"However, as important as the Reformation was in restoring some 1st Century doctrines, it was largely ineffective at restoring 1st Century structures and practices."
(John White. What Calvin and Luther didn’t know AUGUST 26, 2015)
Speaking about the Greek "OIKOS"..... and it's central role to spiritual life, activity, gathering, and mission in the first centuries of the church.
He nailed it with the last line.
"We are living in a time where discipleship is having a resurgence.
Regrettably, however, many of the people who are teaching on discipleship today are ignorant of the discipleship movement that swept through North America in the mid 1970's. Consequently, many of the mistakes that were being made in that movement are being repeated today.
And i am going to make a statement that i hope you will remember. Countless Christians today are trying to give away tickets to a place they have never been."
(Frank Viola)
Yep.... The issue is not lack of training, programming, classes, nor strategy; it's connection, a tangible connection with the divine many have never experienced. A connection they wish to, hope to, desire to after 5, 10, 20, 30 years of religion, but admit they have no clue where to begin..and feel powerless to help others get there....
"I know we're all going to die. I know that. But I'm going to die today, funny that, you know, to know. But the thing is that I'm still scared. I'm really scared. Nobody will mourn for me, no one will pray for my soul.
Will you mourn for me?
Will you say a prayer for me?
Or is it too late?
I mean, I would say one for myself but I never prayed in my life. Nobody ever taught me how. Nobody ever taught me how."
(Sandra Bullock. In Gravity)
" I think if we were given the Scriptures it was not so that we could prove we were right about everything. If we were given the Scriptures it was too humble us into realizing that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing."
(Rick Mullins)
"Now it is like this: Keita is riddled with cancer. His spine looks like an Emmenthal cheese there are so many holes and there are tumours growing everywhere. His blood count of white blood cells or plasma cells are mass producing at an increasing rate, taking over and leaving no space for red blood cells which means he is totally anemic and has to be given blood transfusions. But he is not bed ridden, he is walking around , talking and laughing and apart from being tired and from having bad pains in his back at night the cancer has not yet caused any major damage to his body’s function.
We went to the hospital in Bamako which has treated him since the beginning, and rather than coming up with a plan he was prescribed morphine. We know what that means of course: after morphine there is nothing. It seemed to us that he was being written off. As we were leaving the hospital a couple of orderlies were crossing the road before our car carrying a stretcher with a body wrapped up in a brightly coloured piece of cloth on their way to the morgue. ‘That will be me soon’ said Keita, and however much I tried to shake it off, we both felt the deep chill of Destiny’s Angel passing over us…"
(Sophie. Djenne Djenno Blog)
An Interesting Conversation Between A Harvard Graduate And An Ordinary Fisherman
This is an interesting story about a conversation between a businessman who did MBA from Harvard and a fisherman from the local village. An American businessman was enjoying his holidays in a seaside village as he saw a very tiny boat coming. In that boat was a fisherman who was just coming back from his usual fishing. The fisherman was Mexican, he had caught a few big yellowfin tuna and he stopped at the dock. The businessman was watching him and as the fisherman came closer, he praised the fisherman for catching those quality tuna.The businessman asked him as to how long did it take him to catch them. He replied that it took him just a couple of hours. The businessman then again asked him a question, he asked him that why he didn’t spend more time there. He could have caught more fishes. The young man told him that it was enough for him and his family. He could take care of his family’s needs with the amount of fishes he had caught.
The man got a bit curious and asked the fisherman, how he spends his other time. He told him that he likes to sleep late, watch TV, spend time with his family, take his wife out, sometimes go out in the village and spend time with friends playing guitar and singing songs.
The man advised the fisherman telling him that he was a Harvard graduate and he could help him gain more profit. He told him to spend more time fishing, doing that he can catch more fish, he can earn more money which will eventually allow him to buy a bigger boat, and then maybe two and more and he can increase his business. He can make more money and start his own business.
The fisherman asked how much time will this all take, the man said maybe 15 to 20 years. The fisherman said “then what”. The man smiled and said that then you can enjoy your retirement, the money you’ve made, maybe sleep late, watch TV, spend time with your wife and children, hang out with friends in the village and play guitar.
The moral is that one should follow what really matters to him or her. You never know when you’re going after that money and all, what you really want to accomplish might already be in your hands.
"A friend, his wisdom anchored in his family’s exile from Uganda, offered advice in a noisy pub just before I departed: “For each of us there are two destinies.”
I swallowed the remnants of my beer while his mug remained full; I listened. “One is the destiny you pursue,” said Abdullah, finally taking a drink. “The other is the destiny that pursues you.”
( To Timbuktu For a Haircut. Rick Antonson )
Are we human?
"Kathie Lee noted that Frank was born during the heart of the Great Depression and grew up in severe poverty, sometimes eating dog food as a child and "grateful to have it." He lived in 29 places as a child as his father moved around looking for work."
About her Late Husband... august 2015
The usual labels we assign don't apply... though insiders are convinced they do.... i have found the most vibrant I've met are on the edges... not at the center.
"The Dones are done doing things they find to be unconnected with God. Even though a stated message of the church is to be active in the community, and Jesus commanded his followers to care for the poor, the sick, and the hungry, the dechurched have experienced church as an organization that cares primarily for itself and its own members. When the dechurched leave, they take their commitment to others and to living the life they think God wants them to live. The idea that Christianity is a way of living that infuses all aspects of life is deeply appealing to the dechurched. They see their faith as the opposite of an overly individualized and self-obsessed world. They view Christianity as an antidote to a disconnected, individualized existence. When they leave the church, they take a commitment to others with them and put that commitment directly into practice."
(Church Refugees : Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with Church But Not Their Faith. Josh Packard Phd )
NAILED IT.....
"Finally, when the dechurched leave, they take the need to remain active with them. We began this research fully expecting to find that people were leaving the church because the church was asking them to do too much. We expected to find a lot of overworked, stressed-out people opting out of leadership responsibilities so they could take a break. This could not be further from the truth. The dechurched are, as a general rule, leaving to do more, not less. The church isn’t asking too much of people; it’s asking the wrong things of them."
( Church Refugees : Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with Church But Not Their Faith. Josh Packard Phd )
"Elizabeth made this distinction clear when she said, “There are a lot of us out here who really aren’t walking away from Christianity or from Jesus. We’re walking away from the system.” And when a belief in God is the only thing they have to depend on for spiritual survival, that faith becomes a core part of who they are while organizational structures, hierarchy, and dogma tend to fall away. Those things are simply not seen as worth carrying with them on their journey...
They deeply desire to be part of a community. They find or create these communities wherever they are with whoever is around them."
( Church Refugees : Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with Church But Not Their Faith. Josh Packard Phd )
"Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed."
(Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia)
"I will put up with any mockery rather than pretend that I am satisfied when I am hungry."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground)
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle."
(Charles Dickens, Great Expectations)
"Another gift was a pocket watch that clamped shut to keep out the sand. I have not worn a watch for thirty years, having once been late and missed a departing airplane that crashed. Time seemed to move along fine without having me watch it."
(To Timbuktu For a Haircut. Rick Antonson)
"I discovered that I could have a more fruitful connection with people and share Jesus’ life more freely without all the accoutrements, political intrigue, and routine that our institutions force on fellowship...
Unfortunately, however, an entire industry has emerged in trying to make them just another system. Sometimes called house church, simple church, or organic church...
I’ve been in home groups that had more hoops to jump through than many congregations...
The problem is not the venue; it is our preoccupation with anything other than him...
My counsel is always the same : Avoid starting something. Once you start some “thing” your focus will shift from connecting with people to ensuring that the “thing” goes well."
(Finding Church. Wayne Jacobsen)
