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Best Practices of Leadership Development

July 9, 2009 by charleskiser

Neil Cole’s book Organic Leadership came at a good time for me. We have been wading through some leadership conundrums and are on the cusp of the next wave of new house churches, so leadership is on my mind.

Section four of Organic Leadership, “The Side by Side Kingdom”, includes Cole’s best practices for leadership development in his ministry. I found these chapters extremely helpful as I prepare to make the transition from on-the-ground house church leadership to coaching on-the-ground house church planters / leaders.

Let me mention a few takeaways:

  • Holistic development: Most leadership training models I’ve been exposed to and participated in are “head heavy.” In other words, they operate out of the assumption that if you just increase the knowledge base of a leader, through classes and books, then he/she will become a better leader. Cole confronts this idea, declaring that many of the church’s leaders are “educated beyond obedience.” Cole doesn’t deny the cognitive or knowledge element of leadership development but instead wants to expand the emphasis of development to character and skills. Knowing must be accompanied by being and doing. Perhaps the most neglected in terms of my own formal education is the character element. How are we learning to be better people? What intentional processes are in place to fashion leaders into people of integrity? Storyline’s formation groups and formation retreats are part of our attempt to develop character in leaders.
  • One-on-one mentoring: Ever since reading Greg Ogden’s Transforming Discipleship, I’ve moved toward thinking of leadership development in groups of 3-4 rather than one-on-one. Cole, however, makes a good case for one-on-one mentoring. Every leader is at a different place in their leadership journey; every leader has a different learning style. As I thought about it, I’m benefiting immensely from one-one-one mentoring in my coaching relationship with Harold Shank. At the same time, I have very formative experiences with other leaders every month at the Mission Alive Church Planters’ Forum. I’m beginning to think that coaching structures for leadership development in the Storyline Community should include both a one-on-one and a forum element. Perhaps leaders gather monthly with other leaders for sharpening sessions, and between those times, as needed, they meet one-on-one with a coach.
  • Mentoring skills: Cole says there are two indispensable tools for one-on-one mentoring. And, surprisingly – or not so surprisingly – they are not a Master’s degree and a minimum of 10 years of experience in ministry. They are: 1) active listening; and 2) asking good questions. I’ve learned a lot from Tod Vogt at Mission Alive in this regard. Coaching is not telling someone what to do and how to do it. It is rather listening and asking good questions in such a way that the developing leader learns to think for him/herself.  Active listening and question-asking assume that leaders have all the resources they need within themselves (especially the presence of the Holy Spirit) to take the next step forward in their own development. I enjoy Cole’s coaching worksheet in the book that has three columns and three rows to facilitate mentoring. The three columns are: 1) active listening; 2) asking questions; and 3) action items. The three rows align his values for ministry with the three columns: 1) divine truth; 2) nurturing relationships; and 3) apostolic mission.
  • Mentoring principles: Cole lists several mentoring gold nuggets that I’ll just list here. You can buy the book and read more if you’d like.
  1. Start with the most obvious area of challenge in a leader’s life (rather than following a curriculum).
  2. Focus on one development item at a time.
  3. Look ahead and anticipate what the next step in development is for the leader.
  4. Never coach a new skill until the previous skill has been learned.
  5. Mentor according to the learning style of the leader (e.g., visual, audio, kinetic, or verbal).
  6. A skill is never truly learned until it is taught to another – which assumes the developing leader is mentoring another developing leader.
  7. Mentoring process: a) Model (I do; you watch); b) Assist (we do together); c) Watch (you do; I watch); d) Leave (you do; someone new watches – the process begins again).
  8. Leadership cannot be learned in a classroom. Leadership is learned as one leads.

Given #8, I’m excited to put some of these skills to practice in the context of coaching others. I’ll be learning leadership myself at a new level.

By the way, my review of Organic Leadership for the Christian Chronicle should be posted soon to this link.

Posted in Leadership, Reproduction | 2 Comments »

The Theological Whirlwind Named June

July 7, 2009 by charleskiser

June turned out to be a sabbatical from blogging. It’s good to be back in the blogosphere.

The past month reminded me of graduate school perhaps more than any month since I graduated from Harding Grad in May 2006. It was a good month — heavy on reflection, writing and speaking.

The month’s events included:

  • Writing a review of Organic Leadership by Neil Cole for the July 2009 issue of the Christian Chronicle
  • Facilitating three sessions on Engaging Culture and another on Spiritual Formation Retreats at the Mission Alive Strategy Lab for church planters
  • Writing a paper entitled The Role of Social Justice in Church Planting Among the Urban Affluent — An Experiment in Process, which I presented at the Christian Scholars’ Conference at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee
  • Joining the editorial board of a new journal called Missio Dei: A Journal of Missional Theology and Praxis, a publication I’m partnering with friends from Harding Grad to start — all of them in very diverse mission contexts.

It gives me tired head just thinking back through it. Yet I’m so glad for the opportunity to reflect and process. These are important seasons in the life of a church planter and can often be neglected. It’s much easier just to get out there and do it. At least until we create something we regret having created apart from deeper theological discernment.

The hard work is asking, “Why are we doing what we’re doing?” And “What does God want us to be doing and why?”

It’s one of the reasons I appreciate Mission Alive’s mantra of moving from theology to practice. If we don’t have seasons of theological reflection, then we move instead from practice to practice — from ministry fad to ministry fad. Theological reflection helps us to judge what embodies the kingdom of God for our context.

Isn’t that exactly what Paul was doing in his letters to the churches he helped to plant? He was doing theological reflection “on the fly” — in the context of specific mission points on the map. All of Paul’s letters are “occasional,” that is, written for a specific church or purpose and for a specific context or scenario. Even Romans. Especially Romans.

The occasional nature of Scripture makes me think twice before deeming anything a “universal truth,” as if truth looks the same for every time and place. Truth is, all truth is encased within a particular cultural context, which makes it all the more important to spend time translating such “encased truth” into contemporary cultural contexts.

Thus, as compensation for a long hiatus from blogging, over the next few days I’ll be blogging about what I learned from the above opportunities for writing and reflection, and how we might translate what I’ve been learning into our ministry context.

Posted in Justice, Mission Alive, Theological Reflection | 4 Comments »

Marvelous Light Video

June 4, 2009 by charleskiser

Enjoy a recent video from our Marvelous Light retreat on May 1-2. You’ll also soon be able to view this video, along with other Storyline videos already posted, at www.storylinecommunity.com/media/videos.

Posted in Authenticity, Formation Groups, Life Change, Marvelous Light, Spiritual Formation | 5 Comments »

David Watson and Church Planting Movements

May 18, 2009 by charleskiser

Last week I attended a four-day workshop about Church Planting Movements (CPMs) with David Watson of CityTeam Ministries. Missions Resource Network, a missions organization affiliated with Churches of Christ, hosted the event.

Watson is a former church planter in Northern India, where 40,000 churches have started in the past 15 years. He is now a strategist and trainer for an ever-growing network of approximately 200,000 churches throughout the world. These churches, according to Watson, average about 63 members per church – which amounts to 12.6 million new believers in the past 15-20 years. For the sake of comparison, Churches of Christ consists of 40,000 churches and 5 million believers worldwide.

Watson’s work was featured in a recent book by David Garrison called Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World.

The best overview of Watson’s perspective on church planting is what he calls the “21 Critical Elements” of CPMs. This may not be the exact list of the elements, but it gives the general ideas. CPMs center around:

  1. Group process over individual process
  2. Prayer
  3. Scripture, by way of an inductive Bible study process called “Discovery Bible Study”
  4. Households, or existing social units, rather than individuals
  5. Making disciples of Jesus not converts to a religion
  6. Obedience to commands of Jesus rather than doctrinal distinctives
  7. Access ministry – i.e., developing relationships with non-believers
  8. Ministry – meeting people’s needs leads to evangelism
  9. Timing – knowing when people are ready
  10. Intentionality and planning
  11. Person of peace – i.e., a receptive, influential person who is the gateway for a social unit coming to Christ
  12. Appropriate evangelism – i.e., communicating the good news in ways that make sense to people in their particular cultural context
  13. Starting churches, Watson’s definition of which is: “groups of baptized believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that gather to worship, fellowship and nurture one another, and, outside of gatherings, endeavor to obey all the commands of Christ in order to transform families and communities.”
  14. Reproduction at every level – disciples, leaders, and churches
  15. Indigenous leaders – i.e., cultural insiders are the best church planters
  16. The work of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Scripture
  17. Persecution
  18. Mentoring, which is the work of developing the whole person
  19. Self-support – in almost every case there are no paid ministers, no buildings to maintain
  20. Redeeming the culture
  21. Awareness of spiritual warfare

The basic process of starting CPM churches is: 1) church planter finds access to friendship with disconnected people; 2) church planter serves and loves disconnected friends; 3) church planter identifies a person of peace out of those friends; 4) church planter works with person of peace to invite his/her social unit (family or affinity group) into a 15-30 week inductive Bible study led by person of peace or someone else from social unit; 5) the group decides to follow Jesus and becomes a church; 6) new churches send out church planters to start the process again.

Here are five action items I took away from the workshop that I need to implement in my life and ministry:

  • Prayer: David Watson mentioned that the common denominator among their most fruitful church planters was prayer. Some of them spend 3-4 concentrated hours/day in prayer. Remember, all of them have jobs outside of church planting and they still make time for this kind of prayer. I am not praying enough. I will, therefore, make a plan to pray more. And then pray more.
  • Church planting as lifestyle: Watson says it’s not a job; it’s a lifestyle. People must be around you enough to see consistency between your private and public life. I find it easy to compartmentalize my role as a church planter, rather than to see it an extension of my lifestyle. Yet none of this is to say boundaries with family and solitude are not important — they are part of the lifestyle, too. I will, therefore, invite my friends into all parts of my life.
  • People of peace: I’ve been tuned into the concept of people of peace but have not pursued it with the fervor that Watson and company have. I have yet to see a person of peace open a door in our context for an entire social group to encounter God. Watson had fantastic ideas about developing “peace statements” to ignite conversations with potential people of peace. I will, therefore, commit to pray, look for and draw out such people of peace God might be raising up in our midst.
  • Obedience-oriented conversation about Scripture: This was a point of affirmation for me. The heart of Watson’s endeavor seems to be inductive study of Scripture that ends at discerning how one will be obedient to the word they are hearing from God. In other conversations I’ve mentioned how we value the movement from observation to interpretation to application in our Scripture conversations. I will, therefore, continue to facilitate these kinds of conversations and make the moves toward obedience even more explicit.
  • Reproduction: Reproduction is a value of ours, but Watson pushed this value to the max, particularly with his comments about the nature of mentoring. His four step process for mentoring is: 1) model; 2) equip; 3) watch; 4) leave. Watson contends that this process can take as little as 3-4 months in a new church setting. Mentors model only once or twice before allowing others to take over. I will, therefore, model more briefly, equip and watch more quickly, and leave as soon as possible.

I didn’t leave the weekend without hesitations, however. Here are a few limitations I sensed from the presentations:

  • View of Scripture: I was uncomfortable with Watson’s view of Scripture. He had an extended conversation about distinguishing between what is biblical and what is cultural without ever admitting that Scripture is itself a culturally conditioned document. Another session concerned separating “doctrine” from what the Bible teaches, yet Watson failed to mention the degree to which every individual brings lenses to the reading of Scripture (whether they like it or not) and necessarily picks and chooses what they should obey or not. For instance, are we disobedient to God for not having a ritual of washing feet (e.g., John 13)? It takes an interpretive approach to Scripture (i.e., a hermeneutic) to make such decisions. I would rather be aware of my lenses than unaware. Watson seems to think that everyone who reads the Scriptures will arrive at the same conclusion / hermeneutic by the power of the Holy Spirit. This approach didn’t seem to work in early church history (when the most notable heretics used the Bible to support their claims) or in Stone-Campbell history (when everyone read Scripture and came to decidedly different conclusions). Watson also seems to discount the role that church history / tradition / orthodoxy plays as a source of theology and knowledge of God.
  • View of church: I was uncomfortable with Watson’s view of the church only to the extent he expressed that churches in his network are closed to unbelievers. If unbelievers want to be part of a church, they should join a Bible study and start a new one. They are discouraged from participating with an existing one. This decision seems to discount the way the church is the embodiment of the gospel as a community (as with the Mennonite tradition). It also seems to reverse the current trend in our context of allowing people to belong before they’re expected to believe. Watson seems adamant that people must believe before belonging to a church. Paul seems to assume in 1 Corinthians 14 that unbelievers participated in the life of the church and even encountered God as a result.
  • View of teaching: Watson has a very low view of teaching, at least in the traditional sense. Churches that are dependent upon teachers with rich education and knowledge are not likely to reproduce rapidly or perhaps even at all. Watson also critiques the traditional paradigm of teaching because it often has little to do with obedience to God and life change. I’m with him all the way on this. Yet the teaching role is very apparent in Scripture, both in contexts with non-believers and believers. Paul mentions in Colossians 1:7-8, for instance, how the Colossian church was taught the gospel by Epaphras (not led through an inductive Bible study). Rather than reframe the role of teaching in a more dialogical, conversational light (as I think is consistent with Jesus’ teaching in Scripture), Watson stretches the Scriptures to argue that teaching is reserved for believers / church in Scripture, not unbelievers. It seems better (and more biblical) to think of ways the teaching role could be made more obedience and reproduction-oriented rather than discount it totally for unbelievers.
  • People of peace: I think the people of peace concept is a brilliant missionary concept but have wondered if it is a culturally-specific method rather than a universal principle. My own context leads me to think this way: urban Dallas, where social groups are fragmented and disconnected. There is no overarching, preexisting sense of community here. There are no extended family units. The dominant demographic is single professional. I asked Watson about this and he suggested looking for affinity groups that exist in the community (e.g. a fitness gym). Yet existing social groups I’ve been part of in our context (e.g., sports teams, civic groups) do not seem cohesive enough for a person of peace to open a door for an entire group to encounter God and the gospel. Perhaps we should hold alongside the person of peace approach a geographical approach, common in missional church plantings, that treats a neighborhood as a social unit. Maybe it’s both / and and not either / or.
  • Rapid reproduction as the end goal: The undercurrent I sensed from missionaries at the workshop was, “Our mission efforts are slow and frustrating. We should listen to this guy because his churches are reproducing rapidly and reaching a lot of people.” In fact, when Watson was challenged by a workshop participant, he retorted by saying, “That’s fine if you disagree with me, but we’ve planted 200,000 churches doing it this way.” Granted, we should desire for people to connect to God, but growth as an end goal and justification seems misguided. Cancer grows and reproduces at a rapid rate, but that is not a good thing (as I’ve reflected on before). Rapid growth is not the end goal; the goal is rather faithful embodiment of the gospel. God is the one who grows the church, not a particular process. At times, Watson and company seem to stretch biblical texts concerning the church and missionary method (i.e., people of peace) to serve this end goal of rapid reproduction.

Despite my critique, I think David Watson is doing some very significant work. And none of this is to question his motives or dedication to the gospel. Much of his approach is worthy of emulation.

If you’re interested to see some of his material yourself, including video training sessions, you can visit www.cpmtr.org or www.davidlwatson.org. Registering at the website grants one access to curriculum download materials. You can also see the workshop I attended in its entirety at www.ustream.tv/mrnetwork.

I would love to have your feedback and dialogue about this CPM approach, especially from those of you who are currently involved in the work of church planting.

Posted in Church Planting, Institutional / Organic, Reproduction | 56 Comments »

Marvelous Light

May 14, 2009 by charleskiser

Marvelous Light on May 1-2 was a great experience. More than 20 Storyline people participated.

One of my favorite stories of the weekend came from Darcey. We met Darcey through the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce. Before about nine months ago she had very little connection to God or Christian community. She doesn’t have much of anything by way of a spiritual or religious background.

When her father converted to Mormonism a couple years ago, the peace he seemed to find got her attention and she began to search for God. She’s been searching for God in the midst of a Storyline house church for the past few months.

When talking to Darcey about her experiences with Marvelous Light, she said that the teaching and testimony about legalism really resonated with her. In the legalism section we talked about ways we’ve been deceived to believe that we could save ourselves by following the right rules and doing the right things.

“I didn’t grow up in a religious family, but my family had legalistic characteristics,” she said. Darcey grew up trying to be a good person and to do good things, assuming that was what it was all about.

I think Darcey experienced the grace of God in a fresh way through Marvelous Light, and I’m excited about walking alongside of her as she continues on her spiritual journey.

Our community exists for people like Darcey.

Enjoy some pictures from the retreat.

Teaching

Women's Group 2

Mens Group

Women's Group

Posted in Marvelous Light | 1 Comment »

The Heart of It

April 23, 2009 by charleskiser

Storyline is in the midst of a series of conversations about living an “eternal kind of life,” to use Dallas Willard’s phrase. We’re examining texts out of Paul’s prison letters that relate to topics of spiritual formation: trust, purity, dependence, generosity, grace, collaboration, etc.

I’ve been thinking about the banner text of the series quite a bit lately, Colossians 3:1-4:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul follows this exhortation with counsel to put ungodly behavior to death and to put on their new selves that reflect God’s image.

I’m struck by Paul’s emphasis on the heart and mind. Before spiritual formation is about external actions, it’s about the heart and mind.

We can change our behaviors without ever changing our hearts or minds. Such behavior change is not spiritual formation, merely “sin management” (to steal another phrase from Dallas Willard).

Richard Foster addresses this very issue in a recent article in Christianity Today. There he lays out his three priorities in the church’s spiritual formation in the next thirty years, the first of which is “heart work.” He writes,

All real formation work is “heart work.” The heart is the wellspring of all human action….When we are dealing with heart work, external actions are never the center of our attention. Outward actions are a natural result of something far deeper, far more profound….This, of course, does not reduce good works to insignificance, but it does make them matters of secondary significance, effects rather than causes. Of primary significance is our vital union with God, our new creation in Christ, our immersion in the Holy Spirit. It is this life that purifies the heart; when the branch is truly united with the vine and receiving its life from the vine, spiritual fruit is a natural result.

Foster hammers it home by saying,

…Everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.

The pathway to justice and restoration in the world is not public policy or a better system. Don’t get me wrong, a better system and better policies will certainly be helpful in curbing the injustice that stems from the evil of the human heart. And they are necessary in the time until God restores the world.

But the pathway to justice in the world is ultimately the formation of the human heart into the likeness of Jesus.

When God restores the world one day, drug policies will no longer be needed because people will trust the work of God in their lives for pleasure and provision. Prisons will no longer be needed because people will not have the hatred in their hearts that leads to murder and other crimes. Civil rights laws will no longer be needed because people will genuinely love those different than themselves. The human heart will experience radical transformation.

The good news of God’s kingdom is that God’s restoration has begun. It was ushered in by the resurrection of Jesus.

If that’s true, my first way of participating in God’s work of justice and restoration is by doing the hard work of heart work. How could I ever expect the world to change if I don’t expect myself to change?

We’re seeking for Storyline to be that kind of community — a community of grace; a community that cares first about what’s going on in people’s hearts rather than merely how they’re behaving.

That’s why we put on spiritual cleansing retreats like Marvelous Light. That’s why we participate in Formation Groups, where individuals confess their sins and listen to God’s voice in Scripture on a weekly basis. That’s why we’re committed to the values of life change and authenticity.

If I’m known for anything, I want people to know me as a person whose heart reflects the heart of God.

Man, I’ve got a long way to go.

May the Spirit of God be strong and alive within us all as we make ourselves available to him to form our hearts.

Posted in Life Change, Spiritual Formation | 2 Comments »

Easter Pics

April 16, 2009 by charleskiser

Despite the rain and overcast skies, we had a great day on Sunday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus was raised from the dead, and that changes everything.

Enjoy a few pictures from our moved-from-the-park-to-the-apartment-community Easter picnic.

girls

porches

lewises

2-boys

funny-boy

Posted in Hospitality Events | 3 Comments »

Paying Ministers

April 6, 2009 by charleskiser

The issue of paying ministers is a hot topic in many church planting circles.

One of my church planter friends in the Mission Alive network, Robbie James, just got a full-time job as a hospice chaplain. Another one of my church planter friends in the Kairos network, Phil McCollum, recently began to look for full-time work. Both made these decisions with some level of intentionality.

The money/salary topic is also at the heart of the institutional vs. organic conversation. Neil Cole, for instance, has recently written a series of blog posts concerning this very issue. You can view links to each of the topics here.

As we think about what it means for Storyline to be financially sustainable, we’re beginning wonder whether it might be a good idea for us (Porche and me) to pursue part-time jobs — not just to connect to the community, but also to prevent the Storyline Community from taking on overwhelming financial burdens.

Several factors contribute to this wondering:

1. Proponents of organic paradigms state that the financial overhead in the institutional model is so great that reproduction (i.e., church planting) is hard to do on a grand scale because it is so financially prohibitive. Paying a full staff, facility costs, and start up costs is expensive, after all. As a general rule, the more expensive reproduction is, the slower and less likely it will happen.

Organic churches are less likely to pay ministers because it makes them more reproductively agile and it does not perpetuate clergy vs. laity mindsets.

2. The apostle Paul seemed to be more interested in the spiritual sustainability of the churches he planted than their financial sustainability — if financial sustainability means paying staff salaries.

Granted, Paul says it is certainly legitimate for those who serve the cause of the Gospel to be paid (cf. 1 Timothy 5:17-18). But when it came to receiving pay from churches himself, he often refused so as not to be a financial detriment to the church (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:3-12). He could support himself with his tent making profession. There were other times when he depended upon offerings from churches (cf. Philippians 4:10-19).

I’m attracted to that kind of attitude. Storyline, in many ways, is spiritually sustainable. We are working for justice. We are connecting with the disconnected. We are experiencing life change.

Storyline is far from financially sustainable, however. Yet I would rather take a part-time job to relieve Storyline’s impending financial stress that to cause the community to ‘tank’ because it can’t afford to pay me a salary.

I’m wondering if Paul wouldn’t do the same thing.

3. My friend Micah Lewis shared an interesting historical tidbit with me the other day. Someone shared with him that in the early days of the Stone-Campbell movement, when someone wanted to learn to preach he would be given a tract of land.

His teacher would tell him: spend a year learning how to work the land. Then you can learn to become a preacher.

This idea of financial self-sustainability is embedded even in my denominational history.

4. I don’t buy “tithing theology.” The institution has used the tithe (giving 10% of one’s income) as a way of supporting its existence. People give their money and trust that the church will spend it as God directs.

There’s nothing wrong with giving 10% to the work of the church. Julie and I give 10%. We hope someday to give more.

I don’t, however, find biblical support in the New Testament for the 10% rule. I do find support for generosity. In many cases generosity means much more than 10%.

But for a struggling young professional who is up to her eyeballs in debt, sacrificial generosity may be less than that. I can’t in good conscience implore my recently disconnected friends to begin giving 10% because that’s the rule when it might ruin them financially…especially when a big part of the reason I’m asking is so that my family doesn’t experience financial ruin. It’s awkward. Maybe that’s lack of faith on my part.

5. A related point: our generation / demographic is much more suspicious of the institution and therefore much less likely to give blindly to a general church fund. We want to know that our money is being spent for good things, not institutional maintenance.

One friend recently observed that many people in our context view ministers as “social leeches” who mooch off the hard work of others. Now I certainly don’t think that’s true in many cases, but is it a hindrance to mission if that perception is shared by the majority of disconnected people?

6. I have more questions than convictions, really. Questions like, What is the end goal related to paying salaries? Is it a legitimate end goal for the church to pay staff full-time salary and benefits? In other words, do we pay staff full-time salaries when money is not a problem?

If it is no longer an end goal of ours to build a church building, should it be an end goal to pay staff on a full-time basis? Would Paul see the ability to support workers as a sign of maturity in the churches he started – or a liability?

Regardless, God will take care of the Kisers and Porches. And God will take care of Storyline.

It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Posted in Finances, Institutional / Organic, Sustainability | 11 Comments »

Worship Gathering Podcasts

April 1, 2009 by charleskiser

watermarkThe Storyline sermon machine is up and running.

We’ve posted a couple of conversations from previous worship gatherings if you’re interested in listening to them sometime. The machine comes complete with a digital Bible for those who like to follow along.

There’s also an option to subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes.

Click here to see the new podcasts page at storylinecommunity.com.

You might also be interested to check out the photo and video galleries under the media menu.

Posted in Preaching, Worship Gathering | 2 Comments »

Marvelous Light 2009

March 30, 2009 by charleskiser

Marvelous Light OriginalWHAT: Marvelous Light Retreat, an experience of spiritual renewal and cleansing

WHEN: May 1, 7:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.; May 2, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

WHERE: Preston Road Church of Christ (map)

COST: $15 / person; includes 2 meals, snacks and materials

WHO: All are invited

REGISTRATION: Via Paypal @ storylinecommunity.com


TESTIMONIAL: “It was like a spiritual detox for my soul.” Lauren Cone, Storyliner

Reserve your spot today!

Posted in Marvelous Light, Spiritual Formation | Leave a Comment »

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