thrive community

I’m proud to officially announce my new devotional book, EXPRESSO. It’s been a work of “devotion” for the past few months. I began writing it the day after we received our adoption referral for Jaida on December 23rd. As a tribute to my dad, I made the official publishing date of EXPRESSO for March 20th, 2010, my dads 77th birthday!

When it comes to following Jesus, there are so many things that can overwhelm us and keep us from moving forward in our faith. For the new believer as well as the seasoned follower, the business of life can demand a pace that leaves little room for God. Even when space is created for spiritual development, it can be difficult to find a trustworthy grip on how to express faith in a meaningful way.

Sometimes all we need is a new opportunity, like being given a devotional book to refocus our attention on God and get our lives back on track. The passion behind EXPRESSO is to help stir a fresh desire for God’s Word in the heart of the spiritually thirsty and help them discover simple, yet practical opportunities to put their faith into practice.

My prayer is that EXPRESSO will truly energize the faith of those who read it. My hope is that it will create encouraging conversation between those who chose to read it together.

Copies of EXPRESSO can be purchased from my personal publishing site: http://openskypublishing.com. Thanks to all who have already purchased the book. I would love to hear about your experiences as you read it.

Blessings!

Jason

My friend, Barry Odom had this youtube link on Facebook that describes the missional church in a simple way. I thought it was worth passing along. Let me know what you think.

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last few decades, you’ve noticed that communication has drastically changed. We are living in the most connected generation in history with access to more people and information than ever before. It’s a global community that everyone wants to be a part of.

From the telegraph, to the telephone, the television, the Apple 1, the cell phone, the fax machine, the ARPA-net, the world-wide-web, the PDA and the iPhone, technological developments have expanded our community from “down the road” to “around the world.” (A special “thank you” to Steve Jobs for the iPhone by the way!) People are offered the opportunity to connect with practically anyone, anywhere, anytime. From grandparents to grade-schoolers, everybody can be “in touch” on any number of levels.

Advancements in technology have not only transformed communication, they have transformed the culture of community. Look at the rise of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Loopt and the estimated 175,000 blogs created every day (1). People have access to each other twenty-four hours a day by computer, cell phone, Blackberry or iPhone, constantly communicating anything and everything with their “virtual friends” all around the world.  Kip, from Napoleon Dynamite sang it right. We DO love technology.

Read the rest of this entry »