Reflections on an Experiment in Christian Community
https://felchouston.wordpress.com/2018/08/17/reflections-on-an-experiment-in-christian-community/
— Read on felchouston.wordpress.com/2018/08/17/reflections-on-an-experiment-in-christian-community/
A fantastic effort for the kingdom – a cautionary tale for some, but also a great example of spiritual entrepreneurship. It would be nice to see a cadre of missionaries dedicated to reaching Houston base there!
An interesting review on the development of social ethics, relation of the church to the state and other topics with direct connection to issues in the church today…but not your typical missiolinks article!
O’Donovans, Oliver and Joan Lockwood. Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics Past and Present. Eerdmans, 2007.
I’ve read this book more than any other book over the past eleven years. Each essays is a Master’s course in social ethics. With all the combined essays, you will know more about ethics than the average seminary graduate. This post is going to be very long, but given the contents, that is unavoidable.
The most important essay, and the one from which most others spring, is Oliver O’Donovan’s essay on Augustine’s City of God 19.4. O’Donovan is in the very dangerous waters of whether the City of Man constitutes a true res publica. And if it doesn’t, and if the Church does, does this mean that the Church is actually the only true political society? If so, we aren’t that far from Yoder. But I don’t think O’Donovan takes it in that…
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Pastoral care for new Christian converts must seek to build a solid Christian identity.
Here are 10 bases to cover from Duane Miller’s perspective.
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Photo by AMISOM Public Information – Flickr, CC0, Link Mogadishu, Somalia
I recently attended a consultation in East Africa. Our goal was to formulate a strategy for evangelizing the unreached of East Africa and the Horn Africa, almost all Muslims. This talk was my own contribution to the consultation and was well received. It is an expansion of an earlier talk I gave in November of 2017.
I begin by arguing that persecution is not the main pastoral challenge for converts, rather is the formation of a firm, new Christian identity. I found this in my own research presented in Living among the Breakage (2016), and earlier research by Kathryn Kraft (2013) and Seppo Syrjänen (1984) contain similar findings.
Here I present ten points that can be used for people counseling and guidance for Christ’s converts from Islam:
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Francis Scott Key helped promote Sunday Schools throughout the American West, helping create thousands of them over the years.
Though we’ve heard his song sung many times, most people have never heard of this aspect of his legacy.
Take a few minutes to read it for yourself…
How can we follow his example?
‘Star Spangled Banner’ author evangelized through Sunday Schools
http://renewaljournal.blog/2018/07/14/star-spangled-banner-author-evangelized-through-sunday-schools/
— Read on renewaljournal.blog/2018/07/14/star-spangled-banner-author-evangelized-through-sunday-schools/
NK Christian: “We are not waiting for political changes that would make Christian work safer”
NK Christian: “We are not waiting for political changes that would make Christian work safer”
— Read on dotheword.org/2018/06/26/nk-christian-we-are-not-waiting-for-political-changes-that-would-make-christian-work-safer/
What common characteristics are found in movement leaders?
With the work I do, I often ask (and get asked) about Unreached People Groups (UPG’s) and how to see indigenous church movements started among them. This conversation always goes back to leadership and why movements (an act of God by the way) can’t happen without them. I have the privilege to labor among UPG’s in restrictive or creative access nations (CANS) and most importantly, serve alongside mentors, leaders, and friends with experience in seeing movements launched in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Through personal experience, observations, and interviews with experienced practitioners, I’ve found 14 Crucial Characteristics of Church Movement Leaders who work Among Unreached Peoples.
Some peeps wake up in the morning thinking about bacon or Instagram, others wake up passionate about furthering the glory of God among the nations. Movement leaders wake up with purpose and passion to see their UPG reached. They are captivated…
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This is a very good article on using free Google tools and basic research to uncover people groups who are not being reached with the Gospel.
Of course it takes research and collating the data online and then – of course – USING the data.
In the end, though, unless someone actually presents the Gospel it all is to no avail!
If you are trying to canvas a large area (the author serves in Houston) this may be what you need. If you’re a solo pastor seeking to reach new people with the Gospel, your time may be better spent simply knocking on doors in a neighborhood and visiting it on a regular basis.
