My last post, Missional Because We’re Sent, discussed a meeting of people from around my area who were gathered to discuss what I think is the nature of the church. Specifically, that our “being sent” is not just an event – nor even a core value – but deeply part of who we are.… Read the rest
Lately I’ve been part of some exciting conversations about the missional nature of the church. In those conversations, I was recently reminded of an experience I had during a time when I was sent by my government to a remote location.… Read the rest
In addition to losing an hour of sleep between Saturday night and Sunday morning due to daylight savings time, I ended up reading, cover-to-cover, The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants, by Dr.… Read the rest
Yesterday I read three very good blog posts on leadership in the Kingdom of Heaven. The first, by Stephen Crosby, provides an answer to the question, What Does “Kingdom Government” Look Like? Stephen writes:
Kingdom government is not about authority and ruling.
When I write that I want to live a certain Scripture more, I’m really stating that I want to be more like my Father. Today I’m writing about a particular aspect of my Father on which I want to focus.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Felicity Dale, over at Simply Church, recently posted Why are some women passive in church? She posted a list of concepts that have been taught to Christian women as their role in the church.
Here is her conclusion:
A whole generation of women has been brought up to believe these things are true.
![Bartolomé Esteban Murillo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://synerchomai.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/653px-Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_1667-1670_Murillo-150x150.jpg)
I’ve been thinking about the story of the prodigal son lately, and of his father’s extreme emotional display. I’ll post the Scripture text a little later on. But first some context to why I’ve been dwelling on this passage.
You often hear that men are outward focused by nature: they are genetically programmed to be workers.… Read the rest
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been wrestling somewhat with the issue of gender roles in the church: specifically, the passages of Scripture that at first glance appear to limit women’s roles or to subordinate them to men.
The reason this is important to me involves my personal experience, my intellectual understanding of the New Testament, and my concern that the church be active in reaching out to the world around us.… Read the rest
One of the homeless men we’ve helped has been in the hospital for a while with pneumonia. He was released on Wednesday, and discovered that during his absence his campsite had been bulldozed (a local auto-dealer is expanding).
He called his sister, who lives a few hours away and hadn’t seem him in almost seven years.… Read the rest
What does God want us to do about giving money? For those of us in the simple church, what should we do with the 10% of our gross income that we used to tithe to our local church? The believers with whom I have been meeting lately are beginning to work through questions like this concerning practices that have been taught us in the institutional church.… Read the rest