LeadingSmart

Village Visitors

We had the opportunity to visit two villages in India today and were mobbed by the children everytime we got out of the vehicle. Every moment I'm thanking God for this life-changing experience that my daughter is enjoying.

I Would Never Snicker About Such a Thing

Reprint from original article at Switched.com

Mac addicts like to tout their chosen operating system's security superiority over those who have chosen Microsoft's product, but a report of a major security oversight in the latest release, Leopard, might just give Windows users something to snicker about. It seems the latest Apple OS has a critical flaw in its e-mail application -- a flaw that was fixed in older versions of OSX.

The flaw enables a person to attach malicious code to an e-mail attachment that looks like a simple JPEG image. When you double-click on that supposed image, the code runs and can do whatever it likes to your system, including deleting all your files (or just running something in the background to steal all your passwords). It surreptitiously uses the Unix command-line prompt that few OSX users ever see.

Older versions of Apple Mail pop-up a warning when such attachments are run, but this new one does not, leaving less-in-the-know Mac users somewhat in the cold. To see if your Mac is properly warning you about these e-mails, you can have a safe one sent to you by using the Emailcheck service at heise Security.

Did Willow Say "Seeker-Sensitive" Doesn't Work?

Have you read any of these statements about Willow Creek's REVEAL report?

• World magazine; November 10, 2007: “‘We made a mistake’. Bill Hybels…on a study that showed the Willow Creek model had not produced spiritually mature Christians."
• Bob Burney, Townhall; October 30, 2007: “The report reveals that what they’ve been doing for these many years and what they’ve taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ…Numbers, yes, but not disciples….”
• H.B. London, The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing; November 9, 2007: “Hybels goes on to say ‘If you simply want a crowd, the “seeker sensitive” model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it’s a bust.”

According to a recent statement put out by Willow Creek, these statements contain partial or false information. In fact, the final one by H.B. London was completely false and Focus on the Family has agreed to print a retraction.

Download reveal_facts_statement.doc

Read my earlier post about the REVEAL report here.

Find out more about the REVEAL study here or track with their blog here.

Newest Beatles Promotional Video

Just two more days until the launch of Let it Be Christmas, our December series based on the music of the Beatles. In a recent discussion about the series, Michael Danner left this comment:

Am I missing something (that is an honest question)? I don't go to Granger! All I know about Granger I have read on the web through blogs like this. But I have never heard/read/seen anyone from GCC saying they endorse what the Beatles stood for/said/sang about, etc. I also never heard them say they are going to teach people about Jesus using Beatles songs. What they are doing (again - correct me if I'm wrong) is taking common human longings/struggles as expressed through the popular music of the Beatles and bringing them into conversation with the Gospel found in the scriptures. In the end their goal is to answer the struggle/longing/needs/confusion found in the Beatles music with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm struggling to understand what is wrong with that?

I quote King David's Psalms quite a bit, but that doesn't mean that I endorse sleeping with someone else's wife, getting her pregnant and having her husband killed to cover up my sins (and all that stuff is IN the Bible and done by a "man after God's own heart").

You don't have to endorse a single word of what John Lennon said to counter his worldview with the gospel.

Good thoughts Mr. Danner.

Here is our most recent promotional trailer for the series:

The Training Continues

We continue to train the "super pastors" -- but took time out for a picture.

Professional Photography by Heather.

7 Mighty Men

We just finished up 11-hours of training with the church planters. Rob and I are meeting with the "super pastors." These are the most effective pastors among all of our church planters in Tamil Nadu. These seven men are shaking the country of India!

It was very humbling to be in their midst. I kept thinking how strange it is that they have traveled from around southern India to listen to two guys from a cornfield in America.

We heard the stories of five of these pastors today. You want to hear some mind-blowing stats? In the past three years, these five guys have...

• Baptized 1,751 people (many more have become Christians, but to be baptized in this culture means being disowned by your family and rejected by your village).
• Planted 40 additional churches.
• Trained leaders in another 1,180 churches.

Tomorrow we have another long day. We'll be talking about relevancy in the culture and what that might mean in their context.

E-mails that Make Me Smile

Like many of you, I get my share of "here is what you are doing wrong" emails, but I get many more that make me smile. Here are two excerpts from the past week…

• From a pastor of a small church in Minnesota: "For young churches like ours you sit in our creative team meeting almost every week and you have no idea how much stuff you add to what we are doing."


• From a leader who has been pastoring and in full-time ministry for 40+ years, and who was a spiritual mentor of mine many years ago: "We love GCC. It is/has changed our lives. I have learned more in a year and a half than in the previous 50 years."

Fully In The Culture!

After 25 hours of travel and a short night's rest (5 hours), we were given a tour of The Bible League offices in Chennai and welcomed like royalty!

Then came lunch time. (Yes, I actually ate until I was full).

Followed by a 6-hour train ride to Trichiripalli, where we were greeted again with more beautiful roses (yes, they are real).

Tomorrow begins our 2 days of training with the church planters. I'd appreciate your prayers, as I've never taught through an interpreter.

Pop Goes the Church cover design

Already 226 people have completed the survey about my forthcoming book, and the feedback has been amazingly helpful! I knew it would be good input, but wasn't prepared for how helpful it would be. If you haven't participated yet in the survey, and have 5 minutes, I'd love your thoughts. Be prepared for frustration on question #6, but persevere and you will make it through.

I'm also extremely excited about a concept we are working on for the Pop Goes the Church cover design. I've sent it to my publisher, and they are test marketing the concept now. Can't wait to show it to you!

Gadgets I'm Thinking About...

It's no secret, I'm a gadget guy. I think our tech and IT guys are grateful about that, since I'm quick to approve any technological advancement that will help us accomplish our mission.

On a personal level, I'm a pretty early adopter. I spent $795 on an early single-disc DVD player when there were less than 20 movies available on DVD. I bought my Samsung DLP high definition TV five years ago when the only HD channel available was Discovery HD.

And, as you know, I bought an early release of the infamous Chumby (which my buddies at Granger incorrectly call a "Chubby").

Here's what I'm looking at next...

• Amazon's Kindle Book reader -- I've been looking at the Sony version for a few years, but there are several reasons I think I might make the jump into electronic reading with Amazon's version. In his recent blog post, Guy Kawasaki outlined some great reasons to choose the Kindle.
• Microsoft Zune (2nd generation) -- For a number of reasons, I've been thinking about abandoning my iPod. My music listening style lends itself more to a subscription based system (paying a monthly fee to access 3 million songs) rather than a purchase-based system. Also, the seamless connection between Vista, XBox 360, and Zune would be very advantageous to me.

Any advice?