Archive for Discipleship
Volunteer? Or Disciple?
What do you consider yourself? A “volunteer” or a “disciple”?
What’s the difference? What do I mean? I want to refer you to this blog post by Jamie Arpin-Ricci exploring volunteerism as a poor substitute for Christian discipleship. What are your thoughts? What can we do in our community to avoid the “volunteer” approach to mission?
I look forward to responding to your comments below …
A Look at Spiritual and Personal Growth: New Community Group Study
What does it take to really grow in life? A simple question. But it’s one that we can overlook, and if we’re not careful, we look back and nothing’s changed in our life for 5, 10, 20 years …
This summer, we’re beginning a new group study called, “Personal Growth: Learning to Meet the Demands of Life.” This is a video curriculum from Convergence, a series of conversations designed to stimulate and challenge.
In the “Personal Growth” study we’ll be going through, host Donald Miller interviews Dr. Henry Cloud, author of the best-seller Boundaries. Here are just some of the questions they discuss:
- Why is it important to have community to help us grow?
- Why is it hard to be vulnerable?
- How do I set boundaries for myself?
- How do painful experiences help us grow?
One of the most powerful and significant questions that comes up throughout this series is this: “What does it mean to show up and meet the demands of life??
Over the summer, our Community Groups will be meeting every other week and discussing these questions and more, seeking to mature and grow together. If you’re not yet a part of a home-based group, click here to learn more about them or email Nathan Fish to find out how you can connect.
The “Mystery” of Christianity
I wanted to offer a follow-up thought from yesterday’s message. I hope this is an encouragement and challenge for us in the coming week!
So far, in our study of Colossians, the most obvious theme has been the “sufficiency of Jesus.” He is “all,” he is the head of the church, he is the image of God … and yesterday, we saw that he is “the mystery” of the ages. The hidden secret of the Christian faith is Christ himself! Jesus, living in you and me!
So, I want to encourage you this week to ask God to search your heart. Where are you adding to Jesus? Where are you taking away from Jesus?
In your spiritual journey, it’s all about Jesus and the fullness he brings!
Christ’s whole life in all its aspects must supply the norm for the life of the following Christian and thus for the life of the whole Church.
~ Soren Kierkegaard
Want to Read the Bible Through in a Year?
I recently attended an arts and music conference in Nashville led by Artists in Christian Testimony with a few people from our worship team. We were all blown away by a speaker there named Brian Hardin. Brian has produced a bunch of Christian artists in Nashville throughout the years, but has since learned that God had something different and unexpected in mind for him.
In 2005 after a personal crisis he sensed God leading him to podcast the Bible in a year. This was strange to him since he hadn’t ever read the Bible through in a year himself! This urging never left him so he surrendered to do it. He thought a few might join in with him, and that maybe it would help him stick with his goal of reading through the Bible in a year. On January 1st 2006 about 245 people joined him, about 6 months later 250,000 podcasts were downloaded! Three years later that number has exceeded 20,000,000 downloads! Since 2006 The Daily Audio Bible has become more than an online Bible reading tool, it has become a virtual prayer community and more. The Daily Audio Bible is being downloaded and read in multiple languages-even in areas that aren’t allowed to have copies of the Bible-making this movement a huge missional force.
I’ve been downloading the Bible for a couple of weeks. I didn’t keep up the first week, but I kept jumping in on the right day even if I missed. Now that I’ve got a rhythm I’ve begun to keep up. It only takes 15-20 each day, and reading while hearing him speak helps me focus and stay on task. It doesn’t substitute for personal study, but it is a great help to keeping me in God’s Word every day. Just wanted to invite you to join me by visiting The Daily Audio Bible yourself. Hopefully having a group reading from The Bridge will help encourage me to stick with it as well.
Matt
