Hello, I thought it was time for an update on the Discipleship Matters ministry. I’ve been very busy and there’s a lot going on, and I’d like you to know about it!
The heart of Discipleship Matters is the coaching and resources for churches, and in the last few months I’ve been making some significant changes on how that happens and thought you might be interested in how that’s going.
I’ve shifted from my previous approach of offering conferences and studies I offer and moved more into the realm of coaching pastors, and helping them customize a plan for their church to help them achieve what they most desire: A thriving community of discipleship.
Currently, I’m coaching three different pastors and it’s exciting to see the potential of these partnerships. Together we’re exploring the why, what and who of Discipleship and ultimately moving towards a more clear how for the leadership and the Pastor. Along the way the four conferences I offer as well as the studies, books and other resources, come into play as very useful resources to help affirm the ideas the Pastor and I discuss and to help him articulate those among his congregation as well. While Pastors can of course still just host a conference here or there or buy a study here or there, I think this full customization plan has much greater potential to impact the way a church does discipleship for the better.
I’ve also been blessed to have the opportunity to fill in several times for a number of different pastors in their pulpits. It’s my joy to free them up for some rest, and of course I love teaching. I’ll be teaching at Hope Westside on June 5 and at Paragon Church on July 24 and 25. You can always check out where I’m teaching next, as well as upcoming conferences and other events on my events page.
I have just completed, except for editing and polish, my fourth book. It’s called, Seven Themes you Can’t escape; How our deepest longings keep showing up in story. I’ve also hired tow professionals to record two of my other books: The Hidden Life and A Little Serial in the Morning. All three of these will be out my mid June, just in time for…MY NEW ONLINE STORE. Yayyy. This store is part of the ongoing improvements and changes which you’ve been seeing and will continue to see to my website over the next months. The best thing about this is I”ll be able to sell things at special discounts, provide gift certificates, and bundle things together. I now have two fiction books and two non fictions books. I’ll bundle each category together at a cheaper rate than buying them individually. I’ll also be able to offer the subscriptions for Discipleship Matters, my Tension Hermeneutics Studies, my C2it Study, and the various Hidden Life Conference t-shirts and other paraphernalia, all from one place! I’ll let you know when it’s up and running, but you should definitely check it out when it is! I’ve also started on my Fifth book, which is another Fiction Book called TSKS. You’ll have to wait to find out more about this unusual story.
I have a couple of multi-church things going of which I’m very happy because it reflects how some of the things we do as churches can be easily done with a unity between churches. One is the team of Prayer Warriors I’ve collected who are praying weekly for the pastors I work with. This is a collaborative effort of people from a number of different churches who’s only agenda is to pray faithfully for pastors. The second is the Journey, the chronological study through the Bible which I’ve been leading for a decade now. This go round we’ve added about 9 people or so and again, the attenders come from a number of different churches and we are having a good time. The Podcast for that is available by clicking on Podcasts above, as well as on iTunes.
So there’s been a lot going on, and between that and some of the improvements happening on my site I haven’t had as much time to blog here. Never fear, I have not abandoned you, my faithful blog readers, and this update is one of my ways of letting you know I am grateful for you prayers, support and interest.
See you all again soon!