I’ve tackled a few, deleted a few and added a few that I’ve read or am currently reading. So…

READ:
1) Surprised By Hope (Amazing!!! Highly recommend!!)
2) Jesus Wants to Save Christians (Clever cover & great book!!!)
3) Axiom (Chock full of leadership wisdom)
4) God’s Dream Team (Good Book, but only half-read)
5) Becoming A Contagious Church (Some good points, some negligible)
6) Making Vision Stick (Insightful, very practical)
7) Next Generation Leader (Andy Stanley does it again! Great book!)

ADDED & READ/ING:
1) The Apocalypse Code (Very Interesting, great book!)
2) Everything Must Change (So far, so good)
3) How We Got the Bible (Succinct and very helpful)
4) Simply Christian (not read, but adding)
5) The Reason for God (not read, but adding)
6) In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day (inspiring but a little slow for me)
7) IT: How Churches & Leaders Can Get It & Keep It (Very Good!!!)

DELETING:
1) Go Big (not interested, irrelevant – will read but much later)
2) Made To Stick (back burner for now)
3) Activate (back burner for now)

That should just about do it for now… Peace!

I have just recently started taking a serious look at Calvary Chapel. I am very impressed with Gregg Laurie but have not visited his church. However I have noticed that there is an odd pre-occupation with supposedly deep revelations about pre-trib rapture doctrine in many of the Calvary Chapels I have visited. I recall a passage in Deuteronomy which says ‘The things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, and the things which are hidden belong to God.’ Of making many books there is no end, if Calvary returns to the message of the gospel taught in the power of the Spirit the refreshing will come. But excessive focus and energy spent trying to fill in the gray areas of Scripture is nothing but a distraction. The fundamentalist notion that Scripture is a giant interconnected web of truths that one must either agree with wholeheartedly or not at all is wrong, that is law and not grace as James tells us so clearly. It is necessary to know the Risen Christ Jesus to be saved, it is not necessary to infer that the anti-deluvian religions emerged after the flood through Ham’s wife and led to the Tower of Babel. Though that is a sound Biblical inference there is no implication that the Book of Genesis was written with the intent that we would notice it. Let the church return to the simple truth and understand what David knew,

‘O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever more.’

Psalm 131

We are called to grow up in all ways, but peddling gray dogma and calling it living bread does not a disciple make.

’solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.’

Hebrews 5:14

Trying to discuss the intricacies of Rapture scenarios or dispensationalism with a congregation that is struggling to live out the grace of God is like feeding steak to a baby. Not only is it not nutritious to them it can actually kill them. We ought to be very careful about knowledge that puffs up or is ‘distinctive’ because we should fear Jesus’ condemnation of the pharisees understanding that they were alot like us. ‘you travel hundreds of miles to make a disciple and then you turn him into twice the son of hell that you are yourself.’ So what is the danger? Recall that the Pharisees and Scribes had already determined completely the nature of the coming of the Messiah in such dogmatic detail that when Jesus stood before them they did not recognize Him. He had to point out to them that David had called the Messiah Lord and therfore He could not be the Son of David in the way they expected (and yes something good could come out of Nazareth.) We have to be very careful brothers about building doctrine out of supposed insights into things the Bible is not perfectly clear about.

So to you I say, God’s best, and keep ‘moving’ toward God and run as fast as you can from peddling next year’s prophecy books, lest Calvary wake up one day and be known as the movement that wasn’t. The Spirit brings life and He does not require a Phd in theology before He graciously pours out the living waters into our hearts.

‘For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincereity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.’

2Corinthians 2:17

My prayer for Calvary is that it would be spared the pride which causes so many denominations to fall, which might be all the more delicately applied and hidden since it is stated not to be one.

May God cause us all to partake deeply of the knowledge of Him which is understood by the original language of this verse, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’

The last thing I would say if we must split hairs is that Calvary Chapel is wonderful in it’s recognition of the teaching ministry and some of the best in the world can be found there. However, you struggle to accept the full expression of God’s Spirit in your midst. I’ll leave it to you all to determine what I mean by that.

May God bless you and strengthen you for the times just ahead, times which will leave every mouth hanging open and every hand trembling. Only those who fear the Lord shall find comfort. May God send this with grace so that it hits it’s mark and does not damage one single grain of wheat.

In the Name of Jesus