What is the Kingdom of God? Let’s look at a few places where Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God and what it might be: Luke 4:43-44 “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” Mark 4:30-32 “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what … Continue reading The Kingdom of God Study 2
Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God more frequently than any other topic, and it pervades all his actions as well. He mentioned the kingdom of God more than 70 times in the Gospel texts and it is mentioned by his disciples more than 30 times. Since I haven’t done so yet I thought I would spend the next several posts trying to discover just … Continue reading The Kingdom of God Study 1
I have been volunteering at a cafeteria/soup kitchen in a Christian homeless shelter for over four years now. This was part of my progression from a hectic life to the slow lane. It was doing dishes and helping to fix the meals that I learned one of the places the Lord truly intended me to be. Over these years I have progressed to doing solo … Continue reading Opportunities to share the Lord’s Love in our lives
I saw the title quote for this post form a story about Wintley Phipps who is a very popular singer/pastor. As soon as I heard it I was struck to the heart. If you really think about the words in the hymn “Amazing Grace” you come to the realization that the hymn is about reaching past our arrogance and past our pride and into the … Continue reading Amazing Grace – Reaching Past Ourselves
These next couple of posts are very personal in nature. I will be revealing some of my soul in them. Please bear with me or if you want just skip over them. I talk a lot about how we shape our futures by the God given free will choices we make. But, it was also very important for me to understand that God has a … Continue reading God has a dream for my life
Here is a quote from a book by Gregory A Boyd that is the basis for this post: The heart of Jesus’ teaching was “the kingdom of God”. He spoke about that topic more frequently than any other, and it pervades all his actions as well. Indeed, the Gospels make it clear that Jesus was the embodiment – the incarnation – of the kingdom of … Continue reading The Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdoms of the World
I can’t find it right now but I do remember the verse about “to whom much is given, much is expected. I don’t think Jesus was against a person being worldly rich although he did tell that one rich man to sell everything 🙂 . What he is against is people who obsess on money. These days we discover that seems to be many in … Continue reading A Moral Disconnect
Matt 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when … Continue reading Who are the “Least of These”?
I have read a book entitled “101 Ways to Reach Your Community” by Steve Sjogren who is the founding pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati. (A full review will come later.) He is a graduate of Lutheran Bible Institute and is the founding pastor of that non-denominational mega-church. In that book there are some very unique ways to draw the community to your church. He … Continue reading Some Personal Views on Outreach – Multipronged Outreach
One of the many conflicts in churches today is whether to offer a “contemporary” service. There as very strong advocates on both sides of this issue. But even if a church decides to take the contemporary themed service off the table there are still many other outreach tools that can be used. Let’s not limit ourselves to just the old arguments against doing something. Let’s … Continue reading Some Personal Views on Outreach – Contemporary Services
This is the last post of the review of Reggie McNeal’s book the “Present Future”. This time we will look at the last reality. The Rise of Apostolic Leadership. This last area obviously has to do with how we go about the paradigm shift in church leadership to accomplish making disciples rather than doing “church”. Again Mr. McNeal is rather blunt in his assessment. Let’s … Continue reading The Rise of Apostolic Leadership.
Continuing on with my review of Reggie McNeal’s book “The Present Future” we will now look at his 2nd reality. The shift from church growth to kingdom growth. In this section Mr. McNeal is trying to tell us that we are more interested in doing “church” than we are of making disciples. Here is a meaningful quote: The North American church culture is not spiritual … Continue reading The Shift from Church Growth to Kindgom Growth
I want to close out this outreach series with a review of a book by Reggie McNeal called “The Present Future – Six Tough Questions for the Church”. Actually, the book should be entitled “Six Realities that need to be overcome”. Mr. McNeal is the director of leadership development for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. I want to up front admit that this is … Continue reading The Present Future
I recently received a desperate plea from the Salvation Army to contribute to them. I liked the quote from William Booth, the founder: You cannot warm the hearts of people with God’s love if they have an empty stomach or cold feet I find it embarrassing to admit that Christian giving trails off during hard economic times. I understand a family’s need may increase but … Continue reading Warming the hearts of people with God’s love
Let’s spend this post contemplating how our actions, or inactions, made it necessary for Jesus Christ to go to the cross for our sins. It wasn’t just an act for “them”. It was for us. Continue reading He took on the sins of the world
At first glance this post might not seem like one on outreach but, in my mind, it really is. Like it or not our actions put a face on Christianity to the current crop of unbelievers. There was a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html%3E . In it the author is described as: Michael Spencer is a writer … Continue reading The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Continuing with my focus on Christian outreach, I want to give you an extended quote from Rick Richardson in his book “Evangelism – Outside the Box” I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is truly willing to look outside his personal or his churches box. Religious people tend to create programs and ministries that meet the needs of other religious people. Jesus knew … Continue reading Lost People matter to God.
Who are the unchurched and why aren’t they there? Here are some statistics about our mission field Group Born Attend Church Builders Born Before 1946 51% Boomers 1946 – 1964 41% Busters 1965 – 1976 34% Bridgers 1977 – 1994 29% Source: Surprising Insights from the Unchurched by Thom S. Rainer , Zondervan Press 2001 The growing ranks of the unchurched are not due … Continue reading Why aren’t they here???
Here it is April 1 and I am going to pull a cruel joke on you. I am going to spend the next few post talking about outreach. Yes, that is that thing that we Christians seem to be deathly afraid of. But, in my mind that is the primary task for us while we are on this earth. We have to constantly … Continue reading Country Club Christians?
Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Wow, it sounds like we have to choose between God and money! How can we do without money but then again how can we do without God! This … Continue reading God & Money
Luke 4:16-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” These were some of the first proclamations that Jesus made when he started his … Continue reading Opening His ministry
Today I am going to talk a little about a book entitled “If God is Love – Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World” by Phillip Gulley and James Mulholland. I must admit up front that I am somewhat fascinated by the Quaker religion of which both of the authors are ministers. Although one of them came through Baptist and Methodists to get there. … Continue reading Book Review – If God is Love
As you can see from the last few posts I have been somewhat down the last few weeks. I have always found that reading Beatitudes is able to pull me up when I am down. I prefer Luke’s version to that Matthew’s. So, here goes: Luke 6:20-22 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. … Continue reading Lifting up Christian’s Spirits…
I am making a rare Saturday post to give attention to Trevin Wax’s blog posting for today. Go to http://trevinwax.com/2009/03/21/how-scholarship-shields-us-from-the-bible/ . It gives credence to my belief that today’s Christians are generally not doing a very good job of understanding what Jesus says in the Gospels. It looks like this was also not uncommon a hundred years ago. Will we ever learn that Jesus really does … Continue reading Kingdom People Blog Post.
Here is another impromptu post related to a discussion I recently had with another Christian. First of all I am a regular supporter, both with my time and money, of a local Christian shelter and soup kitchen. During my discussions with my Christian friend I mentioned that the support of our church to this mission has almost dried up in the recent months. I have … Continue reading Fair Weather Christians
I imagine everyone has heard the term “you reap what you sow”. There is a lot of reaping and sowing going on in the Bible but I have not been able to find this reference in any of them. Are some of the bad things that happen in our lives a result of our unchristian behavior? Some of the red letters around this theme are: … Continue reading Do we reap what we sow??
I don’t know how many of you have read President Obama’s talk at the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago. In that talk he told us how he came to faith in spite of not being raised in the active Christian household. And , no he was never a Muslim. Yes, his estranged father was at one time a Muslim before he became an … Continue reading Coming to Faith -Presidential Style
Since I have been doing book reviews for a while I wanted to break it up with something I have been pondering lately. Is there such a thing as a “couch potato Christians”? Of course there are, so maybe I should say “should there be such a thing? A verse from Ephesians is used frequently by many denominations to show us our salvation is a … Continue reading Couch Potato Christians???
This is a follow up of a recent post about eliminating hunger in the world. I’m sure there are some, and probably many, Christian organizations who say “No, no, we must spend our money preaching the Word and not ministering to physical needs. After all our spiritual life is for eternity and hunger is only of this … Continue reading Basic Human Needs
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