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I’m excited my new book!  It has now been released and there are many things that really excite me about it.  This is very different from any book I’ve ever written:

First, it’s written for everyday ordinary disciples - not preachers or just church leaders.  It’s a “missional” book for everyone and what a missional disciple looks like. 

Second, it’s real live stories of our people and what they are doing in the inner-city all the way to Vietnam and beyond.  So it isn’t theory, ideas, or challenges of what could be - it is what is and what people are actually doing.

Third, it tells the whole story both from my angle and the angle of our people at NorthWood how we all became involved and how our church became highly missional. 

Fourth,  it ties the Great Commission to the Great Disciple - Abraham!  It also explains how local congregations internationally are connecting to see it’s fulfillment. 

Fifth, it gives steps at the end of each chapter - so that by the time you finish reading the book, if you follow all the steps at the end of the chapter each person can have their own action plan of how to use their jobs and/or interest to impact the world.

Sixth, it explains how your job is your primary ministry tool - and how to use it. 

Seventh, it goes to the core of what it means to be a disciple - which is to hear and obey and what that looks like.

Eighth, it deals with the difference between living in society in covenant versus contract. 

Ninth, it helps to explain the concept of religious freedom beyond religion to freedom of thought and why that matters as the first of human rights.

Tenth, it deals with Islam and other religions and how to engage in a radically different way than the church has the past 200 years. 

The book basically looks at the 21st century and projects forward from practical action that’s being done right now in a local church and what it will look like to see the Great Commission fulfilled.

Some people are telling me this is my best book yet - simple, clear, with practical steps and stories that anyone can …

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Video Sermon from Sunday.

After each service at each stop during the weekend, there was a time of Q&A.  Here is the Q&A time from NorthWood.

Leave your comments and questions you may have for Bob about this weekend below.

Follow these links to see more about this amazing multi-faith weekend!

My sermon

“On Faith” article by Eboo Patel

So far, the multi-faith weekend has been incredible!  Were were the feature story on our local CBS station tonight.  You can watch the story HERE.

I received this and throught some of you might like reading it.

The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies today released a new report, Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam.  The major conclusions of the study were:
- Of the four faith groups asked about, Americans express the most prejudice toward Muslims
- Self-reported prejudice toward Jews is the variable most strongly associated with expressed prejudice toward Muslims
- Frequent religious service attendance is associated with reports of “no prejudice.”
- A favorable opinion of Islam is associated with “no prejudice”, whereas personally knowing a Muslim is not.
To read the full report, including an executive summary, please visit:
http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/125318/Religious-Perceptions-America.aspx

We made the news. Here’s the link and the story has been linked to by USA Today and other newspapers. 
For all the details go to NorthWood’s website.

Guest Blogger: Bobby Vaughn, Church Planting Administrator - NorthWood Church

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
Do Justice (how can you, today, bring justice to an unjust situation?)
Love Kindness (mercy) (Where and to whom do you need to show mercy?)
Walk Humbly with your God (Walking by faith - hearing AND obeying)

This holiday season, remember this verse in the midst of the holiday crowds and madness.  People are watching your behavior whether you know it or not.

Guest Blogger - Bobby Vaughn
I have a confession to make.  As a pastor, this isn’t easy for me to say.  5 years ago I would have rather have gone to Vietnam and love the people “over there” than go to my next door neighbor and get to know them.  It’s so much easier, cleaner and gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside.  But my confession doesn’t end there.  Here’s the long and short history of my adventures on Latania Lane.

My wife and two daughters (at the time… I now have 4 daughters, but that is a story unto itself) moved to Keller, Texas December 23, 2005 from Grand Junction, Colorado.  On one of the first evenings in our new home we were sitting on the floor unpacking boxes when we heard what seemed to be a mob outside our front door.  I eased over to the blinds, trying to be sneaky… ‘cause, you know, you don’t want to look like the nosey neighbor, and peeked through.  There, on my front lawn was a group of about 8 to 10 people just standing there talking and laughing.  Now, I’m from Colorado - the “rugged individualism” state - and this sort of behavior was just peculiar.  I couldn’t figure out why all these people were just standing there… having conversations! 
My wife, being the more curious of the two of us, ventured out to see what the commotion was all about.  She was gone for almost an hour.  When she returned she says to me, “They just hang out and talk… almost every night!”  The Church Planter side of me immediately thought, “Wow! We don’t have to work at community here!  They do it for us!”  But my second thought was, “Uh oh.  If they’ve already built community among one another, what’s left for me to do?” Crazy thought, I know.  In the following months we learned that our street celebrates holidays together, we play together, we camp together, we laugh together and cry together… Latania Lane is our family and home away from home.
Like family, we fight, but also like family we forgive. 
Over the last 4 years, I have had several people call me their pastor, even though they do not attend church (some of my neighbor’s scars from “church” run deep).  You see, I learned something from Bob Roberts and …

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When I was 15 I began to preach - this is the first church I preached at, Harris Chapel Methodist Church.  There’s a lot of talk about “simple” church and “house” church - but as I was home over the weekend and reflecting I was stunned at how many of the things some people want the church to be today, in many ways, it was yesterday.  No one would have called them house churches - but look at all four of these buildings - they were all the size of a small, very small house.  Each will hold only about 75, if that many, packed out.  This church is on the trail that opened up Louisiana to New Mexico - running right through Lindale, Texas.

This church is around the corner from where my wife grew up, Sabine Methodist Church.  Her step-sister is buried here.  The church was in the neighborhood - you walked to it - you didn’t drive half-way across town.  The people were your friends in worship - not people you didn’t know or weren’t tied to during the week.  They really did “do life” together!  They had to - or they’d die.  Whatever people needed - they provided it.  In a sense all churches were community churches and missional.

This is St. Mary’s Baptist Church - the African American church in Lindale.  I remember when having finished preaching at Harris Chapel Methodist one Sunday me and 2 football buddies drove over to the church and sat in the back and worshipped.  The preacher began to preach loud and say, “We knew one day white folk would come and sit together in worship.”  I didn’t have a clue about civil rights and minorities - I was white, and in East Texas - life couldn’t be better - for me.  That one experience would one day have a profound impact on how I thought about race and justice, not just in the world, but in the place I grew up in.

This is Bethesda Presbyterian Church, where my wife’s mother and baby sister are buried.  Last weekend we had a family gathering around the corner.  JB Hicks still goes there - 87 …

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My daughter Jill is in Vietnam for the summer working at our NGO Glocal Ventures.  You can visit the site at glocalventures.org.  She’s having a blast.  We learned to do “SKYPE” and have been skyping and it’s just a blast.  There’ s something about seeing someone’s face when you talk to them. 

I was so proud of her.  Her flights were all screwed up but she made it, and, though a lot later than anticipated, she arrived and is settled in.  She called me “Hanoi” time Sunday morning - Saturday night here, to wish me happy Father’s Day.  She rocks!!!

It’s a pretty significant thing when, as a pastor, church members name their children after you.  I’ve never had that happen.  However, this past week, I had a goat named after me.  Kinda got to me if you know what I mean - I love them Byrd kids! 

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