I’m looking forward to the next sermon series @ Mars Hill Church.  I dig the whole Bible but it’s something about the Gospels that grabs me like nothing else.

So when one of my favourite teachers is doing a sermon series on the Gospel of Luke, this kind of makes my day.

And as an added bonus, the series will contain a tonne of footage from Driscoll’s recent trip to Israel. I had the privilege of touring Israel back in 1998 and it seems as if a part of me never left that place and is still wondering around.  For those of you who have visited, I bet this resonates with you – reading your Bible is simply never the same again.

To actually be in the places the Bible talks about, to view the landscape, to sail the seas, to experience the climate, to taste the cuisines and to gaze upon the same buildings and trees and rivers that Biblical characters experienced is life changing.

An example of this is the following short video of Driscoll at what is believed to be Peter’s house in Capernaum..

So do yourself a favour and head on over to Mars Hill Church and check out the series on Luke – it all begins on September 20.   Download the free 32 page PDF Introduction to Luke here.  And finally, have a watch of this video as Driscoll walks down a street in Jerusalem – I assume it’s David Street – and introduces the sermon series.

I’m really getting a lot out of listening to podcasts these days.  Being stuck in peak hour traffic is actually something I don’t mind as it gives me the chance to spend time listening to the Word and the discussion of it.

I love expository teaching as it forces the preacher to focus on the topics brought up in the text instead coming up with things himself.

And when it comes to books in the Bible, I particularly love the Gospels as they contain the words and actions of the One the whole book is built upon.

So these days I’m being blessed to enjoy the podcasts of three preachers covering three different Gospels.  In order of the Gospels, these are:

John MacArthur – Mark

John MacArthur is the Lead Pastor at Grace Community Church.  His ministry is extensive and is captured at Grace To You – an awesome website which contains his Pulpit podcast and includes an expository on the Gospel of Mark.

Matt Chandler – Luke

Matt is the Lead Pastor at The Village Church.  Their podcast includes Matt’s expository teaching on the Gospel of Luke.  Matt has been teaching on Luke for a long time and promises to complete it soon.  Take your time brother!

Mark Jurisic – John

Mark is my friend and Lead Pastor at my local church – CityWest Church.  Mark planted CityWest Church over 7 years ago and delivers sermon after sermon about His hero – Jesus Christ.  Our podcast currently features an expository on the Gospel of John.

Anyone know of a great expository on Matthew?

When print was invented, it helped spread the Bible.  When radio was invented, it helped spread the Word.  When TV was invented, it helped spread the Evangelist.  When the internet was invented, it opened up a new way of reaching untold masses.

Enter the world of social media.  Recently social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Twitter etc have over taken even porn in terms of how many people use these services on the internet.

Social media is now seriously being considered the next revolution in terms of how humans communicate with one another.  My question is, how are we as the Church going to use this tool?

I believe that the invention of print, radio and TV combined pale in comparison to the potential online social media has in terms reaching the world for Jesus.  At the same time, I am sometimes disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm the Church has in regards to engaging the use of social media to advance the message of the Kingdom.

Sometimes we want to stay “cool” and “relevant” to our online collection of so called “friends” and miss the opportunity to spread the Word.  Or maybe we are just ignorant of the potential we have at our disposal when it comes to social media.

Let me make a very clear point here.  It’s not our efforts that ultimately produce real change in people – that belongs to Jesus and Him alone.  After all, didn’t He say that He will build His Church.  And check out the following verse to validate this even further.

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” 1 Cor 3:7

Having said that, does that mean we sit on our bums and watch the world go by as we wait for God to provide growth? Um, that would be a big fat no – as the following versus say..

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labour. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Cor 3:8-9

So it’s God that produces real change and real growth of His Church.  But He allows us the blessing of joining him in the process.  And with social media, we are provided an unparalleled tool to spread His Good News far and wide.

Are you on Facebook and have a gazillion friends?  Do you Tweet till all day long?  Do yourself a favour and watch the following video and get inspired at the potential you have with Jesus in your heart and social media at your disposal.

Awesome stuff!  So go nuts and put Jesus all over your social network.  You just never know who God may decide to draw to Him by using your comments or links or video’s or tweets about His Son.

There’s something about spoken word poetry that really resonates with me.  Was never a big fan of poetry on it’s own.  But when it’s spoken with passion and it talks about my King Jesus, well that’s another story.

I first came across Blair Wingo back in March this year and loved her passion and talent.  And now I’ve stumbled onto another great talent – Amena Brown.

Amena grew up without a father figure in her life and wanted to protect herself from being disappointed by a heavenly Father.  So initially she was reserved in her faith. 

So she dug deep into the Word and prayer and overcame this fear.  And the result is awesome.  We now have a talented and passionate daughter of the King who knows very well of the awesome nature of our Heavenly Father.  Hope you enjoy some of her video’s below.

Are you after a sweet app for your iPhone/iPod Touch?  The Mars Hill app is now free to download from iTunes.

And what a sweet little app this is!  The content and ease of use will blow you away.  Once again, Mars Hill have raised the bar!

So what does the app do?  The Mars Hill Church blog says you can:

• Listen to any Mars Hill sermon available on www.marshillchurch.org
• Watch any Mars Hill sermon video
• Stream any Mars Hill music
• Email sermon links to your friends
• Give to the mission of Mars Hill
• Stay informed and up to date through the blog
• Get campus locations and listings

And in typical Mars Hill fashion, all this is completely free!  Here’s a couple more screen shots to wet your appetite:

What are you waiting for?  Download it now from iTunes!

I can’t help but feel that this blog has been left unattended lately.  There is a good reason though.  I have been working on my Church website at www.citywestchurch.com.au.

I’m no professional developer nor that crash hot with what I do with websites etc.  We have migrated from Joomla and back to WordPress.  This will allow me to train up more people to help me with this project and hopefully share the load as it’s a huge thing to do on your own.

The whole exercise has been a great learning curve to go through.  To say that this lay brain of mine has been challenged would be to understate the situation.

At the same time, if I can do this, then anyone can.  So if you attend a church without an online presence, do yourself a favour and go to www.wordpress.com and learn how to put together a website.

From a knowledge base of nothing, there now have been over 20,000 downloads of our sermons, requests to use our materials and people finding our church via the web to name a few.

Well worth the effort and a great and humbling feeling knowing that what you have done has somehow furthered the Kingdom of our awesome King.