Bob Roberts and I (along with Nancy Ortberg and John Bishop) spoke in a joint session on Wednesday at the Innovation3 Gathering. I posted my notes yesterday. Bob joked on the stage that he would put his on my blog as well-- and sent along his notes to share here.

I had the opportunity to speak at Leadership Network's Innovation 3 Conference yesterday about the future of the church. It was a special conference featuring some of the great leaders in the Christian church today. The conference was broadcast live, discussed in online chat rooms and was live twittered. Conferences are changing in the 21st century allowing the information and influence of speakers can be more widely felt.

I promised to post my notes. So, here they are - from my talk on "The Dangerous Church in 2020."

I've written an article for the Exponential 09 website on how to plant a church without losing your soul. I've seen many leaders, including those who would be considered successful, and those whose work failed to produce lasting fruit, crash and burn while doing the very thing God called them to do. If you're planting, or thinking of planting, these words are for you.

Sometimes I feel that I live in two worlds.

First, there is the SBC world. It is big, powerful, and tribal. SBC world is so big that you can live your life in that world and never know there is a broader Christian community. In that world, almost every pastor would know who Junior Hill is, but I am guessing many of my non-SBC readers do not.

Second, there is the broader Christian world. And, there are some movements in that world that impact the SBC world. More on that in a moment.

This week is a mix for me and it prompted this blog post.

As many of you know I am on vacation, out of reach, and having a great time. But I want you all to have some food for thought as it relates to the need for strategic partnerships bringing the gospel to Europe and the upcoming Jetset Tour to Europe via the Upstream Collective.

The following is piece written by Caleb Crider and Larry McCrary.

... from Kevin Jamison

This past February I had the opportunity to join Ed and a dozen other pastors on a trip to Barcelona, Spain. The purpose of the trip was to raise an awareness of the spiritual climate in modern-day Europe. Like many Americans, my view of foreign missions was primarily confined to the continents of Africa, Asia and South America. I had never considered Europe a priority for missions. The evening after my arrival, I sat in on a meeting with group of missionaries from across Europe. One of them told me, "I have been a missionary in Taiwan, Korea, Africa and now Europe. Europe is by far the hardest place I've ever been. Europe is a graveyard for missionaries." Those words rocked me.

Continue reading Jet Set Tour: Rome.

Faces of starving children.
Warrior faces.
Goat herders.
Men on camels.

These are the typical images one sees at any given missions event. People wearing traditional clothing from African or Asian countries who smile as you pass their booths, beckoning you to come and sample the life of adventure. "Are you willing to reach the most unreached with the Gospel? Are you willing to live a lifestyle so radically different than your own that your mother won't even come visit you? Are you willing to reach a people group that has been resistant to the Gospel for centuries?"

And those are important questions and there is great need.

What most people don't know is one does not have to travel to Cairo or Tehran or Timbuktu to go where there is great need. We need MORE people to go to those contexts, but it is interesting that the statistics tell us about a great need in Europe.

Update: Thanks for the hundreds of you who wrote in! We are closing this offer. the first 75 will hear from Jason Hayes, my co-author, in the next few days.

If you are a blogger who would like to have an advance look at Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them, please email your name, address, and blog address to jason.hayes@threadsmedia.com.

The first 75 bloggers that email Jason and indicate they will do a review will get a free copy. (And, it does not even have to be a positive review!)

This blog post will disappear soon, so let us know if you are interested immediately.

Here's a quick look into what it's all about:

Who are the young unchurched, and how can they be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ?

In a poll result highlighted by CNN Headline News and USA Today, nearly half of nonchurchgoers between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine agreed with the statement, "Christians get on my nerves." Now, researchers behind the larger study present Lost and Found, a blend of dynamic hard data and modern day parable that tells the real story of an unchurched generation that is actually quite spiritual and yet circumspect, open to Jesus but not the church.

Continue reading Want to Review Our New Book?.

Leadership Network commissioned me and a team I put together to research the state of church planting in North America. The findings are encouraging, while pointing out we still have a long way to go. The State of Church Planting in North America is a four-part report: Church Planting Overview, Who Starts New Churches, Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches, and Funding New Churches. Below are some highlights from the Church Planting Overview, but you will want to download all of the reports. You can download the study in its entirety here via the American Society of Church Growth Journal. You can also download a podcast we did related to the study.

Summary

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.

I have greatly enjoyed the December-January break from travel. It has been a great time of refreshing with my wife and children. If you follow on Twitter or Facebook, you have heard much about my family, friends, and my new habit of exercise.

The break turned out to last longer than I expected. I had planned to speak at the Nazarene National Pastors Conference but the meeting was canceled due to the economy. I am hoping we can reschedule because I was excited about my time with the pastors of the Church of the Nazarene.

Some bloggers have already responded to The Tennessan article on SBC decline that I mentioned yesterday, including:

Michael Spencer (Internet Monk)

SBC Impact

Pat Hood (cited in the article)

I will add more if I see them. Feel free to link yours or suggest others below.

The Tennessean has another article about the SBC today, their second major focus this month. It has some interesting interviews and analysis.

The reporter, Bob Smietana, gathered quite an array of quotes and contacts so it is some good reading.

I found the section on "stifling innovation" to be fascinating:

The conservative resurgence also had an unintended consequence, said Roger Finke, a sociologist of religion at Penn State University. Finke said growing religious groups often share two characteristics. They have a set core of beliefs as a denomination but allow innovative practices in their local congregations.

Finke believes that the conservative resurgence stifled innovation.

"They preserved a more conservative theology," he said, "but they ended up placing controls on local congregations."

Here is what I wrote and spoke about the SBC a couple of years ago:

The first step in organizational decline is that you lose your creative people, who decide to go on to more entrepreneurial settings. We have already lost most of this number. In fact, we have actively pushed many of them out by teaching and preaching against them in many SBC contexts and venues. The next step in decline is that the most competent among us begin to leave...

We've already told a whole generation of 'Purpose-Driven' pastors that they're not really needed or wanted in today's SBC [that would be my generation]. Are we intent on communicating this same message to the next generation?...

When Jimmy Draper was planning the first national 'young leaders' meeting, he asked me for suggested speakers. I told him what we needed most was a nationally-known pastor who had credibility with young pastors and who was also still clearly connected with the denomination. His voice went up with excitement: "Exactly! Who?" With sadness I replied, 'That's my point.'

There were some insightful stats as well:

In 1978, just before the start of the resurgence, there was one baptism for every 36 members of the convention. By 2007, that ratio was one baptism to every 47 members.

"We are baptizing fewer of our own children, and fewer unchurched people," LifeWay's Rainer said.

More than 9,000 congregations, or almost a quarter of all Southern Baptist churches, reported no baptisms in 2007. And, in that year, only 8.3 percent of the churches were responsible for 49.8 percent of the convention's baptisms.

And this is particularly pointed:

In 1971, there were 1,434,892 children ages 6 to 11 in Southern Baptist Sunday schools. By 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, that number had dropped by about 455,000 to 979,429. At the same time, the U.S. population grew by 46 percent.

There are mentions of my friends Pat Hood, pastor of LifePoint Church and Rick White of The People's Church, two local contemporary SBC churches.

Feel free to weigh in with your opinion...

The January/February issue of Preaching Magazine is out bearing the theme of "Missional Preaching." This issue includes an article which is adapted from the book Breaking the Missional Code by David Putnam and myself. Throughout the history of the church the best preaching has been contextual, and the best preachers were experts at contextualizing. Of course we think of Jesus and the Apostles who not only preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, but utilized the language, common knowledge and metaphors of their culture to make the gospel as comprehensible as possible. And following that example are men like Chrysostom, Augustine, Wycliffe, Luther, the Puritans, Wesley and Whitefield, Spurgeon and everyone else who believes that solid preaching is guided by a missional conviction and missiological perspective.

Contextual Preaching

At the heart of effective preaching is a solid missiological perspective. Are you communicating in such a way that your words actually convey biblical truth to your audience? Or does your preaching float right past your hearers because it's not delivered "on a frequency" that they listen to? In this respect, we can probably learn as much about good preaching from Hudson Taylor as we can from Haddon Robinson.

Continue reading Contextual Preaching.

I just wrote an article for Catalyst on the dangerous trend of gaining converts to our causes without gaining converts to Christ. Here are a few paragraphs.

I continue to see movements gaining traction among Christians that do not seem to have many converts. In other words, they have recruits to their cause, but few converts to Christ. And, I am concerned. I am concerned that in the name of "fixing the Church" we are not proclaiming the Church's gospel.

...

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

...

If you want to convince me (and the body of Christ) to your cause, you must show me it is a better way. You must tell and show something different. You must not just protest what is, but you must show me what should be.

You need to go an read the whole article to see these excerpts in context at Catalystspace.com, but come back here and let's talk about it. Agree, diasgree? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The Barna Group has completed some research that I think you will find interesting. They are reporting that most Americans do not default to the Christian religion.

You okay? Maybe you should sit down.

While many will continue to debate whether or not America ever was a "Christian nation," one thing is increasingly clear; most Americans today see the Christian faith as one spiritual option among many, and not the most desirable one at that. The Barna Group says,

This Sunday, I gave a "beginning of the year" message. I make it a practice to make my first message of the year about the nature of the gospel. We asked people to respond via a communication card at the end of the service (something the church does not usually do). I was encouraged to see 10 people indicate first time commitments to Christ, 40 want to get more information about connecting through membership, and hundreds committing to grow deeper in 2009.

I promised the church I would post my notes here. So, they are below.

From May 22-May 30, 2009 I will be hosting a vision trip with Darrin Patrick and some of my friends with the Upstream Collective to Rome, Italy and Marseille, France.

While each of our vision trips are unique we want to incorporate the following elements into each tour:

I just finished interviews with Fox News Radio and American Family Radio on our new stewardship research and realized I had not linked to it here. Sorry! I always post our research here. So, here is the link. Better late than never!

Click here to see the graphics from the story.

The "Missional Tribe" is a new collaboration of friends with a passion for all things missional. They have quite a list of contributors and are focusing on grass roots idea sharing around the missional turn.

While in Chicago, Imbi Medri and Bill Kinnon (two of the co-founders of Missional Tribe) got David Fitch and me together to have a discussion about the missional church.

David is a professor at Nothern Seminary, a co-pastor / church planter at Life on the Vine, and the author of The Great Giveaway.

I was there teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and we got together on a cold day in Chicago.

Check out the Missional Tribe site here and enjoy the video below:

Ed Stetzer & David Fitch - a missional conversation from Missional Tribe on Vimeo.

Here is my editorial in today's Tennessean, the Nashville paper. They asked me to write on the topic, "How to Stem the Decline of the SBC."

There are three editorials and some reader's letters: one from the editors from the paper, one from me, and one from Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics and Ethics Daily. Finally, there are reader's opinions.

The first editorial from The Tennessean editors mainly focused on the North American Mission Board and the Global Plan for Sharing, drawing from an earlier piece they wrote on the subject.

The second was from Robert Parham. Robert is a good (and prolific) writer and would be one of the more vocal critics of the conservative shift of the SBC. He stays true to form here and I am sure he will provoke many responses. Obviously, we would disagree on some important issues. Most obvious in this context: I would be a supporter of the conservative shift while he (as you can tell from the article) was not. (We call it the "conservative resurgence" and Robert would refer to it as a "fundamentalist takeover.")

Mine was third and I drew on an earlier blog post here and this post explains the trend. Here is mine in its entirety:

Stemming SBC Membership Decline

LifeWay Research recently reported that the SBC had declined in membership. The SBC growth rate has been slowing for decades but last year was the first year of decline in a long while--but trends say that more will follow.

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.

When the news came out, some in the SBC stuck their heads a bit deeper in sand saying, "We're doing just fine, thank you!" They believe trying harder without change is best. Besides, they say, the SBC is not shrinking as fast as liberal denominations--which seems to me like bragging that our sunset is brighter than theirs.

On the other hand, some "finger waggers" will propose that the answer is to move leftward theologically. Yet, regardless of one's theological views (and that is important), no evidence exists to support that a leftward shift will grow a denomination--generally, the more liberal a denomination is, the faster it is declining.

Yet, a growing number of us believe that change is needed in the SBC. Let me suggest a few of those needed changes.

First and most importantly, the SBC must refocus on the gospel. The convention has become big, bureaucratic, and distracted by so many things--from politics to boycotts to programs. In the process, we have, at times, lost the focus on what was once the main thing: being, doing, and telling the good news locally and globally. We must return to our "first love" (Rev. 2:4), Jesus, and then show and share his message. We need gospel change.

Second, the SBC must address the continued loss of leaders. Ongoing denominational conflict has hastened the depopulation of young leaders. Furthermore, ethnic leadership remains mostly absent after decades of ethnic change in America.

Yet, such change will require an openness to other approaches to church and ministry from different cultures and generations. Openness will be difficult since preaching against other ways of doing church still gets the "big amen" at the SBC meeting-- even though the "Amen Corner" is getting older and smaller every year. If we share a common theology, we need to hold out a chair and ask new generations and ethnicities to sit at the table of leadership. We need leadership change.

Finally, infighting must not define the SBC. It is public knowledge that Baptists do not always settle their differences amicably at the convention or local church level. If "Baptist" and "bad-tempered" are synonyms to the average American, the trend toward decline will only accelerate. We need a heart change.

Can the tide be stemmed? Yes. Will it? Realistically, the "odds" are against it. But, I am one who believes that if we obey God's leading, He can continue to use even an imperfect people like Southern Baptists.

Interestingly, The Tennessean editors changed my title from "How to Stem the SBC Decline" to "SBC needs right kind of change." I prefer the original title much more than their new one and hope that change does not confuse readers with the multiple meanings assigned to the word "right."

Being the guy who writes the conservative evangelical position in the secular paper is always interesting (particularly in 500 words!). But, I hope I held up a commitment to biblical theology while calling for change in the denomination. You decide.

Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost have written a new book, Rejesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, in which they call the church to "reconfigure itself," and "recalibrate its mission, around the example and teaching of the radical rabbi from Nazareth."

Alan is a good friend and I am grateful he took the time to answer some questions here and come around the blog today to interact.

Here is our interview:

In simple terms, what problem(s) is ReJesus addressing?

We are addressing what we call 'the subversion of Christianity'; the process by which we remove the defining presence and influence of Jesus for His church, our discipleship, and mission. reJesus is about exactly that...re-Jesus-ing the church! Putting Jesus back into the most basic equation and seeing what happens!

In the past the church has sought and experienced "reformation" (the church's work to bring itself more in line with the expressed will and ways of God) and "revival" (God's work in leading his people to live more in line with his expressed will and ways). How does you call to "ReJesus" the church look similar to and/or different from what has happened throughout the history of the church?

In many ways we believe that both the renewal, as well as revival, of the church and its mission are directly related to the more elemental task of reJesusing the church. Instead of simply reforming the church and its theology, we prefer to use the term 'refounding' the church: and we suggest that we must do this by recovering the definitive role that Jesus plays in shaping church, discipleship, and mission. The fact is Ed, that we so easily remove the influence and role of Jesus from our midst. We do find it hard to live with a Lord, humans tend to prefer our own ways and agendas to that of a demanding Lord/King.

So in ReJesus, are you saying something new, or something old?

Well, actually it is ancient...primal really. Whatever we can say about Christianity, it has everything to do with Christ. Jesus is the Founder and the Gospels are our most foundational stories. We are simply renovating ancient truths. H. Richard Niebuhr was right to note that "The great Christian revolutions came not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when someone takes radically something that was always there."

All of this will sound risky to many readers. Is it? How? Can you tell them why it's worth it?

Oh too right. it is risky! Particularly if we insist on clinging to our middleclass penchant for safety and security, and consumerist addiction to comfort and convenience. 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.

Why is it that keeping Christ at the center of our confessional identity can be so much easier than remaining Christocentric in our person, practices and piety?

Because simple confession, like theology, as important as it is to our integrity, is not enough for us to truly 'know' God. I would argue that to truly know God we must supplement intellectual knowledge with that type of knowledge that can only come from engaging our hearts (our passion, feelings, our capacity for love) as well as our actions (obedience and action). We spend the good part of a chapter on this aspect of what we call "Hebraic epistemology". This is what it means to take the Shema seriously. And Jesus himself puts this at the center of a missional discipleship. "One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one" answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 'The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31 NIV) The mind is simply not enough to know and love God as we must.

In the book you make a biblical argument for experiencing and living under the Lordship of a sent and sending God. A God that is immanent, close and accessible through Jesus Christ. Is there a place for seeing and worshipping the God who is also seen as transcendent, holy and "other?"

Of course! God's transcendence is vital to a Christian understanding of God. But you are right in noticing that we have chosen to focus on the primacy and centrality of God Jesus as He is revealed in and through the Incarnation. We believe strongly that whatever ideas of God we might entertain; they must first be interpreted through the lens of Jesus--whatever that might entail. We call this fact that Jesus reveals God to us, 'The Christlike God" because we know through his life that God is indeed like Jesus--he says if you have seen him you have seen the Father...he and the Father are one!! Sure we know God through Scripture as well as nature...but the most distilled, and central, knowledge of God must be gleaned from the life, teaching, ministry of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. This is what makes us distinctly Christ-ian. This has massive implications for us, especially for our understanding of God, but it does not exhaust the extent of the revelation we find in Jesus, because not only does Jesus redefine our concept of God but also he shows us the perfect expression of humanity as God intended it. In other words, he models for us what a true human being should be like. Therefore, focusing our discipleship on Jesus forces us to take seriously the implications of following him, of becoming like him. It sets the agenda for our spirituality. It acknowledges that Jesus as our model, our teacher, and our guide is normative for the Christian life. He is the standard by which we measure ourselves, the quality of our discipleship, and therefore our spirituality

You have done much to skewer cultural conditioned views of Jesus ("bearded lady Jesus" was my favorite). But, when I read the book I wanted to ask something that is both a question and a compliment-- the Jesus you described looked a lot like you, Alan-- a wandering teacher calling for change, a wild man with a powerful message, focused on the Kingdom of God, and with a Hebrew worldview. How culturally conditioned do you think your view of Jesus might be?

None of us is free from trying to make Jesus like us on a good day! Actually that's what we are trying to 'skewer' it debunking the stereotypes of Jesus. Actually I am a strong believer in ongoing validity of the second commandment--we should not make any images of God. Every time we attempt to image God, be it mental or metal, we limit him and thereby seek to control him. We must always allow Jesus to be beyond any stereotype that we might wish to make of him. As you say, a lot of the book is iconoclastic. It's a bit of fun at our own expense really. But hey, thanks for the compliment!

While everyone can benefit from reading this book, who needs to read it (for whom is it most critical)?

We hope that the book is accessible to all thoughtful Christians. It is certainly geared towards a missional audience. But I do think it will appeal mostly to people engaged leadership and formal ministry.

As pastors seek to bring about the change you call for in the book, what are the top areas they should focus on?

Recovering Jesus in thought, imagination, action of the church. Radicalizing the church by recovering the ethos, teachings, lifestyle of the Founder. And to do this they will have to take discipleship in the Way of Jesus seriously. I can't think of anything more foundational and important to the life and mission of the church.

What other books, resources would you recommend to those who are convicted that such things need to change?

You know, I love Soren Kierkegaard, but he is probably too complex for most people to read directly. A good introduction or two on his thinking is good medicine. For instance he saw it as his life's task Soren Kierkegaard, when he said, rather cheekily, "My mission is to introduce Christianity into Christendom." Dietrich Bonheoffer's work and thinking is timeless. I loved Stanley Hauerwas' commentary on Matthew (Brazos Theological Commentary) and Jacques Ellul's work in The Subversion of Christianity, and The Presence of the Kingdom, is really excellent. Also, Debs and I are working on a book on missional discipleship--published early '10. In many ways it will be a guide to outworking what it means to take Jesus seriously. And then of course there is your work on breaking the discipleship code.

Alan will be around today to dialogue about the book. Feel free to post questions and comments below.

Here is the final installment, looking back to the start of the blog from October through December 2007.

For the other sections, see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

October

• Explained our methdology for doing the largest and fastest growing list in Outreach Magazine.
• Did a podcast on preaching with my friend Michael Duduit from Preaching Magazine.
• Asked opinions on a book cover, and received a lot of helpful comments.
• Shared some important new research I did for Leadership Network.

November

• Responded to Dan Kimball's suggestion I get a new haircut.
• Reflected on guidelines for missiological contextualization.
• Linked and posted the presentations at the Building Bridges Calvinism conference. I was one of the most clicked pages on the blog.
• While speaking at the Assemblies national church planting summit, created a list of Assemblies of God fun facts (which, I have been told, was subsequently read aloud at the Springfield, MO headquarters).

December

• Announced that I was named the "Interim Teaching Pastor" at FBC Hendersonville. I had been preaching already a couple of months and I am still there today. A great church and I love teaching there.
• Was publicly accused of plagiarism and responded here. (The author of that post, David Wayne, is struggling with cancer. Pray for him and follow his blog here.)
• Talked about my time in Philadelphia and discussed "third place" churches.
• Corrected an erroneous report on The Trinity Broadcasting Network which they later clarified.
• Posted new research on the decline of younger leader involvement in the SBC.

I received some nice comments about the blog "look back" (see parts 1, 2, 3, 4) and some encouragement to summarize the whole blog. So, here is another installment, looking back to the start of the blog from July through September 2007.

July 2007

• After an intro post, the blog began while speaking after John Piper at his church in Minneapolis. He made some challenging statements, particularly at a church planting conference (good comments-- but also a bit surprising in that context). That led to more comments from my friend Kenny Stokes and the video of Piper's comments finally being posted.
• Spoke at Concordia University in Irvine and shared some helpful insights from a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Bishop.
• Posted on the future of mission agencies.
• Questioned whether there really is a "call to preach."
• Posted new data from LifeWay Research reported in USAToday on youth dropouts. Guest bloggers included Mark Lydecker, Jim Johnston, Scott Stevens, and Jeff Schadt.
I gave my own thoughts in an interview.

August 2007

• Reflected on my 30th spiritual birthday.
• Started my "Meanings of Missional" series (full series listed here) that are still the most commonly read posts on the blog.
• Called for more civil discourse in denominations (particularly mine).
• Talked some about my time with some Anglicans and what was happening in their movement.
• Reported on an article in Christanity Today by Collin Hansen that included an irritating reference to my friendship with Mark Driscoll. Collin and I talked later and he had a great line: "how could I not include that?!" So, I (sort of) moved on. ;-)

September 2007

• Talked about racism in the 9 Marks journal.
• Posted my SBC sermon (reprinted in SBC Life) and provided the full length video of the message that some loved... and some, not so much...
• Posted the Evangelical Press Awards. I judged the biblical exposition and listed my choices.
• Became a columnist for Catalyst Monthly and posted my first article here. It received many good comments, but many objected to my defense of the church.
• Rejoiced concerning a commitment to end the sniping between SBC agencies. Still rejoicing while I wait for that to be fully implemented.
• Talked about the Emerging Church and shared some upcoming conferences and publications related to it.

And the last installment of the blog "look back" covers October through December.

October

• Shared my notes from my talk at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.
• Most of the month was taken up with posts from Krakow, Poland and Rome, Italy. Near the end, I opined on "When the Mission Gets Lost in the System" and listed the posts at the end of that entry. A final wrap up and summary came a bit later.
• Launched the B&H Leadership Book interviews with Thom and Sam Rainer.
• LifeWay Research released new research on the voting plans of Protestant pastors (and they did not reflect how the general public voted).
• Ended the month with some seasonally appropriate research on haunted houses.

• One of the more widely linked posts was "Speaking of Jesus and Justice," which was an expanstion of my comments in USAToday.
• In the month of November, we started and ended a conflict with a self-centered missional thinker named Al.
• Discussed the house church movement and how widespread it really is.

December

• A series on cooperation (still to be finished) overlapped November and December and included posts on cooperation, the SBC, denominations, and networks. The Next-Wave e-zine will be reprinting the post on denominations as an article. More on that later...
• Published a post responding to a critique of our research.
• Shared a series of videos about Comeback Churches with the Assemblies of God.
• Posted a humorous (but pointed) post on Social Networking.
• One of the more commneted-upon posts was from Penn Jillette, an atheist, talking about proselytizing.
• My response to some criticism of my comments from Michael Medved.
• A blog post on the problem with lying among many Christian leaders.

The blog "look back" rolls ahead. Be sure to see part 1 and part 2.

Below are some blog highlights from July through September 2008.

July

July was a busy month here at the blog. Some of the posts came from presentation, others from articles written in print publications, and others just started here at the blog.

• I posted my notes from a conference. I had spoken to the Founders Conference, a group of SBC Calvinists. I had cautioned them against being "functional hyper-Calvinists," borrowing the term from Bill Ascol. Well, some latched on to the comment and I found it best to post my notes so that people could get the context of what I said.
• Mixed it up a bit about Bill Hybels, Willow Creek, and their Reveal study. One guy got mad, but I think we ended as friends.
• LifeWay Research released another research project, this time dealing with the ongoing loss of young leaders at the SB convention. Some responded by burrowing their heads deeper in the ground. Others saw the trend. Many proposed differencing solutions.
• Got a bit nostalgic (my wife said "sappy") about how I miss being a pastor.
• World Magazine picked up on the earlier conversation on the blog and quoted Geoff Surratt and me in their story about multi-site churches.
• Continued a blog tour throughout the month that ended several weeks later in the Dallas Morning News (full tour details are in the final blog).
• One of the more widely read posts was when I wrote about "apostles" and their place in the church today. That also lead to a follow-up post here.
• Shared my presentation (which I will expand in a future book) about what a movement of multiplying churches would look like in North America.

August was a mix of topics, but some of the posts I thought would garner discussion did not--and at least one that I thought was an obvious conclusion brought much discussion.

• The second most "commented" blog of the year was my non-meeting with now President-Elect Obama. It turned into quite a debate. Recent stats show my prediction was (mostly) right.
• Commented upon the gullability of evangelicals and asked, "does anyone still have a Bible and some common sense?" Lots of long comments on this one.
• Visited and blogged about Community Christian Church where the Ferguson brothers serve. My favorite part of the comments was comparing Tom Petty's "Learn to Fly" and the Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly." To my great relief, I could tell them apart-- unlike a certain intern at CCC :-).
• Gave some Twitter advice.
• Talked about how the "theologically preoccupied" and the "evangelistically fixated" can learn from one another.

September

September generated much interest in the Emerging Church and megachurches (an odd combination, I know).

• Visited the Rolling Road Show with some folks from Emergent. I reviewed the show here and it was nice to see Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt come by and comment. I also released my 40+ page paper on the Emerging Church that I started while speaking for the Evangelical Free Church Mid-Winter Ministerial. The paper will be edited as part of a new book on the Emerging Church Movement coming out later this year.
• LifeWay Reserach released new data on the church and politics. It has been reported in multiple sources.
• Shared the presentation I gave at The Washington Post to the Religion Newswriters Assocation.
• Started megachurch week (which grew, ironicalyl, to two weeks) including interviews with Perry Noble, Kerry Shook, Joel Hunter, and others.

One final note: It seems that the "look back" drew some attention to a long dead conversation on this blog. Thanks to those who added their insights yesterday to the discussion or different-sex relationships.

Continued from part 1.

Here are some blog highlights from April through June, 2008.

April

• Our research about church architecture was reported in a dozen different places. We first released it here.
• Made a trip to rural Missouri, ate frog legs (pics included), and talked about the history of the Second Great Awakening. It bought out a few folks concerned about heresy in the movements.
• My most recent book (with Philip Nation), Compelled by Love, was released.
• Tim Keller and I discussed research and his new book in a podcast here.
• My most commented upon post was this one explaining and opining upon the decline in the SBC. It brought Danny Akin out of blog-comment exile and prompted many other responses. The strangest thing-- the Associated Press and other media outlets quoted the blog and I decided I needed to be careful.
• A follow up to the SBC decline post explained why this decline will probably continue in the future.
• The month ended as I spoke at the Dwell Conference in NYC and "slow blogged" the experience.

May

• Shared some rules I follow about interaction between married men and women and I was surprised that some people found them controversial.
• Listed some historic and current accountability questions that some have used to keep themselves in accountable relationships.
• Listed the candidates for SBC president and Johnny Hunt allowed me to list him as a candidate here, making it public on the blog that night.
• Mixed it up with Neil Cole and Alan Hirsch about the challenges caused by the professionization of the clergy.
• USAToday reported on our politics research and it ended up getting involved in the conversation about the Evangelical Manifesto. It led to several other posts involving the Evangelical Manifesto.
• Joined the faculty at Southeastern Seminary.
• Was glad to see 11 Innovations in the Local Church (my book with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird) be a finalist for Outreach book of the year.
• Opined on what plagarism in preaching really is.

June

• Mixed it up on multi-site churches with Geoff Surratt. First, my article, "Questions for McChurch" from my monthly Outreach Magazine column. Then, Geoff's response. World Magazine picked up on the debate and Geoff and I were interviewed in the story-- with Geoff on the cover. (He says he is going to buy me dinner.)
• Updates from the SBC annual meeting on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I then penned my analysis and hope for the SBC.
• Kristen and I went on her 10th birthday trip to Yosemite.
• The Pew Forum released some research and we shared some additional research which asked a similar quesiton but with different wording. The comparison of the data became a national story. (I actually will post again about this next week-- Pew has updated the data.)

And I forgot this from February:

• Tim Keller clarifies some issues from a Newsweek story.

Part 3 coming tomorrow...

I thought I would start the new year with a look back at 2008.

The blog was still young in January 2008 (having started 5 months before). Now, the blog seems a bit older as this post is the 438th.

Here is a tour of what happened this year at the blog.

I pulled out those posts that had significant traffic and I thought were most helpful. You can find the full list here in the blog archives.

January

January had some big downs and then ups, including:

• Blogging my own car accident (with a picture!).
• Joining the faculty at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
• Talking research on CNN. (That clip has a glitch so I uploaded a clearer version here.)

February

February started with a trip to Europe and ended with a bit of fun. It was a heavy travel month and the posts reflected that.

• In Barcelona. I spoke to missionaries and brought some pastors along to create partnerships. Those posts are here, here, and here.
• LifeWay Research asked for, and received, a clarification from Trinity Broadcasting Network.
• Dealt with some race issues related to the SBC.
• An ER clip related to some of our recent reserach.
• Had my most Pentecostal week ever.
• And, one of the most visited posts, was a humorous post I wrote about a meeting planned by my new friend Ben Arment called the "Whiteboard Sessions"

March

March had some time off, some trips, and some thoughts, including:

• A trip to Disney World and a pic we love at our house.
• Three posts (all linked in the last one) about my time speaking at Highlands Fellowship.
• Comeback Churches in Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox.
• Comeback Churches and what the Landmark movement is.
• A bit on my visit to Criswell College.

More soon...