In an interesting note, Tom Brokaw sat down this past week and interviewed Dr. Al Mohler for NBC Nightly News on the topic of younger evangelicals and the Emerging Church movement. It is scheduled to air on tonight’s edition of the news. I am unfortunately going to be away from a tv so I am hopeful that the interview will be made available online. If you can catch it, however, I would recommend that you take a look to see what Dr. Mohler has to say.

Intelligent, and intuitive blogger, Josh King, aka Jowiki, asked an interesting question lately. His question was:

How would you define a missional church? Does missional equal biblical?

In thinking about the answer I gave him the following thoughts.

I would say that in my experience being Emergent, or more broadly speaking, Emerging, is limited to a subset within Christianity, particularly as it is reflected in postmoderns. Missional, on the other hand, can be experienced in any church using almost any methodology in any context.

In my opinion, missional is, as Ed Stetzer puts is, the adjectival use of the mission of God. I think the major difference between being missional and having a missions heart/mindset is that one is about being (missional) and the other is about doing.

As I think more about this answer, I am thankful for the renewed emphasis on being missional over and above simply being a missionary. We must recognize that we have missed the boat, in many ways, through the years as we have encouraged others to “be missionaries” or to “do missions”. In fact, if we are authentic believers, we cannot help but be missional in our orientation as it has been integrated into our spiritual dna. We are no longer individuals who have a “Jesus corner” of our lives, we are not people who occasionally work up the nerve to “do missions” but rather we are recreated children of God who, according to the scriptural record, have been remade to be like Christ. That kind of being bleeds into every corner of our doing. As we grasp and teach that kind of biblical truth we will be awed at what God does in and through us.

…for my friend Kevin Bussey and his family.

Thanks to the popularity of Web 2.0 and the ingenuity of YouTube.com and CNN.com, their recent debate with various presidential candidates has been made available for viewing online. I didn’t watch the debate since I was at church, but I did peruse some of the video clips and particularly found myself interested in two clips. I’ve placed them below. I hope they’re helpful as you consider your support of a presidential candidate.

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread. All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.” Psalm 37:23-26

Recently I was given a copy of “The Character of Leadership” by Dr. Jeff Iorg who is President of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Iorg used to be a pastor here in St. Joseph and a few of our families at Frederick remain to be good friends with him. He also stands as one of those in Southern Baptist leadership that I highly respect. One of our men who stay in contact with Dr. Iorg brought me a copy of the book. I read half the book on the flight to Atlanta and the other half on the way back and to say that I was convicted would be an understatement. In the book Dr. Iorg offers to us 9 characteristics of leadership that are concise, yet incredibly practical. I was excited about the instant application that was made obvious to me as I read through the chapters. In fact, as I finished the book I was able to sit down and write out 14 resolutions that I believe God impressed on my heart as a result of reading this book. Each of the chapters are strong, but the chapters dealing with Developing Servanthood, Gaining Wisdom, Showing Courage and Sustaining Passion were particular favorites.

If you have not yet purchased this book, I would highly encourage you to pick up a copy. You can do so by clicking here.

This book gets 4 out of 5 thumbs up!

If you have not yet purchased the new David Crowder Band album Remedy, you need to stop what you are doing, go and buy it right now. It is another example of amazing ability to weave truths about God in musical compositions that stir the heart, engage the mind and ultimately exalt God. I love listening to DCB. On this new album they have redone the old Wesleyan hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” and it has captured my heart. I keep listening to it over and over again. Below is a youtube video that is actually audio only, but I really recommend that you take a couple minutes to listen to it. It is a wonderful mix of ancient hymnody mixed with modern technology and lyrical content that rises my appreciation for godly songwriters, both young and old.

This past week of vacation was wrapped up with my sister-in-law’s wedding on Saturday. It was a family affair as Tracy was the Matron of Honor, Grace and Kessed were flower girls and I performed the ceremony. Tracy took these shots before the wedding and I couldn’t resist the urge to let you see my pretty daughters. Aren’t they beautiful?