Korea!

The trip to Korea was amazing. We met Bishop Kim, an amazing man of God (see picture 2) and we visited an all girl Christian High School and were treated to traditional Korean dress (see picture 1). We visited amazing churches, the DMZ , prayer mountain and other great sites. I hope to post more soon. Enjoy these!

Ice Ice Baby

This week Wilmore has been hit with a snow storm and an ice storm.

Leanne and the kids are enjoying their third day off from school.

I am in class this week. It's an exegetical class on Isaiah. It's been a great class. We meet tomorrow and Friday too. The class is 8:30-4:30. Doctoral students are like the USPS-neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow....

Explaining Street Life Ministries

Here's the video I mentioned in Monday's post titled

Street Life Worldwide.

Enjoy! (Thanks to Brain B for the video)

Birthday Bike

We celebrated Will's 9th birthday yesterday. We had spaghetti tacos (at Will's request), Chocolate cake and Ice Cream!

Will's big gift was a new bike. He also got a lock-this is his third bike since we moved to Wilmore (two bikes have been stolen!).

Will is a joy and we thank the lord for him!!

Street Life Worldwide

The Mission of Street Life Worldwide ministries is to "advance the Kingdom of God in the world today through culturally relevant evangelistic film, television, music and other media. Additionally, we are committed to reaching those influenced by Hip Hop culture and help them become fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ."

It was an interesting day. We spent some at an inner-city housing project listening to live christian hip=hop music, sharing lunch and conversation with residents.

I hope to add a short video of from this day later. If you are on facebook, you can find it on my page now.

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Fellowship of Memorial

One of the many leaders we heard from was Brandon Lackey, founding Pastor of a Church Plant considered a part of the Market Place Ministry approach to church planing. His was one of my favorite models.

His plant, Fellowship of Memorial, purpose is "to see lives transformed through relationship with Jesus Christ so that God may be glorified and enjoyed. We will accomplish this by creating relevant settings to serve the community and invite people into authentic group life." The focus is not on a building or even a worship service as the central thing. Their core values reflect their unique emphases.

FOM Core Values
1) Transformational (John 15:8) We are committed to measuring success by changed lives. The fruit of salvation in a person is their new priorities, new values, new concerns, new burdens and new passions. Changed lives also change the culture. We will be a people of stories - rejoicing in testimonies of God’s transformational work. 2) Service-Oriented (1 Thessalonians 2:8)We believe that it is the responsibility of the church to serve the community and “seek the peace of the city.” We are committed to being a church who love our neighbors by meeting genuine needs without recompense. Our desire is to be a church where the community would grieve if we were to leave. 3) Relevant (1 Corinthians 9:22). We believe that ministry to our community must connect with their culture and with their concerns. It must be timely, relevant and helpful. Therefore, we will use modern culture to creatively convey timeless truths. 4) Biblical (2 Timothy 3:16) We affirm God’s word as the source of authority in our lives and are committed to holding it as the standard by which we judge all ministry, individual and corporate activities. 5) Relational (Acts 2:42-47) The early New Testament church was comprised primarily of small groups of believers who shared life in authentic community. We recognize that we become disciples best in relationships of trust and commitment. We intend to move people towards small group relationships for the purpose of exploring Christianity and growing in their Christian experience.

The blog title is a link to their website. They also established Mosaic Theatre and FamilyPoint Resources.

Chaplewood UMC

Rev Jim Jackson and the Chapelwood United Methodist Church was our main host in Houston, Texas last week. Rev Jackson was a blast. Don't let the mild mannered picture fool you-he is a John Wayne , Texas type Pastor. He and his staff were great host. Chapelwood church has some amazing ministries and Rev Jackson has a wonderful testimony (Click on the blog title to go to their website).

Rev Jackson was especially impressive in the many relationships he has in the community, especially with other churches and pastors. Chapelwood prays each week for another church in their community, by name, during their worship service and specifically (a letter request specific needs about two weeks prior to the service). It's that sort of Texas size view of the kingdom that connects Rev Jackson to so many other Pastors and Ministries. He introduced us to Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church, Grace Fellowship Church, Faithbridge Church, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Grace Presbyterian Church, Ecclesia Church,Woodlands UMC, Mission Houston, Harbor House church, Wilcrest Baptist Church,Mercy Street Ministries,ST Luke UMC,Fellowship of Memorial, Faithquest Church, contemplative Worship and Mobile hip hop ministries. I hope to blog about many of these soon. It was an eye opening, faith stretching, worldview widening trip! Go Big John!

This week-preaching and evangelism

Our Houston trip was amazing and I hope to blog on it soon. In the meanwhile, here is a little info on this week. I have preaching lectures all week and preach a couple of times myself. The exception is tomorrow, we have a guest lecturer (see below).

Most importantly-Today is Will's birthday! He turns 9! I should have a picture or two to post tomorrow from tonight's party!

REBECCA MANLEY PIPPERT

Recognized nationally and internationally as a prominent speaker and author, Rebecca Pippert is founder of Salt Shaker Ministries: a teaching/training ministry in evangelism.

Having ministered extensively around the world, Becky has a global perspective on being a sensitive and effective witness for Christ whether in the Post-modern West or the Global South. She was named the Senior Advisor for Global Evangelism by Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism. And the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (a global ministry to University students) recently named Becky their Senior Trainer in Evangelism and Seeker Studies for all of Europe.

Becky is the author of nine books that include the modern classic, Out of the Salt Shaker, which was named recently by Christianity Today as one of the books that has most influenced Christian thought in the past 50 years. Her book, Hope Has Its Reasons, addresses the common questions held by seekers and skeptics about faith, and her book, A Heart for God, addresses themes of how God uses suffering and trials to produce character and faith. Her 6 volume book set: Salt Shaker Resources: An Evangelism Tool Kit, won the award for Best Evangelism Resource for 2003 and the first book in that series, Talking About Jesus Without Sounding Religious, won Best Evangelism Book for 2003 by Outreach Magazine.

Described by American author Charles Colson as one of the “liveliest and most effective communicators of the gospel in the world today,” Becky has spoken extensively to churches through out North America and she has given conferences in Latin America, Southeast and Central Asia, India, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. For 2 years she was a monthly columnist for the Christian Korean magazine Salt and Light and she is an Advisory board member for the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, IL. Becky has been a frequent speaker to the LPGA golf pros, and a guest on Moody Bible Radio Broadcasts and Janet Parshall’s America!

Becky received an honorary doctorate and holds a B.A. and M.A. with High Honors in English literature from the University of Illinois. She has done advanced study at the University of Barcelona, Spain and Harvard University.

She is married with two college aged children and she and her husband reside in Louisville, Kentucky.

Pictures from work in Africa

Teaching Pastors in Dumila, Tanzania (Africa) Dec 08
Originally uploaded by robbie.phillips

I've uploaded some of the many pictures taken on our mission trip to Africa (Tanazania). You can click on the flickr picture bar to the right to see them. Enjoy.

Unfortunately, it will probably take me weeks to get all the pictures and videos up because of the holidays, reading, papers, and more classes and more travel ( We leave for Houston on Friday). Ah, the life of a student!

Worship in Africa