Church
Leaders Who Love Goodness.
This is a word not found in secular Greek. Graeco-Roman philosophers sometimes commended selfless generosity, but it was not a highly significant virtue for them. Christian goodness is embodied in Jesus Christ. The best of the saints, says Sangster, have a peculiar kind of goodness. ‘It unconsciously proclaims itself. One feels it as an aura […]
Be Evangelical Or Perish !
These missionaries told others of the ‘good news about the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 11:20). The ‘gospel’ is more than a code of morals or ideas about civic duty; it is more than ‘good views about the Lord Jesus’ says Stanley Jones. It is the good news that God loved us so much that he has […]
Get With It – Be Committed!
Commitment involves change, growth, fervour, enthusiasm. ‘Enthusiasm’ comes from two Greek words – en (in) theos (God), so the word literally means ‘one possessed by God (or the gods)’. Enthusiasm literally means being full of God. Christian enthusiasts are concerned above everything else with what God wants (Matthew 6:33). Being a Christian is the most […]
The Gift Of Sanctified Permissiveness.
When I was in South Africa a black pastor told me his church had a written order for public prayer for healing but they never used it. Why? ‘Because white hands may have to be laid on black heads!’ Fear, pride or ignorance are behind the slogan ‘We’ve not done it that way before!’ Although […]
Barnabas The Encourager: May His Tribe Increase
Barnabas’ name was Joseph, but was changed to ‘son of encouragement’. He must have been the sort of person who left a trail of encouraged people behind him wherever he went. The various episodes in the New Testament where he appears from time to time bear this out. (By the way, if your friends gave […]
Financial Generosity
The Bible has more to say about the use or misuse of money than about either heaven or hell! Jesus spoke more about money than any other single subject. In the Sermon on the Mount he says where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. Paul, in most of his letters refers directly […]
Interdependence – A Sign Of Maturity.
Another interesting fact: ‘In politics as in religion we have less charity for those who believe half our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it.’ (Charles Caleb Colton). The church at Jerusalem felt a oneness with the young church at Antioch. As you read the New Testament letters this sort of ‘bonding’ […]
Penitence And Holiness
A great number of people ‘turned to the Lord’ (Acts 11:21). This is ‘repentance’, responding to the warning ‘Turn around – you are going the wrong way!’ Repentance is the opposite of blaming; it is ‘owning’ my sinfulness rather than off-loading the blame somewhere else. Sigmund Freud, more than any other modern psychologist, has changed […]
The Disease Of Nominalism
A mother tucked her little girl into bed, prayed with her, and went downstairs. Soon she heard a loud ‘thump’. Running upstairs, she found her daughter on the floor. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘P’raps Mummy I went to sleep too near where I got in!’ Many congregations are like that. Ask ‘How is your faith […]
Team Ministries.
Here’s another common component of dynamic churches: they add full- or half-time ‘ministers’ to their leadership team, usually before they can ‘afford’ to, thus building momentum into growth of the church’s ministries. Note that we put ‘ministers’ in quotation marks: all Christians are ministers, but some are set apart from their secular callings to do […]
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