One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend's coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Have you ever wanted to share your faith with someone and you didn't want to blow it? We're going to look at one of the most powerful ways to share your faith this weekend as we conclude our "Invite" series through the book of Acts. It sometimes feels counterintuitive, but it works.

I can hardly believe this journey "Invite series is over this weekend. What began for most two months ago started for our staff in the summer. Writing The Story of Acts even goes back farther. But it has been a great journey. And with the Invite challenges there is a sense in which we're just getting started.

FYI

Gerald R. McDermott on "Why You Can't Read Scripture Alone: Studying the Bible in light of the Great Tradition"

The real question is not whether tradition influences our interpretation of the Bible, but which tradition does so. And the best way to judge that tradition is to regularly compare it to the Great Tradition—another name for the great “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) down through the centuries. It’s what C. S. Lewis called “mere Christianity,” the consensus on belief and behavior that the historic church has agreed on for the past 2,000 years.

Guillaume Bignon on "How a French Atheist Becomes a Theologian: Inside my own revolution"

If French atheists rarely become evangelical Christians, how much rarer it is for one to become an evangelical Christian theologian. So what happened?

One More Thing

Check out this great INVITE video. (If you are looking at this in an email, go to my website here.)

Monday Memo

Here are most of the comments and questions from the weekend services Communication Cards:

// Thanks for all the wonderful organization and support for our family going through the dedication service. It was wonderful! [I love the way we are doing our child dedication services, especially the fact that all the parents go through a class led by Susan Somers. Thanks Susan!]

// Thank you for addressing prayer and how we self-censor and pray later, instead of in the moment when the Holy Spirit calls us. Thank you for the challenge to be obedient to Christ in the present moment.

// Amen.

// Nice first and second song – Hallelujah, I Believe… How is this church helping to foster friendships in Christ? Lots of people come into service and then leave and never connect. I think an interest based friendship would be helpful – find groups based on interests and study the word together. Also, plus do extra thing outside in the study. [Anybody that would like to can start an interest-based small group that will also study, pray and serve together. Some churches organize their small groups in this way. Yes, lots of folks come and leave without connecting. That's why we focus three months of the year on getting people to sign up for small groups. Our ratio of people in small groups is among the highest nationally. Many folks not in our small groups are connected elsewhere. And some do not want to connect.....yet! We're always trying. And many connect through service. Tim made a great point about this. Loved his sermon.] 

// The greeting time is horrible and I never ate my Brussel sprouts. [Good analogy! Dan's comments on some people not liking the greeting time solicited this and the next response.]

// In my opinion, people don’t mind greeting each other; it’s the silly questions that we don’t like. How about we just say hello – it doesn’t put us on the spot. [Thank you for the feedback. I know you're not alone feeling that way. Why do we do the silly question anyway? Most importantly, because since doing so it's rare (maybe even non-existent) that someone says our church is cold and no one talked to them. Unfortunately, we got that response much too often before. Greeting someone with a "hello" wasn't cutting it for us. We do give you an option to ignore it, but I get it: once it's out there it kind of takes a life of its own. I also get there will be some who come and never come back precisely because we do that question thing. But I also know there are many who have come back precisely because of the results of doing it. All these kinds of decisions (e.g., do the question thing or not) always come down to choosing who you will attract and who you will turn away, but no decision is neutral. One last thought: we ask for a get a lot of feedback from first-time guests and I don't ever remember anyone mentioning our greeting time one way or another, but lots of folks talk about how welcoming we are. Besides, you have to admit, hearing Tim or Dan's answer to the question is half the fun.]