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n and talk about their favorite team around them and how extroverted they become why because the subject is important to them sharing the gospel is for all of god s people because the message is too important not to share we all have comfort zone issues to overcome and we cannot let that keep people from hearing about jesus when the message is important we will find a way to share it 2 comments posted in uncategorized posted by nick gill december 2 2008 the call of the kingdom one of the clearest expressions of contempt for christianity is credited to the philosopher celsus who wrote this their injunctions are like this let no one educated no one wise no one sensible draw near for these abilities are thought by us to be evils but as for anyone ignorant anyone stupid anyone uneducated anyone who is a child let him come boldly by the fact that they themselves admit that these people are worthy of their god they show that they want and are able to convince only the foolish dishonorable and stupid and only slaves women and little children other mystery religions trying to gain converts say this whosoever has pure hands and a wise tongue and again others say whosoever is pure from all defilement and whose soul knows nothing of evil and who has lived well and righteously come to us such are the preliminary exhortations of those who promise purification from sins but let us hear those christians call whosoever is a sinner they say whosoever is unwise whosoever is a child and in a word whosoever is a wretch the kingdom of god will receive him why on earth this contemptible preference for sinners everett ferguson backgrounds of early christianity grand rapids william b eerdmans publishing co 1987 reprint 1993 p 563 ps thanks to jeremy morris for sharing this quote leave a comment posted in uncategorized posted by weswoodell november 26 2008 coming and going good article from leadershipjournal net check out the article coming and going posted today at leadershipjournal net the writer of the article had a sit down with neil cole and ed young jr two very different leaders with very different outlooks on how the mission of god should be carried out neil cole is the founder of church multiplication associates and writer of organic church growing faith where life happens good book btw ed young jr is the senior pastor of fellowship church a multi site satellite linked megachurch with four campuses in the dallas metroplex and a fifth in miami fl i had some fun with this post the other day and hope you did too but just for clarification i see value in what each of these men and others like them are doing i don t know that one model is necessarily better than the other they have the same core goal in mind to help people know jesus they re simply different i do however know that one model will resonate more or less with different people in other words the megachurch model will work splendidly for some while the simple church model will work splendidly for others rather than polarize the reading audience here by advocating one over the other there are pros and cons with both are there any creatives out there that can think of ways we could weave these models together please take some time to read the article and do a bit of thinking out loud in the form of a comment how could a new church plant utilize concepts or methods from each model simple church and megachurch to carry out the mission of god in their community 1 comment posted in ecclesiology tags ed young jr leadership journal megachurch neil cole simple church simple church vs megachurch posted by nick gill november 17 2008 the mission of god on the road to gaza now an angel of the lord said to philip rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from jerusalem to gaza this is a desert place and he rose and went and there was an ethiopian a eunuch a court official of candace queen of the ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure he had come to jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot and he was reading the prophet isaiah and the spirit said to philip go over and join this chariot so philip ran to him and heard him reading isaiah the prophet and asked do you understand what you are reading and he said how can i unless someone guides me and he invited philip to come up and sit with him now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opens not his mouth in his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth and the eunuch said to philip about whom i ask you does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else then philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about jesus acts 8 26 35 esv the world must know beyond all contradiction or confusion the identity of the living god wright the mission of god p 102 christopher wright proposes that the mission of god to be known drives the whole narrative of scripture how does that mission the purpose of god to be known as the unique and universal sovereign creator and lover handle this passage from acts this is one of our favorite brotherhood texts because we believe that it clearly displays the appropriate response ideal the appropriate timing immediate and mode of baptism immersion i mean you can t go down into a pitcher right yes i am caricaturing our traditional response to philip and the ethiopian treasurer no i m not going to identify the poor guy by his missing parts i think after 2000 years he s probably really sick of being called that he s the treasurer for the queen of the most noble nation in africa let s show some respect hey i know many of our ministers have treated this passage wth respect but i was thinking about it after worship today and there are some key missional ideas that luke shows us evangelism is our co mission it is god s mission and he is always ahead of us working the holy spirit is driving everything that happens in this story luke also shows us a deep commonality between the student and the teacher look again above and look for the following ideas 1 both are goers once someone is grasped by the gospel of god they will move we don t have to make it happen and we won t be able to control it they re not going to go where we want them to go but where scripture and spirit carry them 2 both are listeners the treasurer would never have been on the road unless he listened to the word of god philip would never have met the treasurer if he did not listen to the spirit of god but even more important philip and the treasurer would never have shared this moment if philip had not begun their relationship by listening imagine if philip had chased down the treasurer s chariot and just started his schpiel without showing any interest or concern for who this man is how far would this have gone do you think 3 both are questioners philip does not begin their conversation with a lecture but with a question this shows great respect for the lives and real concerns of the people around us our assumptions and judgments crush the people around us and we try to choke them good heartedly of course with the pearls of our bible knowledge little surprise then when they turn and bite us the treasurer too takes a chance and asks philip the question that scripture has sparked in his mind at some point if we are living missionally people around us will have questions like this maybe not scholarly questions about isaiah 53 but questions about theology and mission and identity unless they trust us they will save their questions and get their answers from the cracked cisterns of pantheism self help and televangelists which brings me to the most missional statement of the passage beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about jesus listen the good of the whole creation requires that god be known and praised as creator as the centerpiece of his self revelatory mission god is now to be known to all humanity through the unique humanity and self offering of jesus the messiah wright 125 it is not our mission it is not our story we who have been caught up in the grasp of the great and eternal god who owe our eternal lives to his compassion and mission must tell with our words our hearts our lives the story we ve been caught up in changing the story telling about ourselves telling about all the things that we try and tell people instead of just telling them about jesus makes our gospel anathema no gospel at all the mission of god is wrapped up in the identity and mission of jesus of nazareth philip and candace s treasurer pledge their allegiance to that mission and spend their lives in his service let s remember that between us and our neighbors is a great deal more commonality than difference the god who loves us loves them our commission is to show them that love let s get to work in his love nick 3 comments posted in uncategorized posted by michaelhanegan november 17 2008 life in the jesus way i have struggled for some time now with the problem that comes from using terms that while they may express biblically and theologically sound principles automatically become suspect or heretical because of the new and or unfamiliar vocabulary this has certainly been my struggle with the missional conversation it has begun to take on its own vocabulary missio dei contextualization context s liminality incarnational i m sure there are at least another 25 words out there my point is this if the missional life is really the christian life that has been able to correct some of the reductionisms of the gospel that have resulted from thr christendom project did you catch the two special missional words in that sentence then why does it need to be couched in language that causes it to become suspect or ignored it is because of this struggle that i want to begin writing and creating a resource and materials under the title life in the jesus way so if you were to teach a series write a book or create some type of resource to help people fulfill their missional identity without ever using the word missional or the other language that is associated with the conversation what would you say here are a couple of initial thoughts as to how i might organize such a resource any suggestions would be much appreciated life in the jesus way in the life of jesus this is why i was sent understanding the mission of jesus you have heard that it was said but i say to you the upside down kingdom savior what is salvation according to the life and teachings of jesus servant the first will be last and the last will be first lord the creed of the early church how this reality shapes all of life life in the jesus way in the life of the people of god a k a the church the greatest commands as scot mcknight calls it the jesus creed the mission of the people of god you will be my witnesses the witness of the people of god what is the message we are proclaiming the fruits of the spirit the body our ongoing death burial and resurrection romans and sanctification these topics are not necessarily in order of importance or organization what else needs to be included what approach would you take to creating such a resource is it even needed 4 comments posted in ministry resources tags missional transition spiritual formation theology posted by weswoodell november 15 2008 no church building pros and cons from a simple church planter phil mccollum a los angeles based simple church planter or as i like to call men like him a little a apostle left a very thoughtful comment in response to the questions posed in my last post on this blog read more of phil s writings over at wayoflifevillage org my questions were as follows 1 since they re not going away what are some suggestions for how church buildings property can be used missionally 2 what would christianity look like if church buildings didn t exist here s phil s response wes i like your two questions for now i ll let churches with buildings think through the answer to 1 i like the ideas presented so far though answer 2 is similar to another question someone recently asked me what if churches weren t exempt from paying taxes to the government and therefore had less financial resources available to them i m not sure how big of a financial hit u s churches would feel from this but the point my friend was trying to make was this if churches had far fewer dollars available to them it might actually be a good thing meaning if we didn t have enough money to maintain and renovate our buildings employ our pastors and keep all our church programs running it might motivate some of us to live differently as christians no longer would we be able to count on ministry staff to spiritually feed us on large worship events to define us and on big programs to spread the gospel and meet felt needs in the community those needs would have to be met without staff and buildings and the leaders who run the programs they d have to be met by every jesus follower living missional lives in their own communities the point we often to refer to our buildings and resources as a blessing from god but they sometimes distract us from fulfilling our role as jesus folllowers for two years we ve been church planting in la without buildings and paid preachers there are pros and cons to this approach but in our case the pros far outweigh the cons downsides to not having a building include it s a foreign concept in the u s to have a church without a building even unbelievers come to the table with preconceived ideas of what a church is you learn to be patient and retell your vision over and over in some cases it has been too foreign for religious folks to accept other pastors and already christians have the hardest time with this it s difficult for them to accept us as a legitimate group or take us seriously they raise an eyebrow to us and continue to ask us to pray that god will help their groups to find a bigger or less costly venue for their worship services they also complain how tired they are from keeping all the programs running naturally our top priority prayer requests are different and there is a disconnect upsides to not having a building include it has freed us to be more adaptable to people s changing needs home churches can change venues and times as needed and still be church it has allowed us to be a church on the move and take church to the people kingdom lifestyle not fortress lifestyle because we are not tied to the concept of getting everyone to come to us it has helped new and veteran christians to see more clearly from our practice not just our lip service that church really is a people not a place or event not having a building with an office has forced us to show the community we are a legitimate church by our actions and lifestyle rather than by pointing to an address in john 13 34 35 jesus said the world ...
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