Last night (Aug. 1) our newest ministry – The Brazilian Church at Parkridge – had a great start.  There were 54 in attendance for their first meeting.  Pastor Fernando Facioli was excited to see the strong showing.  He and his wife Priscilla have helped with 2 other church starts.  This third start was the strongest.  The songs and sermon were in Portuguese – except for one song in English.    Everyone stayed after the service for a time of warm fellowship.  Services will be on Sunday...

I first heard this phrase “obedience junkie” at a training session for our efforts to plant churches in Peru.  The trainer was explaining that our discipleship of new believers should be based on obedience – not knowledge, not attendance.  He encouraged us to teach our new believers to specifically and practically obey the truth they learn each time we meet together.  The idea is to build a mentality where the person longs to obey what God shows them in the Bible – and does it...

The Power of Vision I listened to a talk by JD Greear recently and he used this quote to emphasize the value of vision. “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”Antoine de Saint-Exupery I got it!  Mechanics (best practices and how-to’s) are necessary, but not primary.    The ultimate goal – the vision, if you will – is...

Last week I was looking at the website of a church in the Birmingham area.  They had challenged their families to take a Radical Experiment  for the year of 2010. Part of the challenge was to give 2% of your year for making disciples out of your home town.  What an awesome idea!  While I know many give that much time to ministry 3 or 4 hours at a time, I want to challenge Parkridgers to do the same and give 2% of your year to missions (1 week).    One great...

What a blessing to spend the weekend with the young couple serving in East Asia!  It is a special treat to have those we visit overseas come and be with us.     When we first visited them in 2008, we had no idea that they had just come through the hard season of being the first ones and the only ones in their city for a while.  I can’t imagine the challenge of learning a new language and culture, and then enduring a long very cold winter without Christian friends or a church.  There are...

What a joy it was to preach at Parkridge Sunday!  You are a bunch of great listeners!  You even caught my aberrant reading of the scriptures!  “Did he just say ‘mosquito bites’?”  I don’t want to be too quick to praise you all as great listeners.    The real test comes with application.  Will you live it out?  Will I?   I was touched by our quick times of prayer for our team in Peru.  How fitting for us to lift up our brothers on...