To say it’s been a great six months is an understatement. I’ve had more fun at work in these six months than I have in a long time. Some of the highlights:

Probably my favorite part has been meeting and interacting with people either in-person or over the phone or email. To name a few: Matt Chandler, JD Greear, Eric Mason, Jen Hatmaker, Kelly Minter, Sally Lloyd Jones, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Travis Cottrell, Shawn Groves, Russ Moore, Emily Freeman, Al Mohler, Danny Akin, and many more. I have found each of these people to be as gracious as I woud have imagined and often times even more so.

One of the underrated aspects of LifeWay is the depth of talent in the building. I’m literally surrounded by some of the smartest people I’ve ever known. Whether it’s an editor, writer, video producer, event director, marketer, VP, social media guy, or an administrative assistant, these people know their stuff.

When buildings are built and added on to one another, corridors become mazes and staircases lead to interesting places. I’ve gotten lost inside the 1.5M square feet quite a bit. I even had to call someone my first week to come get me and lead me out of where I was. It’s embarrassing, but everyone seems to have an “I got lost in the building” story, so I don’t feel too bad.

There are a lot of people in the building. Not a day goes by where I don’t see someone for the first time. And it’s a good thing we wear name badges. They come in handy.

In conclusion, LifeWay has been all I hoped it would be and then some. Here’s to the next six months…and more.

At the end of the show, Trevin and Dr. Guthrie listed about a dozen different resources the help drive home the idea of seeing Scripture as one grand narrative.

Resource List:

• Read the Bible for Life – George Guthrie
• Reading God’s Story: A Daily Chronological Bible
• The Drama of Scripture – Michael W. Goheen & Craig Bartholomew
• Jesus Storybook Bible – Sally Lloyd Jones
• The Big Picture Story Bible
• What God Has Always Wanted – Charles F. Boyd
• The God Who Is There – D.A. Carson
• God’s Big Picture – Vaughn Roberts
• From Creation to New Creation – Tim Chester
• According to Plan - Graeme Goldsworthy
• The Story of God, the Story of Us – Sean Gladding

However, since being moved into a cubicle environment in the past month, I’ve started playing music to drown out the office noises that can many times be even more distracting. What I’ve found is that some music makes for productivity and some does not.

While it’s no secret that I love me some Taylor Swift, the lyrical nature of her music distracts me from being productive. So she’s been low on the playlist lately—something my coworkers are likely encouraged by.

So for the past couple of weeks, my go-to music has been that of Gungor. For those not familiar, Gungor is a collective of musicians based in Denver and led by Michael Gungor. Both of their albums have been nominated for Grammy’s and are, in my opinion, the most poetic and creative albums to emerge from the Christian genre in years. I’ve written about their most recent album, Ghosts Upon the Earth, before and can’t recommend it enough. Their previous release, Beautiful Things, is just as spectacular.

One oddity that occurred this week was that once my Gungor music was over, iTunes went to the next album in my queue – Guns N’ Roses’ Greatest Hits. Quite the shift in genre, but what I found was that the GNR music was just as good to work to. The familiar guitar riffs and lack of many understandable lyrics created a nice creative environment. Odd, right?

What music do you play when you are working? Do you have a go-to album or artist?

My notes for Eric’s talk are a bit disjointed, because I was working during his talk, so I only was able to grab a few nuggets. However the entire talk will be online at Eric’s site later in the month.

Eric Geiger

There is a major difference in Offensive and Defensive Discipleship & Collegiate Ministry
You’re not called to protect college students, you’re called to transform and equip them.
The human heart is not pure and in need of protection. It is wicked and in need of transformation.
Luther – Of all of scripture, Psalm 51 gives us the best picture of the human heart.

Three definitions of sin from Psalm 51
• Transgression – Willful rebellion against the one we owe allegiance to.
• Iniquity – Twisted out of shape
• Sin – To miss the mark

The closer we get to God, the more we see his holiness, and the more our sinfulness is revealed.

Psalm 51 isn’t something we graduate from. It’s something we continually need.

Go on offense with your ministry – Everyone on the campus needs the love of Jesus applied to their hearts.

We can’t blame anyone else for our sin.
We can’t bargain for forgiveness.

When we see the glorious greatness Jesus offers, everything else grows dim.

———————

I have heard John speak a few times, and he’s always on point. Even though I know the stories, they’re always funny and he delivers them so well. You need to get his books. They’re hilarious and inspiring all at the same time.

Jon Acuff

Jon was rocking the Red Hello Somebody watch tonight.

He started out with some Jesus Juke stories – Those are the best. Jon has literally made up a phrase that gets used here at LifeWay at least once a week.

He then listed the 5 Stages of Deep V-neck Syndrome

After the opening monologue, Jon transitioned into his talk highlighting points from Quitter.

We are becoming the “I’m _____, but…” generation.

College Students: Stop trying to find your perfect purpose
–Believing the lie that there’s just one thing out there for you to do, and you have to find it.
–Many times when we don’t know where to start, we just stop.

Most times, finding your purpose is not an act of discovery, it’s a recovery.
Finding your calling, your first passion, is usually not a first date, it’s usually a reunion.

Two Things to be Careful About
1 – Ignore the haters – They only get loud when you start to do things that matter. Don’t let the critics define your ministry
2 – Ignore the voices of fear – “I’ve never met anyone who had a positive internal voice”. Fear is terrified of community. It always wants to put you on an island.

Remember, God is neither disappointed nor surprised about the size or impact of your ministry.

I’m more hopeful than ever that God is on the move.

God chooses to work through us. We get the privilege to carry forward the love of Jesus Christ in our culture today.

The most context-specific vocation in the world today is that of pastor. – Eugene Peterson

The first job of a missionary is to understand their context. Context informs the way you engage a culture for Christ.

Cultural Landscape of two specific areas – Major Cities & Universities

• Postmodern – Skepticism towards certainty.
• Postchristian – Cultural conversation is happening without the Church’s input.
• Pluralistic – There is no objective truth.

What is unique about the message of Christ that can speak to our culture like it has for over 2,000 years?

Western, educated, decadent, materialistic culture that’s longing for something more. Trying to find it in everything BUT the Christian faith. — We have THE one thing that they need.

Two typical options – 1) Pullout and disengage (separate); 2) get absorbed in the culture (relevance).

Third option – Live in the tension

Remain faithful, but be proximate in the world. The only way salt works is when it attaches to the food. It doesn’t work in the jar.

Restorer – see the potential in someone who is broken and can walk that person into their potential through the power of Christ and restore how God designed them to be.

The gospel is not just about getting people saved – That’s just half the story: Fall & Redemption. – This makes no sense to the culture.
The gospel is the full story: Creation – Fall – Redemption – Restoration

The gospel has been truncated in the past few decades. We overemphasized the middle half of the story.

When we tell a story that starts at the image of God, we affirm what we see in others as good. We start with the imago dei shining through them, not at their sin.

The gospel is a compelling story – it answers all the questions of ultimate reality.

Ultimate purpose of redemption is not to escape the world, but renew it.

We are to be conduits of God’s love and grace.

Culture should provoke us to share God’s love, not offend us.

We are being called to have a confidence in the gospel. As the world is searching desperately for an account for their purpose, we have the one true account to share with them.

Abraham Kuyper – “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare,’That is mine!’”

The gospel requires that we not only tell people what we believe, but that we show it through our lives.

You may know of Wayne from his book Leading on Empty or his latest work Sifted, written with Francis Chan and Larry Osborne. In Sifted, Wayne offers wisdom and insight to prepare leaders as they face the difficulties and hardships of planting and leading churches, while providing encouragement and inspiration for the journey.

The show starts at 2:00 PM central. Click on the graphic below to watch.

At last count, Twitter had half a billion registered users who together generate some 175 million tweets a day. New accounts are being added at a rate of 11 per second. Just how valuable are these proliferating 140-character messages?

To find out, three researchers set up a website and asked 1,443 users to rate the quality of 43,738 tweets. They then ranked a subset (4,220) in eight categories. Their most striking finding: Only 36% of tweets were “worth reading”—a lower number than you might expect, since Twitter users choose whom to follow.

The researchers caution that their raters tended to be technology-centric and news-focused (many learned about the study from sites such as TechCrunch and CNN.com), and may not be representative of Twitter users in general. However, the ratings provide some useful tips for keeping your followers engaged: Be clear, not cryptic or insidery. Don’t overuse hashtags, and don’t retweet one-on-one conversations.

(Click image to enlarge)

Original Article

The one moment that stood out above the rest was the time of baptism. Typically, churches do baptisms as a solemn event, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Last night, they right smack in the middle of the worship set while the music was still going on. It turned out to be an incredibly celebratory time. Folks were coming up out of the water dripping wet and giving full body hugs to family and friends. They were excited to be sharing their new-found life in Christ with their family and their church family.

Underneath it all was the band was absolutely rocking out, and one song really caught my attention. It was a song that I had never heard, but it fit the moment so well. I took a couple of pics with my phone of the lyrics on the screens and looked it up later. Turns out the name of the song is Forgiven Forever, and it was co-written by Carl Cartee, one of the artists in residence at the church. It’s the title track of his latest EP as well.

A video of the song and lyrics is below. I encourage you to give it a shot. It’s a good one.

I feel like I’m working in a zoo today. Everyone coming by to see the new digs. Like an animal on display. Odd…

— Jonathan Howe (@Jonathan_Howe) April 20, 2012

This morning, this video showed up my RSS reader thanks to Jay Sanders. Now if things ever *really* get out of hand, I’m prepared and so are you.