Enriching material

In these days of my brain tumor journey, I am very sensitive to keeping myself healthy: spiritually, physically, and mentally. I really value some of the podcasts that are available. I'll try to give you my list with links to sign up in iTunes. I listen to Chuck Colson's Breakpoint regularly. He's on the radio with a 3 minute commentary Monday through Friday but setting up iTunes to automatically download his latest audio commentary is the easiest. It is just like your newspaper and magazine. You don't have to call them every day or month to remind them to mail you your latest issue. One of Breakpoint's recent, commented on William Law's classic, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. In the commentary, Ken Boa's commentary on the greatest books is mentioned. You can subscribe to Ken Boa's Great Books CD each month at the bottom of that commentary. Nine of them ca be found at bible.org. "Great Books Everyone Should Read" You can get a digital text copy of William Law's book and audio reading copy at Christian Classics Ethereal or get copies of his complete works at the Internet Archive.

My favorite podcasts:
1. Breakpoint (Chuck Colson)
2. Desiring God (John Piper)
3. DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary) chapel
4. Family Life Today (Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine)
5. Focus on the Family (Dr. James Dobson)
6. Grace to You (John MacArthur)
7. Insight for Living (Chuck Swindoll)
8. Let My People Think (Ravi Zacharis)
9. Nuclearity
20. Probe Ministries
21. Reflections with Ken Boa
22. TWIT, This Week in Tech (Leo Laporte)
I know there is a way to export this subscription list as an opml file so that anyone has an automatic xml linked file to the podcasts. I just don't have this down right now. Later. I had myself scheduled to teach a course in the Gloucester College Continuing Education program entitle, "iPOds, MP3s, and Other Audio Things" Maybe later?
Enjoy!

Intriguing Question

As I continue to be intrigued at God's timing in allowing this 2 inch mass to press against my brain, I raised a question to Dr. Aubrey Malphurs. I met Dr. Malphurs at Dallas Seminary while we were vacationing in Texas. I have several of his books and know that he devotes a lot of time addressing how churches can strategize to be more missional in their purpose as a church. I met with him at the seminary for an hour and a half on July 29. I picked up his book, Advanced Strategic Planning at the bookstore and have been reading and reading it. There is a lot in the text but excellent insights on how to proceed in developing and implimenting a strategic plan for moving your church in new directions. I recently emailed him and asked him, "In reading your book, I can't find in the strategic plan where the senior pastor gets a 2 inch mass in his brain as a part of the plan?" I guess I will have to write that Appendix.

Medical updates

If anyone is interested in my medical updates, check out my family blog which we will be updating as much as possible.

http://joelmacdonaldfamily.blogspot.com/

We appreciate everyone's support and prayer.

Saddleback Summit

If any of you caught the Saddleback Civic Summit broadcast on both MSNBC and CNN last Saturday night, August 16, you should check out the rebroadcast of an interview by Krista Tippet on her "Speaking of Faith" podcast. She interviewed Rick and Kay Warren in 2007. This is a rebroadcast. You will find both audio and video versions of the interview.
Video of the Summit can be found by going to YouTube.com and searching for "Saddleback Civic Forum" You will find video of both Obama and McCain broken up into different parts. If you have the right plugin installed in your Firefox browser, you can download these video segments and watch them offline.

Working with teens and values

I have really been enjoying Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine. They offer some great insights to all stages of amily and marriage. Their recent broadcasts dealt with teens developing a solid personal faith. You can find their recent broadcasts and others at: www.familylifetoday.com.
1. Three Biggest Dangers to Growing Up a Church Kid
2. Teaching Your Children to Think Biblically
3. The Three Biggest Dangers to Growing Up a Church Kid

Two books recommended by both their guest, Karl Graustein, leader of the Covenant Life School in Gaithersburg, Maryland and another book written by Dennis Rainey are recommended as good books to use in interacting with your kids, especially at about 8th and 9th grade to help them solidify their faith and own it as their own.

Growing Up Christian: Have You Taken Ownership of Your Relationship With God? by Karl Graustein and Mark Jacobsen
Parenting Today's Adolescent Helping Your Child Avoid The Traps Of The Preteen And Teen Years by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

Vacation in Texas

I am currently on vacation visiting our kids and grandaughter in Allen, Texas. You can see some great photos of our most beautiful grandaughter on our family blog.

This extended time away has given me some time to be refreshed physically and spiritually. I am getting a chance to do a lot of reading and visiting other churches to see what is going on. Here's a sample list of some of the reading I have or am doing.
Commentaries on Philippians in preparation for my fall series: "Real Life, Real Joy"

• James Montgomery Boice, Philippians
• Ralph P. Martin, Philippians
• D. A. Carson, Basics for Believers, An Exposition of Philippians
• Stephen E. Fowl, Philippians
• Gordon D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians

You can also check out my extensive (still growing) list of resources at my Google Notebook page. Eventually, my compilation of notes, powerpoint, sermon notes, and audio of messages will be posted at the Southwood current message page.

Some additonal enriching reading
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God - this was a father's gift from my wife. Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. He is a great apologist. This book addresses the key objections to Christianity raised by most people. I like his philosophy on how to relate to those who have not yet, or possibly never will, embrace the reality of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears, Vintage Jesus; Timeless Answers to Timely Questions - Mark Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle and Gerry Breshears is a theology prof at my seminary, Western Seminary in Portland Oregon. This book challenges your thinking about the person of Christ in some contemporary terms. Driscoll is known for his down-to-earth style. Both are solid theologians.

Patrick Morley, A Man's Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines; 12 Habits to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ. Patrick is the author of the very successful men's book, Man in the Mirror. Right on!

Church Growth
Reading a bunch of books on how a church grows. You can see some of my digest and complilation at the Southwood swat page: www.southwoodministries.org/swat

Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 churches turned around and yours can too

Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning - I had a chance to sit down with Aubrey on Tuesday, July 28 at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a very insightful guy and is doing a great job helping churches refocus. I have already read a bunch of other books by Aubrey. In addition to his duties as professor of pastoral ministries at DTS, he is also president of the Malphurs Group, a church consulting organization.

Andy Stanley and Lane Jones, Communicating for a Change - Stanley is son of Charles Stanley and has become a very successful pastor of his own church, North Point Community Church and other daughter churches in the Atlanta,Georgia area. I have also read his excellent book, Visioneering.

Eddie Gibbs, LeadershipNext; Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture, quote, "Our culture is constantly changing, oftwn faster than we can adapt to it."

Daniel Harkavy, Becoming a Coaching Leader: The Proven Strategy for Building Your Own Team of Champions - Daniel is founder of Building Champions, an executive coaching company. He has co-authed another book with Gene Woods. Leading Turnaround Teams. Gene has also written Leading Turnaround Churches (I have read both books).

Also doing some technical reading:
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8; Hands-On Training

Adobe Illustrator CS2; Classroom in a Book

Photoshop and Dreamweaver Integration

Robin Williams Web Design Workshop

Flash Professional 8: Hands-On Training

Flash Profession 8 Beyond the Basic; Hands-On Training

Smashaway Teen Ministry at Chic-Fil-A

Jr. and Senior High youth group spent the night at Chic-Fil-A, Tuesday night June 10. Lot's of Southwood people came to show support for the Costa Rica Missions Team. I even got to hug the cow.