The "State of Church Planting" reports I referred to yesterday are listed below for your convenience. You can download them from the Leadership Network website at the links below. If you haven't seen them already, check out:

Church Planting Overview
Funding New Churches
Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches
Who Starts New Churches?

You can also access all the Leadership Network downloads at www.leadnet.org/churchplanting.

Last year, the folks at Leadership Network asked me a question: "What is the state and status of church planting in the U.S?"

I said, "No one knows for sure."

Then they challenged (and funded) me to put together a group of people to find out as much as we could. A summary of those results were released today.

One of the newsletters I subscribe to is Gailyn Van Rheenen's Monthly Missiological Reflections. I have always admired his writing, but last year Gailyn and I visited in the cafeteria of Dallas Theological Seminary while I was there preaching in chapel. I learned to also appreciate his passion for missiology, Christ, and the church.

His Missional Helix is very helpful for thinking biblically about missiological issues. (Zondervan recently interviewed him here.)

On his helpful webpage, Missiology.org, he cites two definitions of missiology:

Missiology: "the conscious, intentional, ongoing reflection on the doing of mission. It includes theory(ies) of mission, the study and teaching of mission, as well as the research, writing, and publication of works regarding mission" (Neely 2000, 633). "1. the study of the salvation activities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the world geared toward bringing the kingdom of God into existence, 2. the study of the worldwide church's divine mandate to be ready to serve this God who is aiming his saving acts toward this world" (Verkuyl 1978, 5).

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote up a interesting article on a friend of mine, Mark Driscoll.

I read it right after I received a complaint call that I may blog on more later. Some of the key phrases from this "concerned Christian":

Goatees are a sign of the devil.
Christians should go door-to-door dressed like Mormons.
We don't need to change anything-- just get back to giving out tracts.

Can I get those 13.2 minutes back? Sigh...

Frank Page, SBC President, surrendered to the inevitable and will be bringing a brief word of exhortation at the Calvinism Confab.

If you have not signed up, you are welcome-- even though none of us are worthy of this great lineup and tremendous value.

Click here-- you know you can't resist.

All conference attendees should arrive on Monday and persevere to the end on Wednesday. We don't want you to quit early.

But, just so you know, no one will be turned away... it is open to all who will register and then follow through with attendance.

About a month ago, I started preaching at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, TN. I have written before about their pastor and his death. The folks at First Baptist asked me to fill their pulpit and I agreed to do so until the end of the year.

I am going to invite the church to visit here at the blog each week in a new feature I call "Toward Sunday."

In "Toward Sunday," I will tell a bit about what I am preaching, perhaps post what I preached the week before, and tell any other information that might be helpful. Since I know that the vast majority of my readers do not go to church at FBC, I will work to make it applicable to all.

I am back home now after yesterday's fall.

Thanks for the prayers for the back... it is feeling somewhat better though I am not going in to the office this morning.

In the meantime, it seems that alcohol is on the table lately. Last week it was my "quote" in the L.A. Times. Here is another place where it is cited.

This evening I took a fall while speaking in Maryland... so, tonight, I'm here in my hotel bed with little to do but blog, take pain medication, and pray for a swift recovery. It was not just a fall, but it was one of those fun, standing on stage, arms and legs flailing, then flat on your back, falls that just embarrass the socks off of you.

But, it was still a good meeting. I taught on the Kingdom of God and was pleased to see that folks were responding to the Missional Network.

I am with some new friends at the Great Commission Network in St. Louis today. This is a group of (primarily) mainline denominational leaders who are seeking to help their churches engage their communities for Christ.

Here are two helpful videos for your personal "growth" (particularly if you are parents).

John Avant, First West, and ESPN

A couple of months ago, I spent a day consulting with the leadership of First West, a church with over 3000 people attending each week in West Monroe, a town of 13,000. You do not often see a church as large as this in a town as small as West Monroe, Louisiana.

Small town Louisiana is known for football. West Monroe may be one of the best High School football teams in the country. So, when ESPN was looking for a place to film a new reality series, they came to West Monroe... and, to a lesser degree, to First West Baptist Church.

John Avant is the new pastor at First West. John wrote me this week about Varsity, Inc.:

ESPN was looking for what might be the best high school football team in America to do this show... The facilities rival SEC schools. The training is brutal. Most of the boys have been in the program since they were small.

It was quite a day in Pensacola.

I was leading a "Breaking the Missional Code" seminar for the Florida Baptist Convention and the Pensacola Bay Baptist Association. I snapped a quick picture during the singing.

Recently, Philip Nation (my former co-pastor) and I completed the manuscript for a new book. It will be published in English and Spanish next April.

I just received an email from the organizers of the Canadian Church Planting Congress, called "Imagine" this year. The conference is almost sold out, but they have moved to a new location. Find out more here.

The speaker lineup promises to be exciting. But, perhaps most exciting is the large number of people the organizers tell me are coming from Quebec.

I will be speaking on all things missional the next few days.

Tomorrow, I am at Sojourn Church in Louisville leading a discussion with local pastors.

Then two area / regional meetings at some local host churches:

October 17, 2007:
Breaking the Missional Code at Wright Baptist Church in Ft Walton Beach, FL

and
October 18, 2007:
Breaking the Missional Code at First Baptist Church, Cantonment, FL

Posting will be limited.

Sometimes, I hesitate to answer reporters' questions. You never know the agenda.

Some reporters have just made up their mind when the call. They are looking for you to be the caricature they need. Good ones take the time to get it right. I have seen both.

Dr. Ted Traylor is pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. I mentioned him in my article called "The Missional Megachurch."

Ted even has a blog!

Recently, I did a podcast with Michael Duduit at Preaching Magazine. They just posted my interview.

They have a great list of podcasts available here including interviews with Max Lucado, Charles Stanley, and John Ortberg.

To download my interview / podcast, click here.

As I wrote recently, the list of Fastest Growing churches in Outreach Magazine was the wrong list.

The people at Outreach Magazine, particularly Lynne Marian, Lindy Lowry, and Shari Taylor, have gone above and beyond the call to make it right. I am guessing that 99 out of 100 people just assumed it was the formula. Uberblogger Todd Rhoades from Monday Morning Insight indicated he made the assumption. (Thanks, Todd, for being kind!)

But, it wasn't a formula. It was a mistake.

Yesterday, we faxed and emailed an apology and the correct information to every church on the list. You can find the new corrected list now updated here.

I hate mistakes... a bunch. But, I love working with people with integrity, like the people at Outreach.

I will be in New Orleans today. I plan to yell at David Meacham for not telling me this news. Then, I will speak at this conference:

If you are in the area, come on by. Click here for more information.

Sometimes, I don't know what I think about Geoff Hammond, new President of NAMB. He just does not do things "right."

If you have an interest in Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention, you will not want to miss this Building Bridges event at Ridgecrest.

Just this week, the Outreach Magazine with the 100 Largest and Fastest Growing list hit the streets. It is a great issue with some great articles.

Only one problem.

The Fastest Growing list is... well... wrong.

Earlier this summer, I was asked to be an editorial adviser for Building Church Leaders, which has a newly upgraded website. Matt Branaugh, one of the brains behind the operation, says this about the site:

Bob Roberts drops by the blog today and will interact in the comments on all things megachurch.

If you don't know Bob, you should. Bob was recently interviewed for Christianity Today's Christian Vision Project. He has also weighed in a few times hereat this blog.

Feel free to ask him a question and dialogue with Bob below.

Almost a year ago, the folks at Outreach Magazine asked me to work with them on their largest and fastest growing issue. I tend to be leery of lists, but they did not just want to publish a list-- they wanted to go deeper. And, I think the current issue reflects their fine work.

I must confess I have taken a longer hiatus than intended from my Meanings of Missional series. For those of you new to the discussion, refer to preface, part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. Now, I'd like to return to the meat of the discussion as we seek together to define - and more importantly to live - the missional mandate.

I will be on the road tomorrow driving down to the Catalyst Conference. If all goes well, my next "Meanings of Missional" will post tomorrow as I make the drive.