Roseville, California. We head to join them sometime next month. I am very excited and humbled to have been considered and called. Please join with us as we rejoice in this new season of ministry!!!

Pictures from Grace Christian Fellowships “Young Marrieds Ministry” December gathering.

Here’s a couple of my favorite pics from out “Young Married Ministry” gathering we had tonight.

We start the large group gathering nights off with great food and fellowship. Every couple brings an appetizer or dessert to share and we just enjoy each others company, making new friendships while also catching up with older friendships.

We did our December meeting a little differently. Typically we have older married couples come and share 10-15 minutes on a relevant topic marriages face but instead for our December gathering we did couple games. Above is husbands verse wives Pictionary. Now let me just say there was some questionable scoring going on. The wives won but its an open question as to if they really beat us guys???

We finished the night off with Christmas caroling throughout the neighborhood. It was great times as our younger new couples without children and our other young married couples with kids walked through the neighborhood caroling. We had kids up on every shoulder. Great times!!!

Have you checked out Dan Roam’s book “On the Back of the Napkin.” Book brief below.

I’ve just started reading Dan Roam’s book “On the Back of the Napkin” I’m really enjoying it.  Roam helped Peets Coffee & Tea (among many others like Google) visually layout its vision and mission and grow to be what it is today. (Watch the six minute clip above to see Roam talk about the general thrust of his book).

I’ve been thinking lately about how to use some of Roam’s ideas about visual thinking along with Wacom’s Intuos4 professional pen and tablet to illustrate ministry ideas to leaders, and to illustrate them in preaching and teaching materials. There’s a world of impact we can make as pastors with new media technology. We just have to start somewhere and explore…perhaps even on a no-tech back of a napkin.

Andy Stanley tells a story about what he did to help his team at North Point breakthrough in an area of ministry when they were feeling like they were hitting a creative wall. He took pieces of 8.5×11 paper, walked across the room about 15 feet, and then began to place pieces of paper down on the floor like stepping stones. On each stepping stone he had his team write simple answers to the problems they were facing. By the end of the meeting he had walked across the room on clear steps and North Point as a church was also ready to walk through its next season with clear steps. Sometimes its simple things that help us move forward.

Some pics from the Young Marrieds “Night Out” events that we’re team-leading for Grace Christian Fellowship.

Jess with some of our Young Marrieds wives out at “The Living Room” a really fun tapas restaurant in Dunedin, Florida. (Jess is on the middle right side). This event was supposed to end at 9pm and I didn’t see Jess until 11pm. This is what happens when young married girls kick it!!!

Me and some of the guys at “Dunedin Brewery” a great local micro-brewery restaurant in Dunedin (I had some amazing pulled pork BBQ sliders on toasted mini-buns). We hit this spot during the University of Florida bowl game. Being a Miami Hurricane fan I can assure you I didn’t even look to see the score. Go Canes!!!

We do girl and guy “Night Out” events with our Young Marrieds Ministry because it helps us seek deep relationships with other young husbands or wives who are wrestling with similar life season questions. Its important to not only have great relationships as couples with other couples, but also to have a great group of guys or girls who are also married who can speak into your life. Something we’re pursuing hard. These guy and girl night out events used along side our large group couples gatherings have been a great tool for helping us go deep with each other!