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.
Wolves in the House: A Prophetic Dream
[Editor’s Note: From time to time I hope to publish dreams that are relevant not only to our house church but to the larger body of Christ. This dream which was shared in the meeting mentioned in my last post, was shared by Aroea, a member of our house church. You can check out my thoughts below.]
[My husband and I] were living in a nice house in a small town. A large car dealership had bought out a small business much to the town’s protest. The dealership assured the town that it would be fine and said they would keep the manager of the local business on as an act of good will. The towns people gave in but the dealership didn’t keep their word with the manager. In addition they were keeping a large pen of wolves in the town next to the fancy dealership. The people began to protest again. It was as if this had
happened before.
The slick talking agent from the dealership once again assured the people that everything would be fine and that the wolves were harmless. I knew differently. I also knew that the cattle in the fields were protected and so the wolves would be rummaging through our garbage cans and trying to get into our homes. I began to go around my house locking the doors. There were three doors upstairs and one downstairs. As I went around locking the doors I saw a black wolf cub in the backyard. He was beautiful against the snowy backdrop. I hurried downstairs to lock the last door and then started cleaning. Upon entering the storage room though I found the little wolf cub had made it into my house through the vents and was rummaging through my Christmas gifts. He’d also torn open a package of animal crackers. I quickly alpha-rolled the cub and made it lay in my arms, on it’s back like a baby.
Soon a couple people from town showed up and wanted to put me on the news. They were hoping to rally people against the dealership by showing how the wolf had made it’s way into my house. However I warned them we couldn’t. I knew that putting the cub on TV would actually work against us because it was so cute. The dealership would be able to argue that it had done no real damage and show how easily I had handled the cub. It would actually invoke sympathy for their cause. I was adamant that we could not fight them that way or it would backfire. I also knew that no matter how cute the cub looked (even to me) it was going to grow large and fierce.
Editor’s Thoughts: One of the things that struck me about this dream was the danger that false teachers and prophets will pose to the whole body of Christ at the end of the age. Obviously the wolf is a symbol of heresy that starts out small and “cute” but can grow into something much more dangerous. These wolves could get in through the smallest openings in a house (spiritual family) and prove deadly. The obvious argument (especially in early stages) is that these wolves are cute and harmless, but this lulls the people into a false sense of security.
How should we prepare to deal with false prophets, false teachers, and heresy? What does this mean for you and the church you are a part of? Is the Lord speaking to you about anything in this dream? The answers to any of these questions can be left by clicking “Leave A Comment” below this article.
Antioch 2009, All Things Starfish, and Haven In The Hood
About two years ago Christy and I by the providence of God found ourselves at the Tribal Gathering hosted by Rock International. While Christy and I try to make a habit of going to the Tribal Gathering as often as possible, this year God seemed to have something up His sleeve. A work schedule that should have been impossible to navigate opened up and we found ourselves in the middle of a series of meetings that blew our minds.
The Rock’s guest that year was Wolfgang Simson, a German missions expert who wrote the mind-bending book, Houses That Change the World. To make a long story short, my life was dramatically shifted during that weekend in a way that’s hard to explain. Wolfgang unveiled his vision for multiplying house church movements being used to win masses for Jesus at the end of the age. He likened the process to a starfish, which can be multiplied many times over but never dies throughout the process.
Without going into a ton of detail, this “Starfish Vision” called for a gathering of believers to meet in Antioch in 2009 to gather before the Lord and repent for having missionary agendas that were not the Lord’s. This meeting, however, was only to serve as a springboard to a more significant gathering where house church leaders from around the world would gather to hear God’s plan for gathering in the last great harvest. I think it may look something like this.
Needless to say I was intrigued by the idea of the Antioch meeting and never forgot about it. Well, two years have come and gone and this meeting finally occurred. In the last few weeks, several of those who were there have written about what happened. You can read Guy Muse’s very personal observations here. You can get Tony Dale’s perspective here. And last but not least get the thoughts of the guy who called the whole thing together (Wolf) here.
And as if that wasn’t enough at the gathering, Wolfgang and Mercy released the finalized version of the Starfish Manifesto. The Starfish Manifesto is the culmination of a couple of years of waiting on the Lord, hearing His voice, and pairing apostolic strategy with prophetic insight. I have not read this version, but the early version I saw was amazing and challenged me to go deeper in the things that God started in me that weekend two years ago. You can download the final version of the Starfish Manifesto here.
And finally, turning our attention from Antioch back a little closer to home, I want recommend to my readers a new blog “Haven In The Hood.” The blog features two new friends of ours who moved out of suburbia and into a neighborhood not too far from us. The blog is their story about creating a little place of refuge where many think none could be had. You can check them out here.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 