missio

Last Thursday and Friday, a then acquaintance-in-the-Gospel, now brother-in-the-Gospel came to visit our great city. Gordon Duncan is pastor of Sovereign King Church in Garner, NC (http://www.sovereignkingpca.net). I loved having coffee with him on Thursday night. We talked about everything, from family to churches, to paedobaptism (he convinced me - not easy to do), to books (I’ve gotten tons of recommendations from him), to music and everything between. He’s wiser than I (doesn’t take much), and it was really refreshing to have someone that I agree with theologically to pour into my life. We did lunch at Dr. Unk’s together, and he loved the space, just as I do. God has truly been gracious with us there. I look forward to the next time we see one another, in early June at the next a29 conference. I plan on going to Garner and hanging out with him, and then we’re headed to the luncheon together. Should be a blast.

Check out Gordon Duncan’s thoughts on Greenville here at his blog: Greenville and Dr. Unk’s

I’ve been reading in 1 Samuel lately, and today was a devotion in chapter 3. This verse came out in my reading:

This is spectacular. How often do our words and ideas hit brick walls, and fizzle out? No one hears them, and if they do, they don’t listen [definitely a difference].  To me as a preacher, this is more of a miracle than the parting of the Red Sea or a talking donkey. For someone’s words to always be heard, understood, and applied is nothing short of miraculous. 

Lord, let my words never hit the ground.

A tidbit on leadership culture.

I’m currently reading an utterly fascinating book about the startup of the largest search engine on the ‘net: Google. It’s written by David Vise and Mark Malseed, aptly titled The Google Story, and has some great tidbits for church planters. One I’ve gleaned?

What if we, as leaders of our staffs, took this approach? We came to our staff and said: one day a week is yours. Use it for whatever you want to do related to the church. Don’t go run errands or anything; but be ministerially productive creatively and redemptively. I guarantee a few things would happen: our worship leaders would write more original songs. Our discipleship pastors would write great books on small groups. Ministry ideas would overflow come staff meeting time. “I’ve been working on this, what do you think?” Innovation is key, even in the church, and Google’s 20% rule is a great way to foster it.