2009 has come and gone. As I was thinking back on this past year on the blog I realized we've interviewed some great leaders, had a number profitable discussions, and probably annoyed a few readers in the process. I think we've done more good than harm here, and I wanted to point back to a few of the more important posts you might have missed, or want to revisit. I'm breaking it down into 12 separate posts, starting with this one covering the month of January.

JANUARY 2009

Interview with Alan Hirsch

I believe that the closer we get to Jesus, the more 'dangerous' he is to us. We prefer to keep him at arms length and engage him from the relative safety of objective theology. Why is it worth it? Because without Jesus we have no legitimacy, or in fact do we actually have Christianity, because Christianity minus Christ equals Religion. And hey! Who wants a religion? Is it worth it? It is our eternal destiny to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom.8:29.) We cannot escape it. It is our joy, our salvation, our freedom. All else is just messing with the fringes of the faith.
- Hirsch

Stemming the Decline of the Southern Baptist Convention

The SBC I care about is in decline. Yes, it's part demographics (i.e. we're historically rural and such regions are in numeric decline) and ultimately changes have to be made at a local church level. But, many believe there are issues the convention can acknowledge and address to help turn around the decline. Denying the facts won't help, nor will a theological left turn, but there are things that need to change to reverse the decline.

Interview with David Fitch (video)

[see the entire post here]

Converts to a Cause or Christ?

So, my Reformed friends, let's not only read 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (that is, John Calvin, John MacArthur, and John Piper), let's go plant some more churches. My emerging church friends, let's take a pause from the theological rethink and head into the neighborhood and to tell someone about Jesus. My missional friends, let's speak of justice, but always tell others how God can be both "just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." My house church friends, let's have community, but let's be sure it is one focused on redemption. My Baptist friends, let's focus more on convincing pagans than Presbyterians. And, my charismatic friends, let's focus less on getting existing believers to speak in tongues and more on using our tongue to tell others about Jesus.

Contextual Preaching

If the church is to become an indigenous expression of its context, then contextualization comes into play. When it comes to contextualization, reality suggests that the eternal, universal truth of God's Word is understood and appropriated by people through a cultural grid or framework.

Though we understand and appropriate the truth as conditioned by culture, biblical truth is eternal. However, we, and our hearers, are not!

The State of Church Planting

North American Christians are interested in church planting in a way not seen for many decades. In response, Leadership Network commissioned a research project that surveyed over 200 churchplanting churches, more than 100 denominational leaders from dozens of denominations, and over 45 church planting networks.

Starting a Church Without Losing Your Soul

Church planting is a rigorous task that leaves planters physically, emotionally and spiritually drained. Church planters are busy and stressed. The inherent instability of church planting places constant pressure on these Alpha-leaders to excel. They feel that every sermon, every service, every advertisement, every contact, and every event must be exactly right for them to succeed. Performance pressure overwhelms their theological moorings as to who they are in Christ creating an incessant anxiety which drives them even further into the work that drains them. It's a vicious cycle.

The Dangerous Church in 2010-2020

I have been asked to do a bit of "prognosticating," which can be a dangerous thing. My friend Linda Stanley asked me to set up a conversation about what I think will be the marks of the "dangerous church" in 2010 and stretched on to 2020.

When I think of "marks" I want to talk about distinguishing biblical marks, or what makes a church a church. But, that is not quite my assignment and I have commented on that elsewhere, so let me focus on what they mean.

Some of this will be statistical, some my personal beliefs, and some my hopes. You sort them out.

[read it all here]

Feel free to read them all and comment at the individual posts or comment right here.