Spiritual Esteem

On my other blog I picked on some inspiring thoughts of Craig Groeschel around the issue of self -esteem. He points out that self-esteem is not Spiritual esteem. When working with kids in our north american culture I think it's really important to think in terms of what he call Spiritual-esteem. It's easy to slip into trying to raise a child's false esteem.

Offering video

These days most organisations let you know where any money they receive will go. In church I think sometimes we just assume everybody knows how the money will be spent or perhaps they check once a year in the annual report. So the concept behind this well made an put together video is refreshing. Offering plate video

What do you think ?

Location Location Location!

Just back from out light the night outreach at Church. We invested in a bounce castle. It was a hit with all the kids that came by. We gave out a bunch of goodies to those that came by. The bounce castle afforded us the opportunity of conversation with the kids parents. They expressed gratitude for a break from their trick or treat trekking.
Our location was dictated by the strong prevailing wind. We were situated away from the residential area nearest the church. I saw a lot of families and kids walking down a nearby street.
They seldom changed direction to walk our way. Our location let us down.
That got me to thinking too. Perhaps our invest might have been better used in another location altogether. Perhaps a parent or small group with families would have been able to reach out to their neighbours with the bounce castle and goodies. Something to chew on for next year !
What have you tried at Halloween to connecting with your community ?

Discipleship - go with the program - NOT !

Discipleship programs and curriculums sem to be a good thing - they bring structure to an otherwise messy process. But what happens when you remove them, or the DVD breaks down, or you have to move away from where the program is ?

Bill Allison has a good look at this here
(http://cupojoewithbill.blogspot.com/2007/10/escalator-or-stairway-part-2.html).
How's your walk/escalator with God ?For me - it's so easy to get carried along and not take my own steps in my walk. One step at a time is ok!

Change, growth and maybe, even discipleship !

As you can see our Church's vision prayer focus is asking God to change us.

"Oh God, make us a body of people so transformed and empowered by
Your Spirit that our community, nation, and world will see and know
Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life"

I think we need to keep growing otherwise we go stale, stagnate and get bored. so where do we go from here ... John Johnson helps us think about this ...

Walter Brueggemann was asked—“If you came into a room of ten of the brightest, committed, determined to change the world kind of pastors, and had one word of advice, what would it be?” Without any hesitation, he responded—“Discover how it is people change, and build your ministry accordingly.” I hear him saying—find what it is that more than inspires—find what transforms people, what transforms all of their
being, and give your best ministry to that. This seems to be what Thomas has devoted himself to doing in his latest book—and where the church needs to get
its focus.

Short cuts and other efforts at being efficient :)

I don't know about you but I'm always trying to do more with less - trying to be efficiant with everything God has given me. But when I stop and think about it - I don't think that's the way God operates. For instance wouldn't it have been more efficient for Jesus to go and heal Lazarus then raise him from the dead after he had died! Steven Furtick has a great observation on another Biblical short cut -

As God led the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery, the Bible
records that:
God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.
Exodus 13:17-18

God knows me much better than I know myself. And sometimes He takes me the long way because He knows that if He took me straight to my destination, I wouldn’t be ready.

Are you single and wishing God would hurry up and bring you a man?
Maybe God’s taking you the long way for a reason…to cultivate and prepare
and stabilize you.

Do you feel like God has got you in a place of obscurity and monotony in this season of your life?
Maybe God is sharpening your skills, perfecting your gift, and fortifying your character.

Are you praying a prayer that seems to be met with silence from heaven?
God is infinitely wise, and He knows what you need, when you need it, and He’s
navigating your route according to His limitless knowledge.

Sometimes God takes us around by the desert…the long way…
Because He knows what battles are ahead, and when we’re ready to fight.

History of Religion

This is interesting map shopwing spread of different religions.

It's all about who ?

Joel Osteen has been on News TV a lot this last week. I guess he was promoting his new book. A better You I think it's called. That might be good for You but is it the gospel or the whole gospel. I like what Paul Dazet has been writing. It's not about me. It's about God as the greatest commandment reminds us. The "me" only comes in the second greatest commandment and then only as standard for loving others.
thanks Paul for redirecting our thoughts in the right direction.

Grace first !

Grace is never far from my thoughts - it's something I need more of, I ask God to work into me, to give me a double portion of my grandfather's spirit (like Elijah/Elisha). As I look around there are a few pastors who stand out for me when it comes to grace. My senior pastor is pretty near the top. He exudes grace. In fact the tougher the challenge, the more he exudes it.
I had the opportunity to visit another church last weekend. The pastor, Brendan Witton, was spelling what they were about too - their DNA and he said they had to be grace-based.
In the gospels Jesus is full of grace and truth. Obviously we need both perhaps it is no accident that grace proceeds truth when Jesus is described in John 1

Church stepping out in faith !

Wow! Would you or your church have enough faith to do this ! Not something every church treasurer would go for ... but in God's economy ...

Being Missional !

Let's keep looking to join God in His mission:-


thanks to Paul Dauzet

Fathers !

Robin over on Robbieducky as he engages in parent ministry sets out a challenge for fathers. He points out that David was an awful father.
My question how could he fall into that way ? Perhaps where he was at with his sins, I wonder if he felt that he didn't have the moral authority that was his to discipline his son ?
If such a person who was after God's own heart be in that situation, we need God sooooooo much to help us guard our hearts and minds to these dangers. And of course to bring healing and restoration to us fathers, so we can be more like the father he would have us be.

No more counting attendence ?

I was meaning to comment on this before
Kenspeaks noted back in December that ... BusinessWeek's feature article in the December 11th issue is receiving quite the press. The article talks about Best Buy's innovative new approach to work hours and productivity. The experiment called, "ROWE" which stands for "Results-only work environments" judge people not on the hours they work but rather on what they produce.

He comments that Churches should be more concerned about how people are growing in their faith and not just concerned if people show up. In the article Jody Thompson the programs co-founder states: "For years I been focused on the wrong currency, I was always looking to see if people were here. I should have been looking at what they were getting done."
Jesus does say that by their fruit you will know them (Mt 7:20) not necessarily by their attendance. And pastors mandate is to prepare others for good works (Eph 4:11-12).
But the Christians are reminded to meet together regularly (Heb 10:25).
So I would suggest somewhere in between the two where we look out for each other as afamily of God's people and spur one another on for works of the kingdom.

Morris Dirks at CMA-Canada Eastern District Conference part 3

Morris moved even closer to home as he took us to the parable of the two me who prayed (Luke 18:9-14).
Our spituality - do we have Pharasaical Spirituality which has something to prove or something to compare ?
or do we have Tax collector spirituality ?

He posed a to-the-point question for us to ask ourselves as we serve others - What is the primary emotion God has for you ? Is it anywhere near love ?

Finally bringing it to an end he asked us if we were thinking - I'm glad I'm not like the pharisee - then we are the pharisee :0

Morris Dirks at CMA-Canada Eastern District Conference part 2

Morris knows where it's at. He was encouraging us to look at our motives and emotions as we serve.

What are our motives -

Are we compromising to please other ? (1 Thes 2:1-6)

Are we working to prove ourselves ? (Phil 1:6)

Are we staying on a pedestal that people put us on ? (I Cor 3:4-9)

Emotions
Let God be in touch with your emotions otherwise they'll rule you !

Much to chew on !

Morris Dirks at CMA-Canada Eastern District Conference part 1

Morris Dirks laid it out for us and was a BIG encouragement. In Isaiah 43, 100 years before the babylonian captivity, God was sowing seeds of hope for when they would be exile.
In that place of captivity Isaiah points to

NOT the CAPTOR but the CREATOR(v 11-14)
Not to look at the chains or things that bind us but our creator.

NOT the PAST but the FUTURE (v16-19a)
forget the great things God has done already and all our garbage, He's going to do a new thing.

NOT the DESERT but the STREAMS(v19b-20).

It was totally encouraging. thanks Morris.

I'm the 231,544,348 richest person in the world

I've checked out the www.globalrichlist.com and I'm in the top 3.8% of world's richest people. What a responsibility!

How rich are you compared to the rest of the world !

What are we doing ? let's think about this !

From http://pathwaypaloalto.blogspot.com/2007/02/church-20-series-incarnational-living.html via http://weallspeak.blogspot.com/2007/02/redesign-what-is-our-focus.html

Think for a second about what Jesus did for us. He became one of us, lived with us, then died and rose again from the dead for us. That’s the method he used to reach us. He made himself known and showed His love to us. Jesus modeled incarnation as a way of ministering to the world. He showed us the power of going to a group of people and loving and serving them as one of them.He also revealed this as the method we should use when he gave the disciples this command in Matt. 28, “Go into all the world…”

But Jesus isn’t the only one to reveal this method! Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23… 19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

This is the way the Bible reveals to us to reach people! It tells us these simple instructions: Go to people in a way they can understand. Serve them. Love them. Tell them the truth. That’s it! This is the incarnational way to reach people.

But for some reason many churches focus on the opposite way to reach people: Make them come to you. Make them become like you and learn your lingo. Get them to serve the church. Get them to love the church. If they can do all that they’ll learn how to be saved!This is the attractional way to reach people. Do you see how opposite these two ways are

to learn or unlearn that is the question :)

Have you thought about unlearning some things. There come a realization that sometimes what we think or more the way we think is not the best way. So what's the choice - keep on keeping on with the less than best way - I guess some people can do that or to unlearn the less than best way and learn a better way.


Bob Roberts shares 9 things he's learning and unlearning

Bob Roberts on church and mission:9 Things I'm Learning and Unlearning

I'm learning … that mission begins with Christology not ecclesiology. Following Jesus leads us to mission, which leads to churches gathering.

I'm unlearning … my assumption that starting churches naturally leads to mission. It doesn't. Churches default to self-focus unless a commitment to be like Jesus in the world comes first.

I'm learning … that being glocal means decentralizing power, decision making, information, all of it. The kingdom of God means ministry opportunities are available to almost everyone.

I'm unlearning … the American church's traditional focus on a super-star speaker, worship leader, educator, and shepherd, which serves mainly to attract spectators rather than igniting the power of everyone else.

I'm learning … that we serve not to convert but because we have been converted. We serve because Christ has changed us and made us servants to people who are hurting and lost.

I'm unlearning … the assumption that "Christian" is defined primarily as acknowledging a moment of conversion. Becoming a follower of Jesus depends on what happens after that.

I'm learning … to love people, which means to see them healed, educated, and given the same opportunities that we have.

I'm unlearning … that the Christian faith is all about heaven. I believe the church has denied the future by just waiting for the Second Coming. We need a story that includes the future.

I'm learning … the kingdom will be established not by human power or entertainment, but by realizing God's concern for humanity and the whole of society.

What are you learning or unlearning ?

wow What an almost great Opportunity !

WOW- free Foxfaith movie premieres at church by Satelite for free - BUT NOT in Canada - that's too bad for us but for the US it is a wow - I think - what do you think !

Make a commitment to Jesus ?

Over this weekend it's struck me directly and indirectly - that we ask people to commit to Jesus - (even sometimes to church) but is that what God wants from us - a commitment to Him ?
Some of the old hymns can teach us about this
I Surrender All
When I survey the Wonderous Cross
Just as I am
Someone commented that when you defeat an enemy you don't ask for his commitment to your cause, you ask for his complete surrender. Are we short changing those we invite into a relationship to Christ ?

Not so discouraging divorce rates

Todd Rhoades picks up on Bradley Wright's analysis of recent stats and shows that Church goers don't have the same rate of divorce as non-church goers. However does point out that the results on not totally conclusive.
But this is not so discouraging as saying church goers are no different from non-church goers :)