Food For Thought: Getting Back In The Swing 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.
This week marks the return of me to blogging after letting that part of my life slide for a few weeks. I’ve had a chance to hang out with some of the coolest people who aren’t part of our house church recently. However that time spent has taken me away from writing, so I’m going to try and get back in the swing of things. This post represents the best posts from the last few weeks. Enjoy!
I think that Jesus is most frequently the part of community that we leave out when we begin to discect a Christian community. Alan writes about Jesus’ centrality in a way that makes his whole discussions on the elements of a church more palatable than most similar discussions.
Two Vital Needs of Every Disciple
One of the things that gets left out of most discussions about discipleship is the necessity of being able to make other disciples. Here Ray writes about the paradox of following Jesus and leading others into following Him.
Change the Atmosphere, Change the Culture
One of the shifts that I’ve seen help people move from a static church mindset into a movement mindset is discovering the spirit of multiplication that the apostles walked in. Here J.D. talks about how that happens with a group people who currently have no vision for reproducing churches.
One of the common misconceptions in the body of Christ is that house churches in the third world are effective because persecution happening around them fuels evangelism and discipleship. Actually persecution causes the church to return to her organic roots and when she does that, she spreads quickly and naturally.
With the house church movement in the United States as new as it is, little has been written about what mature house church networks look like. This post has an incredible visual that says volumes about how a network of house churches can function interdependently.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
Food For Thought: New Media 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.
I thought I would try something new this week. I’ve always meant to include other media besides blogs on our “Food for Thought” posts. It just so happens that this week there are a couple of significant contributions from the organic church world that I think are worth taking a look at. Let me know if you find any of these helpful in the comments section, and if people find them helpful I may try to find more. Enjoy!
Plant a Church in His Projects?
Kieth @ the Subversive1 blog has been tearing up the internets with a series of articles on how to minister to the poor. Alan @ The Assembling of the Church references that post in this blog and he quotes a song by LeCrae that illustrates why church planting among the homeless and poor is absolutely necessary.
Pioneering Blog #6 Living with the Awesome Factor
Shawn is a prophetic voice that has been pioneering a church in L.A. amongst the creative community there. He’s been posting at Shawnbolz’s Weblog about the difficulties of pioneering, and this post talks about the difficulty of continuing to walk in breakthough throughout our everyday lives.
Guy @ The M Blog writes about the need for continual training as we pursue the establishment of God’s Kingdom. I think continual training is a must for anyone serious about Kingdom transformation. Don’t miss the excerpt from Curtis Sergeant’s “What We Can Learn from the U.S. Marines.”
Len at Next Reformation has been thinking deeply about Ephesians chapter 4. Here he quotes various authors’ and thinkers’ thoughts on the realities found in Ephesians 4. What I love about these quotes is how they tie weakness and vulnerability together with displaying the glory of Jesus.
Starfish Files Winter 2011 Edition
Starfish Files is an e-magazine put together by the leaders of the house church movement in Canada. Don’t miss the feature article: “Repenting of Dead Works for a Great Harvest of Souls.”
Neil Cole teaches on the true place of the five ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4. I love Neil’s emphasis on Christ as the source of all the gifts. There’s a lot to be learned here.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
The Benefits of Discipleship
On Wednesday I blogged about what discipleship was and how, while I’ve made some strides, I still have a ways to go. That post focused mainly one idea: discipleship costs you your life.
But while I was doing some research for that post, I came across another interesting thread of thoughts about discipleship that I very rarely hear anyone talk about. The thought is this: “There are benefits to being a disciple.” And while this is a pretty simple thought, it flies right in the face of religious thinking that causes to focus on the duty and neglect the delight of following Jesus.
So, for your reading pleasure, the following is my (probably incomplete) list on the benefits of discipleship:
- Disciples get a little bit closer to Jesus than the crowds of people (Matthew 5:1).
- Disciples get to follow Jesus where He goes. The uncommitted can’t. (Matthew 8:23).
- Disciples get to watch crazy situations that Jesus gets invited into and see what He does (Matthew 9:18-26).
- Disciples get authority from Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons (Matthew 10:1).
- Disciples get to become like their Master (Matthew 10:25). Note, not everyone likes this.
- Disciples are defended by Jesus when accusers come and He finds no fault in them (Matthew 12:1-7).
- Disciples are invited to become Jesus’ family (Matthew 12:46-50).
- Disciples are close enough to ask questions. It’s been granted to them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13:10-11).
- Disciples get to combine classic truth with God’s new revelation in a way that honors the Kingdom (Matthew 13:52).
- Disciples get to see Jesus revealed in all His glory (Matthew 17:1-8).
- Disciples get Jesus’ perspective in their confusing situations (Matthew 17:14-21).
- Disciples are told the truth, even when they aren’t looking for it (Matthew 18:1-6).
- Disciples get insight into Jesus’ plan, nature, and mission that no one else gets (Matthew 20:17-19).
- Disciples get to rest and relax with Jesus (Matthew 26:20).
- Disciples get taught how to pray (Luke 11:1-13).
- Disciples get critical direction during transitional moments in history (Luke 12:1)
- Disciples get to enter into joyous praise that the rest of the created order is experiencing even now (Luke 19:39-40).
- Disciples are those who have been set free (John 8:31-32).
- Disciples are served by Jesus Himself (John 13:5). (Note: This is the biggest paradigm shift of the age. Jesus, our King washes our feet and shows us that leadership in the Kingdom is a position of service.)
- Disciples bear fruit for the Kingdom (John 15:8).
- Disciples can be continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52).
Having looked at the list, I have to ask the question: “Why aren’t there more disciples out there?!” Now, admittedly Jesus does these things on His schedule, not ours. But for many the answer is the cost seems too high. Based on everything found here, I cannot help but follow up this list with a quote from C.S. Lewis’ book, The Weight of Glory:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Photo Credit: The Last Supper by Tacit Requiem
(P.S. This is an incomplete list generated from a word study. Feel free to add others that were missed in the comment section.)
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