What is the local church?
For one of my classes last semester, I had to define what the local church is. Fo the fun of it, I thought I would share with you what my definition came out to be.
This definition is heavily based on Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 38. I took a considerable amount of time studying the different elements of their definition and added where I personally thought it might be lacking. Since I am a member of Mars Hill Church, I wanted to stay as close to Mars Hill Church’s definition of a church and only tweak it a little bit.
The local church is a community of confessing and covenantal believers of Jesus Christ who are organized under Biblically qualified leadership. They regularly gather physically for preaching and worship, and scatter in the unity and power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission of God by evangelizing and caring for people everywhere. They observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, and are disciplined to maintain the purity of the church in order to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to the glory of God.
What do you think? Would you change anything? Do you have a working definition of the church?
I’m truly humbled.
For those of you that don’t know, one of my blog posts was featured on theResurgence.com yesterday. I was approached a few months ago to see if they could use the article on their site and they posted it yesterday. I have to say that I am truly humbled that they would ask me and actually post it. It’s crazy to see my post on the same blog of author’s like Dave Craft, Ed Stetzer, Justin Holcomb, Winfield Bevins, Mark Driscoll, Jonathan Dobson, and Charles Spurgeon. These guys have been a huge blessing in my life, and I am in awe that I would be published by their side.
Thanks to Mike Anderson and Jordan Buckley for asking and for all you hard work at theResurgence.com. You and your team do amazing work, and it’s a true blessing to me personally. If you’re not subscribed to theResurgence.com, you need to go there right now and check out all their stuff. Once again thanks.
32 Hours: the church in Haiti
Stop whatever you’re doing right now and watch this sermon by my pastor Mark Driscoll. Pastor Mark went to Haiti last week and this sermon has a lot of video from his trip. I hope it will change you like it did me.
Tech Wednesday – ESV Study Bible
Ok I know…it’s a book. Some might say that a book isn’t technology, but I say tell that to Gutenberg. Anyways back to the point at hand. Crossway recently annouced it is coming out with an ESV Study Bible in Ocober. For most of you this won’t be a big deal, but I’m totally geeking out on this one.
Let me give you a run down of the authors in this Study Bible:
That’s just the authors. This thing has:
I’ve also heard that buyng this study Bible will garuntee a place in heaven and a new BMW. Ok maybe not. But the free online version is a nice plus. All I have to say is I own too many Bibles already, but I might have to add one more to my collection.
Is this like loving yourself?
So the other day I told you about how Mark Driscoll could no longer take anymore friends because he had maxed out. To remedy this little problem Mark set up a fan page. He even did a video letting people know that they could now be his fan. But the one thing I didn’t expect to see was this when I opened my Facebook today:
I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud when I saw this. I’m thinking about making my own Facebook page now so I can be a fan of myself. I don’t know what are your thoughts?
I’m in the “In Crowd”
So for one of the first times in my life I’m in the “In Crowd.” Yesterday Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle posted a video on his Facebook letting everyone know that he had capped out on the number of friends that he could have. Apparently Facebook only allows you to have 5,000 friends (I don’t think I would ever find this out), and he hit the limit. Now I’m normally not one to be prideful (yeah right), but I must say it feels kinda cool to know that I’m a friend with Mark Driscoll on Facebook and nobody else can do that now.
I know it’s lame…but you’re only saying that because you aren’t one of the 5,000.
Seattle Update 3
Ok so Alf and I did a video update today…but for some reason it has no audio. So here are some quick thoughts:
- Matt Chandler is awesome…he is a new favorite teacher.
- John Piper seems like he is on the edge of crazy and that is awesome!
- Seattle has some good beer.
- I like Jamison (I don’t know how to spell) whiskey
- If you want to watch the lessons live from home (for free) you can go to theresurgence.com/live (hurry the conference ends tomorrow)
- I miss Shannon
- Mark Driscoll’s love for his kids makes me look forward to being a daddy
- Mark Driscoll’s love for his wife make me proud to have a wife like Shannon
- Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, CJ Mahaney’s love for Christ gives me a passion to grow closer to Jesus and to spread the gospel
- I know that I’m called…I think God will clarify to me later
- The guys that I’m out here with are great men of God and I love them
That’s all for now…I’m on Alf’s laptop and the battery is about to go. Until next time.
Text and Context – Seattle Washington
This coming Sunday I’m going to be heading for Seattle WA for the Text and Context Conference held by The Resurgence with five other guys. This is looking like it is going to be a real blast. There are going to be some big names at this conference (John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler…). Although the speaking should be awesome, I’m most excited about getting to drink some good old Seattle coffee/beer while I’m out there.
I’m going to try to keep you guys up to date with what I’m doing while I’m out there. Check out my flickr page to see any new pictures that I post while I’m out and about. I’ll also try to give you at least a daily post of the days events. I’m also going to look into getting Twitter acount or something (I’ve been wanting to get this anyways). If you are from Seattle, give me some good suggestions for where to eat while I’m out there. I fyou live in Seattle shoot me an email through my contact page and maybe we can meet up for some good old Seattle coffee/beer.
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