Series (Page 2)
The Reformed Pastor (4)
Here is the fourth installment of my updating of this immensely challenging book. My comments are in bold. Having explained the nature of what it means to be an overseer of the flock, he now moves on to talk about the manner in which a man must shepherd his sheep. He has 15 points: 1. ‘The ministerial work must be carried out purely for God and the salvation of…
The Reformed Pastor (3)
The Nature Of This Oversight Having encouraged us to take ourselves in hand before we are better able to minister to others, Baxter now goes on to explain what it means to ‘take heed to all the flock.’ Let’s remind ourselves of Acts 20:28 again. I will highlight the part related to today’s study. ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock…
The Reformed Pastor (2)
The Motives To This Oversight Having shown us in the first part that we need to ‘take heed of ourselves‘, Baxter moves on in chapter 2 to discuss the motives behind this ‘duty’. 1. ‘Take heed of yourselves, for you have a heaven to win or lose…O what sadder case can there be in the world, than for a man, who made it his very trade and…
The Reformed Pastor (1)
I am rereading this old Christian classic and I have to say it is immensely challenging and extremely applicable for and any all serious minded followers of Jesus Christ. You may wonder why a book of this title has anything to do with church planting in an inner city housing scheme but I can assure you that it is a treasure trove for those ‘who have ears to hear and…
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…
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…
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…