imagining how the church can reorient around mission

There’s been a ton of talk recently about what is happening at Asbury University. It’s been called a “revival” by some. It’s been called an “awakening” by others. To be sure, something extraordinary happened. The last thing I want to do is take away from the wonder of what transpired. It is marvelous and has seemingly impacted tons of people.

But, there is a revival going on in our church community (Immanuel Church, Spokane), as well. read more

Desert father Abba Anthony said,

“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’ ” read more

The following are prayers we offered at Immanuel this morning, the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The text this morning was Mark 8:27-38. Feel free to pray along with us. Peace.

read more

Here is a liturgy I wrote for our new group, Immanuel to attempt to put into practice what I have been talking
about the last two days.  Enjoy!

Note: I passed out the
texts in advance to others so I was not the only one leading. read more

As
I mentioned yesterday the idea of listening for God's direction in ministry and
mission is something that is critically important, but quite difficult.

In
thinking about how we are to listen it seems like there are three components
that have to be grappled with. read more

I have started on one of those “Read Through
the Bible in a Year” programs for 2013. I have done this annually for many years but
have dropped the practice in the last few for a variety of reasons.
Nonetheless, I believe it is vital to get the full scope of Scripture and there
are no shortcuts in getting there. You just have to sit down and read. I
believe that the Gospel is found in the entire Bible, not just in select verses
that evangelicals have hyper-focused on for the last several decades. It was
NT Wright and a few others who have asked the poignant question: Do we actually need
to read the whole of Scripture to arrive at a clear and full understanding of
the gospel?” Sadly, most will unequivocally say that you need to engage the
full corpus of Scripture, but in real time their lives deny the fact. 

Okay, to my point… while reading through the
Pentateuch I was once again arrested by the narrative of how God led the nation
Israel with a “Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of fire.” These two images represented God’s
presence for the people. To simply state the scenario, God firmly instructed
them that their role was to unreservedly follow Him in fire and the cloud. When
the cloud and fire moved, they all were to “Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies” and follow (sorry, I could not resist the temptation to quote a Neil
Diamond song). When it was stationary, the nation pitched their tents and
hunkered down. Pretty simple, right? I am being serious when I say that my dog
Buckley could track with those commands. Buckley come! Buckley stay! Bam. This
is easy stuff. read more

Jacques Ellul wrote concerning prayer,

"Theology can tell us what prayer is, can enlighten us on the meaning of the revelation concerning prayer and on the place which prayer occupies in the revelation. It can describe for us accurately 'what man does when he prays.' But all this comes to nothing when man does not pray."

      Dear Jesus, we tremble at the thought of you speaking these words to us. What could be more sobering and tragic than to hear you say, “You talk about me a whole lot, using plenty of spiritual language and Bible quotes. You’re very quick to recognize and correct false teaching. You’re even quite zealous to apply what you know to others. But your heart is very far from me.”

via thegospelcoalition.org

I found this linked on my friend and colleague, Steve Hart's FB. I thought it was important, hopeful and well worth pushing out further.  Thanks Steve (and author, Scotty Smith).

Oh God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;

When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless; read more