Jumat, 25 Maret 2016

How Your Small Group Can Help Refugees

2.24.CC.SMALLGROUPS.SmallGroupHelpRefugees
According to World Vision, 60 million people in the world are refugees. The Syrian War alone has displaced 12 million—half of which are children.
The statistics are staggering. In some ways, though, the refugee crisis can feel distant, affecting “those people over there.” After all, most of us don’t know any refugees personally.
On the other hand, it can feel purely political as presidential candidates debate whether to allow refugees to enter our borders. The vast majority of Syrian refugees, however, live within walking distance of Syria, often in tents in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. They stay close because they want to go back home.
The problem can also feel far too large to make any significant impact—especially as a small group. That’s why I was excited to hear about a new free resource from World Vision called “Stand Alongside Syrian Refugees,” a four-session small-group study. World Vision has partnered with Willow Creek Association to create resources that address the biggest needs of our day, and this discussion and prayer guide is their first offering.
Each session includes a story about a child in the midst of the refugee crisis, putting a personal face on the issue. You’ll also find a Bible passage that illustrates God’s heart for refugees and several questions that will help your group members discuss the passage and apply the principles to their own life and relationships. Finally, you’ll find several prayer points to direct your prayers for refugees around the world. When we discover God’s heart for refugees through his Word, we’re challenged not only to help the displaced worldwide, but also to take steps to bring justice and mercy to our own cities.
“This is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time,” says Kurt Rahn of World Vision. “We’re hoping that American Christians will gain a greater understanding of the scope and severity of this crisis and the opportunity we have to respond to this great need. In addition, to understand God’s heart for the most vulnerable, for the stranger, for those living in the most difficult places on earth in unimaginable situations.”
The scope of the crisis is enormous, and you may wonder how your small group can actually make a difference. Using this study can be a great first step. You’ll learn more about God’s heart for displaced people, and that can impact your perspective as you go about your everyday life. Second, you’ll discover important prayer points. Third, you’ll learn about other ways to help like using your voice to make a difference, becoming a refugee responder or hosting a refugee Sunday at your church.
The issue can be complicated, and learning the facts about the crisis is important. For more on the refugee crisis and what you can do to make a difference, check out these resources:

Free Small Group Series: “The Best Yes”

Free Small Group Series: “The Best Yes”

Small Group - Best yes
Making wise decisions in the midst of endless demands.

Free Small Group Series

This two-week series from Elevation Church asks these important questions, “Most of us would describe ourselves as busy people. Do you ever find yourself saying, “Yes,” to too many obligations? How do you manage the tension of staying busy but not being overwhelmed?”
This small group series includes Bible study questions, icebreakers and discussion questions.


Get Download Now

Resource provided by Elevation Church

John Fenn, My Health Ordeal #3

Hi all,
They told me the preparation for a colonoscopy was the worst part of it. They lied.
 
It was scheduled a few Friday's ago, and the last solid food was that Wednesday. At 2pmWednesday I pulled a box of Macaroni and Cheese out of the pantry that we keep for Chris, who loves the stuff, and downed my last meal. That night I took an innocent little orange pill prescribed as part of the preparation - it was an overnight laxative. So harmless looking I thought. Gentle they said. No problem they said.
 
That night my stomach and intestines felt like a Nazi Panzer division was approaching from one side, and whatever food I had in my system was fighting hand to hand combat in resistance. Whatever the battle going on inside me, it was so loud I was concerned of waking Barb if I went to bed. It was about 2:45am before things quieted down enough I wouldn't awaken her with battle noises.
 
By Thursday noon, the Panzer division had won and there was nothing left in my system, but still at 4pm I had to pour a bottle of some liquid into a large cup, mix with water, and drink it and 2 more equally large size helpings of water. 48 ounces (1.4 liters) in total. All at once.
 
Then I had to repeat that 4 hours later. That wasn't a fight with a Panzer division - there was no more fight in me, no troops to resist that liquid, which was a medical drain cleaner essentially. I slept on the sofa as I was up and down visiting the bathroom so much that I thought about writing limericks on the walls. Funny what you think of in the middle of the night.
 
That wasn't bad at all compared to going to the hospital. I knew it was real rather than a bad dream when the nurse told me as she closed the curtain around the bed in pre-op, "Take off all your clothes and jewelry and put on the gown with the flap open in back. It's best if you sit your bare fanny on the bed."
 
I remember thinking, "Women go through this sort of thing all the time, right?", and right on cue Barb came through the pre-op door and immediately laughed at my new attire, as she said ever so kindly, "Remember, you didn't have to do this, you're doing it to yourself." I appreciated her sense of humor if not her sarcasm.
 
The warm blankets they placed over me as they put an IV in the top of my right hand and a blood pressure cuff on my left arm helped me feel more comfortable, but I think it was actually a relaxing drug in the IV that caused me to relax. Then all the nurses started talking about where they were going to have lunch. I had last eaten 48 hours earlier. I laid there listening as they went into lavish detail about this restaurant's dishes and that new place someone tried out and said was amazing...my nurse even acknowledged their conversation and apologized, but went right back to join them - torturers dressed up as nurses.
 
When they wheeled me into the examination room they introduced me to the doctor, whom I'd met a couple weeks ago in an earlier briefing about the procedure, followed by 2 male nurses, then 2 female nurses. I knew time was close when they told me to turn onto my left side, exposing my back side to these complete strangers. I was somewhat comforted in the knowledge I was the last one of the morning and they all wanted to get to lunch, so we were agreed we all just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
 
I remember saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, you're about to boldly put a camera where no camera has gone before", and they all laughed and continued laughing as the male nurse at my side injected something into the IV in my hand...the next thing I knew I was awake and dry heaving with nothing to vomit, in post-op, with the nurses saying something like, "C'mon Mr. Fenn, wake up, we're hungry and want to get to lunch." - maybe they didn't actually say that - But I knew what they were thinking it.
 
In the mean time the doctor visited Barb in the waiting room, presenting her with 4 full color snapshots of the inside of my colon, telling her essentially I was as clean as a whistle and he will see me in 5 years. That detail was mostly lost on Barb, who didn't even want to touch a photo of her husband's colon without a gloved hand. Well, as I said, clean as a whistle at both ends, having lost 20 pounds (9k) but needing to lose 20 more pounds, and will talk of a heart reset in 6 months - that's where I stand.
 
I go back to the verse Lou sent me from Daniel 12:13, on November 22, "And you? Go about your business without fretting or worrying. Relax. When it’s all over, you will be on your feet to receive your reward.”
 
The process may help someone
After the Father told me not to schedule any trips the first 3 months of the year, I wondered why He didn't just heal rather than inform me, but then knowing His ways, I understood it could be healed by doing something within my area of responsibility, or was curable medically, or I'd just live with it.
 
I had shared last week after my January diagnosis of AFib  and high blood pressure I went home, laid my right hand over my heart, and said words to the effect; "Heart and electrical system, I command you to be healed in the name of Jesus. I command my body to obey the Word and me and be healed, reset, or systems do whatever is required for the AFib to be gone, and blood pressure return to normal levels, in Jesus' name." The next week at the doctor's appointment he listened to my heart, and the AFib was still there, along with high blood pressure.
 
When I speak the name of Jesus yet the Holy Spirit has not been sent by the Father to do the work that I am commanding in Jesus' name so there is no change, I have found it means I have to deal with the issue in the natural - you'll remember I shared about the basal cell carcinoma of 2007 that way.
 
I don't want to do the electrical 'reset' procedure on my heart unless it is the Father's process and means by which the AFib will be cured. Having done what I know to do in the Spirit and nothing happening, and seeing results with my blood pressure going down as I have lost weight, I can only conclude I have to deal with the AFib to the extent I wish to, in the natural.
 
The process continued - February's visitation
The curious thing is, the Lord visited me after my initial diagnosis but before my heart echo and colonoscopy, and I shared part of that visitation and accompanying vision in this space in February. In the visitation the most He said about my health was, "I'm pleased you are taking this seriously and disciplining yourself (eating/weight). Relatively few do in situations like this, in matters of the body. I'm very pleased. Continue with what you are doing." In other words, you've lost 20 pounds, you're on the right track, continue.
 
And then He proceeded to talk of what will happen in the US through next year, some things the EU will go through (I'll share at the Dutch conference), and things about the body of Christ. That was it - no laying hands on me to heal me - just a mention of my health and then right into why He was visiting me.
 
When you are in the Spirit the seemingly important questions you have while in the flesh don't come to mind. It is so natural, being in the Spirit, so normal, you almost don't realize it (remember Peter who wanted to make tents on the Mount of Transfiguration)...so it wasn't even a disappointment He didn't lay hands on me, the questions came after He left and I wondered to myself, 'Why didn't you ask Him to lay hands on you?"
 
That only re-affirms the conclusions above.
 
Final thought
I continue to worship and give thanks for the Father's grace, and I feel like I have clarity by His choice not to heal me directly, rather to let me go through medical processes. I am taking responsibility for that which is in my control, for by allowing my weight and blood pressure to rise to the point of obesity coupled with a genetic predisposition towards AFib, I caused it though I was partly in ignorance.
 
I did it to myself by eating too much, so the only way out is to eat less to drop the weight. As of this writing I've lost 20 pounds on my way to another 15-20, and my blood pressure is lower, but not quite at 120/80.
 
That doesn't help those who become ill through no known fault of their own, but if He showed me this grace for something I did at least in part to myself, I believe there is that same grace for those who in innocence become ill with a condition or disease. Seek Him first, not a cure, for the cure is in Him. Though we all have questions, part of faith is trust, and must be as Paul stated in II Timothy 1:12, "For I know in whom I have believed, and believe He is able to keep that which I have entrusted to Him until that day."
 
New subject next week, until then, blessings!
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 
 

New CD/MP3 Series


(2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)
Part 2 features angels and demons and how they are organized over nations and in regions and local areas, what angels can and cannot do for people, and if we can command angels to do something. John shares from visitations he has had an angel's perspective on people and the age to come, and what the Father intended our lives of faith to show the angels and also demons. Included are how demons are organized when they influence or enter a person, and what we can and cannot do about it. You'll gain deeper insights into the realm of angels and demons!

CELEBRATING HIM

CELEBRATING HIM

“The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -JOHN 4:23,24

The corporate Life of God’s people will only rise as high as the individuals represented. That is to say, if there is no spirit-and-truth worship in our prayer closet at home, we cannot expect spirit-and-truth worship when we gather together.

So often we come to a gathering expecting to “enter in” to a place in God. Instead, the gathering of believers should be the celebration and continuation of Who we have already entered into.


Source:“The Church in the Wilderness” by Chip Brogden
http://www.chipbrogden.com/books/the-church-in-the-wilderness

Like this? Share your comments:
http://chipbrogden.com/march25


I am your brother,


Chip Brogden
http://ChipBrogden.com

Watch This

 
Image
What is Scripture Meditation,
​​​​​​​and Does It Really Work?
by Chip Brogden

Rabu, 23 Maret 2016

RECEIVE YOUR INHERITANCE

RECEIVE YOUR INHERITANCE

“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of Life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” -REVELATION 21:6,7

As we look at the promises made to those who overcome we should see that God is not establishing some new order or special group which enjoys rights and privileges not accessible to the rest of the saints. This is not the establishing of new promises, but a bringing us back to the same exceeding great and precious promises which are potentially true of everyone who is in Christ. It is not establishing a new foundation, it is calling us back to the Foundation which is already laid.

Source: “The Irresistible Kingdom” by Chip Brogden
http://www.chipbrogden.com/books/the-irresistible-kingdom

Like this? Share your comments:
http://chipbrogden.com/march23


I am your brother,


Chip Brogden
http://ChipBrogden.com

Chiang Mai, Thailand Update

Chiang Mai, Thailand Update



Brooks
We are winding up our last day in Thailand. Just had breakfast with some of the folks and had a chance to recount all of the many reasons to celebrate what's been going on the past week.
With the almost 100 missionaries during the larger gathering, even though many got sick, many did not and the sickness was over in 24 hours for those who got it. Cultural shifts within this group are happening at a far greater pace than we realized which was evident throughout the entire week…which means they really are already seeing Greater Fruit and now have stories to share giving others hope that they can do the same. It's so exciting and a huge privilege to get to be part of this intentional and very passionate group.
Now, as they all head home, we ask you to join us in prayer for these busy leaders as they re-enter their lives.
For us, next up is Africa, leaving May 2. We would ask you to pray for the leaders we are working with there as we prepare to gather in Uganda for Story-Telling Training.
Sunday Night Market in Chiang Mai
 

How Do We Grow By The Holy Spirit Rather Than By Self-Effort?

How Do We Grow By The Holy Spirit Rather Than By Self-Effort?


If I could add anything to my book, From Good to Grace, it would be a whole section on how grace changes us. Grace, as I wrote about in my last post, isn't a free pass but rather a powerful change agent that teaches us how to live, motivates us toward treasuring righteousness, and supplies the power for the Christian life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Grace doesn't pretend sin isn't there; grace lovingly points it out and then moves us along through a process of confession and repentance.

In my own life, I've struggled to understand what spiritual growth looks like when its fueled by the Holy Spirit rather than my own efforts. Or I should say, I've attempted spiritual growth by self-effort for so long that I'm just now learning a different way.

Spiritual growth by self-effort has taken on a variety of forms for me, but it's generally looked something like this:

  • I decide I need to change. It's usually a behavior, such as being more consistent in spiritual disciplines, and it's usually something fairly general: I need to be a better mom! What is motivating me? Often I feel guilty or someone I admire has shared what they do in a certain area and I want to emulate them. Sometimes it's actually God convicting me but rather than looking intently at my sin and listening intently for His diagnosis, I immediately take responsibility for my own change. 
  • I do more, try harder. The mantra of spiritual growth by self-effort is always "do more, try harder". It leads me to develop a set of "steps" that I will take in the future to make myself grow and make myself better. 
  • I do good for a while and then inevitably fail. What happens when I don't do exactly what I set out to do? I am not only dejected but then must muster up the motivation and will to start over again: decide to change, try harder, and on and on. It's an endless cycle of stagnation and condemnation.
I cannot tell you how long I lived this way! Even after coming to an understanding of the gospel of grace, I struggled to understand what role I was to play in my own spiritual growth. 

So how do we grow according to the Holy Spirit's power rather than by self-effort? 

This past year for me has been one long lesson in turning away from self and turning to the One who can actually produce spiritual growth and spiritual fruit in my life. I'm learning that it's an entirely different process than what I described above. Here's what it looks like:
  • First, I can acknowledge that any conviction I sense is from the Holy Spirit if it is specific ("The way you responded to your son in that moment was wrong") and it is hopeful ("Confess your sin to me, and you will be forgiven. Confess your sin to your son. I will help you respond differently next time.") There is a vast difference between self-conviction fueled by guilt, comparison, self-made standards, people-pleasing, or condemnation and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If it isn't specific and hopeful (truth and grace), I'm placing myself in bondage. If it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit, based on the truths of Scripture, I have a responsibility to respond in obedience. I may cringe at my sin, but I don't have to cower before God. He wouldn't have pointed out my sin if He didn't love me. 
  • After experiencing conviction, the next thing I do is extremely important. My innate drive is always toward self-effort, so I must carefully place myself before God and allow His probing through Scripture and through prayer. Whereas growth by self-effort causes me to look at and modify my behaviors, the Holy Spirit wants to look at my heart. He wants to point out my idols. He wants to get at the root of my sin, precisely so He can cut it out at the root. This feels very uncomfortable, but I must sit in the discomfort and wait on the Lord to do the heart work needed for permanent change. 
  • I must confess my sin to God. I confess how I am looking to myself or to others to be my functional savior instead of looking to God. I repent of my sin. I trust by faith that God has forgiven me. And I spend time meditating and searching Scripture and praying on how God meets the very need that I'm looking to this idol to meet. How is Christ greater than the idol to which I'm looking?
  • I confess my sin to others. This is an important yet often ignored avenue for spiritual growth. It feels beyond risky to tell even the most trusted friend about the ugliness of my heart. I prefer to handle it all in-house when, in fact, God does so much work in me when I speak my sin out loud to others and receive the ministry of grace and truth from my sisters.
  • Finally, I must obey with the Spirit’s help. I cooperate with God by responding in obedience as He leads. I ask Him to help me, to convict me, and to recognize my idols in the future. Over time, as I submit to the Spirit’s work in my life, the root of my sin will wither and I will see growth. The key words are "over time". God's work in us is typically not immediate. His nature is to act as a careful and precise gardener: planting, pruning, and watering at just the right times for maximum fruit.
One path to spiritual growth is me-centered and demands instant change. The other is God-centered and requires persistent faith. Growth by the Holy-Spirit almost seems counterintuitive, but I can attest in my own life that I've seen deep and lasting growth as I've resisted myself and looked for His leadership. I pray He continues the work He has begun in me.
What about you? How are you growing? Do not resist the very One who can do it!

At V3, we're committed to equipping you to start a movement

At V3, we're committed to equipping you to start a movement.

We've published dozens of articles from real life church planting practitioners.
Below is a list of our most read articles from the past year. It's one of the best ways to get to know us better. 
These are the types of reasons that well meaning leaders use to motivate their ministries to move out missionally into new territory. But we cannot forget: where there is no call – there is no connection. While we all would hope for an expression of the Body of Christ in each of these intersections of community and cultural life, before we plant we have to ask, are we called?

14. "An Easy Way to Cheat at Disciple Making," Welford Orrock
We can all agree with Chesterton that there is a difference between good, honest, hard work and cheating, yet there are times we consciously or unconsciously blur the lines between the two for the sake of “success.” In every aspect of our lives, including ministry, when the ends justify the means, cheating, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, sneaks in a viable strategy for success.

13. "The Secret Ingredient Creating Unity in 40,000 Denominations," Tim Soerens

I’ve had the gift of traveling through hundreds of neighborhoods over the past few years, and almost always return home with a profound hope: not only for the church, but also for how many new church plants are becoming a unifying force within the greater body of Christ.

12. "The God of Cereal Aisles: Practicing an Everyday Pentecost," AJ Swoboda

God does not sleep in the parish hall awaiting his people to show up once again on Sunday morning so he finally can do some stuff in someone’s life. Quite the contrary: God is alive, dynamic, and goes shopping in all the cereal aisles of the world.

11. "Illusions in Church Planting," AJ Sherrill
An illusion is an error in perception. Over time we subtly rename perception, “reality.”
And it is not uncommon to believe we are living in God’s reality when we are actually steeped in personal illusion.
The tragedy is that church planters are equally as susceptible to living in illusion as anyone else. I know I am.
10. "How to Break Free from the Numbers Leash and Cultivate Gardens," Dan White, Jr.

Every church I’ve served has been led around by the numbers leash. Whether spoken or unspoken, it is how we weighed our impact. Simultaneously we always had angst about a lack of involvement, spiritual maturity and genuine care for mission.

9. "Words and Shovels: Where have all the prophets gone?" AJ Swoboda
Prophets are the church’s immune system.
Without prophets, we are left to the mercy of whatever sicknesses we’re exposed to from season to season. The prophet, like an oncologist, inflicts a kind of communal pain which, when received, brings healing. Their hard words bring a better world. Perhaps more than ever, prophets are in great need to revitalize the American church. For truth-telling is the language of a Christ who so proudly spoke of Himself as “…the Truth.” (John 14:6)

8. "Developing a Rule and Rhythm of Life," Tim Catchim
Although typically avoided, chaos is not always a bad thing. Under the right conditions, it can actually facilitate growth and innovation. This is why we often see a new leader(s) emerge during chaotic situations. In fact, one of the staple features of leadership is the ability to bring order out of chaos. Those who manage to facilitate order in the midst of chaos are often invested by the group with charisma. That is, the group deems such people as being worthy of following.

7. "Five Environments For a Thriving Missional Community," JR Woodward
One of the most overlooked elements to making missional disciples is recognizing how the culture of our group shapes us. It either pulls us down toward our base instincts or lifts us up to our redemptive potential. We create culture and culture in turn recreates us. Creating a missional culture develops a current within the missional community that enables people to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit and live missional lives. So what are the different environments necessary to create a missional culture?

6. "The Missional-Incarnational Journey," Tim Catchim
The missional impulse is the notion that we are to be a sent and sending presence in the world. This is the “going” of our collective vocation as the people of God. As a sent people, we are inherently movemental, which is to say, in Bible-speak “apostolic.” Part of living out the missional impulse is being willing to cross boundaries and engage people on their own turf as it were. The incarnational impulse addresses the issue of “how” we go. Jesus says to the 12 apostles in the gospel of John “AS the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” The Father sent Jesus as one OF us, that is to say, incarnationally. He not only came to our turf, he also came to us on our terms. He humbled himself and submitted to our human form (Philippians 2:1-10).

5. "Top Twelve Books on Cultivating Community," Dan White, Jr.
Community is not a fad it is the foundational apologetic in our civilization that Jesus is Lord. The credibility of the Gospel of Jesus is explicitly tethered to the quality of our practical and emotional collective life (1 Corinthians 12,13, Matthew 5-7). Mission finds its endurance in the ongoing formation of the vibrancy of the community.

4. "Missional Minimalism," Dan White, Jr.
One afternoon this pastor took me on a village walk and then we moseyed into his hut for what he called a “Pastor to Pastor chat.”
I was expecting a delightful spiritual conversation, but I received a gentle but pointed rebuke on American Christianity. The classic memorable line from my new pastor friend was “we don’t want your overstuffed Jesus.” Ouch.
Joseph Myers in The Search to Belong, with the help of sociologist Edward T. Hall, identifies four kinds of spaces in which we find a sense of belonging. Each church would be wise to think through how they pursue making disciples in each of these four spaces.

2. "Five Points of Bitterness Common in the Missional Church," Dan White, Jr.

There was one issue that I was not prepared to run into so regularly and widely…bitterness.
Over and over again, our team has collided with the thick smog of bitterness that saturates many conversations and any intentional gathering related to Christianity.  I’ve studied up on Post-Christianity but nothing could ready me for the discipleship challenge of very real and raw people being riddled with bitterness and cynicism.

1. "Top Ten Books on Church Planting," JR Woodward
One of the most frequent questions I get from church planters is: What do you recommend as the best books for church planters to read?
As an avid reader who has planted churches on the East Coast and the West Coast, and a person who is devoted full time to helping equip church planters, this is a difficult question to answer. I have sought to avail myself to most all the resources out there on church planting. There are a lot of good books on this topic. 

We hope you'll give them a look, and pass them on to other movement makers.

Enjoy!

The V3 Movement Team

Undeniable Elements of a Missional Calling

No Call – No Connection

There are many good reasons we plant new churches and develop new ministry efforts, such as:
  • To serve marginalized and under-noticed folks in our community.
  • To catch a wave of change moving into or out of our neighborhood.
  • To respond to new generations with new priorities and needs.
  • To pay attention to something we haven’t paid attention to before.
  • To take advantage of geographic proximity to a social and cultural hub, like a college campus, a growing apartment complex, a shopping center, etc.
And many more.
These are the types of reasons that well meaning leaders use to motivate their ministries to move out missionally into new territory. But we cannot forget: where there is no call – there is no connection. While we all would hope for an expression of the Body of Christ in each of these intersections of community and cultural life, before we plant we have to ask, are we called?
Recently I learned a helpful lesson from a friend who is a minister and community organizer. He shared that, in ministry and non-profit terms, there is a significant difference between a partner and a service provider. Partners know one another, love one another and share their mission together. Service providers furnish what the other doesn’t have or can’t do. In the former, the relationship is mutual and the field is level. In the latter, there is an inescapable power dynamic of giver and receiver which always inhibits meaningful relationships.
Moving missionally into new places and new relationships has to be in response to a call.

Call

A Simple definition of Call:
  • Profoundly loving someone you haven’t yet met
  • Profoundly loving work you haven’t yet done
  • Profoundly loving places you haven’t yet been
A call is the pull in our souls that draws us to people we wouldn’t otherwise know and to places we wouldn’t otherwise go. How do we know we love people we’ve never met and places we’ve never been? Because we know that we are fundamentally incomplete without them. Simply put: we need them. Not in a superficial, self-serving way. We need them in a deeply personal and spiritual way. We recognize that there is something about how we have been knit together that longs for their friendship.
In the Gospels, Jesus reaffirms the two most important commandments are “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And…“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39, NRSV)
We often communicate our love for our neighbor as an expression of loving God with our heart. This is easy to do since heart and love are so naturally associated. We say we have a “heart” for this group of people, a “heart” for this particular place, a “heart” for this particular injustice or suffering.
What if we followed the second commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves, as an expression of our desire to love God with our souls? Perhaps, one might argue, this is merely semantics, but I don’t think so.

Connection

As contemplative theologians have taught, not only do our souls long for communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but our souls are not complete until we experience communion with our neighbor. Answering a call to love our neighbor is an expression of our desire to love God with our soul.
Consider how that would change how you communicate within your ministry. For example, a church that sits across the street from a major university might begin a college Sunday school class and ask for volunteers who have a heart for college students. What if the leadership instead asked “Does anyone experience a unique joy and sense of purpose when spending time with college students?” By moving the attention to our soul, we can help one another better understand how God is calling us.
Answering a call is not going and giving to another who receives what they did not have before. When we answer a call, we are searching for a missing part of our soul that only the other can fill. We mutually receive one another in the wholeness of life and spirit that is mediated by the Spirit of Christ.

Community

This begins not by trying to identify the missing part of our soul, but by identifying others who will journey with us.
Henri Nouwen challenges an egocentric, overly-individualistic discernment of call by reminding us that we are being sent out two-by-two. Referencing Mark 6:7, when Jesus sends the twelve out in pairs, and Matthew 18:19-20 when Jesus promises his presence with two or three who are gathered in his name, Nouwen’s point is that no one of us can bring good news on our own. The good news is Jesus and Jesus is proclaimed through community.
Nouwen writes “it is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks words of truth, not I; Jesus who is Lord, not I. This is very clearly made visible when we proclaim the redeeming power of God together. Indeed, whenever we minister together, it is easier for people to recognize that we do not come in our own name, but in the name of the Lord Jesus who sent us.” (from In the Name of Jesus, pp 58-59).
Practicing discernment with the people you love and trust is the precursor to exploring the people and places in the world you need to meet in order to complete your soul.

True Selves

Discovering our call is difficult spiritual work. The normal state of our existence is disintegrated and dismembered. The world dismembers communities and fragments individual lives. We know the culprits all too well: entertainment, money, power, security, comfort… on and on. Each pulls apart, bit by bit, the pieces of our mind, soul and heart. Wholeness is a foreign concept to most of our neighbors who are alienated from one another and from their true selves.
In No Man is an Island Thomas Merton teaches that a result of this fragmented self is that we are constantly changing our minds to conform to the shadow of what others expect of us. In response to this he writes, “Others have no right to demand that I be anything else than what I ought to be in the sight of God.”
This begs the question, if I pursue my call in order to become who I ought to be in the sight of God, shouldn’t my neighbor be free to do the same? To put it another way, in pursuing my own call, do I enable or inhibit my neighbor from discovering themselves in God’s mission in Christ in the world?
Love that demands conformity of the other is no love at all, but an insidious form of control. However, love that frees and empowers the other to be fully themselves, as God desires for them to be, is the greatest form of love.
As Bonhoeffer puts it in Life Together, we must meet the other “only as the person that [he/she] already is in Christ’s eyes.”
And so we find the counter-intuitive, almost paradoxical, nature of calling. Discerning call is less discovering who I am and what I ought to do. It is about loving and encouraging my neighbor, honoring their freedom, that they might discover who they are in Christ. Their wholeness will become our wholeness as we share more completely together communion with God and neighbor, loving each other with all of our mind, heart and soul.
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Senin, 21 Maret 2016

One Story of How God is Working Quietly Among Muslims

One Story of How God is Working Quietly Among Muslims



Brooks
Jonathan is working among an unreached, Muslim tribe who live in his homeland in Africa. He became friends with a Muslim man who is a leader in a mosque. As their friendship developed, Jonathan shared not only his personal story but also Jesus' story with him. Not long after, Jesus appeared to this man in a dream and confirmed the truth about the things that Joseph had been sharing with him. Early the next morning, he went to Jonathan's house crying "with big tears" telling him about the dream. Jonathan continued to relate this story, saying, "After that it was very difficult for my friend to keep his story secret from his family so he shared it with an uncle who is also a leader in the mosque. This uncle told others in the mosque and small groups started even while staying within that mosque.” Today there is a disciple making movement within the Muslim mosque of over 35 groups. Those groups have helped their community in so many ways, especially with the recent floods where so many houses were destroyed. They brought food and helped the people who were really suffering by showing them the love of Jesus. Because of their love, many of them wanted to know more about their faith. "We do not call these groups churches. We call them Groups of Friends, because now they have come to believe that the Isa (Jesus) they learned about in the Quran is now also their Savior."
We are inspired by the hundreds of teams from this mission organization working in unreached and often unsafe parts of the world. With your help, it has been an honor to serve them this week.​

Telling the Easter Story: Unconventional How-Tos for Churches

easter story v3 2016
Many years ago, we invited a friend to lead some simple music at the Easter service at a community center. He was early, so he sat outside strumming his guitar. The next-door neighbors heard our friend’s music and invited him into their home to play for them. He told them that he only knew how to play Christian music, but they said, “That’s OK, can you just come over?” As they began to feel comfortable with the newcomer, the neighbors (educated, middle class, upwardly mobile) asked him another question: “Can you tell us what the Easter story is about? We don’t know the story.” Fascinating. Sad. Amazing.

An Increased Attention

Easter is one of the days when churches most frequently invite their communities to attend their churches. Some new congregations spend big money to advertise their services. Why? Is it because we believe that people have some historical memory of the Story? Do we think they grew up in church and hold to some traditional value that says “attend church because that’s just what people do on Easter?” I know that is still true in some places and among some cultures. Maybe new immigrants will show up because Easter is perceived to be a Western cultural event. Or do we imagine that there are people who are looking for a church home, and that Easter is a good time to give it a try? When I began my church planting journey 35 years ago, these things were mostly true. However, these elements, at least in secular cities like mine, carry less weight than they used to.

A Varied Approach

Perhaps you are planning a huge Easter outreach, and it fails. What just happened? Here are some things to think about:
1.     On Easter, many people who already identify as Christian, try to attend church. Not all have necessarily made a life commitment to Christ.  Many of these people will not attend new churches, but prefer to attend “the” church in town. It’s a good day for those churches to tell the Story. Pray for those churches, and bless them.
2.     Spring break is often the week before or the week after Easter for public schools. Many families leave town that week, often to visit family. Some attend the old family church on Easter. They won’t be around for your outreach. If you are a church that advertises, maybe Easter is a stand-alone special day, and you advertise a new message series starting the following week. You can refer to Easter and tell the Story again the week after.
3.     People who are nominal, and only attend church a few times a year, simply show up at the same places they have been in the past. Example: In a Catholic town, nominal Catholics try to attend mass on Easter. Don’t be surprised if they don’t choose to give your church a try. Are there other days and ways to tell the story? An egg hunt, an arts oriented outreach that focuses on personalizing the Savior, the main character and main event in the Story? Maybe a community Messiah or Last Supper enactment event? Easter morning is not the only possible Story time.
4.     If you meet as missional communities in home church, keep the word missional in what you do. Invite people who are alone, don’t know the meaning of the event, who are new in the neighborhood, who don’t have food…. to celebrate with you.  Eat together. Tell the Story.  Yes. Tell the story.
Discover More Ways to Tell the Story with V3 Coaches & Fellow Church Planters!

Why Israel Matters

Why Israel Matters
by Chip Brogden
“All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

A lot of people read the Old Testament and try to go back to living under the Law.

If that’s you then congratulations – you officially missed the whole point.

Everything that happened to Israel happened as an example – often, of what NOT to do.

And these things were written down in a book so we could read them and be warned (that’s what “admonition” means).

And Israel’s example, and the warnings written down for us, are especially important because upon us the “ends of the ages” have come.

That’s right, the Last Days.

The times we’re living in right now.

Yes, events that happened thousands of years ago were recorded to teach us something.

So take all that and consider what it means.

People from our past wrote a book that provides a social, political, and spiritual history of a nation all the way from birth to death.

Then someone hands you this book and says, “Let their example be a warning to you who are living in the Last Days.”

Would you pay attention?
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Not enough do.

But it’s right there, hidden in plain sight....

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST:
http://www.chipbrogden.com/why-israel-matters/


I am your brother,

Image
Chip Brogden