My sermon (“Exchanging the Robes of Glory for the Robes of Flesh: Having the Mind of Christ This Christmas” from Philippians 2:5-11) is up (audio / text).

Trevin Wax puts together a neat article on 9 Examples of the Internet Changing Our World. 

Mark Driscoll asks R.C. Sproul what’s the biggest theological battle coming up (video). 

A few weeks ago, Chuck Lawless and Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary conducted some forums on the life and legacy of Lottie Moon.  They are well worth the listen. 

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has a tense exchange with April Ryan of American Urban Radio regarding a recent party crashing of a White House event.   Any thoughts on who you thought handled this wrong?  (Our house is divided on the matter.)

Peggy Noonan reflects on President Obama’s recent speech, saying that no matter who made that speech, “he’d be pounded.”  “It tells us something about the difficulty of the issue that no matter who decided what, he’d be derided.”  We must pray for our President—I do not envy anyone who holds his office.

About this time last year, Dr. Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, Missions & Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote an open letter to the younger generation of Southern Baptists exhorting them to stay connected, don’t give up on the SBC, and stay focused on the Great Commission.  Last week, Dr. Lawless again wrote an open letter, this time to the older generation of Southern Baptists.  In it, he argues that older Southern Baptists ought to (1) love (2) listen to (3) learn from (4) labor in prayer on behalf of, and (5) lead the younger generation of Southern Baptists.

Whether you are young or old in the SBC, I encourage you to check out the good words of exhortation from one lives in both worlds.  We can, by God’s grace,  bridge the generational gaps that exist, beginning with an uninterrupted, undistracted, and unpolluted passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ in all areas of life and ministry.

Be sure to read his letter in its entirety.

Here are a few articles of interest that I read this morning that have me thinking today.

Why Do New Calvinist Insist On Complementarianism—Kevin DeYoung

An Open Letter To Older Southern Baptist—Chuck Lawless

Christian Leaders Two Sons Beheaded in Somalia—VOTM (and we’re crying over Michael Jackson)

Myths About the Unchurched—Thom Rainer

A Long Journey In Church Discipline Pt1—-Tom Ascol

I am very excited to announce our first annual church planting conversation (not a conference). So of my best friends and mentors are going to speak! You do not want to miss Dr. Chuck Lawless and JD Greear. If you are a person who cares about seeing churches planted in our key world cities then you need to participate in this event. All you have to do to sign up is email urbanize@gallerychurch.com and we will get you registered (BTW…you need to act fast, registration is limited to the first 25 participants). See you in NYC on December 8!

Be sure to join our Facebook Group!!

My dean, Dr. Chuck Lawless (of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at SBTS) has recently written a good article on setting goals in regards to evangelism.   Here are his five points in summary form:

1. Set a goal for developing relationships with non-believers.

In most cases, we get so isolated in our Christian bubble that we seldom have strong friendships with non-believers. Countering this tendency is not easy unless we intentionally strive to develop relationships with people outside of the church.

2. Set a goal for praying for non-believers.

Determine to pray at least weekly that God will open their blinded minds (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) and transfer them from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of His Son (Colossians 1:13). Pray as well that you will share the Gospel boldly and clearly when an open door is apparent (Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 2:3-4).

3. Set a goal for simply speaking about God’s goodness.

Speak about God to your spouse, a staff member, the convenience store clerk or the bank teller. Tell somebody about God’s work in your life each day, and sharing the Gospel may well become easier.

4. Set a goal for sharing the Gospel.

If you are not evangelizing now, consider a goal to share Christ at least twice a month. If you are already doing evangelism, ask God to move you toward sharing Christ at least weekly, if not daily.

5. Set a goal for mentoring new believers.

The Great Commission is not complete when a non-believer has chosen to follow Christ. If you are not mentoring young believers, you are missing a critical component of the disciple-making process.

Some of you may recall that I am currently in a 12-week series on evangelism at my church.  Last week, I focused on God’s work in evangelism, and this coming Sunday I will be talking about our work in evangelism.  I find the encouragement and direction of Dr. Lawless to be helpful in this regard.  I realize that goal-setting has the potential of being performance-defeating and unhealthy, but I still think we should be consciously challenging ourselves to be more faithful and forthright in our gospel proclamation.  The Southern Baptists who are seeking to be a part of a Great Commission Resurgence would find Dr. Lawless’ words on target, and I join Dr. Lawless in his concluding prayer and exhortation:

My prayer is that all Southern Baptists will so walk with God that evangelism is a natural outflow of our lives. We are a long way from there, however. We are weak disciple-makers, and our statistics make us painfully aware that we are doing far too little evangelism. All of our evangelism programs will be ineffective unless individual Southern Baptists reaffirm our commitment to the Great Commission. I pray that we will set some personal goals to move in that direction.