
‘The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time…’
Playing Your Part: Embracing Fellowship, Discipleship, and Ministry in the local church. The early church, as described in Acts 2:41-42, 46-47, provides a clear model for how believers should engage in church life just as much where you are now as they were then. It highlights essential aspects of a true church such as fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, and ministry. I have talked before about they each ‘devoted themselves’ (nobody but you can devote you) to the Word, Worship and One Another, they shared their Wealth and saw Wonders that made the world say ‘WOW!” As members of the body of Christ today, we cannot settle for less and must pray for and deliberately participate in these areas to ensure a thriving and unified church community. The Power of Fellowship Fellowship is the heartbeat of the church. Acts 2:42 emphasises that the early believers “continued steadfastly” in fellowship. This means they stuck at it, there were no church shoppers or hoppers – they were intentional and consistent in connecting with one another. As 1 John 1:3-4 reminds us, our joy is made […]
Including – God thinks of sport, how the church can connect with people well through it, how vital the church is for elite professionals, the highs and lows of triumph and defeat and how to manage both, the recent Olympics where so many athletes went very public with their faith. This is an incredibly encouraging and insightful interview and you don’t need to be a sports pro or armchair pundit to get a lot from listening!
What we measure determines what we think success is.
Most churches still tend to measure by the ABCs:
ATTENDANCE, BUILDINGS and CASH (Offerings)
These are useful, but not optimal – or even biblical!
Being BIG, WEALTHY and INFLUENTIAL does not necessarily mean a church is healthy (as we have seen so graphically and too in recent years).
HOW Does God measure success?