Blog (Page 73)
Thirsting For God (2)
Some time ago I posted on a book I have been reading by Gary L Thomas called: ‘Thirsting For God’. This is the second part of a review of my findings thus far. Consider this long, but interesting quote. ‘Replacing a vice with a virtue can be used to change our social environments. I once worked in a grocery store….and the backbiting and slander…
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (10)
Prayer Stetzer’s 10th mark is ‘Appreciating & Participating in Ancient Patterns’ (p140) but I have gone with prayer. Without prayer we are lost. It is the engine room of any planting ‘strategy’. When I first arrived at NCC it did what all good churches do – it had a midweek ‘prayer meeting’. I say prayer but it was more…
I Don’t believe that MY God would……
This is a thoughtful little clip which should give us all pause for thought. I sat in a room this week and the conversation moved to ‘women pastors’ ‘homosexuals; ‘hell’ ‘the truthfulness of the Bible’. Nearly every person involved used the phrase ‘I…
Judgement is Coming Tomorrow!!!
So, this could be one of my last blogs. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvaE6A0_jA&feature=related]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (9)
Leading Teams Teams are important for planting churches. The lone ranger approach just doesn’t cut it, particularly in council housing estates. Often, men ask me for my opinion on planting churches and one of the first questions I ask is this: ‘What is your main spiritual gifting?’ Almost 100% of the time the answer is Bible teacher, or preacher. Great gifts but wrong…
Handling Criticism
A handy little article that deserves careful thought. http://headhearthand.posterous.com/4-ways-to-benefit-from-criticism
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (8)
Living Community I find the whole concept of ‘community’ fascinating. It’s suddenly become very fashionable in ‘forward thinking churches’ (as they very ‘forwardly’ like to call themselves) to throw this whole concept around like a big beach ball. The problem being that people like to bat the thing about but nobody wants to keep it hold of it very long because it is a bit…
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (7)
Connecting With technology ‘Technology is so much a part of our cultural experience that it’s not optional for a church reaching emerging generation’. (P141) Stetzer refers to a couple of churches that, in his mind, use technology to good effect in their services. One is www.cornerstone-sf.org who, apparently, like to project stained glass images on to surfaces where…
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (6)
Visualising Worship According to Stetzer, worship has become more visual. When we (at his church) sing of blood we show blood. When we sing of Christ, we use art from the ages to show Christ.’ (P140). I found this fascinating. In the conservative circles in which I was saved it was noticeable that I never found any images, crosses or anything remotely ‘religious’…
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (5)
Preaching narrative Expository Messages There is an increasing argument (in some circles) that the so-called ‘moderns’ of the last century responded well to more ‘concrete’ biblical messages (on passages like the Epistles, for instance). Whereas, the postmodern mindset responds far better to the story telling approach to biblical preaching. Certainly, when we look at the…