Sermon Texts for December 2011

Sermon texts for Dove Mountain Presbyterian Church for December will be:

12/4/2011 — Isaiah 53:7-12 (Willingly Crushed) (2nd Sunday in Advent)
12/11/2011 — Isaiah 54:1-8 (Redemption) (3rd Sunday in Advent)
12/18/2011 — Isaiah 54:9-17 (Steadfast Love) (4th Sunday in Advent)
12/24/2011 — Luke 2:21-38 (The Wait Is Over)  (Christmas Eve Service)
12/25/2011 — Isaiah 55:1-5 (Without Price) (Christmas Day)

Items for prayer for the worldwide mission of Christ's Kingdom

As with yesterday, I've been thinking about an upcoming time of prayer for the DMC leadership. Here's a list of starting points for praying for God's world mission:

• For the training & preparation of long-term missionaries…
• For the hardened hearts of unbelievers in European nations…
• For protection for the persecuted church…
• For the effective labor of short-term mission teams…
• For the financial support of missionaries during a difficult economy…
• For the work of Bible translation into new languages…
• For the training & installation of indigenous pastors…
• For the healing of cultural wounds through Gospel ministry…
• For the work among first-nations peoples in the U.S. …
• For seminaries being established in India, Ukraine, & other countries…
• For efficiency & effectiveness in the administration of mission boards & organizations…
• For the families of missionaries to freely support & "let go" their loved ones for God's work…
• For the church planting efforts by the PCA & other U.S. denominations…
• For congregations to devote themselves to praying for local, national, & international missions…
• For the children of pastors & missionaries…
• For the continued rapid spread of the Gospel in Asia, Africa, & South America…
• For the revitalization of struggling & unhealthy congregations…
• For the Bible colleges & seminaries in their work of training…
• For work in cities, especially urban & inner-city contexts…
• For the health of marriages for pastors & missionaries…
• For the safety of those laboring in high-risk / dangerous regions…
• For receptivity to the Gospel by all who hear it…

Can you think of others?

Things to remember in group prayer settings

In thinking about an upcoming time of prayer for the Dove Mountain Church leadership, I thought of the following suggestions of things to remember in group prayer settings:

• Not everyone must pray aloud in order to be united in prayer.
  
• If you pray aloud, pray a-loud enough for everyone in your group to be able to hear you.
  
• Be considerate of time constraints as well as ungodly wordiness (Matt. 6:7), and don't monopolize the time allotted for a given group or prayer topic.
  
• Strive for a balance of sufficiency and brevity in prayers; this is usually what we mean by being "concise."
  
• Though we are praying in groups, our prayers are spoken to God (who knows all things), and not to others; we need not exhaustively explain all of the contextual details of our prayers within them for God to hear and understand.
  
• Meanwhile, while our prayers are spoken to God, they are edifying to the rest of the group; strive to pray in such a way that all may freely say "amen" ("I agree") to your prayers.

Can you think of any others?

From Pastor Ed, 11-13-2011

Dear Dove Mountain Friends,

We've been quite grateful for the warm, hospitable welcome that we have received from all of you. Thank you very much for the way that you have embraced us, and continue to do so. We are so happy to be here among you.

Several of you have asked me how you might be in contact with me, and it occurred to me that it may be helpful for me to outline the different ways that you might get in touch with me. I'm also eager to be in regular contact with you! So I'll also mention some ways that you might "receive" communications from me.

We don't have local phone numbers for our mobile phones (yet), but you are certainly welcome to call me on mine nevertheless. I'm not a heavy text-messager, but I do receive— and respond to— text messages on my mobile phone, as well. That number is: (901) 451-0356. Of course, you can always reach me (at least by leaving a message) through the church's office line: (520) 744-8778.

I also do a good bit of e-mail, and if you e-mail then feel free to e-mail me at this address: ed@eubankshouse.org.

For the last several years, I've written a "pastor's blog" about a variety of topics. Sometimes I blog a lot, and other times I'll go for stretches without writing much. Still, if you read blogs, you may want to read mine; I would be happy to receive your comments through it, as well. My blog's address is: edspastorblog.blogspot.com.

I'm also active on several of the social network websites. You can find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ed.eubanks) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/EdEubanks); I'd love to be your Facebook friend and follow you on Twitter, if you're on these sites too. If you read books, my may want to find me on GoodReads (www.goodreads.com/edeubanks) so that we can trade book recommendations and reviews.

There are others, too— if you want to find all of my "social" pages, check out this web page: about.me/EdEubanks.

Again, I'm glad to be here as your pastor, and look forward to connecting with you, both in person and online!

Books for October 2011

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great read, and challenging in its content. Crouch offers a view of how everyone is engaged in the process of participating in, sustaining, and (at least in some way) cultivating culture. He lays this out in a manner that is clear and understandable, both in the abstract as well as in how each of us might more fully take up our role in participation.

One thing I appreciated about the book is the constructive critique of “worldview” as an approach to engaging/changing/shaping culture. Worldview, Crouch argues, will at best make us effective critics and thoughtful philosophers, but it won’t go very far to helping us constructively participate in the change of culture. He helpfully shows where worldview is useful, but also where it is in need of supplement.

One critique I would offer is that the whole approach is almost entirely based on individual participation in culture-making. Where is the church as a community, an institution, a body, in this process? I would like for Crouch to speak more to the communal aspect of culture-making; I’m sure he has much to say on that regard.

Overall: I would call this a must-read for any thoughtful Christian today.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a bad book at all; I think I got it free or cheap, so it certainly was worth the price!

Obviously, this is a collection of Seth’s blog posts related to the general topic of getting off the ground with “shipping”— he metaphor or catch-all for getting to a final, delivered end-point with some creative or marketing endeavor. It may be as simple as selecting all of the posts tagged “ship” from his blog, and you would have the content of the book. Which is to say, it’s good content, worth reading, and helpful to have collected all in one place— but certainly available in other formats without price (as long as Seth’s blog archives are available, at least.)

The content, though, is good: challenging thoughts about getting somewhere with goals and creativity; analysis of some of the major obstacles that often stand in the way of “shipping”; suggestions for workflow and focus. It’s a good read for anyone who is running a business, trying to write, or in any other way has a final output toward which it is easy to procrastinate.


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