From bud to blackberry and everything in between, a lovely picture by @BestofTimes.
Here are a few of the books that have helped me improve the organizational and discipleship structures at Covenant.
Comprehensive Treatments
Although leadership is essential for shepherding the oranizational and discipleship structures of the church, the strucutres/systems/cultures—and not leadership—are the focus of this list. Each of these books offers something unique, but any one of them will help a great deal if read and applied well.
The Book of Church Order of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-shift That Changes Everything by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
The Whole Systems Approach: Involving Everyone in the Company to Transform and Run Your Business by W. A. Adams, Cindy Adams with Michael Bowker
An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
Extra Credit:
The Gospel Commission: Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples by Michael Horton
Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles
Specific Topics
If you are looking for help with a specific topic, there are so many good resources. But here are a couple good places to start:
Faithful and Fruitful: Essays for Elders and Deacons ed. by William Boekestein and Steven Swets
Various articles in Ordained Servant. Check the subject index.
The new podcast Ad Navseam is fascinating. Funny too. My son and I listened together today and loved it. And since he’s reading the Iliad at school, the timing with the current miniseries is perfect.
Listening to Gautier Capuçon play Debussy. So beautiful.
God punished Sodom and Gomorrah for several reasons, one is to teach us some things we need to learn.
The greatness of Jesus on display during his arrest gives us confidence in his victory and love for us. Listen to my morning sermon from last Sunday to hear more.
Beautiful beans from Bonita Bean in Willcox, AZ.
re: your request @drantbradley I think you’ll like Bible Reading With Your Kids: A Simple Guide for Every Father.
ETS et al. meeting online this year is a bummer in some ways, but good for folks like me who can attend now.
I published a new issue of Covenant Chronicle today. Updates about the church. Lots to praise God for. This marks the re-emergence of our print church newsletter that ran out of steam a while back. Though not as pretty, I pray that this e-version will be more sustainable.
I want to live someday “in that world where such absurd and inhuman distinctions are unknown", just like Theodore Sedgwick Wright.
Dr. Steve Baugh is a role model for me in so many ways. #deepwork is one of them, which comes out some in his conversation with @rscottclark about 37 years of teaching the Greek NT.
To better understand what it means to be “not of this world”, read What Did Jesus Mean by “The World”? by @Nick_Batzig.
Took the kids up to Mt. Hopkins today. We stopped just up the road from from the Smithsonian Whipple Observatory. Down the hill, this momma and calf were on the open range.
