Food For Thought: Evangelism and Community Edition
Every week here at Pursuing Glory I try to bring together the best posts I’ve found that will equip the end-times church to operate in her God-ordained destiny. These are the best blogs, articles, books and other resources related to our purpose here at this site. Feel free to visit, comment, and make use of the resources found at each site.From Institution to Communitas
Over the past several months we’ve seen our house church change from a community of Christ following families into something a little more bent on discipling the nations. The implications have been messy but well worth the change. Interestingly enough, a lot of the thought provoking articles from this week are around those very same topics. And now, on with the links.
Love Others Bob at Logan Leadership writes about what it means to be a movement that loves others. Bob’s insights are short and profound, but they can be summed up with one of the mantras I’m always sharing with believers in my life: “History is defined by those who show up.”
Should We Increase Community at the Expense of Being Missional? Felicity at SimplyChurch has been tackling the very real issue of community development vs. mission that so many house churches find themselves in.
From Institution to Communitas Ross at theJesusVirus takes a stab at the community vs. mission question with this post, drawing on insights from the phenomenal book, The Forgotten Ways. This post shows the progression of a church from an institution to a family to an army and is a needed concept among organic churches everywhere.
Confessions of the World’s Worst Evangelist Steve at Movements.net writes about how the Lord has changed him from the world’s worst evangelist to a worker in the harvest.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
Books I’d Like To Read
Yesterday I discovered myself leafing through my copy of “Houses that Change the World” (Affiliate Link). In my head I added it to an imaginary list of books I’ve been wanting to read or re-read for a long time.
So I thought I would share my list of “need to reads” and see if anyone else wanted to share theirs.
If I had all the time in the world to read, here’s what I’d be reading:
- Listen to Me, Satan! by Carlos Anacondia
- The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Rolland Allen
- The Starfish and The Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
- The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
- Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson
- The Starfish Manifesto by Wolfgang Simson
(Those are all affiliate links, by the way.)
So, just out of curiosity, what have you been hoping to read lately?
Photo Credit: Stack of books, Ballard, Seattle Washington by Wonderlane
On Sonship (Part I)
If you’ve never seen someone adopt from a third world country, let me give you an all-too-common story: Very loving adopting parents bring a child home from a third world country. When they arrive home they give the child all the food he or she needs. But despite the generosity of the parent, the adopted child instantly begins to hide and store food. Food will be stored in the craziest of places for later use. Why? Because all of his or her life, that child has had to live in circumstances where he was the only one to look out for himself.
There’s no sense in trying to convince the child to stop, either. Even though the adoption is complete and the food (at least from the child’s perspective) is never-ending, it takes months and many times years before a child understands that the situation has changed and he no longer needs to hoard. Realities have changed but fundamental ideas about their identity as sons or daughters take time to shift.
Much of this is the same in the realm of the Spirit, as well. If you’re a Christian, you are an adopted son or daughter of God. However, it can be many years (and unfortunately, many decades) before some believers experience that same shift in relationship to God. They have all the rights and responsibilities of a true son, but they go on acting like they have no father. This orphan-like thinkings has dramatic practical applications for us as believers, applications many of us might not be aware of.
Over the next couple of weeks my hope is to look at the topic of sonship. For the time being, let me ask a question and get your thoughts in the comment section: How have you seen someone’s understanding of sonship affect their understanding of their walk with God?
Cluster Map
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