Whenever I am doing exegetical work on Scripture passages, it becomes painfully aware how short my bookshelves are in length.  It makes you want to go to one of those massive theological book sales and buy out the whole place – especially when books are only $5/all you can fit into a box.  But I wouldn’t even have a place for all those books to live in my home library.

The other alternative is to repeat the back and forth and back and forth to the library where they house complete collections of commentary series, Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries.   But sometimes you find yourself playing hide and seek when you find that the one volume you need is missing from the shelf – either being used by someone, or waiting in a lonely corner of the library, waiting to be picked up and re-shelved.

I recently decided to take the Google-generation approach to initial research and have tried out the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary on CD-ROM (yes people, software is still published on CD-ROMs in some parts of this world).

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. . . (more…)

This year, I launched a simple 1-step Bible look-up web app, http://wordof.gd/

This neat little shortcut service allows you to go straight to any Bible text and the specific translation you want right from the browser URL line.

It also allows you to confidently create shortcut url links to any specific passage you want that you can write on the fly for email, twitter, facebook, etc.

Think: Bible links for social media.

Currently the WordOf.Gd supports over 30 different translations including a Spanish version of the Bible.   Just add any bible verse(s) after wordof.gd/_______ and if you want a specific translation, just put the translation abbreviation at the end.

Because pastors and seminary students are often trying to reference and compare any Old Testament text to the original Hebrew language.  Someone recently commented it would be nice if you could pull up both English and Hebrew texts on the same page to compare using wordof.gd. . . Just like an interlinear bible you would pull off the shelf in hardcopy.

Ok, we can do that!

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Church “Marketing” gets a bad rap sometimes.

Why? Because when you hear the term, people might immediately think of the over commercialization, almost crass marketing tactics that some churches are using to get attention. Yes it is a fight to grab attention in this media-frenzied world today.

But the answer is not to reduce it all down to “productizing Jesus.” Nor is it running your ministry with the ultimate objective and measure of success to be church services that mimic a Superbowl half-time show.

In my own humble opinion, using marketing tactics to support the Gospel is entirely different than using the Gospel to support your marketing tactics.

Those that know me personally understand that this is NOT what I mean of being a Godvertiser:

Godvertising and church marketing should serve a clearly different purpose — not the marketing or event itself. But rather to put God and His work on display.

Want the best litmus test to know where you stand? As soon as you think “look at me!” vs. “look at Him!”, you’ve crossed the line.

John Piper does it. Tim Keller does it.

The question is, can every other preacher do it?

Great preaching is just one of those things where you know you’re looking at it when you see it.

But the question is can great preaching include illustrations that are more than literary depictions put forth with the vocal chords?

John Piper doesn’t think so!

It may not get you into hell, ‘in the short run’ says Piper as noted by some that follow his teaching on preaching. He says it is a crutch for the lazy in the pulpit. Just listen to his argument against using movie or other video clips as supporting sermon illustrations . . . (more…)

Most people have probably heard of Kierkegaard, but who has actually read him?

The only “Danish” most people have experience with is usually. . .

… a danish!  Right?

Apparently, more people need to read the other Danish…philosopher Kierkegaard, based on some of his quips I was reminded of by Pastor TK over at Liquid Church: (more…)

I recently had a chance to catch-up with Paul Kind in the thick of graduate work in theology at Princeton Seminary.  Because PTS is known for how the theological musings of Barth is found percolating throughout its campus, I asked Paul for his take so far on the timeless theologian of 20th century times.

It’s noteworthy that Barth’s marquee work, Church Dogmatics has “CHURCH” in its title. For me, this quote rings true for how we are to elevate and yet connect theology to the work of the Church:

No single item of Christian doctrine is legitimately grounded, or rightly developed or expounded, unless it can of itself be understood and explained as part of the responsibility laid upon the hearing and teaching Church towards the self-revelation of God attested in Holy Scripture.
~ Karl Barth

Paul provides some great insights that whets the appetite for more Barth. Luckily for us all, there are literally millions of more words to consume if this suits your taste. . .

Many have said that Karl Barth was the foremost theologian of the 20th century. While holding academic posts in Germany and Switzerland, Barth published his fourteen volume Church Dogmatics over the course of about thirty years.

In his book, Disruptive Grace, Dr. George Hunsinger, describes the impact of this work in saying, (more…)

This weekend is a notable one.

April 26, 2009 is a day when ministry websites all over the world are working together to further the digital gospel.

If you have a church or ministry website, it’s worth the click to jump over to the Internet Evangelism Day website and grab some free tools for your own site.

The essence of the Gospel & Great Commission is not to be a church marketer, but rather a call to become a Godvertiser!  The end goal is not church, it is God!

The above line was my recent response to two different people.

One said they are not into church marketing because they don’t believe in advertising, gimmicks, and using marketplace tactics to draw attention to their church.

Another talked about how their aim was to increase their church marketing activities so that if they were successfull, *everyone* in their town would know exactly where their church was located, who was the lead pastor and what types of programs they offered to the community.

I personally believe churches need to look at and increase competency in church marketing tactics.  This includes knowing how and when to use them effectively.   I also believe that the intention and mission of a church will determine how you view and use “church marketing” to further ministry goals, not just attract people like you would to a grand opening or a super-duper clearance sale.

In a way, Godvertising is taking church marketing and using it to produce a specific idea virus – one about supernatural healing and shines a light on the ultimate healer.

On this Good Friday, you may be able to go to church and go through a stations of the cross experience.

But this year, to open your eyes and see Christ’s work in a new way, how about trying a digitial walk through the stations of the cross?

You can take the time to navigate through each of 14 stations which open up individually with audio & visual imagery.

Pause.

Pray.

Move on.

Remember what was done on the cross.

This audio-visual stations of the cross walk was produced by Trinity Church in NYC — the ones who also put on the digital passion play – broadcast on Twitter this year.

WARNING:

THERE WILL BE A QUIZ ABOUT THIS

SUPER-DUPER IMPORTANT MISSIONAL CONCEPT.

READ & THINK CAREFULLY!

Liquid Church of Morristown & New Brusnswick, NJ features a weekly “411″ video previewing the next week’s sermon message or events.  They usually close the promo vid by giving a call to action for viewers to invite a friend next week to church…“just don’t be weird” about it they always say.

Isn’t that great advice for sharing the Gospel or inviting friends /associates to a church worship experience?

Got it? Continue on only if you think you have completely understood this concept. . . (more…)