Read this USA Today Article.  Here is a telling opening quote:

Religion today in the USA is a salad bar where people heap on upbeat beliefs they like and often leave the veggies — like strict doctrines — behind. There are so many ways of seeing God, public policy expert Barry Kosmin says, that “the highest authority is now the lowest common denominator.”

I just spent last week with the church planters of the Acts 29 Network.  There President Mark Driscoll emphasized that the movement is firstly a theologically-driven one.  I spent the whole time with 91 planters and their wives who have built their whole ministries on God’s sovereignty, penal substitutionary atonement, and the like.

Driscoll mentioned that his podcasts get 100,000 downloads.  And that includes his recent “Doctrine” series.  Today, I listened to the sermon on the cross while I ran over at Bear Creek Trail.  There he lays out “penal substitutionary atonement” (God dying in our place to pay our penalty, bringing us back to God) in all its glory.  In this “salad bar” culture, there are glimmers of hope.  People do want doctrine.  Young people are flocking to it.  I’m not discouraged a bit.  God is on the throne– that’s good doctrine, and it gives hope in a day when people resist doctrine.

From his sister Patience, on Facebook:

Chase is doing so well this morning! He has lots and lots of movement going on. He is moving his legs a lot and pushing against the bed with them. He is also moving the arms and gripping with the left hand. We have even seen him move his right thumb and before he wouldn’t move that hand at all he would just raise the arm slightly. He is moving his head from side to side some on the pillow also. One of the nurses said that this morning she tried waking Chase up and she thought he was trying to open his eyes really hard but couldn’t quite do it. He has shown amazing progress and we just keep praying for more!

Join us tonight for Movies and MindMaps!  We’ll watch I Am Legend.  Discussion and hang-out will follow.

What a blessing to spend almost four full days in Vail, Colorado.  Amy and I took in our first Acts 29 Planters’ Retreat.  It was amazing.  We stayed in the Vail Cascade Resort, which was beautiful.  Everything was totally free, paid for by the kind people at Mars Hill Church (lodging and food).  Our friends at The Journey also covered our flights.  We can’t begin to express our gratitude.

The featured guests for the week were Gary and Betsy Ricucci of Covenant Life Church of Gaithersburg, Maryland.  They are authors of the helpful book entitled, Love That Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace.  We have had the opportunity to use it in premarital counseling, and it’s super.  Their humble, loving words were challenging, yet encouraging.  I can’t wait to go through the old Moleskine and ponder the things they shared.  But here’s the beauty of the retreat: although I could benefited from hours of their teaching, they only did two sessions, one each on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  That gave us each afternoon and evening totally free, although one evening was spent in bulk hanging out Midwest Region A29 planters, which was very encouraging.  We had a blast, doing some hiking, riding the chair-lift at Beaver Creek (where Cru pals, we oddly ran into Matt and Liz Thiessen!), doing some shopping, and just enjoying being with each other.  It was truly a retreat.  We love our kids dearly, but Grandpa and Grandma Larson kept them, and that was fabulous for us.  Mark Driscoll addressed us on the final morning and shared steps to personal renewal.  It was great to interact with him a bit.  Despite the fact he’s near rock-star status, selling out arenas in Australia, he is loving, humble, and completely down-to-earth.

Thanks to Mark and the other A29 pals for a fabulous week.  I’m so encouraged to be back in Columbia working in the coolest city with the greatest group of Christians ever.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I just had the amazing privilege of spending the past four days in Vail, Colorado with Mark Driscoll and the other Acts 29 planters at the organization’s annual retreat.  I will write a recap of that soon, but I just ran across this link.  Piper has invited Driscoll to speak at the upcoming Desiring God National Conference.  Mark, who has been criticized for the use of strong language in and out of the pulpit, has been invited by Piper to address exactly that issue.  Watch this video.

As I posted earlier, our buddy Chase Smith was seriously injured in a car accident early Saturday morning.  He was heading back for an early shift at “It’s a Grind,” and apparently he fell asleep at the wheel.  The sad thing is that he was in the hospital for almost 2 days without anyone knowing it.  He has serious injuries to his head, lungs, spleen, and back.  He has been unconcious.  They are waiting for the swelling in his brain to go down.

I love Chase.  I just had lunch with him a couple of weeks ago.  We talked about him interning at Karis, not this year, but the next.  He was scheduled to be at our membership class this past weekend.  When he wasn’t there, I was initially a bit concerned.  But I knew he was working in Kirksville that week.  And Chase’s gifting is more in influencing and socializing– he’s not the best schedule guy (which makes him a perfect church planter candidate, by the way).  So I didn’t worry.  But he was in the hospital, and we had no idea.  Anyway, I am so excited, should God choose to heal him, to pour into him personally and to see our church do the same.  He is gifted, loving, and kind.  Hadley said the other night, “Chase is my best friend in the whole wide world.”  Lord, please heal my brother.  I can’t imagine Karis and the Larson community group without him.  I want to see You use him to build up your church in amazing ways.  I know You’ve made him perfectly to do that.  Keep him with us here in Columbia for Your glory alone, I pray.  Amen.

I’m here in Vail, Colorado for the annual Acts 29 Church Planters’ retreat.  It has been super.  I hope to post some pics at some point.  The great things about this retreat:

• It’s FREE.  Acts 29 pays it all.  Amazing.  This resort, in the words of the kids, is “tight.”
• There is tons of free time.  Basically, we have morning sessions with afternoons and evenings totally free.
• We have no kids with us.  We love our kids– LOVE them– but we need time away occasionally (this is Amy’s first time away from all three of them).  My parents have been kind enough to watch them for us.

We are so grateful to be here in Vail.  We’ll be out until Thursday evening.  What a privilege it is to be a church planter in Columbia and to have the backing of Acts 29.  What an amazing organization it is.

Our beloved Chase Smith was in a serious car accident this weekend.  He is unconscious and is listed as in serious condition.  Pray for the swelling in his brain to continue to decrease, and for his spleen and lungs and everything else bruised up to get better.  Pray for his family.  Chase is dear to the Larsons and to Karis.  Please pray. 

There is a super article in today’s Columbia Missourian (it may come out in print tomorrow) about the role of Karis in cleaning up graffiti in Columbia. 

1) Teen sues her parents over camping trip and wins

2) Oregon covers death, not drugs