Category: Connecting to God
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There’s power in sacrifice
A woman is walking around at the CIA command center somewhere overseas. They’ve been tracking a rogue agent and are hot on his trail. Her cellphone rings. “Pamela Landy,” she says. “This is Jason Bourne,” the caller says. They go on to exchange important spy-like details and cleverly written dialogue. He wants to meet. She…
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A power trifecta of amazing posts!
Every once in a while you need an over-the-top title, don’t you? But seriously, there are three bloggers who have has some amazing posts recently. And in my goodness, I’m going to point you right to them. First, recording artist extraordinarre Shaun Groves tells a story in three parts (one, two, and three) you’ve got…
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Do two things well
In one way of looking at it, church exists for two things: a message – to tell the world of God’s love. To share they have a way, a hope. a movement – to be the incarnation of that love in the world. Here and now. An exciting thing has happened over the past…
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My next steps (part four)
Here’s my final “next step” thought from the class I took with Alan. I’ll process more of the ideas from the class later, but these are simply a few of the things I need to apply from the time personally. As with any classroom environment, it’s easy to get stuck in the theory and never…
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My next steps (part three)
The third post in my series of next steps I’m taking after a class with Alan Hirsch. Read the first two here and here. Gospels – Most of the communities we talked about centered most of their learning around the Gospels. We get most of what we know about God from Jesus, so we need…
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My next steps (part two)
Continuing from the last post, here’s another next step I’m taking after finishing up The Forgotten Ways. Practices – The Western church is all about knowledge. If we KNOW enough, we’ll start DOING the right things, right? It hasn’t really worked, has it? I love how some churches we discussed have embraced practices instead of…
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My next steps (part one)
So I haven’t blogged much about The Forgotten Ways since last Monday’s class. The week flew by! But I will be writing more about some pieces soon. We finished with the classroom portion last Friday. I’ll just say it was a powerful week – listening to Alan, processing the ideas, hearing other people’s stories and…
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More traffic?
(This post originally ran here in May of last year. It’s re-running because it fits with some of the recent conversation. Consider it a “Best of.”) Check out these excerpts from Seth’s Blog: “So, here’s your choice: You can have a billboard in Times Square (seen by 2 million people a day), or you can…
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The Forgotten Ways – Day one, part one
Here’s a quick list of a few things that stood out to me from the first day of class. Before you read, know this: I can’t include everything, so you’re getting a limited context. Read the books! Also, Alan is great at helping a group understand a problem so they see the need for a…
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This week – a look at how we ‘do’ church
I’m taking a one-week intensive with Alan Hirsch here at Fuller. I thought a class meeting from 8:30 – 4:30 would be overwhelming and tiring, but I’m loving it! My biggest challenge is thinking critically enough to push back and engage well in conversation, because I honestly agree with most, if not all of what…
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When business books won’t solve your church’s problem
Leadership Journal has a powerful interview with Phil Vischer, former head of Big Idea Productions – creators of Veggie Tales. Due to a court decision, he had to declare bankruptcy and sell it all in 2003. He talks about what he thinks went wrong and what success should look like for a Christian ministry. Looking…
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Discipleship – for unbelievers
Check out what Erwin McManus has to say about discipleship in this video. Here are a few of his points: “Christians love to be discipled, get more and more information so I can know more and more about God without actually having to do anything about it. And when you look at the scriptures, what…
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Wanna be on mission? There are two places to look.
You may have heard it before: “everyone’s a minister.” But what if I told you that everyone has two ministries? In life, there are two ministry areas we need to be engaged in. They’re both important, but typically we focus on one and leave the other to chance. You’ve seen it before: The pastor who…
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Yes. Yes. And Yes.
One of the things I’m learning is how to live with the tension of opposites. I like to narrow things down and simplify them. What’s the best way? How can we improve this? What’s the one thing we need to focus on? But sometimes things don’t work that way. Take, for instance, church. Being in…
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What really matters in church
There’s a lot of talk in the church world about doing everything with excellence. That’s important. Many leaders have focused on it because for many years it was totally neglected in the church (still is in some places). It just didn’t matter. While culture improved how it communicated, the church stayed stuck in the same…
Jon Sampson 