I thought I’d take a minute to thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing my blog posts in 2011!
As a way of showing my appreciation, I’d like to give one of my readers a new NIV Archaeological Study Bible from Zondervan. I’ll explain how you can get a copy below.
But first, here are my top 11 posts from 2011:
- Making Disciple-Making Disciples – “Sermons, seminars, and classes need to be extra-curricular to the more risky and time consuming core curriculum of modeling a transformed life in front of others.”
- Bible Translations, Tools and Tech for the 21st Century: HCSB – “After 2,000 years of church history we have never been more advanced technologically nor have we ever had more ancient manuscripts and a better understanding of the ancient world than we do now. My view is that the Holman Christian Standard Bible does the best job (not perfect job) of utilizing all of these new innovations and ancient manuscripts to give us the most trustworthy English translation yet.”
- 7 Reasons Why You’ve Never Made A Disciple – “Jesus tells His disciples to make disciples. That’s our mission. But apparently, only 1 in 20 Christians has even shared the Gospel…If you’ve never made a disciple (or haven’t in a long time) there are at least 7 factors that might be contributing to your disciple making slump.”
- Research Suggests Accurate Count of Christians Closer to 4% in US – “The research may be troubling, but enough about the bad news, we’ve got good news to share!”
- A Fresh Look at the HCSB Translation [Video] – More than 100 Bible scholars from 17 denominations (What!? Not just a bunch of Southern Baptists?) gave several years of their lives to this translation because they felt the advancements in archaeology, linguistics, and Biblical research were so significant that there needed to be a new translation (not just a revision).
- The Pastor Driven Church – “The Pastor Driven Church sacrifices bold preaching and personal disciple making for powerless people pleasing.”
- The Mission of the Church – “Are the programs and ministries of our church contributing to fulfilling the Great Commission? Or are they simply services rendered to make things easier on our members?”
- Four Crucial Habits To Help A New Disciple Form On Day One – “If you were only interested in a notch on your evangelistic belt then you might be tempted to outsource this new disciple’s growth to a church program.”
- You Don’t Have To Be A Super-Christian To Make Disciples – “Not everyone is a super-Christian! We don’t all have stories of how we glanced at the stranger seated next to us on the plane and led them to Jesus right there on the spot.”
- A Lack of Multiplication (of Disciples, Small Groups, and Churches) Leads to Division – “We all know that division is failure, but so is subtraction and addition. Multiplication brings glory to God. It is what we are commissioned to do. If a church is dividing, subtracting, or merely adding it’s not enough. Only multiplication will do if we are truly pursuing Jesus’ mission. Only multiplication can be attributed to the power of God at work through His people.”
- Disciple Making vs. Downline: Practicing God’s Presence or Pyramid Scheme? – “The argument I’ve heard recently is that those of us who emphasize making disciples as the mission of our lives more closely resemble sellers of Amway than ambassadors for Jesus.”
A Big Thank You Gift
I wish I could give every one of my readers a gift this Christmas season. Alas, the only way I know how to do it is by rewarding at least one of you with what I wish I could do for all of you! Merry Christmas!!
Can’t see the form? RSS readers may need to click through to the blog to see the giveaway form.
Giveaway applies through the first week in January!
**Update: A winner has been chosen. Subscribe to my blog via rss or email to find out about more awesome giveaways!
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