Church Survival: Wisdom from Barbara Brown Taylor

The Christian Century
How can a church survive that keeps pouring itself into the world? I cannot possibly say. All I know is the gospel truth: those willing to give everything away are the ones with anything worth keeping; those willing to look death full in the face are the ones with the most abundant lives. Go figure.

All I can figure is that any body of believers whose faith is funded by a giving God will find their lives by giving too—not reasonably, so that there is plenty left for sheet music and utility bills, but lavishly, so that the survival of the institution is always and blessedly in question.

What I cannot figure is how any church organized around the self-donation of Jesus can stay invested in self-preservation. What would it look like for a church to lay down its life for its friends? If Philippians 2:5-8 were rewritten for the congregation, how might it sound?

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus—
you who, though called to be God’s body in this world
did not regard your dearness to God as something to be
exploited,
but emptied yourselves,
taking the form of slaves,
being born in the likeness of Christ himself.
And being found in human form like him,
you humbled yourselves
and became obedient to the point of your own
dissolution—
even death before your time.

Leaving church, I believe, is what church is for—leaving on a regular basis, leaving to see what God is up to in the world and joining God there, delivering all the riches of the institution to those who need them most, in full trust that God will never leave the church without all that it needs to live.

Piper on the “Prosperity Gospel”

more about "Piper on the "Prosperity Gospel"", posted with vodpod

Send Me

These guys from Reach Records are preaching with authority through music. Check it out.

more about "Send Me", posted with vodpod

The Five Steps of Getting Un-Lost

The Five Steps of Getting Un-Lost

I Once Was Lost has wisdom for those trying to reach young skeptics. The book is reviewed by Chap Clark who summarizes five steps or seasons experienced by young postmoderns in coming to faith.

“Using the parable of the growing seed in Mark 4:28–29 to frame the process, Everts and Schaupp outline five distinct “seasons”: from distrust of Christians to trust; from spiritual complacency to curiosity; from being closed to Christianity to being open; from meandering to seeking; and finally, entrance over the “threshold of the kingdom.”"

The Sufficiency of Christ

Hudson Taylor was invited to preach the opening sermon at the General Missionary Conference in Shanghai in 1890. His theme was “The Heart of Jesus and His Sufficiency”. In it he dealt with Jesus’ feeding of the four thousand in Matthew 15:29-39. He said, “I am so glad it was a great multitude, so great that the disciples thought it simply impossible to feed them. Yet the multitude were in real need, and the need too was immediate. It must either be met at once or not at all . . . Let us notice that in these circumstances the presence of the disciples alone would not have sufficed. They might perhaps have said, “Poor things!” They might have regretted that they had not more bread with them; but they would have left the multitude hungry. But Jesus was there; and His presence secured the carrying out of His compassionate purpose. All were fed, all were filled, all went away satisfied and strengthened; and the disciples were not only reproved and instructed, but were enriched also.”

Your Community’s Needs are Growing

(from churchrelevance.com by Kent Shaffer)

A weakened economy and rising food costs has created a scarcity of food among people who never thought they would be lacking. According to the U.S. government, 1 in 9 households (10.9%) did not have enough food for a healthy lifestyle at some point during 2006.

Food banks report a 15% to 20% increase in demand from last year. And 4 in 5 food banks (80%) could not meet this month’s demand without cutting operations or food portions.

This is the worst that I’ve ever seen it by far.
- Dave Krepcho :: Food Bank of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)

There is a big mission field in your back yard.

More Than We Ever Dared Hope « Of First Importance

More Than We Ever Dared Hope « Of First Importance
More Than We Ever Dared Hope

“The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.”

- Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2.
Published in:

* Gospel Sanctification
* Justification

on May 18, 2008 at 12:02 am

it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre

“It is only through blood-shedding that conscience is purged; it is only at the cross that the sinner can meet with God; it is the cross that knits heaven and earth together; it is the cross that bears up the collapsing universe; it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre; it is at Calvary that we find the open gate of Paradise regained, and the gospel is good news to the sinner, of liberty to enter in.”

- Horatius Bonar, quoted in Christ is All: The Piety of Horatius Bonar, eds. Micahel A.G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker Grand Rapids, Mi.: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007, 79-80.

VIDEO - My Jesus, My Savior on American Idol

Is Our Gospel Too Small or Too Big?

There has been an interesting debate concerning the extent to which the announcement of the new creation inaugurated in Jesus and the church is to be considered central to the gospel.  The debate is largely in response to N.T. Wright (see, e.g. his Surprised by Hope) who believes that it is.  Tim Keller gets it right by my lights as laid out in a brief quote found in the link below.

Between Two Worlds: Is Our Gospel Too Small or Too Big?