The Compelled by Love blog tour took a stop at the Dallas Morning News. Philip Nation wrote a few thoughts on our book, Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (New Hope, 2008), in the Dallas Morning News religion blog.

He wrote ten things... I excerpted a few here:

1. Understand the Gospel. The mission of God is consumed with the person & work of Christ. As you understand Christ, you can accurately participate in God's work of redemption. So read the Gospels - a lot...

4. Watch for a chance to serve. People give away all of their energy on family, work, and menial chores. Look for ways that you can care for your neighbors - even if it is just cooking a simple dinner for them...

6. Love like Jesus. He lived a robust life of caring for the lost. In elevating sacrificial love far beyond any previous thinking, he gave an example for us...

10. Do it for one reason - the glory of God. The only reason for be missional is to make Christ more widely known. God is worthy of being honored by all of creation and it should be the main reason why we participate in his mission.

You can read all ten here.

The blog tour so far:

PhoenixPreacher.com,
Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox,
Alan Hirsch's blog,
Andrew Jones's Tall Skinny Kiwi,
Darryl Dash,
Micah Fries,
Marty Duren's Iemissional, and
David Fitch at Reclaiming the Mission.

I had a great day in Dallas. I am sitting in the airport right now hoping to make it out before the storm roles in.

I had the chance to hear Alan Roxburgh in person for the first time. If you are building a missional church bibliography, you will want his resources, including:

The Roxburg Journal

Allelon: A Movement for Missional Leaders

Alan's books at Amazon.com

I was blessed to spend some time with Eric Swanson from Leadership Network after the conference. He co-wrote The Externally Focused Church. Eric is one of the more Christ-like leaders I know in Christian ministry and his book should be required reading for people interested in the missional church.

I also got some one-on-one time with Jeremy Self (who blogs here). Jeremy is planting a church in Austin, a city whose motto is "Keep Austin Weird." Should be interesting.

Finallly, it was good to catch up with Chris Conrad, director of church planting for the Wesleyan Church. I am coaching just a handful of movement leaders and Chris is one of them. They are doing great work in "Wesley world" and have a heart for more missional church planting.

More soon about DTS and their leadership center.

I was off to here (leaving at 6:40p.m.):

Well... not tonight... American Airlines has cancelled the flight and there is no other flight to get there tonight. So, tomorrow, at 6a.m. we try again. Sigh.

I look forward to being with the people at Dallas Theological Seminary. They have invited Alan Roxburgh and me to come and me to come and lead a missional church conference (along with my friends Bob Roberts and Eric Swanson).

You can find more conference info here. And, if all goes well, the scheudle will remain the same. Here is the program description:

Beyond the Church Doors: Developing a Missional Culture in Your Congregation

This conference is about more than programs and strategies. It's about igniting passion in your congregation to see God transform their community.

----------------------------------------

Day 1: You will hear from two of the leading missional strategists interacting together for the first time. Drs. Ed Stetzer and Alan Roxburgh will discuss the theology and practices of a missional church and prepare you to lead your church toward a more missional focus.

Day 2: Your ministry team will be given tools to assess your church's readiness and implement missional strategies. Through group process time, your team will formulate practical steps to develop a missional culture within your congregation.