You’ve found yourself in a mini-series on Rebranding the church. If you missed it, then I recommend reading the introduction. Essentially, we believe that followers of Jesus should be most recognized for what they contribute to the world instead of what they are against in the world. Each week we tackle something the church must demonstrate they support.

Today I have the honor of guest posting on The Daily Retort about the church’s need to develop a thirst for knowledge. Tor is a great writer and has years of experience in journalism, blogging, and book publishing. If you’re visiting from Tor’s site, thanks for stopping by! We’d love it if you said hello in the comments.

And now, why the church needs to demonstrate a greater thirst for knowledge:

A History of Thought Leadership:

For centuries, Christians led the way in discovery of new truths and the applications of those discoveries. In John 8:32, Jesus said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Christians took this to heart and so they became great scientists, built new schools, and did anything they could to advance learning.

In The Book that Made your World, Vishal Mangalwadi discusses this at great lengths. One example is that of Christian monks, who used water wheel “technology” to grind their wheat into flour. This process saved people millions of hours of work over the years and allowed them to focus on science, family, prayer, education, and so on.

Unfortunately, many people today think of Christians as ignorant and anti-science and reason. Read the full post and learn what we can do about it on Tor’s blog.

Fifteen years ago, if you didn’t know something, you either asked someone who had more knowledge and expertise, or you cracked open an encyclopedia.  Now, when people don’t know something, there is one simple solution – “Google it.”  In an instant, Google provides the answers we are looking for.

There are many benefits of instant information at our finger tips, so many that I don’t think I need to convince you. However, the negative criticism for people growing up in this “Google generation” is that we don’t know how to be patient for anything.

Many young people look at older, successful people and want their achievement now. They fail to recognize the years of blood, sweat and tears that it took for these older people to accomplish their success.  Many young adults have unrealistic expectations about what it takes to be successful in the world. Continue Reading…

I recently took a Marketing position and have learned much in my first 4 months. One word that constantly gets tossed around the office is “brand.” Thanks to people like Seth Godin, the term has also gained increasing popularity around blogs and the rest of the web.

Now, I tend to avoid and shun overused terms like “brand” as much as possible. But sometimes, a buzzword actually gets the job done, and in this case, I think it is quite necessary.

What is a Brand?

The best definition I’ve heard comes from Richard Branson, founder of Virgin. He says, “Your brand or your name is simply your reputation, you have to fight in life to protect that as it means everything.” Continue Reading…

I (Brian) am a youth pastor to hundreds of amazing students in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.  Our student community lives out this post. Although written specifically to other youth pastors, I think anyone interested in following Jesus can find it helpful.

Let’s be honest, the role of youth pastor is a tough gig. Coming from one side is  pressure to increase the size of your ministry, and pushing in from another is the expectation of your students to be a ministry that is “awesome,” “fun,” and worthy of their time. It’s no wonder so few leaders last more than a year in the same church.

In an effort to overcome the pressure, many youth pastors spend hours trying to plan and produce fun events to attract students. More times than not, the focus of these events is evangelism, hoping that while non-Christian students are drawn inside the church building, they might also be drawn to receive Christ. The mindset becomes “I’ll create a fun atmosphere so lost students will want to attend, hear the Gospel, and hopefully put their faith in Jesus.”

As a youth pastor for the last five and a half years, I have come to understand that my primary job is NOT to create attractive environments for non-Christian students. Yet, I’m more convinced than ever that our youth events should be incredibly attractive, dare I say the most attractive places for students to spend their time. What’s the big difference? Discipleship. Continue Reading…

From the outside looking in, my life was great during my Junior Year of High School. I made good grades, was well liked, my girlfriend was on homecoming court, I was a leader at church, and had a very close group of friends. 

But then one day, during class, a rather heavy lump planted itself somewhere between my stomach and chest and refused to leave. I had a feeling of anxiety that I couldn’t shake, and I had no idea what was causing it. I walked with it for days, and the feeling came and went without warning. Continue Reading…

Let’s face it, we all have good times, and then we all have bad ones. The trouble is, those good times can be really hard to remember during the bad ones.

During the dark moments, we tend to doubt God. I’ve personally struggled over illness, job loss, and the death of loved ones; others have experienced far greater trials. Those times can cause us to question, “Is God good? Is He even real?” In our pain we easily forget the incredible promises God offers us and often exchange them for temporary pleasures of this world. Continue Reading…

If you have ever thought that you are too young to make a difference I would challenge you to rethink that assumption. Consider the story of the As We Go Project. 

In 2010 a group of four college students taking seriously the phrase, “If you can dream it, you can do it” decided to walk from Milledgeville to Snellville in what has come to be called “The Walk Home”. They took on this arduous journey just to see if it was possible. It seemed such an outlandish idea, but that was the draw of it.

At a screening of the documentary made about this walk a friend asked, “Would you ever consider doing this for a cause?” The answer was yes, but nothing came of it.

In the summer of 2011 a young man named Danny Montenegro was having a conversation with a friend about Danny’s freshman year of college. He described the journey his friends had taken and the friend submitted the idea of Tiny Hands International as a possible cause to pursue. This organization had a project in the works that would build border patrol stations on the border of Nepal and India to help prevent the trafficking of over 10,000 young girls across that border each year.

That fall, The As We Go Project was born. Danny brought the idea to the attention of his friends and a team was assembled to plan the first official As We Go walk. After a semester of planning, the first walk came to fruition during Georgia College and State University’s winter break. Twenty-one walkers, seventy miles, four days.

The group set out from GCSU’s front campus headed to the arches at UGA’s campus in Athens, GA. Three churches from three different denominations hosted the team as they made their way through Eatonton, Madison, and Bishop. Multiple cars stopped to ask what they were doing along with three local papers. A group of friends and family received the tired walkers at the arches four long days after the outset of this journey. Over $2,000 was raised toward the border patrol station project.

The Passion Conference that same December fully funded the border patrol station project, which left the team without their original cause. After everyone returned from summer break, the team reassembled to plan the next walk. It has taken a few months, but next walk is right around the corner. On December 8-11 the second annual As We Go Project walk will take place from Athens to Atlanta.

The reason for the new route is to create a sense of continuity between last year’s walk and this year’s walk. The journey ended in Athens and the task will be taken up where it was laid down last December. The team is walking to Atlanta because they are partnering with Night Light International, which is based in Atlanta, and because of the severity of the sex trade industry in that city.

We want to see sex trafficking end in our own town. This is a call for all of us. If you think you are too young to make something out of nothing, to break down walls that others see as immovable, to bring a dream into reality, you’re wrong. Jesus promised the most abundant life and that is the only life for someone who follows him. If you can dream it, you can do it. Therefore, Go.

Written by: Sean Mooney, As We Go team member

A.W. Tozer says, “The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”

The Bible claims to be the very Word of God and Living and Active. If you believe that, then why wouldn’t you want to read it everyday?

Seriously! We should let nothing hold us back from God’s presence.

This post is intentionally short, why not spend the extra time reading the Bible? Need direction? Try starting one of my favorite books: John.

What is your favorite book of the Bible? We look forward to your answers in the comments…

I’m not sure there is a book that has inspired and challenged me more deeply than the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer written by Eric Metaxas.  The life of this German theologian and pastor is better than the movies, and I am still holding tightly to the rumor that a film will be coming in the future.

As I heard one university professor say, there has recently been a “Bonhoeffer awakening.”  Many Christians, young and old, are taking a fresh interest in his life, devouring his books (i.e. The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together), and even forming groups to practice the communal disciplines he prescribed.

Of course his life was fascinating. One can’t help but be curious about a Christian pastor who also happened to be a double agent in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler. Regardless of one’s religious convictions, you have to respect a man that ultimately died for his specific spiritual devotion.

Despite the epic nature of Bonhoeffer’s life, I do not think these are the primary reasons for the “awakening” that has occurred over the last few years.  I believe God himself is stoking this fire because today’s Jesus followers have specific things to learn from it. Here are just three  of many things we can take away.

Three ways we can learn from Bonhoeffer’s life today:

1. Be Radically devoted to daily study and practice of God’s Word – he worked right through the Scriptures, consistently. Nothing fancy, no “just-open-and-see-where-your-finger-lands”- He was committed to a methodical, consistent study through books of the Bible. Bonhoeffer’s commitment to spiritual disciplines challenges Christians to not settle for a “pie-in-the-sky” faith that doesn’t translate into real action in the real world. Continue Reading…