This Friday I’m on the road, attending the national winter meetings of the State Directors of Missions, a title I inherited as a part of our relationship with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Today Ed Stetzer spoke about “high capacity church planting denominations,” and as usual did an exceptional job. I had the privilege of being with Ed two weeks ago also, as a part of the national church planting fellowship.

One of our national young SBC leaders, Matt Chandler of The Village in Dallas, Texas, underwent brain surgery today and needs our prayers. Matt has been a respected preacher and advocate within our tribe for multisite churches, among other things. You can read what the elders in his church wrote this week about the church and his surgery by clicking here. Pray for wife Lauren and three children, as well.

Tiger Woods has dominated the news this week and his “transgressions” (his word, not mine) has been placed under significant media scrutiny. His life lessons have been discussed in a recent post by Pastor C.J. Mahaney of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. You can read Mahaney’s comments here.

On a lighter note, my favorite college football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, will be playing in the SEC championship tomorrow for the second year in a row. Mark Ingram, Julio Jones and the rest of the team are once again underdogs to Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators as they enter the game, though some in the media are picking them to upset the Gators tomorrow. Roll Tide, Roll!

Finally, many of you–like me–probably use Twitter for social media connections too. One of the more recent Twitter applications out there now makes it possible for you to send your “tweets” in Klingon (yes, that’s right; the made-up language, which started on Star Trek years ago). You can use the application by clicking here. And until next time: ghaj Dun juS! (that’s Klingon for “have a great weekend!”)

1. Tips for church budgets part 1 and part 2. This is great stuff for pastors.
2. How to treat a pastor’s wife. Every elder, church member and pastor needs to read this. If you want a healthy church, make sure the pastor’s wife is taken care of. It makes the pastor’s life and his family’s life that much better and that much easier to serve the church.
3. Ed Stetzer on Preaching that sticks.
4. Questions to ask before preaching.
5. Perry Noble on 7 reasons why marriage fail.
6. Pray for your pastor. Some great thoughts from Perry Noble based on what is happening in Matt Chandler’s life. The best thing you can do for your pastor is pray for him and his family.

Regrettably, we’ve made it acceptable to sit in church week after week & do nothing & still call yourself a “Christian.” – Ed Stetzer

I’ve been listening to the audio of sessions from Acts 29 Network’s 2009 Bootcamp: Ambition. While not everyone will find these talks of interest, I think they are challenging and stimulating for those of us in ministry and church leadership.

Ministry for the Long Haul & Ambition (Matt Chandler)

Decoding Your City & Ambition (Kevin Cawley)

Discipleship & Ambition (Bob Thune)

Preaching as Expository Exorcism (Russell Moore)

Leadership & Ambition (Darrin Patrick)

The Church & Ambition (Steve Timmis)

Church Planting & Ambition (Ed Stetzer)

The Gospel & Ambition (Dave Harvey)

My thanks to the folks at Sojourn Community Church, who have made all the above sessions available to be listened to online and/or downloaded. Click: Ambition Conference.

Acts 29 is a missional church planting network of Reformed Evangelicals.  Each year they hold Boot Camps to train and re-energize like minded church planters and church leaders.  Many of these, and other, talks are available on the Resource section of thier web page.

I don’t often post videos (other than music), because I don’t have the patience (or time) to listen to a video when I can read so much more in the same time — and there’s so much worthwhile reading out there. And so I figure I shouldn’t unnecessarily tax my readers’ time either.

But this is a really good one. It’s 7:41 minutes. You can watch it during halftime.

The person being interviewed is Ed Stetzer, who works with the Southern Baptist Convention on church growth issues — and speaks to audiences of all denominations. The guy knows his stuff.

Click here to read the sample chapter. You may pass it on if you like.

Interview with Ed Stetzer: Mission, Church, and God’s Timeless Purpose

Brant Hansen (of radio fame) reviewed “From Eternity,” focusing on Part I of the book: “A Forgotten Woman.” Here is the review:

—

Here’s the book we’ve been talking about:  Frank Viola’s From Eternity to Here.

You can get it at the usual places online.  And you really should get it.  Like here.

I don’t say that often, and — of course — it’s true that one book does not fit all.  But this is a very accessible book about a topic so important, the word “topic” seems diminishing.

It’s about Jesus.  And you.  And a wedding.

Many people think knowing Jesus is ultimately about one thing:  Going to heaven.  “I got my ticket to heaven, so the rest is details” — I’ve actually heard that.

This sounds right to some, at some level, maybe, but it doesn’t capture the love affair between God and His people.  Not even close. Viola brilliantly explains what he calls the “eternal purpose of God”, and it’s a love story, since before time began.

When I read about this love story, this wedding-to-come, I can’t help but think the “ticket to heaven” idea of Christianity is a selling-short of this Great Romance.  You see, it’s like saying, “All that matters is I get in the reception, and I get some of that cake.  I loves me some wedding cake.”

Well, okay.  We all do.  But this is about love. Always has been.  You see, it’s about much more than whether or not you get some cake.  YOU ARE IN THE WEDDING. You’re being proposed to.  You’re going to be standing up in this one, front-and-center, and the question isn’t whether you want some cake.  The question is:  Do you take this man…?

The question is, and always has been, not “Do you have your ticket?” but…”Do you love me?”

So do I?

Viola admits to being a romantic.  I’m not — not in the typical I-love-”The Notebook” sense — but I’m glad he’s that type, because it’s allowed him some remarkable insight and appreciation into the romantic elements of the Bible, from start to finish.

Genesis to Revelation is all about Jesus.  I knew that.  But Viola points out the romantic storylines, played out over and again, that I’d never noticed.  Fascinating stuff.  (I’d never thought, before, about how “communion” is, among other things, a re-enactment, based on Jewish tradition, of the acceptance of a wedding proposal, for example.  And there’s much, much more.)

This book is not overly heady, not written for scholarly-types only.  And there’s far more to it than I can allude to in a short entry.  If you read it, let me know what you think.  It might rock your world, in the most exciting, freeing way.

- Brant Hansen

I found this interview with Ed Stetzer on the resurgence website. I have read a couple of Eds books and found them to be very helpful and insightful.

This interview has some solid gold advice on avoiding mistakes that I have already made!!

Kudos to Dustin Neely for asking the right questions.

Author-speaker and LifeWay Researcher, Ed Stetzer, graciously invited me to do an interview on his blog recently. Stetzer is one of the best known Christian leaders today, especially among the Southern Baptists. Here is his endorsement for my book From Eternity to Here,

Too often we see people react to what they don’t like about the church. In From Eternity to Here, Frank Viola offers up the doctrine that causes him to act on behalf of the church. Make no doubt about it—Frank is a provocateur and an artist—and both come through in this book. Frank continues to challenge the church-at-large with a powerful mind, an impassioned voice, and a love for the bride of Christ. You need to get this book and wrestle with Frank through the biblical passages regarding our identity in Christ as His body and the mission our God has entrusted to us.

-Ed Stetzer

What follows is the full interview.

—

From Ed Stetzer:

Today, Frank Viola comes by the blog and interacts for the day.
As I have written before, I like Frank. He is not a subtle man. He is calling for big changes. And, he loves Jesus. Those are some good qualities.
Now, if you have read my books and my blog, you also know that Frank and I have some pretty significant differences about an important subject–ecclesiology. And, I believe that ecclesiology will be one of the defining issues in the evangelical conversation in the years to come.
I am so passionate about the subject, my next scholarly book will be on ecclesiology, probably out in 2012 (my missiology textbook comes out in 2010), so I am pretty concerned about this subject and have some important convictions.
And, it is no secret to Frank that I found his last two books to be lacking in ecclesiology (as I see it in scripture), but I appreciated his passion for the church and God’s mission in his From Eternity to Here. His passion for the church and its mission comes through in From Eternity to Here. Whereas his other books seemed to want to deconstruct the church (in a way I found destructive), this one provides the reader with reasons to love the church.

I also see this when Frank writes against “churchless Christianity,” something I was very encouraged to see. He did so in two parts at Out of Ur.

The postchurch brand of Christianity is built on the premise that institutional forms of church are ineffective, unbiblical, unworkable, and in some cases, dangerous. Institutionalization is not compatible with ekklesia. So say postchurch advocates.

But the postchurch view goes further saying, “any semblance of organization whatsoever . . . any semblance of leadership…is wrong and oppressive. Church is simply when two or three believers gather together in any format. Whenever this happens, church occurs.”
Post Church Perspective, Pt 1

Frank continues in the second article explaining,

The ekklesia as used in New Testament literature is visible, touchable, locatable, and tangible. You can visit it. You can observe it. And you can live in it. Biblically speaking, you could not call anything an ekklesia unless it assembled regularly together.

…

The postchurch paradigm is rooted in the attempt to practice Christianity without belonging to an identifiable community that regularly meets for worship, prayer, fellowship, mutual edification, and mutual care.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with fellowshipping with Christians on the Internet, over the phone, or meeting with friends at Starbucks. I personally love doing these things. But calling these activities “church” or substituting them for ekklesia is misguided. Postchurch Perspective, Pt 2

As I read these I found them helpful when consider that many are advocating “abandoning the church” for their own spiritual health and to join some sort of churchless revolution.

So, I invited Frank to the blog today to talk about his new book and any other subjects upon which he wants to opine. Let’s start with his answers to a few questions and then you can jump in below.

1. What motivated you to write this book?

The message of the eternal purpose of God changed my life. It gave me a glorious vision to live by, a high and overwhelming purpose to walk in, and a growing love and passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, it provided me with a framework for understanding God‘s grand mission and the entire Biblical story. All of this profoundly changed my view of the Lord, my view of the church, my view of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and my view of myself. So I wrote “From Eternity to Here” because I wanted others to have that same experience.

In addition, I feel that the eternal purpose is a message that‘s not often preached or written about today, so I felt the time was right to release the book to the Body of Christ.

2. What do you believe is the most critical problem in the church that this book addresses?

Three come to mind:

First, many Christians are living from a performance-based relationship with God that’s marked by religious duty and obligation. The guilt that lurks deep within the hearts of scores of God’s people is very heavy, and there’s great insecurity of what the Lord really thinks about them. The message that is so often communicated today is: “God’s holy. You’re not. Do more and try harder.” Many Christians sincerely want to serve God, but they aren’t passionately in love with Jesus Christ because they haven’t seen, accepted, nor been riveted by how He views them. When we stand on a different mountain and look behind His eyes, it changes everything. This leads us on a journey where we discover the secret of living BY Christ rather than simply doing things FOR Christ.

Second, the gospel that’s often presented today is very much centered on the meeting of human needs, whether that be the saving of lost souls, healing the sick, or making the world a better place. That God wants these things is correct, but it’s not complete. The Biblical story is consumed with a high and glorious purpose in God that is by Christ, through Christ, to Christ, and for Christ. And as we receive a vision of that purpose (Paul called it “the heavenly vision”) and embrace it, human benefits become a by-product not the prime product.

Thirdly, it’s been my observation that many Christians look at and relate to Jesus Christ as merely Savior, Lord, and King. They feel that they know Jesus already, “got the tee-shirt,” and so they must go on to “other things.” But as Paul pointed out rather strikingly in the book of Colossians, a proper apprehension of who the Lord Jesus Christ really is causes one to live the rest of their lives exploring His fullness. And His fullness is inexhaustible (Paul referred to His fullness as the “unsearchable riches of Christ” in Ephesians.) If we get to know this glorious and incomparable Christ beyond the surface, we quickly discover that it’s impossible to get beyond Him. He, in all of His fullness, becomes our life pursuit. We discover Him not simply as Savior, Lord, and King, but as All in All. Leonard Sweet and I have recently tried to introduce this idea in our Jesus Manifesto.

3. What are you getting at with the title, “From Eternity to Here?”

Good question. From eternity past, before the creation of the world, God has had a purpose in His heart that provoked Him to create. He shrouded that purpose in a mystery and He hid it in His Son (see Colossians and Ephesians regarding “the mystery.”) That purpose (Paul calls it ―”the eternal purpose” in Ephesians 3) is what governs all of what God does. According to Ephesians 1, the eternal purpose controls all of His actions. That purpose … being conceived in eternity past and slated to continue on through eternity future … is meant to be fulfilled here, on this earth, for that‘s why He created the physical universe. The book unveils and unfolds the above paragraph, hence the title “from eternity to here.”

4. The subtitle is “Rediscovering God’s Ageless Purpose.” You talk a lot about purpose in this book. What is God’s ageless purpose?

Trying to define it in a few paragraphs in a way that does it justice and doesn’t dilute its incredible impact is like putting the Mississippi River in a tea cup. It took me 300 pages to unveil it, and still it’s beyond my measure to adequately explain. Paul of Tarsus nearly exhausted human language in his attempt to uncork it in the first three chapters of Ephesians.

For those who haven’t yet read the book, I’ll describe it this way.

Traditionally, we have begun the Biblical story with the fall of humans in Genesis 3. The result is that the entire story places the salvation of humans and the redemption of the earth as being God‘s goal. But those two elements, while part of the story, are not the beginning point nor the ultimate goal.

Thus when we begin the Biblical story in Genesis 1 and 2 (which occurs before the fall) and in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 (which occurs before creation), the Biblical story is reframed from the standpoint of God‘s ultimate desire rather than with the needs of fallen human beings.

This changes the perspective dramatically, and it makes the story much larger and more God-centered. It moves us from a human-centered gospel to one that‘s rooted in God‘s relentless, eternal, and ultimate desire.

Remember, Adam and Eve were NOT created in need of salvation. So there was a purpose that God had for them that was different from saving lost souls.

Genesis 1 and 2 are mirrored in Revelation 21 and 22. Those four chapters are unique in all the Bible. There is no sin or corruption in them. The events in Genesis 1 and 2 take place before the fall; the events in Revelation 21 and 22 take place after the fall is erased.

There are a number of key themes in those 4 chapters. And they can be traced from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 like a golden thread. The themes in those four chapters give us a glimpse into the eternal purpose of God. In the book, I trace those themes from the beginning of the Bible to the end.

In short, God has many purposes in time, but He only has one “eternal purpose” which drives Him and governs everything He does.

5. How does this book compare and contrast with your other books, namely Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church?

“Pagan Christianity” (co-authored George Barna) deconstructed the traditional practices of the modern institutional church on the basis of church history and New Testament principles. The unique contribution of “Pagan” is that it doesn‘t just call for the typical tweaks that many church reform books call for, i.e., better pastoring skills, more outreach, better methods to make disciples, more cost effective church buildings, stronger strategies for making converts, etc.

Instead, it goes to what we feel are the roots. It deals with the systemic problems. It raises the brutally challenging question: ”Is it possible that the very way we do church is the problem?” I believe we are living in a time when it’s critical for us to go back to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles to examine anew and afresh what the church is and how she expresses herself in the earth rather than taking our cues from the business models of secular culture. This is the call to action that “Pagan Christianity” gives.

“Reimagining Church” is the positive follow-up to “Pagan Christianity.” “Pagan” deconstructs on the basis of church history and the New Testament.  “Reimagining” constructs on the basis of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. It also explores spiritual leadership from the vantagepoint of what Jesus taught His disciples in contrast to the forms that are taken in the Gentile world and in the Jewish world (both of which are very common today). The Lord’s way of leadership is neither Gentile nor Jewish. Therefore, everyone who has read “Pagan Christianity” should read also “Reimagining Church,” else they are only getting one half the argument. Both books strongly endorse Christ-centered, organic community with Jesus as the functional Head (opposed to the clergy-led institutional form of church on the one hand and the postchurch view on the other. The two books offer a third path that’s neither left nor right.)

My new book “Finding Organic Church” is the practical sequel to all of my books, including “From Eternity to Here.” It answers the question: “How does one go about finding, planting, and sustaining churches that make Jesus Christ their practical, functional Head and which stand for God’s eternal purpose?” It examines mission and church planting for the 21^st century. One that’s based on the timeless principles of the New Testament rather than secular leadership models.

“From Eternity to Here” takes the reader back a few steps and seeks to bring them into the big picture behind it all. It’s a presentation of the big, sweeping epic of God‘s grand mission. It seeks to explore the grand narrative of the entire Bible as an unbroken story rather than as a systematic theology.

“From Eternity to Here” is like a big river; “Pagan Christianity” and “Reimagining Church” are like tributaries.

“From Eternity” focuses on the church from the heavenly and eternal viewpoint. “Pagan,” “Reimagining,” and “Finding Organic Church” examine it on the ground. Finally, “From Eternity” is for all believers. My other books are for those who are not afraid to seriously rethink church in the light of Scripture and even rechurch. They aren’t written for those who want to simply rearrange the chairs on the Titanic J

6. In the book you explain that From Eternity to Here is a primer for your other writings? Can you unpack that a little?

Yes, it’s because “From Eternity” presents the motivation and controlling vision behind all the other books. I’ve made this statement many times in conferences, but it answers your question, I think: The only reason why any church should exist is to stand for and fulfill God’s eternal purpose. That’s where “From Eternity to Here” comes in.

7. Do you believe God was/is somehow unsatisfied outside created and restored humanity?

I don’t think I’d put it that way. Consider this analogy. When an individual gets restored to God, a dead rock has been transformed into a living stone. Recall Jacob’s dream. After He saw the stairway connecting heaven and earth, Jacob poured oil on a stone and called the place “Bethel”, the house of God. The oil represents the Spirit of life. The rock represents you and me. Oil upon a stone makes that stone “a living stone.”

For many years, I was taught that God’s goal is for us Christians to go out and make as many dead rocks into living stones. That is, He wants us to get lost people saved.

But there is an intention in God’s heart that goes beyond making dead stones living stones. He wants all of those living stones in every city to be built together to form a house for Him and His pleasure.

Paul in Ephesians 2 says that the church is formed when we are “being built together” with others to form God’s dwelling place.

Peter makes the same point in 1 Peter 2. The goal is not the making of many living stones. The goal is that those living stones be “built together” to form a house that is by God, through God, and for God. (Peter uses the term “living stones” in fact.)

This shifts the paradigm in at least three ways.

First, salvation (the making of living stones) is not the end. It’s the beginning.

Second, God is after something that’s corporate and collective, not individualistic. It’s a house that He’s after, not a bunch of living stones scattered all over the earth.

Third, the end in view is not for man, but for God. He wants a house to dwell in. “Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?”

God’s quest for a house is one of the things that provoked creation. In Genesis 1 and 2, we have the building materials for God’s house in the garden of Eden. In Revelation 21 and 22, we see those building materials put together to form the Lord’s dwelling place. The entire Bible is the unfolding drama of how this “building work” takes place. In Genesis 1, man (humanity) is made from clay. In Revelation 21 and 22, clay is transformed into precious stone for the building of God’s house.

It’s an amazing vision.

8. For the record, I believe God does experience emotions, but unpacking God’s experience of emotions is difficult as it connects to many other key doctrines regarding theology proper. Do you believe God knows precisely what will happen before it takes place in history, and if he does how are his emotions authentic, or real?

I’m not an open theist, so yes, I believe Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega at the same time, and as Colossians puts it, creation is in Him. Which means time is in Him also.

That said, I don’t know the answer to your question because we’re dealing with trying to fathom God’s interpersonal senses with finite human thinking. But my guess (and it’s merely a guess) is that the analogy of a dream may help us to grasp a piece of it.

Consider having a dream that later comes to pass. When you had the dream, you felt it was of God and were confident it would come to pass. During the dream, you experienced the full gamut of emotions that you would feel if the dream were real (I feel deep emotion in many of my dreams). You even felt these emotions in the afterglow of having the dream, upon waking up.

Six months later, the dream comes to pass and you watch in living color the events take place that you saw in your dream. And you again experience those same emotions even though you foreknew what was going to happen six months earlier. Perhaps it’s the same way with God (?). He feels when He foreknows and He feels when we experience what He foreknew. He is in fact touched with the feeling of our own infirmities, very closely.

9. Are there others books that hit on the same subjects/ideas that you would recommend?

Yes, though not in quite the same way. There are three that come to mind, all amazing books:

Ultimate Intention by DeVern Fromke

The Stewardship of the Mystery by T. Austin-Sparks

The School of Christ by T. Austin-Sparks

Thanks Ed, for having me on your blog. It’s an honor.

Keep up the good work!

Grab the popcorn. Tell your friends. Get ready to tweet.

Part one of my interview with missiologist extraordinaire, Ed Stetzer, drops tomorrow.

If you know Stetzer’s work, you know that Ed brings a valuable and unique insight to the role of church planting because of his own experiences.

In this interview (in two parts), Ed shares about how to discern whether or not God is calling you to be a church planter, the counsel he would give to a guy a couple years in and even some of his own mistakes.

Much like the Chandler video, this is a MUST SEE.

See you tomorrow!

1. The first Clash of the Titans trailer. I love movies like this.
2. John Piper on When you don’t want to do what you ought to do.
3. Is your church’s vision too small? I hope this can never be said of Revolution.
4. Two Interviews with Matt Chander:  Church planting, preaching and leadership & Celebrity, diversity & burnout.
5. Download a free chapter from Mark Batterson’s new book Primal. This book is going to be awesome, waiting for my copy, any day now.
6. Respecting doubts: An interview with Tim Keller. There is so much in here, so many great points.
7. Kevin DeYoung on Be yourself when you preach.

I saw this video over on Ed Stetzer’s website and it gave me a good laugh. I love my ESV Study Bible—it’s fantastic. It’s packed with information and really, really helpful.

And, as an added bonus, it’s big enough to use as my home security system!

(I wonder if the folks at Crossway would consider that as a selling point?)

I don’t know much about the HCSB translation, aside from taking a quick look on their website, but it looks like a pretty decent translation. Very easy to read, which is always a plus.

So, if you’ve got a Study Bible, what do you like about the one you have?

Heard Matt Chandler reference these a while back, finally tracked them down (HT:ES):

1. What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?
2. What temptations have you met with?
3. How were you delivered?
4. What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?
5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

It’s been a little bit since I’ve posted, and in an ongoing effort for personal/leadership growth I’ve been reading a lot.  I have a hefty stack of books that I’m trying to work my way through.

Here is what I’ve just finished and what I’m currently working on:

Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer:

Compelled by Love by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation

Working on these now:

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Listening to:

Not Guilty Anymore by Aaron Keyes

Catalyst Music Project by Various Artists

What are you reading/listening to?  And what have you been learning lately?

Last year I had the opportunity to lead sessions at the Exponential Conference. I am so honored that I have been invited to help out again in 2010.

This amazing conference is the most attended church planting conference in the world.

Check out the information below then… JOIN US THERE!

• The Exponential Conference speakers are some of the finest communicators in the country! Exponential has assembled a lineup for 2010 that is as good as any conference has ever had. Opening with Louie Giglio, closing with Francis Chan, including well-known and proven motivators like Ken Blanchard, Mark Batterson, Darrin Patrick, Matt Chandler, Dave Gibbons, Brenda Salter-McNeil, Ed Stetzer, Efrem Smith, Dino Rizzo, Shane Claiborne, Dave Ferguson, Scott Thomas, Billy Hornsby, Greg Surratt, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, Larry Osborne, Chris Hodge and MANY MORE! Hello….
• There’s something about church planters gathering. The energy that comes from thousands of leaders who eat, sleep, and breath sharing the Gospel with people and creating new communities of faith, new ministries, new outreach strategies, movements, campuses, networks, on and on. This group of people are the most influential agents of change in our country. To be part of this crowd is to be part of the Kingdom of God in a powerful way.
• The best ideas, the strongest practices, and the most forward-thinking dreams are shared at Exponential. This is not a “our way is the only way” conference. Quite often the diverse ideas and varied cultures that make up Exponential might seem to be even contradictory! But the open handed approach that has made Exponential the strong voice for church multiplication it is make it a “must attend” event.

The church does not have a mission– it joins Jesus on His mission. It is better to say that the mission has a church! – Ed Stetzer

I’ve been interested in the issue of leadership and how we can contextualize biblical and secular leadership principles to our churches so that more people can come to know the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

I loved reading Neil Cole’s Organic Church a few years back as it transformed the way that I view the church. I recently picked up his book, Organic Leadership, and can’t wait to dive into it!

Ed Stetzer’s books have always been good as he is very much of an intellectual like myself, but he uses his intellectual gifts and talents for the church and for practical purposes and means. I love that and that’s what I am striving to do, as that is where I’m discovering my talents and giftings lie. One book he co-authored with David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code, is a must-read for church leaders as it practically describes how to contextualize the gospel to your immediate situation.

On his website, he recently posted a seminar he did for church leaders on missional leadership. I saw it once, and i’m definitely going to be revisiting it again and again until I can truly understand and apply the biblical principles he outlines.

Here it is,

Missional Leadership from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

The folks at Baker Books were kind enough to send me a couple editions of God’s Word Translation (GW) to read and review.  This translation has been around for over fifteen years, but until getting picked up by Baker in 2008 hasn’t gotten much exposure or widespread publicity.  Because of that, my intent is to look at this translation across several posts to try and give it a thorough review for those who may not know much about it or even have heard of it at all.  My reviews will take a different approach than Joel Watts’, who is also in the process of writing several reviews of GW on his blog.  If you’re interested in seeing how GW compares to other translations (in parallel), be sure and check out his fine series.

History

Technically, the translation known now as GW had its beginning in 1982, when God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society formed to update a translation known as An American Translation, which was translated by a small group of conservative Lutheran scholars.  Over time, this work took on a new direction and ended up being a completely new bible translation–still translated primarily by this core group of Lutherans but utilizing reviewers from a variety of Christian backgrounds, including Baptists, Presbyterians, and others.  After several revisions and continual work, God’s Word was introduced to the marketplace in 1995.  Since then, the text has remained unchanged and publishing has passed from World Bible Publishers to Green Key Books (2003) and finally to Baker Books (2008).  [More information and history can be found here]

Translation Philosophy

(Note: The quotes from the following two sections come from the pamphlet “A Guide to God’s Word Translation”)

The translation philosophy espoused by GW is called Closest Natural Equivalence (CNE).  In an area where most of the debate goes back and forth between literal v. dynamic equivalence, form v. functional equivalence, or word-for-word v. thought-for-thought translation, CNE seeks to satisfy three related goals:

1. Provide readers with a meaning in the target language (here, English) that is equivalent to that of the source language
2. Express that meaning naturally, in a way that a native English speaker would read or write
3. Express the meaning with a style that preserves many of the characteristics of the source text

As a point of comparison with other major bible translations, while not calling their translation philosophies CNE, both the New Living Translation (NLT) and Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) use similar approaches.  Why this approach?  Quite simply, there are concerns with either of the predominant two paradigms that make some sort of mediating position not only necessary but desirable.  Regarding the former, literal translation philosophy:

Form-equivalent translations adjust the grammar and syntax of the source language text only enough to produce a reasonable recognizable and understandable English translation.  Form-equivalent translation results in an English text that is a combination of English words, some English syntax, and some Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek syntax.

In other words, as my one of my Old Testament professors used to say about the NASB and the ESV, “Great Hebrew, terrible English.”

There are also pitfalls with taking a solely dynamic approach to translation:

While function equivalence theory of translation has the proper focus [of accurately conveying meaning in the target language], in practice it has produced English translations that have lost some of the source texts’ meaning.

In sum, the goal of CNE as advocated by GW, NLT, and HCSB is to maintain the delicate balance between a rigidly-literal rendering of the text that fails to communicate clearly in English and a highly-dynamic rendering that omits characteristics of the source language that are important to the meaning of a given passage.

Technical Theological Language

One important question translation committees have to wrestle with and answer is how they will approach translating words associated with theological concepts.  Typically, English translations use the traditional renderings that have been used for centuries, some going back so far as to be borrowed from Jerome’s Latin translation of the bible (the Vulgate):

While these words continue to be used by theologians and even by many Christians, the meanings that speakers assign to them in everyday use do not match the meanings of the Hebrew or Greek words they are intended to translate. The words have become jargon–words with specialized meanings often poorly understood by nonspecialists.

As Ed Stetzer pointed out on Twitter recently, “If you can learn to order at Starbucks, then you can learn theological language at church.” I completely agree, and while I would suggest that retaining words like covenant, justify, propitiation, righteous, and others in our theological teaching, preaching, and discussions is a good thing, it is difficult for me to suggest that retaining these terms in a bible translation is helpful considering how differently these terms are used in contemporary language (if they are used at all!).

The GW translators did not make this decision arbitrarily but based upon research in local congregations:

To determine how English speakers understand a few key theological terms, God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society undertook a survey of churchgoing lay people.  Of five theological terms tested, no term was understood correctly by a majority of the respondents.  That is, a majority of the respondents did not give a definition that matched the primary meaning of the underlying Greek word…The survey results for covenant (40 percent gave acceptable answers) were better than for the other words included in the bible society’s survey.  For instance, only 10 percent of the respondents gave a correct meaning for the Greek word dikaioo when asked to define justify.

In theory, I am totally at ease with the decision to use words more easily and correctly understood by contemporary English speakers.  I will examine and evaluate some of the specific usages in GW in future reviews on the OT and NT, because I find some weaknesses in the words chosen in some places.

So we’re off and running on our look at God’s Word Translation!  Over the course of the next few reviews, I will begin to take a look at the details of this translation, including formatting, word choice, translation style, etc.  Hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite to come back and read more about this relatively unknown translation.

1. 18 Questions for a Church Planters Soul (from Acts 29). Great thoughts as the busyness of church can often eclipse our souls.
2. Tony Morgan on Ministry is messy. This is the beauty and heartache of church. Real life.
3. Barna’s latest study on generational perspectives of the Bible.
4. C.J. Mahaney on What precisely is the gospel?
5. How staff and leaders can set volunteers up for success.
6. Scot McKnight on OMG and taking the Lord’s name in vain. Is it still a sin if you abbreviate it?

First, let me say that I turn purple at the term “worship wars.” It is the highest contradiction I can think of in the church. No one can say they seek to “worship” Jesus and then choose “war” rather than unity. I also recognize that there are, at times, significant disagreements on style of music.

HERE is a link to a post I read this morning by Ed Stetzer. It is a great discussion on the need for a church to find consensus rather than compromise. It is hard-hitting in some places…probably because we need to be hit hard there.

As I was considering this, two things came to mind. First, I was drawn back to a discussion I had with a friend from NAMB as I was planning what our new worship format would look like for the church I planted in NY. He made an argument about worship style which has stuck with me to this day. Second, my church is in the process of identifying our next Worship Pastor. I have had a few conversations along the way about how we find someone who is agreeable to our congregation. We are still discussing the methods of evaluating where we are as a church body, but we have agreed (as a selection team) that however we proceed, it must be tied inextricably to mission. We cannot choose a man based on his style or preferences, but on whether he can sense worship, model worship, teach worship, and lead in worship. We do not want a performer but a pastor.

If the conversation ever digresses to style or preferences without respect to mission…then we have departed from the subject of God-honoring worship and embraced the idolatry of “preference” and “nostalgia.”

I think this article is amazing in how it speaks to the subject…and timely based on where we are as a church in the journey. My heart and my intent is to lead us in CONSENSUS rather than COMPROMISE. This may make some uncomfortable…but unless we all are pulling the same direction in pursuit of the same objective (i.e. glorifying God by leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, HERE…), we really haven’t accomplished anything anyway.

I trust you will read the article found on his site which can be accessed by the link  HERE. Then, drop back by and share your thoughts with the group…PLEASE! Lord bless.

Calibrate, an event to help leaders realign their picture of the Church with Jesus’ picture of the Church, is coming November 15-16. We are hearing about countless leaders who are horribly depressed because they missed the early registration rate on Calibrate. In our tireless efforts to empower leaders we have come up with the perfect solution…a sale.

For one day only, October 16th, save $16 on Calibrate registrations. On October 16, go to www.calibratenw.com to register and you will pay $69 instead of the current price of $85.

This is for one day only – don’t miss it!

More on Calibrate 09?  I could type a bunch of stuff about it….just go to the site!