TJ DREYER

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

I just finished Dug Down Deep, and this has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read… It shared the life of the author and his discovery of theology, or more importantly the discovery of why theology matters. This story of an awakening speaks so loudly to my soul, because he seems to not only be sharing his story, but the story of so many in my generation.

Dug Down Deep explains that theology matters not because you will get graded on your head knowledge, but because what we know about God will directly shape how we think and live. For Christians becoming sound in our theology is taking the time to understand the amazing Savior that we say we love, it is the way to create a strong foundation in our relationship. I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who is searching to know Jesus deeper.

A great video that challenges me, John Piper is so inspiring…

Communion Message from TJ Dreyer on Vimeo.

Preaching from February 21, 2010 @ Open Bible Praise Center

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

-C.S. Lewis

Repentance Unto Life from TJ Dreyer on Vimeo.

House of Freedom crew, skip watching it here I’ll be delivering it to you guys live soon.

I am preparing a message on repentance for this Sunday and decided to look for a couple quotes to add in, here are a couple that I came across and thought were interesting:

Within the egg of sin there sleeps the seed of damnation!

Man, there must be a divorce between you and your sins.
Not a mere separation for a season, but a clear divorce.
Cut off the right arm; pluck out the right eye, and cast
them from you, or else you cannot enter into eternal life.

- Charles Spurgeon, “THE CHIEF OF SINNERS“

Bible knowledge without repentance,
will be but a torch to light men to hell.
– Thomas Watson

I just finished reading Confessions of a Reformission Rev., by Mark Driscoll and I feel like it had some amazing insight in it about church planting and philosophy. Mark in this book gives his raw story of mistakes as well as successes that are well worth the read. He will make you laugh out loud, angry to the point of frustration and on the verge of tears all in the same book.

What really got my attention for the place that Redemptions Hill is at is his ministry philosophy/types and they were as follows:

CHURCH MODELS

• GOSPEL + CULTURE – CHURCH = PARACHURCH
• CULTURE + CHURCH – GOSPEL = LIBERALISM
• CHURCH + GOSPEL – CULTURE = FUNDAMENTALISM
• GOSPEL + CULTURE + CHURCH = REFORMISSION

CHURCH PHILOSOPHY: ATTRACTIONAL, MISSIONAL OR BOTH

• ATTRACTIONAL: this type of church’s primary task is to bring people from the culture into the church to partake of programming that targets their felt needs.
• MISSIONAL: this type of church’s primary task is sending Christians out of the church and into the culture to serve as missionaries through relationships.

With the church philosophies above I’d like for you to answer the questions:

• What type of philosophy does your church have?
• What type of philosophy do you have in your own ministry as an ambassador to the faith?

Theology – Do you know him from TJ Dreyer on Vimeo.

A couple people asked about my last message, and it happened to be recorded… so here it is.

I have been spending a lot of time thinking of how Redemption’s Hill Church can move to the next place God wants us to be. We are currently meeting for our Missional Communities (MC’s) on Sunday nights, and that is going fine we are digging into the word in a very deliberate and focused manor. God I think is using it to grow our core, but more has to be done. We can’t just wait for money to fall in our lap and think it will all come together at that point when we get a building.