The Friday Five

1. Blog Post: 10 Reasons Why Many Churches Aren't Evangelistic. I know, I know, that's not your church, even though no one has been baptized in years. Just for the sake of argument & self evaluation, I would encourage all church leaders & church attenders to read this post. You may not agree with everything Dr. Rainer talks about, or you may not think it applies to your church. However, how can taking a hard look in the mirror in this area be a bad thing? If it gets you thinking about how you & your congregation can be more effective in advancing the Gospel, then it's beneficial.
2. Music: A River With No End by Ghost Ship. This little EP is gem. It's got a very unique arrangement of the classic hymn "Just As I Am" & a great original called "The Revelation Of Jesus Christ." I'm a big fan of pretty much everything this band does & highly recommend it.
3. Quote. "Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nonetheless." Francis Schaeffer
4. Book: To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain by Matt Chandler. I recently started re-reading this one from Matt Chandler. It's a great, fairly quick, read that digs into the book of Philippians. This is a good one to have as a supplement to your in-depth study of Paul's letter to the church in Phillipi.
5. Nerd Corner: Dave Filoni Interview At StarWars.com. If you call yourself a Star Wars fan & are unaware of Dave Filoni, then you may need to question your fandom. Dave is the creative force behind the Star Wars animated shows, The Clone Wars & Rebels. If you're not a big fan of the Star Wars prequel movies, I would encourage you to watch Clone Wars. It does what the prequels failed to do: make you care about Anakin Skywalker. Dave is basically the creative heir to George Lucas. He worked directly under Lucas for years & is creating some of the best content since the original trilogy. This is a great interview where Dave talks about how he became such a big fan & eventually came to work at Lucasfilm.