Food For Thought: Simple Church Sampling
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’s posts mostly focus on house churches (organic/simple churches). They represent a wide assortment of people who have different perspectives, but all of them have been practicing simple, reproducible, Christ-centered meetings for years. They’ve been my food for thought as I’ve been preparing to write a “Basic Introduction” post on house churches. I hope you enjoy!
Simple Church and Global Missions
The prevailing thought is that simple, organic churches tend not to be very engaged in missions, especially globally. I’ve found this incredibly inaccurate in our own experience, though I think it greatly depends on who makes up each church. (Posted at The Assembling of the Church)
Frank at Reimagining Church shares an excerpt from his book, From Eternity to Here, where he looks at the reality of Christ’s Lordship in the Church as a foundation for understanding how the Church is built. This is must reading for every church planter.
Maurice Smith at Parousia Network Cyber Cafe shares his perspective of where God is leading those in the organic house church movement. This is long post, but there are some keen insights about what the future may look like.
Guy Muse at The M Blog shares a true story about a church planter from Ecuador, that while true, is also a parable for those of us in the organic house church movement.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
On Sonship (Part II)
Last week, I began a conversation on sonship that you can read here.
Before we go too far, I want to make sure I frame this conversation in the right perspective. Most of what I hear taught on sonship in the body of Christ focuses on us understanding our position as an object of affection. And I whole-heartedly agree that good dads love their kids. We must understand God as our loving Father.
But there is a whole other side of sonship that I think has been lost to our generation. Sonship also has a set of priviledges and a whole different set of responsibilities. So, yes, you are a beloved son of God the Father. And that means you get all of the love and affection you can handle (and probably more than you can handle, because, hey, it’s God’ we’re talking about). But you are also going to enter into a realm of priviledge and responsibility that very few understand, because our society is not very good at raising up sons.
This realm of thinking must be explored because we are at a very dangerous place as a society and a church. Young men and women who have never been well-fathered are beginning to assume leadership roles in business and society. Believers who have been told they are only the object of the father’s affection are quickly becoming spiritual parents, but know little of the responsibility that comes with the title. A whole generation of fatherless and poorly fathered individuals are being tasked with becoming fathers and we must shift our thinking before we begin leading with an orphan mindset.
Photo Credit: Sun, Son, and Dad by lovelypetal
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.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 