Tag Archive - Faith

5 Steps to Being Missional

March 23, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts, Faith, Leadership, Ministry with 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, we covered some important concepts on serving as a group (click here for the article), but today, I want to go a bit more in detail on being a group that extends and lives out the love of God – a group that is, as Jesus puts it – salt and light.

“Evangelism is best done out of the context of a gospel community whose corporate life demonstrates the reality of the word that gave her life” – Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church

In this day and age, how do we tangibly tell others about the good news that has so shaped our lives? Out of love, we want to tell others about Jesus, but how do we do this in a way that doesn’t feel like we are shoving something down someone else’s throat? How do we appropriately engage others with the truth of the Gospel?

Here are five steps that will help us to better share about the wonderful hope that we have in Jesus Christ with our family, coworkers, neighbours, and friends.

1. Developing Trust

This is all about developing trusting relationships. After all, people don’t care what we have to say, unless they know that we care. This isn’t about trying to fake a trusting relationship, this is all about genuinely loving and caring for those around us so that trust is built up between us. This isn’t a bait and switch thing either, it’s simply about being a great friend. Doesn’t everyone need great friends whom they can trust and rely on? That’s what we need to do – be the best friend, coworker, neighbour, and family member that you can be. Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do, wouldn’t he?

2. Having Conversations and Living Life Together

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Re-imagining Your Story

March 14, 2012 in Books, Ministry with 0 Comments

Here’s a great quote on stories from Alan Jacob’s Looking Before and After: Testimony and the Christian Life

If we Christians can learn to think of our lives as emerging, developing instances of one (or more) of the various genres of the Christian life—as stories that move along recognizable paths, paths followed by our predecessors and indeed by our contemporary companions in the faith—we will be better prepared for the status viator, better protected from the twin dangers of presumption and despair, better able to see changes in the road as continuations of it rather than detours from it or dead ends.

A New Paradigm on Serving

February 17, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts, Faith, Ministry with 0 Comments

Since we all understand “serving” differently, my goal in this post is to re-envision or redefine our understanding of serving. In a way, if our understanding of serving is a box, then instead of thinking outside of the box, I want to grab an eraser and give you a blank canvas.

So I want you take a moment and indicate where you are personally at in regards to serving and where your group is at in regards to serving on this diagram.

The fact is, our lives are filled with opportunities to serve in every moment, and most of us are serving on a regular basis, without even knowing it.

  • i.e. When you choose to do those dishes, that’s an act of service.
  • i.e. When you choose to shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk as you do your own, that’s an act of service.
  • i.e. When you wave “thank you” while you are driving, rather than giving people another gesture, that’s an act of service.

However, especially in group life, serving has become a task, rather than a regular rhythm of our groups. Serving has become a task because we myopically view serving merely as a project that we do together, in a concerted effort, rather than something that we would do ourselves. It’s unnatural for us.

Now, I’m not saying, “Don’t get together to serve.” What I am suggesting is that we admit that there are some inherent problems in service projects as we’ve come to know them.

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Living as a Missional Community

January 27, 2012 in Church Planting, Community Life, Faith, Ministry with 2 Comments

One of the things that fascinates me about Jesus was that he was a masterful communicator. One of the ways that he loved to communicate was via word pictures.

Jesus loved to paint word pictures.

He did this because he knew that, through word pictures, we would be able to intrinsically understand and connect the truths that he was teaching us with our real lives today.

Two of the most powerful word pictures that he used to describe you and I were salt and light.

Matt. 5:13    “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Matt. 5:14    “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

When we read these verses, we, in our western individualistic world views, think that he’s talking about you and I individually – that we are individually the salt of the earth and the light of the world. However, when you look at the original language, the word “you” is actually plural.

 

You (the community together) are the salt of the earth.

You (the community together) are the light of the world – a city on a hill.

You (the community together) are the body of Christ, and each of us is a part of it (1 Cor 12:27).

Jesus never intended any of us to journey through life alone. Faith is not a private thing, it’s a community thing. We each have our own relationship with God, but it is in the context of community that we live it out and grow.

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Rhythms of Receptivity and Activity

January 26, 2012 in Concepts, Faith, Ministry with 0 Comments

“Growing in faith is not just about disciplines of study and withdrawal, as vital as these are. Certainly there needs to be disciplines of passive receptivity to hear from God and to know him in prayerful stilness. But there must also be rhythms of activity if we are to be mature followers of the Messiah.”

- Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

Did you Deny the Resurrection Today?

January 26, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts, Culture, Ministry with 0 Comments

Watch this Peter Rollins clip to explore what it looks like when our every day actions deny the resurrection and affirm the resurrection.

Peter Rollins is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. Peter gained his higher education from Queens University, Belfast and has earned degrees (with distinction) in Scholastic Philosophy (BA Hons), Political Theory (MA) and Post-Structural thought (PhD). He is currently a research associate with the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God.

Click here to see a list of the works he has published.

What are your thoughts on his rant?

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4

January 15, 2012 in Concepts, Faith, Leadership, Ministry with 3 Comments

Desert experiences are one of the hardest things about life and extremely difficult to navigate through. In fact, when we are in a desert experience, the only thing that many of us think about is how to get out of it – quickly and with as few scars as possible.

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it.

In part two, I described the different types of desert experiences that one might experience in ministry. Click here to read about it.

Today, I’m going to explore why moving out of a desert experience prematurely is one of the worst decisions that you can do.

The whole process of moving back to Canada in 2010, after pastoring in Korea, was a defining desert experience in my life. We were displaced and without a home, ministry position, income, etc for about 5 months. Upon arriving back in Canada, the first thing I wanted to do was get a job and start providing again for my wife and newborn, but God had other plans. In fact, out of all the resumes that I handed out, absolutely no one called me back for the first couple of months. It was hard at the time, but in hindsight, I can see how God wanted to keep me in that desert experience.

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