Archives For God

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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This third post of my series highlights one of the most recent deaths that have not only impacted Western culture, but also our global culture because of her widespread fame and music – Whitney Houston’s death.

The third perspective on death that I am going to be exploring is the religious response.

Due to Whitney Houston’s widespread fame, there have been countless tweets, blogs, and news reports regarding her death and the response of individuals to her death. For example, Jessica Simpson tweeted, “I found my voice singing Whitney Houston’s music. Today I lost my idol.” Rosie O’Donnell tweeted, “Dear God … There is a grief that can’t be spoken.” And Busta Rhymes tweeted, “Can’t believe we’ve lost another 1 of our Royalty. Sister Queen Whitney Houston. God Bless on ur journey as u now stand with the Most High.”

These are artists and celebrities, who are not known for their faith convictions, but still seemed to express their grief through a lens of faith, whether it be genuine or merely language.

Due to Whitney Houston’s Christian background, her funeral, which was broadcasted live over the Internet, was probably one of the most Gospel and faith filled funerals that many non-Christians would have ever witnessed. From Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker addressing the crowd with these words, “We are here to mourn our loss, but to celebrate her life. God is in heaven, and with him is one of our angels, Whitney Houston,” to Christian songs, Scripture, and a sermon, her funeral depicts the way many in our culture are able to process tragic death through religious faith.

Join me next time as I explore another one of our culture’s perspectives on death.

 

“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

“People who love community always end up destroying community. People who love relationships always build community.”

- Ronald Rolheiser

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it. Essentially, God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences.

Today I would like to go a bit more in depth and define the different types of desert experiences one might experience in ministry. There are two broad categories of desert experiences. Shelly Trebesch calls them involuntary and voluntary isolation experiences in her book, Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader.

Another way of looking at them is: unplanned and planned desert experiences.

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