Rethinking The Gospel and How We Share It

 Developing Effective Leaders, Developing Mature Believers, Expanding God's Kingdom  No Responses »
Dec 082012
 

What Does “The Gospel” Really Mean?

Frank Viola has recently written several blog posts promoting a fresh understanding of the gospel:

I have generally found Frank’s material to be very helpful as we pursue the vision that God has given us at Life Church, and the posts above are no exception. Please take the time to read them (preferably in the order in which they appear above).

More About Frank Viola

Frank Viola is an author and blogger. You can explore his ministry more fully at his web site: FrankViola.org.

Wiffle Guitar

 Church / Ministry, Developing Mature Believers  No Responses »
Dec 052012
 

Have you ever played wiffle ball? Would you use a guitar as a substitute for a bat in a wiffle ball game? This is one of the questions posed by Shane Hipps, in an unusual yet enlightening sermon. Shane Hipps is one of the teaching pastors at Mars Hill Bible Church and on Sunday June 27, 2010 he taught a sermon entitled “Wiffle Guitar”. In which he explored spiritual gifts and shares some powerful insights about how God views our quest to understand what our gifts are.

Shane’s sermon is available from the Mars Hill web site:

Wiffle Guitar by Shane Hipps – Sunday June 27, 2010

Check it out and enter into a new experience of your gifts and your ministry.

Be Careful Out There!

 Church / Ministry  No Responses »
Sep 212011
 

In “Hill Street Blues“, Steven Bochco’s 1981 television series about an urban police precinct, there was character named Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (played by actor Michael Conrad) who was the desk sergeant. Sgt. Esterhaus would typically wrap up his daily message to the patrol officers with the words: “Be careful out there!”

In 1 John 4:1 the Apostle John warns us:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Ever since Jesus established it, the Church has faced competition from false prophets preaching strange gospels. Like the owner’s servants in Matthew 13:24-30 who found weeds growing up right next to the wheat, we believers face the challenge of distinguishing between truth and error in the “field” of modern Christianity. Since I became a believer in 1979 I, like many of you, have come across various problems and failures in Christian ministry. You have probably noticed however that things are different today. Ministry failures and excesses that would once have circulated mainly as rumors are now recorded as video and viewable by anyone on the internet. Of course the internet doesn’t just facilitate viewing of ministry failures. It also provides a platform for the bloggers who want to comment on it and I want to share some of their comments with you. Of course I don’t agree with all of the posts on these blogs, but I have found a number of them to be helpful:

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