Emerging toward…

Josh Riley has an interesting summary/review of Mark Driscoll’s book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, about the work of God in Mars Hill Church. You can read it here:
http://blog.worship.com/worship/2006/05/review_confessi.html.

We may all have opinions on Driscoll’s ministry, and we may disagree with the review of Riley, but it is an interesting read. Driscoll seems to have tempered his zeal for the emerging church as a movement because of some dangerous trends he sees arising from certain segments of the movement. So many “waves” in the Christian community have been ridden without proper Biblical guidance. The lessons we learn from those who have gone before us, literally or figuratively, and from those who also are our contemporaries and know God and His Word must be heard. We all have much to learn still.

Is there anyone here who hasn’t made mistakes in life and ministry? Is there anyone here who isn’t humbled as you grow older?

Brief Missions

I just returned on Saturday from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with one of our mission teams after nine days in the Villa Mella area of that city.
I know that there are some who have openly questioned the value of short-term mission trips of less than a month or so. I think I understand why: change takes time, relationships are the context for ministry and it takes time to build relationships, follow-up is crucial but nearly impossible for short term teams, etc.
Still, after this trip, I am excited about what can be done in a week. I think about Philip in Acts 8, how God used him in brief encounters with Simon the Magician and with the Ethiopian. He wasn’t with the Ethiopian a day, and yet God used him. Amazing stuff, but only possible by God’s hand.
In the short time we were in the DR, we were overwhelmed by the needs there, but I still believe that God strengthened at least two churches there during out time with them and our prayer is for that work to continue.