Growing up I had always seen the Bible as God’s Word, even when I lived a life that rejected its teachings. This new viewpoint I was exposed to sent me on a bit of a tailspin. But it was in a history class, when we were examining the proofs for the authenticity of a historical text that I began to become personally convicted that the Bible was indeed the Word of God. It was a variation on this chart that blew my mind:

Since then, I have loved reading about how we got the Bible that we have in our hands today. You can read the transcript of a message I gave on this once here.

Perhaps this is why I devoured two books over the last week that many would find boring. The first is “The Canon of Scripture” by FF Bruce:

This is a great book for any history buffs who are wondering how we got the Bible in the form we have it today. A ton of time is spent on the first few centuries of the church, which is awesome. Most people who dispute the historical validity of the Bible tend to repeat the common (yet historically inaccurate) mantra that the New Testament wasn’t seen as Scripture until the 300s. This book soundly defeats that position and includes more historical references and footnotes than any non-nerd has time to look up.

This is largely a historical book, focusing on the dates, places and people. The second book, “Inerrancy” edited by Norman Geisler, takes a different approach

This book hits on more of the theological / philosophical issues people have with the Bible. It tackles perceived inconsistencies, human / divine authorship, and stuff like that.

If you are wrestling with the hooeyness of the Bible, I highly recommend these two resources.

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Amazing belt buckle.

If that’s not your jewelry taste, how about gold plated staples? Yes…they are meant to be jewelry.

Obama Sushi.

Fun with transparency.

Jason Castro is second.

When geeks have twins.

When apple geeks have twins.

OK…this is my new favorite site: My Parents Were Awesome.

This isn’t going to cause any problems at all.

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Earlier this week, I walked by a crew from our Welcome Team who were talking about the free stuff we give new people at Riv. They were looking at coffee mug options and one of them said, “we need to make sure this is manly enough…right Noel?”

Both of these moments made me smile. Why? Because men are missing from the church and when they do show up, they are (inadvertently) taught that being a man is a bad thing. Dare I say, the church has been sissified.

That’s why I loved this article I stumbled onto recently: What Men Need in a Church. Here’s a little excerpt:

A 2005 study, proved men need church. Since then not much has changed. In the study by Barna Research, 61% of men make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ whatsoever. That means that barely a third know who He is. What’s worse is that only one in seven of those men are plugged in to some type of discipleship program. And that would mean only one in eighteen men in America as a whole.

He then goes on and gives advice to churches on what men need to see in their church. Awesome stuff.

Oh, and on a related note, check out the marketing of this free small group book. Haven’t read it, but I’m going to. It actually looks like the kind of small group I would want to be in.

Oh, and on another related note, watch this:

ONLINE MANCAVE TRAILER: MANSWERS FOR LEADERSHIP AND LIFE from Deadly Viper on Vimeo.

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“I urge you to imitate me.” - 1 Corinthians 4:16

“And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 11:1

“Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine…” - Philippians 3:17

“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.” - Phillipians 4:9

“For you know that you ought to imitate us.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:7

“But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance.” - 2 Timothy 3:10

“Imitate me…pattern your life after mine.” Could you say this in good conscience? Paul (the self-proclaimed Chief of All Sinners) could say it. If you couldn’t say that, what in your life needs to change so you can lead others and tell them to live the way you live?

UPDATE: I found yet another example from Paul: “Acts 20:35 And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

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Please view responsibly.

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Think I can talk Steve, Paul, and Dan into doing something like this?

Feeling lucky?

Trampoline ridiculousness.

The new Grocery Store Musical isn’t as good as the Food Court Musical, but it’s OK.

Check out the Pygmy Gecko.

It’s a Disco Cement Truck!

How long does it take to change the engine in a car? Would you believe 32 seconds?

Continuing the car theme, check out this awesome BMW commercial featuring Madonna.

Still trying to figure out what to dress up as for Halloween. How about this?

I couldn’t help but smirk at 1:25 in this video. Nuff said.

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I am a church planter that watched you on leadnet. I would love info on how you grow pastors in your church.

There are three things that we focus our energies on:
Character - Scripture is very clear that a man isn’t qualified for eldership unless his character is “above reproach” (see 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1). This definitely doesn’t mean perfect, but it means he really needs to have his stuff together. It bothers me greatly when pastors/elders are ordained or appointed without significant time taken to examine their personal and family lives.
Ministry Skills - If they are going to do the “work” of ministry, they need to prove they can do the work. That means they have honed their skills in the areas they will be serving in. If they haven’t ever done any ministry, they need to get their hands dirty and have a proven track record before they are recognized.
Doctrine - Pastors need to be able to teach and correct wrong doctrine. That means they need to know right and wrong doctrine. This is not only in areas of Christian orthodoxy, but also in areas where your church has specific convictions. In order to have unity, you need to be in agreement on many issues that you consider close-handed. See this post for more on what issues you should have agreement on.

Is it better when you teach a whole series or when each pastor takes a turn each week inside the same series?

I don’t know if there is a better or worse here, it boils down to what you like. We have found it is pretty difficult to share a series because each of us has such different styles. The only time it seems to work is when we have many stand alone messages, with a single thread tying them together. For instance, we once did a series on our favorite passage of Scripture. That went well.

You mentioned a volunteer on staff - how does team leadership extend beyond paid staff?

I answered this one a bit on The Show, but I want to add a few more thoughts. I love the idea of more and more unpaid pastors in the church. I think we will always need a few paid pastors, but I love having guys who work in the community serving as pastors as well for several reasons:
1) They are cheaper.
2) They model serving, giving, and leading as volunteers.
3) They break down the “paid expert” mentality.

Did @noeljesse choose his own lead-in music?

I didn’t get to hear it. I’m hoping it was Guns N Roses.

Watching The Show via @leadnet and wondering if shared leadership operates at all levels - or just the top?

That varies quite a bit. Many of our ministries are led by teams and many are led by individuals.

What is the place of small groups in the church?

At Riv, we are all about our Weekend Services and Life Groups. Those are our two big focus areas and we tie them together by having Life Groups study message notes from the Weekend Services.

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You can download the audio instead by clicking here.

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Today at 4:00EST, I am going to be interviewed on Leadership Network’s THE SHOW on the topic of team-based leadership structure. It’s a free webcast sort of deal, so make sure you tune in.

Of course I’m hoping to divert the conversation to the topic of 24 and of course add in a healthy dose of apple fanboyism along the way. But assuming I am unable to do so and they really want to talk about teams, I have a question for all of you Riv people.

In your experience, what are the Pros and Cons of having a team of pastors instead of a solo senior pastor? I can speak from the standpoint of a pastor, but I’m curious what you guys think from the perspective of church members / attenders. If I like your thoughts, I may even work them into the show. You’ll have to watch to find out.

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Here’s an excerpt (but you really need to read the whole thing):

Dear Starbucks Girl:

Standing in front of you, waiting for coffee, I heard you rather loudly talking to your friend about your Halloween plans. You said you were invited to some “awesome” parties during that weekend but hadn’t yet decided on your costume. One thing was for sure, though: you were definitely going to “slut it up,” to use your own words. The only dilemma in your mind seemed to be whether to get one slutty costume for the weekend, or two.

Starbucks Girl, you didn’t notice, but I turned around to look at you. You were pretty! Too pretty to parade your body around on a cold October night just for attention, and far too pretty to risk being taken advantage of by some drunken idiot at a party or bar…

The author goes on and makes a very compelling case for dignity in the costume you choose. His closing paragraph says it all:

Women of MSU — Oops! I meant to say Starbucks Girl — I realize that I might not have changed your mind. But I also hope that after Halloween you realize that you are beautiful the other 364 days of the year, and you don’t need to show off your body simply to get noticed. I hope you know that you, like every single woman on this campus, are worthy of respect and deserve to be treated like a lady. If nothing else, know that.

I am a big fan of Halloween, which any frequent visitor to my blog will know. I love Trick or Treating with my kids, hanging out with my neighbors and all of that, but this is the one thing that bothers me. Every year, the costumes seem to get racier and racier. I have commented on the “Slutty Halloween” phenomena before on this site.

For all the women out there who follow Jesus, take a minute, think about your costume and reflect on this verse:

Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

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