Best-selling author and pastor Max Lucado offers his insights on how to live with an eye toward purpose and the big picture in his latest book God’s Story, Your Story: When His Becomes Yours (Zondervan).

Pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Max is a prolific author with more than 60 books to his credit.

God’s Story, Your Story helps people make sense out of their own circumstances in their search for purpose.

“Everything changes when you know the rest of your story,” writes Lucado (God’s Story, Your Story, page 22).

“We need to know where we came from. Knowing connects us, links us, bonds us to something greater than we are. Knowing reminds us that we aren’t floating on isolated ponds but on a grand river.

That’s why God wants you to know his story. . . And we are a part of it.” (God’s Story, Your Story, page 20)

In true Lucado style, he poignantly tells personal stories from his encounters with family, friends and strangers.

The 288-page book journeys with readers through God’s stories in the New Testament, intersecting Lucado’s personal stories with his thought-provoking comments on how to apply this to each reader’s life. Readers will be comforted, entertained and challenged.

A small group curriculum is available for churches to use for either small groups or as pulpit material for the entire congregation to participate. Each church member will learn how to incorporate God’s story with his or her own through materials and sermon resources at Church-wide Journeys.

A teen edition is also available. Targeted for teens ages 13-16, stories from the New Testament are illustrated through contemporary examples to help teens see how God is at work in lives today. Max lays out a roadmap designed by God to help each teen reach the destination God has planned for him or her.

Exclusive Internet Webcast Special

In a partnership with the great folks at Ambassador, I am pleased to present the exclusive Webcast Special, “God’s Story, Your Story,” right here on the blog.

Special guests Sheila Walsh and J.J. Jasper provide moving testimonies that offer powerful real-life examples of God’s redemptive work…

Sheila Walsh is a recording artist, author and speaker, who discovered God was working in her own story in the midst of an emotional and spiritual breakdown.

J.J. Jasper is an on-air host for American Family Radio who shares of God’s peace after the death of his son, Cooper, who was tragically killed when the quadrunner J.J. was driving flipped over.

Every Christian has a story

My friends at The A Group were chosen by Zondervan to lead in the marketing efforts to get Max’s new book out everywhere. They have created His is Mine, an amazing media-rich website where you can tell your own story .

This site offers a unique opportunity for you to join Max’s online documentary about the journeys of life. Real life. Join Max in telling others how God has woven the unfailing fabric of His word through your heart and mind. Go now. Someone is waiting to hear your story.

Don’t miss the Webcast Special, “God’s Story, Your Story,” available now for download.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can hear this riveting special, recorded at Saint Andrews Church, Newport, CA, right here on the SermonCast Channel beginning Monday, January 11.

From facing cancer, to the death of a marriage, to dealing with unemployment and a sense of failure, these are topics we all grapple with. And in a way unique to Max Lucado, he reminds listeners that life with Jesus is a life of trust at the foot of the Cross.

During a recent study of church consulting leaders, I was introduced to Will Mancini, clarity evangelist and founder of Auxano, a firm that guides churches in the area of vision. I got in touch with Will to learn more about his process and to share my passion for pursuing God’s vision for technology in church.

This year Auxano launched Vision co::Lab, a learning community of pastors and church leaders that meets one day a month over a six month period to focus on the process of defining and communicating vision.

Expressing interest in the Vision Pathway principles and coaching strategy for teaching them, the door opened for me to participate in the Houston co::Lab.

Five reasons I am looking forward to participating in this unique learning environment:

1. Remarkable concept. I was hooked after reading Will Mancini’s book Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement. The approach boils down to this: God has given every local church a unique DNA. During Vision co::Lab, we will learn what it takes to discover, develop and deliver what God has uniquely created each church to do.

2. Reputation of the coaching team. Auxano has guided hundreds of churches through the vision pathway & trained thousands of leaders, including the team at Oak Hills Church, San Antonio. Having gone through the process, Pastor’s Max Lucado and Steve Dye called the approach “the missing link to all the chatter regarding church strategy.” We will be learning from the best of the best.

3. Relationship with the participants. It is always an honor to meet and interact with men and women of God. Listening to stories of faith and hearing about ministry dreams will be inspirational and instructive.  Through collaboration – ongoing dialogue, sharing knowledge and ideas – we will learn as a team how to apply a new visioning process to our individual mission assignments.

4. Recreating the role of technology in church. Thousands of churches are in position to adapt sophisticated communication technologies to The Great Commission mandate. The churches that do so will need to develop a “technology strategy” to be most effective. I recently wrote a blog post about the idea of Digital Missions initiatives. Churches will need to determine what technology tools fit and how to best align those tools with their vision. Through the thinking and processes behind Church Unique, I look forward to learning how to help churches develop a holistic approach for integrating technology into their central strategy.

5. Recognizable terrain. In the interest of total disclosure, Houston is my hometown. We have three daughters in the area and family throughout South Texas. I never pass up an opportunity to come home. I hear that familiar territory creates an environment more conducive to learning. That’s my story anyway. Being a native will also be useful to the group. When anyone mentions “Pico de Gallo” I’ll understand what’s being said.

“AH-HA” Moments

Speaking about a team pulling their unique vision together, Mancini says, “I wish you could see the delight on leaders’ faces, and hear the “ah-has” as a team crystallizes their Church Unique with stunning clarity. I am not sure there is a more exhilarating moment in leadership.”

Pursuing God’s vision for technology in church led to my taking this six month journey of discovery with the Auxano team and outstanding group of church leaders. As I reflect on how the opportunity came about; the privilege I will have in making new friends; and the possibilities of how God might work through these intersections in the future, I am humbled. And, having a pre-co::Lab “ah-ha” moment of my own.

Praying for everyone involved.