easy faith
Read this post by
Bob Roberts this morning that really resonated with me.
In fact,
Lanny and I have been having similar conversations over the past month.
We often debate at what level of maturity a disciple is functional. I think, frankly, that the disciples of the early church were probably far less “mature” than we would want to believe.
We debate methods of catch and release; How much? How far? In what ways? How connected do we stay with people we disciple, etc?
We debate process, methods, etc., many things about how to make disciples. We get in little groups, or one on one, or bring our Bible’s, I’m just not sure there’s any one way. I’m not sure any one approach for an entire lifetime works either. We hopefully outgrow systems, processes, and even disciplers along the way.
Click here to read the rest.
Labels: christianity, ministry
god's voice
God speaks in a myriad of ways in my life, and each way means something different to me.
It's in his "thunder" that I'm reminded of his greatness and power.
It's through his silence that I'm drawn closer to him.
It's through his whisper that I find words that truly sustain me through any storm.
Labels: christianity
transformation is slow
There's a lot of talk about discipleship going on in the church world, and rightfully so. The Western church has traditionally done a terrible job of discipling new followers of Christ.
It's got to be more than an information transfer, though it is important to know beliefs about God. An inner transformation has to take place, and actions, character, and thoughts have to align with God.
It's not fast; it's a process. And that doesn't bode well for our "microwave" culture.
But what might happen if we were ok with God's process of change. No matter how fast or how slow, we were just in tune with God. Might it change the course of Christ's influence on society? Might it build stronger families who in turn build even stronger ones? Might it see a hopeless world see the hope of the world for a change. What would happen?
Wherever you're at, move forward in God, be open to His voice, and have the courage to live your life and ministry differently.
Labels: christianity, ministry
starting churches is easy
In light of the past few months of my church planting internship with
Glocalnet, I'm getting to the place where
I'm almost convinced that about anyone can start a church. Maybe that's true or maybe not.
But there are so many resources with check-lists that spell out everything that needs to be done that starting a "church" is pretty simple. It's almost a "church in a box" if that make sense (and I don't mean
Portable Church - ha). But that doesn't mean that that church will be a Kingdom-building,
disciple-producing church.
We have to desire to
build disciples who plant churches, not just plant
churches who hopefully produce disciples. I'm convinced we've got to focus more on building true disciples rather than building a church. A church should flow out of the disciple work. I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like.
Hopefully,
Bob will teach us. :-)
Labels: development, leadership, ministry
