Alternative Discipleship Tool...

In spite of this being Garin's first day of first grade today (which we had another cool moment together last night!), it's been a typical morning. I like to get up with Garin, then spend some time reading or listening to a teaching from a podcast, usually teachers like Rob Bell, Dave Johnson, Neil McLendon, Louie Giglio. As many of you know, mowing your yard here is a game - it's a game where you are playing against the rain. Some weeks, I win, and other weeks, the rain wins and I watch it rain and I watch my grass grow taller and taller.

I passed on mowing last night, choosing instead to help Garin clean her room so that she gets a good clean start for school. That being said, I got up and instead of reading this morning, I grabbed my iPod and went to mowing. It generally takes me about an hour to finish the yard, so I can usually listen to one good teaching while doing so. Today, my teacher was John Piper, the topic was marriage and the title was "Marriage: Pursuing Conformity to Christ in the Covenant." Pretty heady sounding, right? Well, most of his stuff is, but today I wanted a little refresher on marriage and what God desires from me as a husband. It was awesome.

Now, I tell you this because, I was able to utilize an alternative discipleship tool. When I was growing up, the only chance to hear someone inspire and challenge me came on Sundays and it was usually from our pastor. As I got older, we were able to listen to tapes of his teachings. Now, it's even easier. I have subscribed to certain podcasts (digital media distributed over the internet). When I grab my iPod, the system has already downloaded the most recent teaching of each of my "teachers." Now I can take it along with me. Today, I was able to multi-task by listening and learning, while mowing and pulling weeds! My spiritual life is made simpler. Twenty years ago, I would have had to figure a way to get to Minneapolis, MN to hear John Piper on February 25 to get this message.

This is an example of what we want to do at The Springs. We want to enable you to take the functions of the church out into your everyday lives. I'm interested in hearing what "alternative tools" you have found useful in your journey as a Christ-follower, so comment away!