Tag: Evangelism

CHOOSE to Change Your Mind!

I promised to put on here the fantastic jpg put together by one of our churches (Ivy Fallowfield) on how they want to live differently. This is a predominantly student area with a rep that’s hedonistic to say the least. Check out the challenge and invitation to live differently by this fantastic church community that meet every Sunday for worship in the 256 Bar on Wilmslow Rd. (And as I speak are going out every night in Lent to bless people on the streets into the early hours).

James White – The Christian Mind (iDisciple conference WCAUK)

There are few Christian warriors of the mind these days. Most retreat into personal piety or good works. We follow someone who died at 33. Don’t live a life that doesn’t offend people, if we don’t live as if we don’t care if we die, we will be impotent.

Building Life Changing Churches – Gordon MacDonald at WCAUK iDisciple

He was invited to speak at West Point. Saw that it was a place to train and qualify top people to go anywhere in the world and immediately get the job done, whatever the job is. How do you train people like that?   Do we show any interest in developing leaders? Not just the ‘anyone can come’ one. A West Point for church? The number 1 job for a Pastor = training the bext generation of leaders. It’s more important than preaching.   Heschel – We don’t need text-books but text-people.   Titus 2:1-8  Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s […]

J. John puts down Darwin the dog (humanely)

    I met with my friend @canonjjohn this week and was interviewed by him on my life story for UCB TV. The guy is a force of nature! Always a great encouragement. I subscribe to regular updates in my email from him (available free from the Philo trust) and was amused, informed and challenged by this one that arrived today – New Year, New Atheism, New Challenges 12 Jan 2013 It’s rather a scary thought that we are already over one eighth of the way through the twenty-first century. And even though year seems to follow year at an increasingly rapid rate, our culture changes even more speedily. One feature of the last decade that shows no sign of going away has been the rise of the ‘New Atheism’. It’s easy to dismiss the New Atheism as no more than a warmed-up version of old-fashioned humanism and in terms of substance there is little new. What is truly novel and troubling is the movement’s aggressive and bitter hostility to religious faith in general and Christianity in particular. A fascinating revelation […]

Matty Hawthorne – What’s the point of church

These notes from Matty’s talk at our new gathering at Ivy Sharston form our discussion notes for this week’s grow groups Church is about people with a purpose It’s not about a building Discuss: Why do people HATE church? One of the worst things Christians have done is make God boring One Internet thread Matty found described Christians as the most judgemental people Read James 2:14-20 Maybe it’s not about being more relevant but more real. We talk as if we have the monopoly on love – but the world wouldn’t agree. We talk as if we have the monopoly on generosity. People love to do good works and give. We should encourage and recognise that. Read Matt 5:14-16 What does ‘shine’ mean to you? The message version says be generous with your lives. It’s not (just) about the money! Discuss What makes a church a church? The Bible word ‘oikos’ we translate in the Bible as household is really a gathering of community, extended family. Is your grow group an oikos? What matters? 3 things Love one another Get […]

We don’t need Divine Rehab but Divine Rescue

CENTER CHURCH – Tim Keller  (Ivy GG notes – much of this material comes from today’s Ivy GG Leaders Day; thanks so much to all who made time to attend and for all you’re doing at ‘the church that meets at your house.’) I have been very inspired as I read Tim Keller’s latest book, Center Church. Check out the video summary at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZWlPUmVug I downloaded it on my Kindle and began to highlight in yellow important phrases and concepts as is my usual practice, but there’s so much there it ended with what looks like a Christian version of the Yellow Pages! DISCUSS: Do you read regularly or is that something you find hard to make time for? If so how might you overcome that challenge so you keep on growing? What have you read recently that’s encouraged, inspired or challenged you? I outlined my understanding of what I’d read in the book to our leaders as follows: The ‘model’ of church isn’t what’s most important. We have at one end (D.F.) the DOCTRINAL FOUNDATION. What we believe – and as […]