Jon Sampson

The Pastor’s Coach – October 2005: “If we must choose who we offend (though it is not our desire to offend anyone), we will offend Christians, not the un-churched. If we offend anyone, we are most likely to offend what I call “Professional Christians.” Professional Christians are believers, but have no intention to roll up…

The Act 29 Network has posted mp3s from two of their boot camps online. There’s some great stuff here for people interested in church planting. Mark Driscoll has a great talk on the qualifications of a church planter. I’m sure I’ll like more of ’em when I get a chance to listen …

From History in the Making: “You will find no reasonable men on the tops of great mountains.”

From Evotional.com I told him that marriage complicates your life. But it’s a good complication. Kids complicate your life. You’ve got to change diapers and arrange play dates 🙂 Success complicates your life. Your life gets busier and busier. Wealth complicates your life. If you’re really blessed it’s a tax nighmare 🙂 He goes on…

Ben Arment posted some good thoughts about relational ministry and ministry to moms on his blog a month or two ago: “Ainsley has stumbled upon an outreach niche that is really working for us. This morning, she, Amy Frigaard and Kitty Kruse entertained five other unchurched moms in a bi-weekly moms group. I am convinced…

scotthodge.org: “So all of this got me thinking about journaling – which is a discipline that I’ve recently begun with greater consistency. My dad left several years worth of journals behind – which are worth more than silver and gold to us. That is part of the reason I’ve decided to focus in more on…

tony morgan | one of the simply strategic guys: “It’s pretty apparent that the ministry that Jesus had while on earth created a lot of buzz. Word about what he was doing spread rapidly throughout the region. The question that raised in my mind is this: Do you think his ministry can still generate that…

The Leadership Blog: “‘It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God: but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things.’ -Oswald Chambers”

TheBolgBlog: “Relevant churches are rarely even closely relevant. Most Christians don’t even like them. They might be better than Mom and Dad’s morning service, but they usually are quite irrelevant to the outsider. The church person cannot ‘guess’ what the seeker wants, undoubtedly getting it wrong. What Christians need to do is create meaningful worship…

( ( a r d e n t ) ): “Yesterday I was talking with a number of guys who are either in ministry or training to be in ministry. I was really challenged to look at my life and step it up after hearing a couple of the things they said: + I’ve got…

Mad Babble From A Church Planter…: “Every time I go there I get the church planting bug. I drove around last night, got out and walked and prayed and come to this conlusion: Ridge Stone is going to start a church there. I will personally help someone raise money and I will invest in that…

Brenton Balvin posts this thought on his blog: I am a high tech kind of guy. I love blogging, emailing and podcasting. Its probably why I like Mark Batterson’s digital discipleship concept so much. But the downside of loving high tech is that it pulls me away from being high touch. I have a tendency…

For what it’s worth, stock.xchng is a great place to find free stock photography. There’s some quality stuff there.

Glocalnet, a network of missional churches I work with, has a fairly new website that posts new articles each week on everything from what it means for a church to engage a nation to how a church should respond to a natural disaster. One of the most recent talks about how churches can build a…

Mark Batterson, pastor of the truly innovative National Community Church, recently posted these thoughts from an article he wrote. Here is a lesson I’ve learned pastoring a church that is 75% unchurched and dechurched. When you use biblical illustrations it gives you credibility with Christians. When you use cultural illustrations it gives you credibility with…