Save souls, make them into disciples.
That is the purpose of every church and every Christian.
Do you believe in the Great Commission?
Yes, we’d say of course we do!
Well do your systems back that up?
Do we put the responsibility of the weight of the Great Commission on every believer?
What stops us saying ‘We would love to multiply where you are.’ The only way to do that is to overcome fear. Because fear is the opposite of faith. And if that has stopped you, don’t let having less not stop you doing more because scarcity brings clarity and if we make our vision and mission again. Serving the hurting. Saving the lost – We would see this as such an opportune time
It’s true we don’t know the future, but that fear can mean the moment we are in pauses the mission we are on – which is to make the name of Jesus known.
‘There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall…’
Is the Bible the result of human endeavour or a divine/ divinely superintended book? How do we unite the history of it actually being written by real people in time, then edited etc., with the claim that God inspired the canonical texts?
Leaders measure stuff. Previously it was fairly easy to see whether you were doing okay. But what if what we re busy measuring no longer matters?
I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend – to fight – for the faith that was once for all delivered to God’s holy people.
Crispin’s background growing up around church was that things would go great and the Spirit would move – the church would grow, but that was not sustained and that was often because of leadership dynamics, the way churches were led, with abuse of power at times, leading to unhealthy results. There are some concepts to be grasped here that will need a lot of time to think through the implications of. We looked at questions from the outset to open up the day such as; What do we mean by the priesthood of all believers? How do you figure out your calling? Why did priests, and particularly the high priest, dress in particular special garments? Why does bullying happen with the people of God? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? There is an old dualistic/ platonic view of what that means, which comes from Philo who tried synthesise various views with the OT creation picture. That only our spirit/soul/rationality are created in the image of God. That’s not a faithful picture of what Genesis […]
There is a single thread that links this all together and if we get it, it can keep us in the right place. HUMILITY The book pivots in 4:7-10 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. CS Lewis described humility as not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. The test of humility; When you work into a room do you need everyone to see you Do you always need to have the last word? Do your ideas always have to be best? Tim Keller The Freedom of self forgetfulness – based on 1 Cor 4 So look […]
James 2 & 3 Faith and works James wants us to link our faith convictions with our attitudes. Our WISDOM, WORKS and WORDS. But he’s not a linear thinker, one issue then another – these motifs occur in various places. He keeps looping back round in a cyclical way and intertwining them so we connect what we believe with how we will. Like going round a spiral staircase and passing the same thing over and over but from a different perspective. But what’s at the centre is not ‘WORKS’ but WISDOM. James is about living a godly life. And you can’t do that without godly wisdom. It’s like a tapestry and the threads are wisdom, in how you speak and live – woven together. Chapter 1:20 was about how we engage with anger. How to respond based on God’s perspective. ‘Your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.’ = Don’t assume your anger equates to God’s anger. You may feel you are angry for truth when in fact you are angry for your preference. He says ‘be angry and sin not’. How […]