Home > Crossway Blog > Archive for April, 2010

Archive for April, 2010

Church Planting & A Burden for a Specific Place

In Church Planting is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches that do Extraordinary Things, Mike McKinley shares how he ended up in the suburbs (read here) along with some thoughts on having a burden for a specific location:

I do think that too many church planters get bogged down with a clear burden for a specific place. I mean, maybe God did give you a burden for a certain geographical area. If so, far be it from me to tell you otherwise. But I know a lot of guys who say they have a “burden” when in reality what they have is a “personal preference” or “a level of comfort” with a certain location. So they reject all kinds of gospel opportunities because it doesn’t fit with their “burden.”

But if God gives you an opportunity to plant a church in a place that has either Christians who need a church to proclaim the gospel to them or non-Christians who need a church to proclaim the gospel to them, you should think long and hard about it, even if it’s not in a location you prefer.

screen-shot-2010-05-16-at-93210-pm1

April 20, 2010 | Posted in: Books,Church Planting | Author: Crossway Staff @ 9:25 am | 1 Comment »

Posted in Books, Church Planting | 1 Comment »

Sin Misunderstood

The gospel of Jesus Christ is full of stumbling stones, and this is one of the largest. To human hearts that stubbornly think of themselves as basically good and self-sufficient, the idea that human beings are fundamentally sinful and rebellious is not merely scandalous. It is revolting.

That’s why it is so absolutely crucial that we understand both the nature and the depth of our sin. If we approach the gospel thinking that sin is something else or something less than what it really is, we will badly misunderstand the good news of Jesus Christ.

How do Christians often misunderstand sin?

Confusing Sin with Sin’s Effects
Reducing Sin to a Broken Relationship
Confusing Sin with Negative Thinking
Confusing Sin with Sins

Adapted excerpt from What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert.

April 15, 2010 | Posted in: Books,Sin & Temptation | Author: Crossway Staff @ 6:00 am | 1 Comment »

Posted in Books, Sin & Temptation | 1 Comment »

Can Ambition be a Godly Thing?

For church leaders from Augustine to Jonathan Edwards, ambition was synonymous with the love of earthly honor, vainglory, fame-hunting . . .

In Rescuing Ambition, author Dave Harvey asserts that ambition needs to be rescued from a wrong understanding of humility. “I think this issue quenches a lot of evangelical fire,” Harvey writes. “When we become too humble to act, we’ve ceased being biblically humble. True humility doesn’t kill our dreams; it provides a guardrail for them, ensuring that they remain on God’s road and move in the direction of his glory.”

Ultimately, it’s we ourselves who hold ambition hostage. We’re sinners, we love ourselves, we aspire to bring glory to ourselves, and we’ll drop godly dreams if something more attractive shows up—and in the process, the right kind of dreams die.

To understand ambition, we must understand that each of us lives on a quest for glory. Where we find it determines the success of our quest.

Pre-order Rescuing Ambition or download free sample chapters here.