We’re in the midst of our “tie-optional” Sundays, and I know I’ve really been enjoying them. With school out now it’s almost impossible to predict what our attendance will be like from week to week….but I still love it!

• Attendance this morning was back up to what it usually is.
• We had several guests this morning, including some former staff who were back visiting with us.
• My message this morning was from Romans 6, “Dying to Live.”
• I told the story of the 86-year-old Canadian couple who won the lottery. When asked what she was going to buy with the winnings, the wife remarked, “I think I’ll buy some new nylons.”
• One of our youth asked one of our ladies, “What are nylons?” Priceless!
• We have to die to the belief that all that the death of Christ secured for us is a bunch of rules to obey if we want to truly live the life that Christ calls us to live!
• We have to die to the belief that all we have to do is believe (get our get-out-of-hell-free card punched) and then we can live like we want.
• We can’t live concerned only about our nylons while we ignore the spiritual fortune that is ours!
• Catherine nailed it in her children’s sermon: If we say we are a vegetarian, yet we continue to each beef, chicken and pork, are we really a vegetarian?
• Found out one of our members is moving their membership to another church in the area. Always sorry to see anyone go, but if they feel they can better get their needs met there, then God bless ‘em.
• Ran home after the service for a quick lunch, change clothes, pick up Josh from a Scout trip, then return to the church for the Community Prayer Walk.
• Got a big meeting tomorrow morning for the World Changers Project coming up over here July 5-12.
• Norfolk’s World Changers project is this week. Pray for Terrace Crawford as he is the point person for the project.
• We had 20 people show up today for our first-ever community prayer walk in preparation for World Changers in Portsmouth.
• Those 20 represented 6 different churches, which is 20% of the churches in our Association. Four of the six were represented by their senior pastor, one church’s associate pastor was there in addition to the senior pastor, and one church was represented by one of their staff ministers, and the sixth was represented by their Deaconess and a large contingent of members.  This is AWESOME!
• Pray that this project will be the needed jump start, not only in the revitalization of the neighborhood, but in the spiritual restoration of the community.
• The next two weeks are going to be busy. I hope to be able to blog along the way.
• Peace and all good!

When I was in college I was active in the Baptist Student Union.  One semester, the discipleship group that I participated in worked our way through Richard Foster’s new book Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.  Several years later, as I was browsing the bookstore shelves at seminary, I ran across another book The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard. It had just been released, and was heartily endorsed by Richard Foster. He acclaimed it as “the book of the decade,” if I recall correctly. Well, with an endorsement like that, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

Quickly I discovered that what Foster had given us in terms of the “how-to’s” of classical spiritual disciplines, Willard had given us in the philosophical and theological underpinnings for them.  (It’s a stunning testimony: most religious books that release in hardback editions stay in print 6 months. If they go into paperback, they stay in print an average of 18 more months. The Spirit of the Disciplines is still in print. In hardback!)

My copy of The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives is now well-worn. The covers are hanging by a thread, and the dust-jacket is almost more tape than paper now. But what makes my copy all the more precious is the author’s signature which I was able to get when Dr. Willard spoke on campus a few years later.

Today I received an email announcing the release of Dr. Willard’s forthcoming book, Knowing Christ: A Guide for Today’s Disciples

Willard is one of those rare authors whose work I will recommend without reservation and without having read in advance. His reasoning is firmly rooted in a Christ-centered, biblically-informed world view. He will challenge you and stretch your understanding of what it means to know and follow Christ.

Couple of weeks back Alan Hirsch linked up to some great video of Reggie McNeal speaking to the Reformed Church in America. As I watched, I remembered that I had been in a conference with Reggie a couple of years back, so I dug out my notes.

During one of the Q&A sessions someone asked Reggie, “What is the future?” According to my notes, here’s what he said:

My hunch is that we’re back in the Acts era for leadership–the Apostolic ear. You’ve got to quit being the pastor of your church. I pastor my community–I make my church my venue.  You’re looking for partners outside the church to bless the community. This is a different role than being pastor of a church. I pastor the community in order to channel the blessings of God into our community.

What do you think? How are you pastoring your community?