The Map (or Where We’re Going From Here)
One of the hardest things to ever deal with our expectations. People are constantly forming expectations–sometimes they recognize them, other times they don’t. But one of the things I’ve come to realize over the past couple of years is that it’s important to tell folks what they can and should expect from you and what they shouldn’t, otherwise people will consciously or unconsciously make expectations and you will disappoint them. Maps are helpful in this way because they help people to know what’s coming up in front of them.
A map for us is important because we gained a lot of new readers during our “Journey in the Knowledge of the Holy” series. That’s a really positive thing. But to be honest, our tour through “The Knowledge of the Holy” was not typical fair for “Pursuing Glory.” I don’t know that I would change much about how I did the series, but it was a different style of writing in order to accomplish something different than what I normally do. Going forward, you should expect the blog to look a little different, in the following ways:
- Weekly or twice weekly writing, instead of daily posts (unless there are 30 generous patrons out there who would like to sponsor daily blogging at $10/per post).
- Less posts reflecting on the work of Christian authors
- More of a focus on Jesus and the Church He is forming for the end of the age.
If you haven’t caught on by now, this isn’t your typical general-audience Christian blog. My blog is devoted to preparing the Church for the harvest and the end of the age. I believe before the return of Jesus, the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be proclaimed in every nation on the planet and there will be a great harvest of souls unlike anything we’ve seen. I also believe there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit unlike anything the church has ever seen. These shifts will require the church to be simpler, reproducible, and organic and for her to a revelation of Jesus at a deep level. I call these shifts “apostolic Christianity. And its these ideas that keep me writing and posting.
So the map for the blog going forward will look different than the last 45 days. I hope to post a four part series about the nature of apostolic Christianity- what is is, how you recognize it, and why it’s important. The next series after that will be a look at the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian who resisted the Nazis and helped form an underground church in the midst of World War II. Finally, I hope this year to get to spend some time talking about the book “The Starfish and the Spider” and how it relates to planting reproducing churches at the end of the age. And in between those times, you’ll probably see a post here or there that some how ties in to the posts you find on my Top 10 page.
Finally, this blog is a community. The thing about community is you get out of it as much as you put into it and connections are really important. So, in order to continue grow together, here are a couple of ways to connect and build together:
- Follow Me on Twitter. I’m pretty active there. If you’re a regular reader, message me so I can let the rest of my followers know that you’re a person to follow.
- Subscribe to the Blog. Either by email or by rss feed. You can check out more details on subscribing by RSS feed here or you can hit the “Sign Me Up” button on the right side of this screen to subscribe by email.
- Finally, send me an email and let me know your thoughts about the blog so far. I love getting emails from readers.
Photo Credit: Compass and Map Mono by Ian Kelsall
The Knowledge of the Holy: A Follow Up (Part IV)
[ Editor’s Note: This is the last post in a follow up to our 23 day journey in “The Knowledge of the Holy.” Please stick around all the way to the end of the article where I ask you to do something really scary.]
Last week I started doing some follow up on our 23-day “Knowledge of the Holy” series. We’ve already spent some time looking at other resources that are similar to “The Knowledge of the Holy” and looking at some of the comments posted in the final days of the series that I thought were important to highlight. I want to finish this “wrap-up” looking at one other important thing that happened during our series: we gained a bunch of new readers a long the way.
This is no small thing. My hope for this blog has been that it would develop into more than a place for me to post my thoughts online, but into a community of people devoted to Jesus who would encourage each other to be the church God is building. Now, don’t get me wrong–we’ve had followers before, but through the past month more regular readers have joined in than have joined in whole years operating this blog.
Can I just stop here, and say thanks? It means a lot that people of like hearts have started to read. I know there’s a lot to read out there. The fact that you stop by means a lot.
Now, here’s the scary part:
In order for some kind of community to form, we should know each other. Some of you I know because you stop by and comment regularly (I’m looking at you riversflowdown, David Bolton, and David) but some of you keep coming back and I’m not sure who you are (I’m looking at you Menlo Park, California, Ashburn Virginia, and Mountainview, California!). So help me out! In the comment section below, write me a little blurb about you. Nothing too specific, just answer the following questions:
- What is your first name?
- What originally brought you here?
- If you have a blog, tell us about it and give us the address so we can check it out.
- Where do you want your walk with Jesus to be in the next 12 months?
So, to make this less scary, I will post my response to these questions as the first comment. But you go do it, too! Again, thanks for taking this journey with me. It will be fun and scary at the same time, I promise! 🙂
Michael Frost on the Power of Stories
So just to mix things up a bit, I thought I would post a series of quotes by Michael Frost. For those of you who don’t know Michael, he along with Alan Hirsch have been pushing leaders, churches, and movements to leave their comfortable lives and engage on God’s mission. What follows is a series of quotes from his message at Exponential East this year, as recounted by Matt Hill on his website, Matthill.org. I hope you enjoy!
People aren’t primarily moved or changed by bullet points or sermons. They are changed when you give them a different story to live into.
and
God captures not by force, but by the imagination of his fallen creatures.
and finally…
Encoded into the DNA of suburban American is “be safe”, “build houses,” “renovate your kitchen,” “send your kids to the best schools.” Left to their own devices they will be sucked into the American dream. The only thing that will draw them out is story….Stop only telling people that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. Tell them what it could look like if they lived like Jesus. Tell them the story of God and what it could look like if they saw heaven.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 