Missional Living (Page 14)
Understanding what it means to be a missional church
‘Missional’ has become one of the most overused words in the evangelical world right now. Trying to define it simply has become a bit of a nightmare. It can mean certain things to certain people. Some are sniffily suspicious of it, regarding it as a hip, emergent type approach to life…
Eating like Jesus
by Andy Constable Jesus proclaims in Luke 7:34, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking”. It’s interesting as you read Luke’s gospels just how many encounters Jesus has while eating. There are over 10. It’s one of his main mission strategies. He uses the dining room as a place to teach, to challenge social norms and show up people’s hearts. Jesus’ actions around meals,…
Effective Discipleship For a Non Reading Generation
Great little post here on community-shaped discipleship in youth work by Josh Cousineau. He sets up 2 models of discipleship we might employ in our youth work; 1) giving them a chapter of a good book to read and discussing it together the next week, or 2) living life together in community, allowing…
Gospel Zeal
by Andy Constable Paul writes in Philippians 1:12 “Now I want you to know brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” There must have been questions flying round the church in Phillipi whilst Paul, their spiritual leader, was in prison. What’s going to happen to the gospel? What’s God doing here? Is Paul OK? But Paul reports that what…
Growing Indigenous Leaders
We’re really blessed on the ministry team here at NCC to have 8 individuals with different gifts, abilities, and backgrounds. We wouldn’t be so effective as a team if we were all the same as Mez. God intends for His church to be a diverse body of believers (Rom 12:4-10, 1 Cor 12:14-31), and the ministry team benefits from a similar diversity. It would be…
Hand Up v Hand Out….Fight!!!
Please take the time today to read this (here) thought provoking article from Compassion on the plight of the poor around the world. We need to be careful in helping people out, that we are not creating problems rather than solving them. Many churches need a radical mind shift in how we ‘do’ justice and mercy.
Does social action lead us away from the gospel?
Very often I am asked what my ‘position’ is on social justice and the gospel. Usually, I will feign a quizzical look before asking said person, ‘what do you mean by that?’ Generally, what they mean is how do I balance ‘loving people and providing for their needs over…
Taking the risk with your neighbours
I enjoyed this stimulating post on taking risks in reaching out to those around us. Read it here. Not sure of the ‘people of peace’ as a biblical concept but his fears and his approach to life as a Christian still resonate.
Doing Justice in Poor neighbourhoods (1)
A friend sent me this today about the gentrification of many poor housing estates in the world. His context is in the USA but i feel the force of some of this for the ‘locals’ of Niddrie and many who have been pushed out by recent redevelopment. Housing prices are so high here that even we can’t get on the housing ladder!
Redeeming Tiredness
by A Constable Work on schemes is tiring. The people we deal with everyday have some sort of drug or alcohol dependency and/or one or more mental issues. When you are building a relationship with someone from that kind of background you aren’t going to be asked very often how you’re doing? The relationship, at least to begin with, is very one sided as you sew into their…