For #justicefriday ::
Greg shares about JustOne and the origins of Laundry Love People…
Lots of good stuff in there. Well worth the 25 minutes.
You can read my notes from watching it the first time.
What’d you think? What notes did you take? How will you take these ideas and apply them in our community?
Jeff Elkins shares about a recent experience visiting an attractional model of church ::
Recently my family and I had an incredible experience at a church in Baltimore. The church did everything perfectly.
- The front door was held open for us by a gentleman with a kind smile. I immediately felt welcomed.
- The layout of the entry way was awesome. Even though it was my first time at the church, and there were a ton of people coming in and out, the natural flow of traffic let me know exactly where to go.
- The welcome desk was well labeled and prominent on the left hand side of the entry way. It was staffed with friendly helpful people; and there were no lack of easy to approach greeters with clearly visible nametags standing around expectantly hoping someone would ask them a question.
- Beyond the Welcome desk there was a room full of breakfast treats and the smell of coffee was in the air (a huge plus for me).
- A greeter identified us as visitors and led us to the Children’s check in area.
- The Children’s Sunday School Check-In Desk was also extremely easy to find. Check-in there was great. One of the workers escorted us to the classrooms, explained to us the security procedures, and answered any and all the questions we could possibly have.
- The worship service was impeccably pulled off. The music was sincere, not showy in anyway. There were multiple worship leaders, but it was extremely smooth and enjoyable. The songs were relevant, fresh, and easy to pick up for someone who might not know them. They did a great job of trying to help people engage Christ without terrifying those that might be new the the church experience.
- The sermon was clear, relevant, and engaging. The pastor’s points were well thought out and communicated. My attention was held the entire time. There were no unnecessary rabbit trails or rants. It was challenging but not offensive, informative but not burdensome, fun but not ridiculous. It was a good message.
- After the service we went to get our kids and they were beaming. Yes…that’s right…our kids loved Sunday School there. Usually a new church experience will send them all into tears, but not this time. They couldn’t stop sharing stories about how much fun they had.
Seems to be a rash of books on the shelves these days that deal with personal destiny. Bruce Wilkinson adds to the collection with a part two of sorts to The Prayer of Jabez. In “You Were Born For This” Wilkinson gives a step approach to making miracles an everyday occurance.
At first the whole concept of writing a prescription for miracles was a bit off-putting. While it still has a strange feel to it, I was impressed with Wilkinson’s description of how to watch for God-moments.
He goes to great lengths to help the reader recognize the promptings of God. He also describes in detail very practical ways for noticing others, their needs, and how to intentionally reach out to them with grace.
“You Were Born for This” is an excellent guide those looking for a step-by-stepresource for becoming involved is what God moments.
For more check out: www.youwerebornforthis.com or www.randomhouse.com
From #thenines event, Skye Jethani asks, “Where does our legitimacy (in ministry and leadership) come from?”
So many good points. So worth the nine minutes.
If we were to take the things we measure our success by and apply them to the ministry of Jesus — a lot of times we’d have to conclude that he was a failure.
Quite often in ministry, people were leaving Jesus rather than coming to him. By the end of his earthly ministry there was no one left. He was abandoned by everyone. And yet his ministry was a success because he was completely faithful to his father….
We’ve got to get our attention off the tangible outcomes of our ministry as being evidence of our legitimacy and root it in something deeper. That something deeper is exactly what Jesus rooted his ministry in. Jesus said that his bread — what sustained his life — was to do the will of his father…
Jesus had his identity rooted in the fact that he was the beloved son of the father.
How different would our ministries be and our souls be and our joys be if we disconnected our legitimacy from the outcomes of our ministry and instead rooted our identity and legitimacy in the fact that we are sons and daughters of our loving father?
So where does your legitimacy come from? Is it the outcomes of your ministry or your identity in Christ?
Read more about the Daisy Cutter Doctrine.
So, I heard about a CRAZY idea while watching #thenines last week.
Someone has the audacity to think they can read through the entire Bible in 90 days! 90!
I have trouble reading through it in a year. (I even tried again this year and didn’t make it past January.)
Read the rest of this entry »
