It Takes 20 People to Lead Someone to Christ
Billy Graham once said that it takes twenty people to lead someone to Christ. The first person thinks she had nothing to do with it. The last person thinks it was all him. The work of cultivation was those first nineteen people. And if they’re not careful, they can think their effort was all for nothing.
-Ben Arment, Church in the Making
Stay In Charge of Your Reading
If you like to learn and read, it can be easy for your reading to get out of control and scattered. What you read can take charge of you instead of you taking charge of what you read. One way to fix this is to decide ahead of time the categories you want to focus in on and learn about.
This year I decided I wanted to focus my learning/reading in three areas:
1. Church Planting/Leadership
2. Economics/Investing
3. Writing/Storytelling
I made this decision at the start of 2011. So, as this year has progressed I’ve stayed in charge of my reading by saying no to reading books and articles that don’t fall into one of these three categories. I’ve really liked this method. It helps me stay focused on what I want to learn in an increasingly distracting world. Give it a try.
Acts 29 Retreat
Video montage of last week’s Acts 29 Lead Pastor’s and Wive’s Retreat in Vail, CO:
Acts 29- Are You Healthy Retreat from oasiscov on Vimeo.
Preaching Prep
Preachers, read this helpful and interesting preaching prep Q&A by Mark Driscoll. Driscoll’s approach, though unique and not likely to be imitated by many, is refreshing to read and parts of his approach should be adopted by those spending endless hours in sermon prep.
Silicon Valley Has Two Speeds
A fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal Magazine by Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn. A few excerpts:
Silicon Valley has two speeds: full speed ahead and not going anywhere. Now we’re in full-forward motion. There is a lot of interest and a lot of capital out here. And there are a lot of companies being created. When you have a thousand companies getting started, many of them hope to become billion-dollar companies, but a number of them won’t play out in that direction. So in that respect, sure, there is some frothiness. On the other hand, many of them have solid fundamentals. Maybe it won’t be a billion-dollar company, but it will be an ongoing value proposition where the business model works, consumers use it, and it fits in with other services and websites.
What’s happening today with the whole Web 2.0 movement is that everyone is familiar with the Internet and how it works. Back in 1999 and 2000 it was this weird thing called “cyberspace.” It was kind of an adventure as opposed to being part of your everyday life. The Internet has become a medium in which we are all participants. And then our mobile devices enable all kinds of abilities to communicate, search, collaborate and socialize our experience in the electronic medium. That’s a lot of the basis for the current boom. We also have a deeper stack of expertise as to what works and what doesn’t. The playbooks are better. There are clearly more substantive ideas…
When we are evaluating new business pitches at Greylock, we look for product people and deeply passionate people. To make a great product, you have to be passionate about it in order for it to become something that will improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people…
When the idea is on the back of a napkin, the only difference between a madman and a visionary is that the visionary’s idea works. So when you are investing at very early stages, you’re picking the one you think is the visionary…
Social networks do best when they tap into one of the seven deadly sins. Facebook is ego. Zynga is sloth. LinkedIn is greed.
Read the whole thing.
Best Book on Fear and Worry
Three summers ago I read a chapter a day of Ed Welch’s, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest. It changed my life. This is the best book you can get your hands on for breaking free from anxiety and fear. This past month I re-read the book and was reminded of how good it is. I’ve underlined sentences on nearly every page. This might be a great book for you to read this summer.
Acts 29
One of the better decisions I’ve made is joining the Acts 29 Network. Taylor and I just returned from four days in Vail, Colorado at our first Acts 29 Lead Pastor’s and Wive’s Retreat. It was incredible to be with hundreds of other church planters and their wives, they all have so much to teach me. I love being part of this growing brotherhood. We’re already looking forward to next year.
You may want to make the Acts 29 Network a regular part of your prayers. God is using this network in exciting ways.
PS. Ray Ortlund posts a picture of where we all stayed in Vail.
How to Discover Your Calling
1. Figure out what you’re passionate about.
2. Figure out what other people say you’re good at.
3. Figure out what’s wrong with the world.
4. Shake and stir.
That’s your calling.
Father’s Day
The joy of my life is my wife and my three sons. Yes, my greatest joy is God, but I find so much joy in these gifts God has given me: a wife, a life, and three wild sons that I don’t deserve. It’s a happy Father’s Day in our home. May you take great delight in your Heavenly Father and in the gifts he’s given you today.
