Digital Discipleship Tools
Here are a few things I’m using regularly that are helping me merge my life as a disciple with technological advance. Still nothing better than an open Bible and journal, but wanted to share a few of my favorite resources.
ESV Bible Reading Plans – Nine different Bible reading plans that can be accessed in six different formats. I’ve downloaded the plan directly into my iCal and I get the RSS Feed to my phone each morning. The RSS Feed includes a link to audio files, so if I miss a passage in my morning devotional time, I can listen to it on my way to work. Currently doing the Outreach Bible Plan. Probably going to switch to the Chronological plan in January.
YouVersion.com – Using this resource as an iPhone App as well as the website. Great for Bible Reading online, searching Bible verses, cutting and pasting Bible verses, looking up verses in other translations, and more. Developed by LifeChurch.tv, totally free, and by far the best digital Bible out there.
Verse Card Maker – If scripture memory is important to you, you’ll love this tool. Type in the verse references you want to memorize and it makes the cards for you to print and cut. Developed by a computer programmer turned Seminary student. Verses are only in English Standard Version at this time.
Please send others that you’ve found helpful. So many resources out there. There’s no excuse for not interacting with the Bible daily.
Loving in Deed and Truth
Pics from our final Faith in Action Sunday of 2009, which included
Our Next Faith in Action Sunday will be January 31st, 2010.
Faith in Action Sunday
Bridge Church began meeting weekly for worship on August 16th, at our local YMCA. This Sunday we’ll do something a little crazy. We’re moving our worship gathering to a local trailer park where we’ll rebuild a porch for an elderly gentleman, throw a block party for kids that will include a gospel centered lesson, have free Jambalaya lunch for the whole park (over 150 trailers), and other miscellaneous projects. We’ll also have ladies scattering out to the ICU waiting rooms in West St. Tammany with fruit baskets and encouragement. We’ve committed to do this at least 4 times a year (every time there’s a 5th Sunday in a month). It’s part of our outreach and discipleship strategy. Outreach because we’ll look to share the gospel and gather prospects along with meeting huge needs in the lives of unchurched people in our community. Discipleship because it gets our whole body engaged in putting what we’re learning into action.
As I’ve shared this idea with people across the spiritual spectrums, it has been met with tremendous support, usually with a statement like – “That’s what the church should be doing!” It just makes sense that servants of Jesus Christ should be out serving in some way. Our desire is to start a church that is a missionary instead of an amenity, a connection point to ministry instead of the consumeristic destination, and that is as intentional about practicing theology as we are about learning theology.
We’ll see how it goes…
Helpful Links
- Praying this article is widely read – 10 Reasons to Partner in Planting Now
- Al Mohler spent some time with Acts 29 guys and weighs in
- This is the kind of church I want to be a part of too…
- Does size matter? This is a helpful reminder for every church leader.
- I know it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but I’m going to keep this Tozer piece close by this Christmas
10 Easy Ways to Know You’re Not a Leader, from Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan
Just finished the book Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan. A book of posts from Morgan’s popular blog on strategy, leadership, etc., etc., etc. The book and the blog are well worth your time. Loved the practical, personal nature of the book which demonstrates how leaders should learn and grow and teach as we process everyday life and leadership. Blogging is a tremendous tool for sharing our life lessons. Looking forward to future books like this from other favorite bloggers. Some of my favorite posts/chapters/essays, whatever you want to call them, was the Top ten list. Here’s a list I appreciated:
10 EASY WAYS TO KNOW YOU’RE NOT A LEADER:
- You’re waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
- You think you need to be in charge in order to have influence.
- You’re content.
- You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
- You think you need to say something to be heard.
- You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
- It’s been some time sine you said, “I messed up.”
- You’re driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
- Your dreams are so small that people think they can be achieved.
- No one is following you.
Just one of the thought provoking posts from the book. More later…
I’m a Published Photographer!
Check out the cover of Voice of Martyrs Spanish Edition. I snapped that picture on a 2008 trip to a remote village in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. VOM’s Spanish Publisher found it on my blog (with this post) and requested to use it. I was honored for them to do so because I’m a fan of the work of Voice of Martyrs and I’m burdened by the tremendous needs in Chiapas. The current issue will be on the persecution of Evangelical Christians in Chiapas. Sign up to receive their free newsletter here.
Hope Church of Waldheim has been on two trips to the region, providing medical care and cultivating the ground for church planting among the Tzotzil Indians in the Highlands of Chiapas. Bridge Church, the new church we are a part of in West St. Tammany Parish, recently sent a team back to the Lacandon Jungle to continue the work. We hope to return in 2009. Keep in touch for info about future trips.
Check out our partners at http://gled.net/.
Proud Member of the Junky Car Club
If my dad had an iconic symbol (i.e. Lincoln’s hat, Churchill’s cigar, etc.) it would have been the beat up, worn out, broke down truck that he had to work on for an hour before work everyday. He constantly drove clunkers and suffered greatly when he finally got to the point in his life that he was able to afford a new vehicle and purchased one. After a few months, he threw in the towel and gave the new truck to his teenage son (that’d be me) and came home with a school bus yellow ’70 something dodge.
I always despised the old trucks and vowed to never drive clunkers when I grew up. Now, 18 years later, I’m 35 and I’ve never owned a new vehicle. I find myself working on mine regularly before work and I can’t stand the thought of driving something brand new. I can’t believe it! What happened?
I know what God says, BUT…
I know what God says, BUT…
- “my situation is different.”
- “that will never happen to me.”
- “everyone else does it.”
- “that was a long time ago.”
- “they deserve it.”
- “god understands my needs.”
- “who really does that anyway?”
- “that’s just not possible for me.”
- “I’ll get around to that one day.”
When you disobey God it means there is a gap between where you are and where you know God wants you to be. “I know what God says, BUT…” or “I know what I should be doing, BUT…” reveals that gap for all that it is. When you excuse your disobedience, you are saying more about what you believe about God than anything else. What you should just go ahead and say is, “I know what God says, BUT…”
- “He really doesn’t matter that much to me.”
- “I know better than He does about this issue/situation. I’m so much wiser about these kind of things.”
- “God has changed since the Bible was written and all that stuff doesn’t really matter anymore.”
- “I’d rather do what my friends say than God. They are so much smarter than him.”
- “I don’t really think He can provide for this need. I’ll just do it myself.”
- “I don’t really believe in God at all. Since he’s not real, I can do whatever I want.”
If you can easily excuse a pattern of disobedience, blowing off the word and will of God, the book of 1 John says you are a liar, deceived, and in darkness.
The real Christian responds to God’s word with obedience. He’s revealed Himself in Christ who is willing to transform our lives. The transformed one responds to God with obedience.
Lane Corley 