» 2006 » August

Following up on my Missionaries to Marxists: the Rise and Fall of SCM, here’s an article by one of the great historians of revival movements, Dr J Edwin Orr.

Read it and ask yourself, “Why can’t this happen again?”
Can you imagine…

one third of a university’s student body coming to Christ in a single year?

50 percent of [...]

The latest edition of Missionaries to Marxists: the rise and fall of SCM:

missionaries-to-marxists-scm-rise-and-fall.pdf

Had some feedback on the SCM study reminding me that there are a number of student movements mobilizing for missions that qualify as inheritors of the original Student Volunteer Movement watchword, “the evangelization of the world in this generation&”: Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, SVM2.

I’ll update the article and mention them.

What other student movements are [...]

Seven lessons from the story of the rise and fall of the Student Christian Movement (SCM):

1. Drift to secularism
A recurring pattern in the lifecycle of movements is the drift to secularism. Finke and Stark write, “By ‘secularized’ we mean to move from otherworldliness, to present a more distant and indistinct conception of the supernatural, to [...]

Today I’m releasing the latest in a series of case studies in the lifecycle of a movement: SCM - Missionaries to Marxists

We’ll be looking at the final stage of the lifecycle: death. The case study I’ve chosen is especially instructive for those on left wing of the Emerging Church, described by Ed Stetzer as “revisionists”. [...]

Don’t be afraid of pain. All my life I’ve been afraid of pain. But pain’s not so bad. I’ve been in the valley and it’s not so bad. In fact the view is wonderful. You never get to see Jesus quite as well as you do in the valley.

It isn’t prosperity [...]

If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.
Mario Andretti

You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.
Jack Welch, retired CEO, GE

We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.
Herb Kelleher, founder,
Southwest Airlines

I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy [...]

We’re in trouble. Tim Keller has done an outstanding job of clearing up the whole justice vs evangelism thing.

Drop in on the Reform and Resurge conference and download theses audio files:

Preaching the Gospel
Doing Justice

Or subscribe to the Resurgence podcast. You’re after sessions 7 & 8.

Take the time to listen and learn.

Why are we in trouble? [...]

Seth has done it again. If you have a book in you, or an idea that needs to get out there, here is his advice on getting published: Advice to authors

The most encouraging lesson for this unpublished author was #2—“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out.”

That means [...]

Leadership Journal’s guidelines for budding authors. The advice applies equally to bloggers, presenters and speakers.
Use action verbs
Forms of the verb “to be”—is, was, were, etc., make for dead writing. In every possible case, pick forceful verbs.

Use anecdotes
Each point in a Leadership article needs a carefully chosen illustration, colorfully written. By basing principles in specific experiences, [...]