At our most recent boot camp in San Jose, Acts 29 leaders gathered to pray for Pastor Harvey Turner, director of the West Region. The churches in Harvey's region helped host the boot camp as part of their commitment to saturate their communities with gospel-centered churches. During the boot camp, Acts 29 leaders were able to pray for Harvey and his wife Rachael, that God would protect and bless them as Harvey continues to lead the charge for gospel-centered churches throughout Nevada, Northern California, and Hawaii.
In Acts 1:8 we read the command of Jesus, telling his disciples to tell the story of the gospel throughout the entire world. In the rest of Acts we read how the Apostles did what Jesus told them they would do: Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they planted ...
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Adapted and excerpted from Elliot Grudem’s Orlando Boot Camp message, “Why Arrogance Has No Place in Reformed Theology.”
When your study of theology grows your head and hardens your heart, you find yourself on a path of theological arrogance that won’t lead to greater theological precision – it will lead to heresy.
Reformed soteriology, rightly understood and applied in your life, should promote humility, not arrogance.
But if you look at church history, you know that even some of our greatest churchmen have wandered off into some pretty weird beliefs. And just their example should honestly sober you up.
Bible-Loving Theologians Defending Slavery and Segregation?
It isn’t just the liberal Germans. It’s men like Thornwell and ...
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Posted in: Theological Clarity
Tags: elliot grudem, arrogant, arrogance, arrogant theologians, arrogant pastor, proud pastor, mean christians, rude, prideful, theology, humility, thornwell, dabney, warfield, morton smith, reformed, doctrines of grace, humble confidence, reformed soteriology when rightly understood and applied, good reformed soteriology, soteriology
"How can I lead my church to be more prayerful?"
It’s a simple question. It’s one that an Acts 29 pastor asked Terry Virgo at our Northwest Regional meeting in March.
It’s a simple question. It’s also a great question.
Terry gave a simple but great answer:
The pastor has to model what it means to be a man of prayer.
Not to impress people, but simply to show them what it means to be prayerful.
Earlier that day, Terry taught a group of pastors what it means to be men of prayer. I went to the regional meeting out of obligation—it’s my job to be there. I drove home thanking God for my job and that it allowed me to be there. Virgo’s talk on prayer was helpful and convicting. It’s the best stuff I’ve heard on prayer in a long time. ...
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Posted in: Spiritual Vitality
Tags: terry virgo, prayer, prayerfulness, how to help your church become more prayerful, pastor, how a pastor should pray, church planter, praying, need for prayer, modeling prayer, model prayer, model prayerfulness, congregation, showing others how to pray, leading your church
Excerpted from Elliot Grudem's message at the Orlando Boot Camp.
Keller, Calvin, Predestination - BINGO!
When I was in seminary, my friends and I would occasionally play bingo during the classes: what we’d do is write the names of people in our class in the bingo squares, and if that person spoke in class, you got that square – and if you got all the squares in a row then you got ‘bingo.’ We’d always make sure we filled our squares with a couple of ringers that we knew we could get to talk by tipping off their hot-button issues. So if you needed the ringer’s name, you’d ask a questions like, “can someone please tell me what this has to do with homeschooling?” and you knew that individual would ask the next question – and ...
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Posted in: Spiritual Vitality, Theological Clarity
Tags: arrogance, church planting, haughty, prideful, proud, bad attitude, mean, superiority complex, pastor, preacher, theology, calvinism, reformed, humility, confidence, humble confidence
Over the last ten years, however, our boot camps evolved into large conferences that provided helpful content for all types of people involved in a variety of ministries. They did not allow for the kind of gospel-driven strategic thinking that must take place if a man is to plant a church-planting church.
Therefore, we are changing up our boot camp offerings. Boot camps that follow a large conference format will now be the exception, not the rule. Instead, most future boot camps follow the format we are calling Boot Camp 2.0.
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Tags: acts 29 boot camps, 2011, new boot camp, acts 29, church planter training, planter, church planting, practical training, missional training, dallas boot camp, changes, change
