We Need Someone to Move In
Convicting:
Y’all can film blogs about the validity of multi-site churches,
Or whether or not a video feed is or ain’t biblical.
You know that’s a first world problem, right? Affecting 1/10 of 1% of y’all?
Meanwhile, around these parts, we’re canceling quinceañeras,
‘Cause lil’ mama’s going to be one
We ain’t got time to worry about free wifi, or whether to protect our web key.
Homie, my son idolizes a pimp.
Help me megachurch pastor,
There go your elephant in the room,
You don’t get it, do you?
The culture is us, it’s you.
You are a participant.
How could you possibly be the solution?
We need someone to move in.
The Savior moved in – this is your city.
He walked the streets of your soul, read your graffiti.
Now you, in the same vein, move in.
You pray that Gospel prospers,
‘Cause if it prospers, then you too will.
HT: Z
“In Tenderness”
Great song by Citizens:
In tenderness
He sought me
Weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again
While angels in His presence sang,
until the courts of heaven rang.
Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God
Grace that brought me to the fold of God.
He died for me while I was sinning
Needy and poor and blind
He whispered to assure me: “I’ve found thee; thou art Mine”
I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice.
Upon His grace I’ll ponder, and sing anew His praise
With all adoring wonder, His blessings I retrace
It seems as if eternal days, are far too short to sing His praise.
More than our Used Clothes, Our Presence
We don’t need more parachurch [organizations], we need to be planting [churches].
Dr. John Perkins’ words are convicting:
[The] next step…is for us to…place ourselves in proximity to the suffering and the people being neglected…. The church needs to be planted there, we need more than just a welfare system there…. We need congregations there because people need more than [our] used clothes; they need more than that, they need our presence.
Watch the rest:
Thankful I’m part of a church that believes this. Grace.
What’s Wrong with Your Marriage?
Your own sin.
A new video:
Perseverance and Church Planting
Good thoughts on church planting from Josh Montague:
Love the Gospel + Love your City + Love the Church. And then hang on tight.If you love the Gospel and the Church, but not the City, you’ll quickly become grumpy and whine about the wickedness of the City and the impenetrability of Satan’s stronghold.If you love the City and the Church, but not the Gospel, you may do some really good social work, but Jesus will be be noticeably absent.If you love the Gospel and the City, but not the Church, you’ll build a para-church ministry that may or may not last, but will more than likely fade away when you do.*If you love the Gospel, the City, and the Church, but don’t persevere, you’ll quickly become disenchanted with the mission and give up.
batPhone > iPhone
Mission Forms Community
Matt Carter’s thoughts on missional community:
“What if, instead of the goal just being community, the goal became mission and through mission community was formed? When we aimed for just community, we rarely got community and we never got mission. But if we aimed for mission, we got mission and community formed out of that.”
Jonathan Dodson recently wrote a post on missional community that I found encouraging and convicting.
- Building Missional Community Requires Stretched Grace
Try to avoid making mission a new benchmark of religious performance. Instead, motivate people with grace: grace preached and grace embodied.- Community Is What You Make of It
Community isn’t an idea; it’s real people, awkward, struggling, weird, different, funny, slow, arrogant, sheepish, humble, curious, skeptical, excitable. You get the idea. Jesus didn’t die to make cliques. He died and rose to form diverse communities. . . . There’s nothing like pursuing difficult people, being loved by different people, and serving alongside a diverse people.- Labor for the Lord of Mission not the Fruit of Mission
With all the missional hype, our faith can easily slip from trusting in the Lord of the harvest to trusting in the fruit of our labors. . . . Jesus is not only a model of missional endurance, he’s also the hope for missional endurance.
HT: Z
