Ordinary People/Gospel Intentionality

One of my favorite phrases from Total Church is "Ordinary people living ordinary lives with Gospel intentionality." It's a phrase I'm going to be using most weeks during our Acts study at NC. Anyway, here is a great series of Twitter posts from Steve Timmis (co-author of the book) on what this tangibly looks like.

• Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means … buying from local shops.
• Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means … frequenting a local coffee shop or pub.
• Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means … playing for a local sports team.
• Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means … always tipping generously in local restaurants.
• Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means … being the kind of neighbour everyone wants to have as a neighbour.

More.

Total Church

Beginning next Tuesday I'm going to be commenting on the book Total Church with my friend Nathan Cook and others. For more info, as well as to join the conversation, go here.

Books I'm Reading

I just updated my Shelfari page, so I thought I would give an update on some of the good books I've been reading. On Easter we finished up our series on the Cross, so for the last couple of months I've been reading a lot on that subject. Two of the key books I read were Death by Love, by Mark Driscoll, and The Atonement, by Leon Morris. I grew and learned a lot during this series.

Next Sunday I am preaching on parenting, so I've been reading a few books on this topic, namely, Grace Based Parenting, by Tim Kimmel, Revolutionary Parenting, by George Barna, and Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture, by Mary DeMuth. I haven't read much of Barna's yet, but I highly recommend the other two.

I've also just started reading Total Church, by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. This is one of those books where it seems like I'm underlining every other sentence. The chapter on community is amazing, as is the one on evangelism. Speaking of that chapter, you can read it on Tim Chester's blog.

Finally, our men's discussion group has one more week on Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. It's been encouraging yet very challenging. I guess that's typical Piper, though.