Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Who are the greatest heretics of the church?

Who are the greatest heretics of the Christian faith?  My first three choices are Jesus, Martin Luther and John Amos Comenius.  These people all were considered heretics by the religious institution of their day, but did huge things to form the Christian faith.

Any others?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

My favorites

Here's a quick list of my favorite blogs (as of today 'cause it changes).

Stef is getting to be a great blogger... 
                               http://becauseipause.blogspot.com/

Shaun Groves writes some thought provoking things and is connect with one of my favorite ministries, Compassion International...
                          http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/

 Seth Godin challenges me to think big and to create...
                              http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Out of Ur looks at church leadership issues in a new light...
                           http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Is Effort lost in Christian busyness?

Seth Godin is an incredibly brilliant marketer.  Being on who doesn't like the materialistic world we find ourselves in, it may seem odd that I would read a blog by someone who made it big helping people sell things.  The truth is, recently, I've learned that we are all selling something and marketing is more about selling ideas than products.  Being a pastor is about selling ideas in many ways.

I really liked Seth's entry on Is effort a myth.  Take a moment to read the blog. There are two thoughts that I'd like to add.

My first thought is that Christians often down play effort giving preference to Grace or the Will of God.  It becomes a Christian version of luck.  Certainly, God's will cannot be undone.  Still, we are admonished in Scripture to put effort toward our work in Christ.  (1 Corinthians 9:24, Hebrews 12:1)

My second thought is that I love the exercises Seth gives.  How about adding a Bible reading plan and prayer to the 120 minutes each day.  Notice also that a day of doing nothing is a part of greater effort.  Counter intuitive, but also part of God's plan.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

What is our most important task at hand?

My new Children's director asked me a question that brought this question to my mind.  How much of our time should be used making healthy the people inside the church and how much should we use reaching out to the community. 

I'm pretty sure that a paradigm of sitting around reading the Bible to one another until the world realizes they need Jesus won't ever work.

But I'm also questioning the paradigm that we should have most of our energy outward bringing new people into the church.  Can we actually make disciples when the house that we bring people into is out of order?

So, what is the City on the Hill's most important task and how do we ballance the tasks at hand?