What's Coming Up This Week?

I am in Atlanta already and have Donna with me. She is coming along on this trip, but I bet she won't come to my sessions. Grin.

Here is where I am heading this week.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL (outside of Chicago) is a great school. There are a number of reasons why Trinity is a great choice for graduate and post-graduate work, but I'm short on time so let me give you one reason you should enroll: I would love to see you in my D. Min. class this Spring.

Chicago is on my mind.

I am heading there in a couple of weeks to shoot a day of video on Comeback Churches for the Assemblies of God. Should be good...

I am staying over a few days with Donna to get a feel for the city.

If I don't end up preaching somewhere, Dave Ferguson has invited me to lunch so I will probably visit the big yellow box called Community Christian Church. Dave and Jon are contributing to our new book, Multisite Churches: Guidance for the Movement's Next Generation So, I owe Dave (and Jon) and will probably have to buy the lunch!

I am trying to get to Chicago more often because of my new relationship with Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. As I recently blogged, I just joined their faculty.

This Fall (November 17-21) I will be teaching a course titled "Becoming a Missional Church" at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School just outside of Chicago, IL. The course description reads,

Transformational ministries in today's rapidly changing culture require churches that are "missional" from a biblical, theological, and cultural perspective. This course will help you better understand the cultural context in which you serve and teach you how to apply biblically faithful and culturally relevant missiological strategies to your ministry. Special attention will be given to North American cultural shifts, the missional/sending nature of the church, effective communication in various cultural contexts, and emerging ministry patterns in North America.

You can download the syllabus here. Auditors are welcome!

TEDS is a fantastic school and I am looking forward to teaching and interacting with the students. I will be making a point of being on the Trinity campus while in town, so if you are a student there, I hope we can visit.

I will also teach a one day conference on November 20, in Hinkson Hall, (located in the Rodine Global Ministries Building on campus). The conference, also called "Building a Missional Church," runs from 3:15-6:45 and is open to all, but registration is limited. This should be a great gathering of students and pastors. Stay tuned for coming website and how to register.

I will come back in December to be part of a Cornerstone Knowledge Network meeting. We did some architecture research for them (see here.) They are meeting the 9th and 10th, and I will be with them on the 9th and will get some time at Trinity while I am there.

In the Spring I will be back in Chicagoland teaching another class at Trinity. This course will be on "Planting Missional Churches." While there I will lead a forum for sub•text on March 12th, 2009 (more details coming soon). sub•text is a new initiative begun by local pastors by Joe Thorn and Steve McCoy and emphasizes the preaching and practice of the gospel in the suburban context.

So, now I just need tickets to the White Sox game.

This morning I left Orlando and it was in the 80s. Right now, I am in Chicago and it is 5 degrees. Ugh.

From the weather service:

At 1035 PM CST...radar indicated an area of snow across the Chicago Metro area extending into much of Northwest Indiana... travel conditions will be extremely hazardous. Blowing snow will continue to reduce visibilities to a quarter mile or less in open locations...with localized visibilities approaching zero... west winds gusting to 40 to 50 can be expected. The combination of the cold temperatures and very strong winds will produce wind chills of 20 below to 30 below zero overnight. If you must travel...allow plenty of extra time to reach your destination and exercise extreme caution.

Here's a quick recap of the week so far:

We had a good day yesterday in Orlando with the folks at Global Church Advancement. I taught on missional church planting. It was always good to get dinner with friends Steve Childers and Bart Johnson.

Early this morning, I jumped on a plane from Orlando to Chicago (where I am right now).

This is Church Planting Week at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It also included an Acts 29 bootcamp. So, I did two sessions this afternoon. Then, we went to dinner with the Evangelical Free leadership and Trinity Faculty up at the seminary "mansion." It was a great time of dialogue about how a seminary can train church planters.

Then, Mark Driscoll, A.J. Hamilton, Scott Thomas drove off and went out for Buffalo wings. It was good to catch up with them and some other old friends... although Mark almost killed us driving back through the snow.

Tomorrow morning I catch a flight to Lynchburg to speak at Liberty University and meet with Jonathan Falwell, Ergun Caner, and Dave Early to talk about their aggressive new church planting plans.

More tomorrow about future teaching plans.