Leaders For The Harvest
Tonight I was on the phone with one of my good friends from Kansas City that I haven’t had a chance to chat with in a while. I was describing some of the wins we are experiencing and some of the challenges that are occurring at the same time. After two or three minutes, my friend gently broke into the conversation and challenged me. “You know what you should be spending your time doing right now is developing leaders for your third and fourth house church right now, right?”
I was dumbfounded (for a couple of reasons). I was shocked by how quickly he saw straight into the heart of some of the problems I’ve been facing. But more than that, I was shocked at how obvious what he was saying was and how clearly I had missed that fact. It seems that in preparing a church for the harvest, I had totally neglected leadership development in our midst.
But the conversation gets right to the heart of a problem that I believe we face in the West. Our ability to reach further into the harvest depends significantly on our ability to raise up new, harvest-minded leaders in our midst. We think finding the harvest is our biggest issue. We often forget that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Join me today in praying that God would raise up workers for His harvest here and where you are.
Photo Credit: Bosworth Battlefield (2) by Jams_123
Food for Thought: New Logo 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.
So call me crazy, but I’m really excited this week to include a new piece of artwork here on the blog that I think better compliments the “Food for Thought” feel. The previous graphic with some guy advertising grilled brain was fun, but maybe it wasn’t quite the “brain food” graphic that I was looking for. Let me know what you think of the new picture. Now, with no further ado, your links for the week:
Greek and Hebrew Evangelism Probably the biggest thing that holds back many in the church from missional lifestyles is the fear and confusion surrounding sharing their faith. This article by Ross contrasts a confrontational, idea-based form of evangelism (Greek) with a conversational, listening-from-the-heart style of evangelism (Hebrew). Ross’ message is that evangelism can be as easy as pointing out to those we know and love the places in their life where God is already working. I think this style has a lot of merit and it would be interesting to know how this has worked out practically in the lives of others. You can catch other great articles from Ross over at thejesusvirus.
Felix: Before and After This post by Keith Giles looks at the writings of a first century pagan and his view of the church before and after his conversion. While his words before his conversion sound harsh and his thoughts after his conversion sound more complimentary, the interesting thing about both accounts is that they each describe how the people of God should live and operate together. Get this at-once-unbeliever, now believer’s take on the the first century Jesus movement. Keith is a profound and challenging blogger that you can read more from at Subversive1.
Missional House Churches in America Part 1 Probably the biggest news of the week on the house church front is that the house church movement is big news! Several articles came out in major newspapers talking about the move of many Americans into house churches. J.D. Payne, a researcher and mission-minded theologian who has written and researched the house church movement, looks at the missional impact of this flourishing house church movement. J.D.’s research is deep and thorough. His case studies highlight the true potential of God’s people living out Christianity together. He blogs regularly at Missiologically Thinking.
TV Series on “The Kingdom” This is more of an announcement than an article you can read, but it’s exciting none-the-less. Those of you who have read Houses That Change The World or the Starfish Manifesto know that Wolf has a serious heart for the Kingdom. An understanding of the Kingdom of God has to be central to anything that God is birthing in this hour. Wolf has put together a series of television broadcasts that will be aired in Finland and then repackaged for distribution. Check out the broadcasts and stay up to date with Wolf and his wife Mercy at While We Slept.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
A Charismatic Approach To Evangelism
This post is part of my continuing series which showcases the strengths of other great bloggers. You can view other “Blogs I Wish I Wrote” by clicking here.
In today’s installment of BIWIW I’m featuring Lex Loizides’ Blog, which almost daily features a short story from the history of the church. Currently Lex is blogging through the figures that influenced the First Great Awakening here in America: Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others.
The BIWIW comes from Lex’s retelling of a several day period in the life of John Wesley where Wesley approaches evangelism only when he felt moved by the Spirit, much like present day Charismatics. I appreciate people who are moved by the Spirit to evangelize and have seen amazing fruit from the process. But if the truth be told, I think many Charismatics miss something in this approach. To find out how John Wesley faired, continue reading Lex’s post here.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 