While driving home from vacation a few weeks ago, I had the chance to listen to The Message on Sirius/XM. They were having one of their artist spotlights. As I listened to the story behind the song, I began to think that these songs all tell stories about our daily lives. For the next several weeks we’ll look at some of the more popular songs that tell a story about our day-to-day lives. Continue reading
Tag: disciple (Page 26 of 30)
The news media lately has been focusing so much on the recent SCOTUS ruling regarding same-sex unions that there seems to be an increase in negative reactions and even hatred flowing throughout our nation. What happened to the time when we could have a disagreement and deal with it through a healthy conversation? What happened to sitting down face to face and agreeing to disagree but still walking away friends, or at least not enemies? Continue reading
In the last post we dealt with bad 
choices
and the effects they have on us at the core of our day-to-day lives. These bad choices can ostracize us and make us feel unworthy. And if that weren’t bad enough, it’s often difficult to live on the other side of that bad choice. This difficulty is made worse because we continuously go backward fishing. Continue reading
We’ve all done it. We’ve all made a choice that has haunted us for some time to follow. That choice may have been eating two chili dogs right before bed. That choice may have been to yell at our spouse. That choice may have been to break a civil law. No matter the choice we have made, it’s still a bad choice and we have to live the with the consequences. Continue reading
The idea of chasing a storm may seem a bit strange. Storms can wreak havoc on entire communities. They can level cities and demolish landscapes. But there are people who will devote large portions of their lives to chasing down these storms and watching them. They do it so that they can learn more about them. Sure there’s a thrill of the hunt but for them there’s learning to do. Wind speeds, changes in direction, rainfall amounts, pressure changes are some of the things for which they look. Continue reading
Several months ago I read a book titled Joining Jesus on His Mission, by Greg Finke of Dwelling 1:14 Ministries. As I read the book, I realized that the stuff he was writing was stuff that I had always been teaching, just in a little different way. At first I had that why didn’t I write this book feeling, but after that subsided I began to see some possibilities and opportunities.
This began a several month planning session with my team at church. We all read the book and just about everyone said It can’t be that easy! But truth be told, it is just that easy. The long and short of the book is that the mission is not ours rather it belongs to Jesus. And the cool part is He just wants us to hang out with Him on His mission. Sounds a lot less scary now doesn’t it!
With some leadership buy-in, we decided to reach out to Greg and see if we could
host a training workshop at Living Word the church I am privileged to pastor. He was on the calendar and we were off to the races to make this the start of a movement in the congregation instead of a one weekend event. So we decided to launch a summer long party the day we wrapped up the training.
In the weeks leading up to the event, we had posters and fliers and even a few promo videos from members who have read the book. Then we started to look at follow-up for the event. How are we going to make this a movement and not just a one day event? Party was the answer! Everyone knows what a party is and the great thing is, party means something different to just about everyone. So we’ll help the congregation throw parties in their homes throughout the summer months in an effort to simply establish relationships with people where we live, work, and play.
Now here’s the hitch – there’s not catch to the parties. There’s no church t-shirts or bait and switch things happening here. It’s not a church party! It’s a party, gathering
of people where you happen to carry inside you all of the power of the risen Jesus. While you will not be leading a bible study or preaching anything at these parties. You will be on Jesus’ mission of redeeming and restoring the world unto himself. Pretty easy. Everyone likes food. Just about everyone likes to have fun. So why not put them together and have a little party?
It truly is that easy. Intentional missionaries strategically deployed around the community with the sole purpose of redeeming our community through relationships. Can’t get much easier than that! Want to join the fun and throw a party where you live, work, or play? Give us a shout and we’ll do what we can to help you get started!
In the book Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church we’re introduced to five specific things that are happening in our world today of which we as the church need to be aware. I’ve already summarized challenges one, two and three. Feel free to check them out.
In this post we’re going to look at the fourth challenge that lies before the church. In a word the challenge is community. In digital age is one where we hold our community in the palm of our hand but never really engage with physical people. It’s merely a virtual world in which there’s only community through media. Intimacy and physical interaction isn’t necessary but it’s so needed!
You can live your entire life without ever having to interact with someone in a real way. If the church is going to maintain its presence in society it will need to begin to create safe spaces for community to happen. We need to make sure to be clear on this point. The issue is community. The world doesn’t simply need another worship opportunity – it needs community.
The challenge we’re going to face here is that many people believe that when you get people together for a church event, we feel the need to preach at them. But this is not community. We have to be willing to let people gather for the sake of the relationships that are being built around the cross. Even if the message of Jesus isn’t proclaimed fully, Jesus promises to be present.
At Living Word we’re embarking on a mission to create safe spaces for community to occur. This is our summer mission. We’re providing the materials for members of the church to host parties in their homes. We’re calling them Party Pails. In each Party Pail, we’re going to have everything a person will need to throw a party. We’re even going to have backyard games available for people to take home and use. The purpose is simply to establish community spots throughout the neighborhoods represented in our church.
When we realize that we carry the presence of Christ in us, we’ll be able to see these safe communities as Christ Communities. Since Christ is in me and I’m in community with the people where I live, work, and play then I know Christ is working in my community as I am working in my community. Often without saying a word, we’ll bring Jesus and his message of forgiveness and grace to these communities just by how we live his love out loud. It’s something called the sacramental we. Jesus is present in me through his promise and his Spirit.
So take a minute and think about how you, carrying the presence of Christ in you, can establish community where you live, work, and play.
Last week, I shared a book that I recently read titled Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church. The book was a quick read and offered good insight into some of the challenges that many churches are facing. While the book itself isn’t a newly published work, it does offer insight that can prove to be helpful as we navigate this new landscape of church in the 21st Century. Continue reading
In the last post I introduced the book Five Challenges of the Once and Future Church by Loren B. Mead. The first challenge we dealt with was the challenge of ownership of the ministry of the church. You can read more about that here.
The second challenge that Mead introduces is the challenge of structure. He spends much time talking about the denominational structures within which the church has operated for centuries. Continue reading
If you’ve been married for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly run into some sort of struggle or disagreement with your spouse. Whether he doesn’t keep the house as clean as you want him to keep it, or she doesn’t fix the food the way you want it fixed – we’ve undoubtedly had our moments. For some it’s a sign that we didn’t do our homework before getting married. For others it is an indication that we are just flat weak when it comes to relationships. And for still others it’s a demonstration of our selfishness. Continue reading