I love Rick Warren. I attended a conference on preaching at Saddleback in 2000 that changed the way I approach my pulpit ministry. I’ve ReadThe Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life. I’ve led one church through 40 Days of Purpose. So I’m not anti-Rick Warren. I think people who have barely heard what he has to say are far to harsh toward him. Nonetheless, I’m dissappointed.

Here’s a link: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Aug16/0,4670,CandidatesReligion,00.html

Angie and I were flipping through the channels and stumbled up on the airing of Pastor Rick’s interviewing of both Obama and McCain on the stage of Saddleback at a “Forum on the Presidency.” Rick was pretty neutral and allowed both candidates to speak equally and fairly without much argument. Therein lies the problem for me. We can’t be neutral in this current culture war. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re journeying through the Word of God at Bethel, one passage at a time. It’s created some amazing opportunities to communicate the gospel from a variety of stories so far. I will admit the challenge of connecting every passage to everyday life, but I still wouldn’t trade this expository approach for anything. It’s one of my own concerns about contemporary Christian culture. I am positive about a new wave of creativity and evangelistic ingenuity, but often the preaching (the most important part of what happens on Sunday) is limited in its content to only those topics that are deemed most relevant and presentable in a flashy kind of way.

So a study on the Tabernacle seems out of place today. It’s probably one of those things that many contemporary church growth gurus use as a joke to demonstrate howirrelevant expository preaching is. But do I care? Not at all. The Tabernacle is already opening up to me as an amazing symbol of Jesus Christ Himself, and of our life in Christ.

I’ll admit the toughness of organizing my own thoughts - Exodus is a challenge to outline - yet I’m convinced that our people will grow spiritually through this part of our journey. I hope and pray to lay out a blueprint for real intimacy with God, demonstrated by a simple tent more than three thousand years old. So pray for me as I preach, and join us on Sundays or catch us at BibleJourney.org to keep up.

Jacob Norman is planting a church in Colorado and recently sent this email…

Hello friends and family,

Things have been exciting here in Fountain. After the last update about baptizing 3 people in my backyard we had the privilege of seeing two girls come to know Christ at our VBS SportsCamp. We also were excited to see our best attendance in a while this past week at church with about 10-12 new people showing up at our service. Although it is not all about the numbers it was exciting to see some new faces. We are currently planning for the kick-off event for our student ministry on August 23. We have put a lot of resources into this event and are hoping it will provide a great platform from which to launch our student ministry so that we can reach teens for Christ in our community.

Pray for us as we seek to connect everyone in our church with a LifeGroup (small group Bible study) starting this September. Things have been exciting and we are anticipating what God is going to do this fall.

Jake Norman

We’re down to the final study in our Wendesday night journey through the “one another’s” of the New Testament. This one is pretty awesome - we’re to comfort one another. It’s based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, a familiar passage to many. It concerns itself with Jesus’ second coming, which forms the basis of our comfort of one another. Read the rest of this entry »

I just got an email from Alexander Chepurnoy, who is one of our missionaries serving in Minneapolis. He’s planting a Russian-speaking church there in the twin cities where there’s a large population. He just sent me this note - wanted to share…

Pastor Brandon,

I want to inform you, that on August, 2, 2008 we had the first baptism in the “ New Life” Church. We baptized 3 persons. It was special event in our church. We had baptism on the Weaver Lake. After baptism we had picnic in a park. I send to you some photo.

Thank you for prayers and the financial support of our ministry.

God bless you.

The church-planter

Alexander Chepurnoy, Minneapolis, MN