My friend Jonathon Dodson blogs at Church Planting Novice and truly adds value to the church planting/missional conversation. Jonathan’s blog is filled with praxis, missional thinking, theological reflection and culture engagement. I say this is by far the best blog for church planters.

Aaron Ivey, another friend and local Austinite is one of the worship pastors at Austin Stone. Aaron’s blog is a mix of humor, missional thinking, social justice and all things worship. It’s rare to read one of Aaron’s  posts and not laugh or cry.

Eugene Cho blogs on EVERYTHING. Eugene planted Quest Church, launched Q Cafe and is now in the process of starting a non-profit to fight global poverty. Eugene spends a lot of time reflecting on current news stories and how the church can/should respond.

Bob Roberts is a mega-church pastor in Dallas and an author with multiple books about the church and global engagement. Bob is bold, thoughtful and passionate. I think Bob demonstrates a great example of what a pastor should look like. He engages culture…He’s not locked away into some corner office spouting out church wisdom from on high. Pastors and churches  can make a huge cultural impact if they so choose to.  I think Bob is a great example of that.

JR Woodward has a tremendous blog. JR is a church planter, practical theologian, mission thinker and global traveler. Every post is thoughtful and filled with a lot of practical wisdom. This blog is a great resource that truly inspires and causes deep reflection.

Ben Arment blogs about creativity and innovation. Ben is a former church planter and now works at Catalyst. Ben is opinionated, concise and posts a ton of valuable information on a broad range of topics.

Seth Godin…enough said!

Nick Asolas is a youth pastor (currently changing positions) in AZ. Nick posted some quality thoughts on youth ministry, politics and yes…sports. Nick is opinionated and not scared to hold his ground. It’s only because of the gospel what we are friends as Nick’s HATES the Red Sox and Lakers…So that makes for some good Twitter battles come Oct and June.

Texas in Africa is a blog that I always enjoy. Laura teaches at U. of Texas, activist for all things Africa and world traveler among other things. I think she has an important voice as a missional thinker who works in the education system and not in the traditional pastoral role. Her blogs are witty, researched and thoughtful.

Todd Hiestand is a church planter in the suburbs of Philly. If you’re a church planter in suburbia and you need to figure out how to create a missional community-then Todd is a key voice that you can learn from.

Matt Chandler shares his weekly schedule. Geez…dude makes a huge weekend sacrifice .

JR Woodward has two good post on re-imagining leadership here and here.

Ben Arment says we need to do away with mission statements and adopt mantras. 

Scott Hodge gives us a sacred reminder. 

Alan Hirsch continues to discuss The Bible and communitas. 

Ed Stetzer talks about the pro’s and con’s of social networking. 

Jonathan Dodson challenges us to re-up are missional activity in 2009  by going global.

Tony Morgan does not like Christians.

Steven Murray who is a church planter from Cape Town posted on the missional/attractional discussion between Dan Kimball, David Fitch and Tim Keller. Truthfully I love it when folks can discuss this stuff with a sense of humility. Very good.

For you iPhone junkies here are some useful tips that you may not know about. HT:Todd Hiestand

Drew Goodmanson posted a PDF document from Tim Cain on “how to create a philosophy of ministry.” Good resource.

I really enjoyed Aaron Ivey’s thoughts about adoption and kids in crisis.

Craig Groeschel posted multiple practical posts on success in ministry, go here, here, here and here.

Eugene Cho want to know why this tragic yet redemptive story has not gotten more press. All I can say is Dong Yun Yoon seems to be an amazing person who walks deeply with Christ. Can’t imagine trying to process what he is going through. Pray for him!

Check out I Am Second. Very cool!

Today was great. Love being back in Raleigh and seeing old friends. Raleigh still feels the same as two years ago. Although I’ve only been to a few places. 

This morning I hung out with Bill Cummings who is pioneering Lemonade International. We’ve known each other in the virtual world for the last few years, so it was great to finally meet and hang. Raleigh Times is also a cool coffee shop. 

Then we headed over to the Visio building to hang with Jeff Ramsey and Jason Gore. It was great catching up with them and seeing the dream we once talked about come to life. Their church building is AWESOME. Of course we did eat some lunch at Lilly’s and we got to see the Gore twins-that was rad.  

Then I headed out to Durham to hang with Tadd Grandstaff. It was fun to hear his story and talk about all things church planting. Tadd has a great heart and I love what God is doing in Graham. 

We finally made it back to Wes & Diana’s and went to a neighborhood block-party. That was great, got to catch-up on old times and also meet new friends. 

Tomorrow I have 3 meetings with Vintage 21 peeps and I’m also going to hang with Bill Gross from Hope Chapel and The Wahba’s and whoever else wants to party tomorrow night. 

Fun times…Now I need to go to bed. Peace!

Idea Camp is a free hybrid conference for idea-makers to share, network, and implement ideas. We are gathering some of the most innovative and creative leaders from around the country (this means YOU!) to share ideas, intentionally network, and move collaboratively into idea-making. Whether your passion is church leadership, non-profit work, social entrepreneurialism, technology, media, creativity, culture making, church planting, spiritual formation, compassionate justice, etc., this is the conference for YOU!

Fellow blogger and church planter Jay Hardwick has two good posts on fund raising here and here.

Mars Hill Church has a simple Advent Daily Bible Reading Plan.

I really enjoyed Dan Kimball’s recent article on Missional Misgivings.

Great post on Missional Church Planting by the folks at Glocal.Net. Some thoughts below:

The West’s model of church planting:
Gospel-Church-Disciple- Society

Acts model of church planting (as found in Acts 11, 13, and 17):
Gospel-Disciple-Society-Church

So today I will meet with Greg Atkinson, who is the Director of Technical Arts at Bent Tree Church and also runs MultisensoryWorship.com. 

Then we will meet-up with Scott McClellan who is the Editor of Collide Magazine. (which is very cool btw) 

After that we will head to Irving Bible Church to meet with Cameron Ware, to seek advice on effective presentations. 

I want to thank each of these guys for taking time to hang with a complete stranger. I love being a part of the community of God and I look forward to learning from these guys.

Sometimes the problems of the world seem so large. So I love it when organizations and bloggers come together to ask for a small donations that will make a big difference.

I just donated my $5. Somewhere around the world two kids will have shoes to wear. If you can help please click the link. The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge.

It’s that easy and yes it truly does help. It took me 2 minutes.

JR has done the global church a true service as he compiled a massive resource of all things missional. This list is quite impressive and will be very helpful on many different levels. So swing by JR’s blog and and enjoy!

Michael Hyatt posted some great thoughts that I think are helpful and Biblical, I will do my best to follow them.

Jonathan Dodson took some notes along with Charles Whitmire.Aust

From Dodson blog: 

JR will be releasing a book on this stuff called Re-sketching the Church in 2009. Here is an endorsement of the forthcoming book:

“That we need to recover the lost ministry ethos embedded in Ephesians 4, I have no doubt – the missional effectiveness of the church in our time depends to a large degree on this. JR is a sound, practical, and uncommonly wise, guide on this topic and one with ample practical experience in planting churches and leading ministry with the fivefold gifting in mind. A great study guide.” – Alan Hirsch, Author of The Forgotten Ways and The Shaping of Things to Come.