Here’s a promo of a book that just came out by a couple CRM staff in Denver on creating incarnational -missional community. Matt and Hugh lead Missio within CRM which mentors church planters while they have the option of earning a masters at Fuller seminary. Their community, Adullam, is doing some great stuff in Denver.

I am continually amazed at how technology is changing the world. Although I am not in Los Angeles, I feel like I was able to attend the Awaken conference of my former church, Mosaic, by reading Eric Bryant’s blog and others who commented on the conference that I haven’t met before.

Here are a few of leadership insights I found significant from “invisible mentors:”

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Tuesday, I got to catch up with one of my volunteer high school Young Life leaders. Mike has always been a entrepreneur. He started his own law firm in Roanoke, and has always been heavily involved with ministry since I’ve known him. We had one of those conversations that we had to cut off because it could have kept going the rest of the day.

I’ll share a few highlights from the conversation-

• Over the past few years, God has been giving Mike a hunger for a deeper experience with Christ than what he had previously known. God has opened up his heart to finding freedom and deeper intimacy in Christ and helping others to experience the healing of the Holy Spirit to break cycles of bondage, depression, and addictions.
• Since being opened up to this healing ministry, he sees much of the church as offering a powerless message of the gospel that keeps people stuck in cycles of guilt-grace-try harder-guilt-self loathing-grace-try harder- self-loathing-grace–the gospel we preach often just centers on forgiveness from the consequences of our sin, and not freedom from the power and bondage of our sin.

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Here’s a little intro to how I got connected to NT Wright originally:

When I was a sophomore in college, I sat down with Gerry McDermott to ask him some mentor questions. We had a great conversation for about an hour and half at a coffee shop, and he gave me a few things that have greatly influenced me.

• his general demeanor and way of relating to me- He is a brilliant scholar who has written numerous books and articles, and yet he is willing to spend time with me, listening and getting to know my heart. I am deeply grateful for his genuine interest to get to know and fan the flames of what God is doing in my life. I remember him asking great questions like- how is God working in your life right now? what are you interested in learning more about? what thinkers and writers are influencing you? Rather than assuming he knew what I needed to learn, he sought to learn from what God was already doing in me and spur that on.
• his passionate convictions and compassion–Gerry knows what he believes and why he believes it, yet he has compassionate concern and embrace for those of different viewpoints. He gives me a picture in the flesh of someone who has moved beyond merely valuing “tolerance” to valuing love. As my friend Eric Bryant says, who wants to just be tolerated anyway?
• His ability to give timely advice that stayed with me—–I remember asking him what he thought was important for a leader to grow in understanding the Bible- He said, “let the Bible be the lens through which you see the world. Rather than fitting the Bible into your worldview, understand the worldview of the Bible. Let the Scriptures continue to shape your understanding of Scripture” In a culture where leaders say so many things about the Bible to fit their agendas, this was really important for me to hear at this point in my development.
• And now to NT Wright- When I asked him if there were thinkers who could help me do this, he said NT Wright is helping us understand the Bible in a way that will shape the future of Christian thought and practice.

Thanks to Gerry and the further encouragement of another mentor, NT Wright has been probably the greatest influence on my understanding of the Bible. Before going to seminary, I had a chance to read his three volume work that helps us to understand the message of Jesus in the context of the first century world. His writings continue to influence me to understand the “kingdom” message of Jesus afresh for my life and world by challenging assumptions that I’ve had about the Bible. Although he is a prolific scholar, he also works hard at making his studies accessible. I honestly wouldn’t recommend taking the time to read the big volumes (they are pretty heavy and repetitive at times), but I think every Christian should read the Challenge of Jesus, and many of his articles and smaller books are very helpful.

Even if you don’t agree with everything he says, he will make you think about why you believe what you believe about Jesus.

All that is my intro: Here is an interview with him in Time Magazine about heaven

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