Planting Churches Cross Culturally

I have been reading a book for my Master's work in church planting that I want to reccomend to all those who are planting churches.  Cross cultural church planting is in fact a reality for most church plants taking place in the US today.  Not only does David Hesselgrave give pratical insights, but the book os choc full of charts and forms that can be used to organize your new church.

Some take-aways....

1. Seven Steps ... Go where people are, preach the gospel, gain converts, gather them into churches, instruct them in the faith, choose leaders, and commend believers to the grace of God.

2. It is evident in scripture that God is interested in numerical growth, and one of the best measures of qualitative growth is numerical increase.

3. We need fellowship with, and the approval of, other humans.

4. Belongingness
     - Humans are social beings
     - God created a new society for the redeemed
     - In belonging to a church new believers have identity
     - Identification with the group, however, does not destroy individuality

5. True worship is prompted by disclosure of the secrets of the heart, detection of the presence of the Lord, and realization of accountability to God.

Getting Things Done

My friend Ben suggested this book to me and I may be late to the parade, but this is one of the most helpful and easy to read books on organization that I have read. I like it so much that I went out and bout copies for all the staff, then ended up giving my copy away. I wish that they had built task management software to accompany the book's systems. You can find it here.

The Space Trilogy

For all you Narnia lovers out there, May 16th is coming. When the last movie came out I downloaded a PDF of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and read it with my kids. It was a spoiler I know, but it helped them to enjoy the symbolism and really taught them a lot about art and I plan on doing it again with Prince Caspian. But for those of you who want more, C.S. Lewis has also written a space trilogy. A little sci-fi, and a whole lot of the spiritual symbolism that we have come to love and expect. I am in the second book called Perelandria now and it really is opening my eyes to some deep thoughts to how our enemy attacks us.