Check out our interview with Jason C. Dukes.
Ignore the dates, we were rather slow in posting this thing.
Checkout our interview with founder of Jesus Miracle Power Ministries Mama Janice
I can remember being 14 and wanting so desperately to drive a vehicle. I was ready! After all, why did they even have to put an age limit on driving in the first place? I had driven a few times by then and was confident that I had what it takes to be a opperator of a vehicle. After I turned 15 and was able to get my restricted licence, I was upset by the fact that I had to take courses and tests in order to get my driving permit, and only to be limited to a person over the age of 21 between certain hours of the day in order for me to even operate a vehicle. What about the drinking age being 21, or the rated R movies needing to be 17? Why all these restrictions? Now I look at things and realize that we limit what young people can do, because of levels of maturity. I might argue that I know people well into their thirties that are not mature enough to partake in alcohol, gambling, or even what type of cinema they should be allowed to watch. However, we have determined as a society that people are restricted from doing certain things because of an average level of maturity that seems to show at certain ages. I think this way of thinking has unfortunately crept into our spiritual lives. I do not pretend to speak on behalf, or about everyone, but just my general observation and personal convictions. Read the rest of this entry »
My younger brother has been a percussionist for many years now. The area in which he has mastered is marching. I remember a conversation that he and I had one day regarding the importance of the snare line being “clean”. The goal, he said, was that the entire line of people playing the same instrument (snare drum) would sound as one drum. The result of this is a clean, effective, and powerful sound adding to the masterfully composed musical number, thus, completing the mission of “wowing” the crowd with their music. Due to this importance of clarity and cleanliness there is much time and emphasis placed on the togetherness and unity in which they play. Ultimately, everyone on the snare line (or really the entire core of musicians) is contending in musical competition as one person, with the understanding that the line as a whole is more important than an individual sounding good all on their own. Therefore, and individual that is on mission to make him/herself sound good and stand out as a musician is not worthy to be a member of a drumline. My question is: If one is on mission to either gain as much knowledge, win as many converts, or write as many books all on his/her own, does that make them worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Let’s ask the Apostle Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
For the past year I have been in charge of developing a competitive cheerleading program from the ground up. Well, not entirely from the ground up, it might be more accurate to say from the grave up. The reality is that in the life of this program there has been a few people who have given it a bad reputation. When I arrived at the scene, it was clear that the program was merely on life support and the plug was in hand ready to be pulled. The owner had a change of mind. He decided that it deserved another chance and put me in charge of making it happen. This was a great challenge ahead of me and though I have built a program before, it was very quickly taken away from me and I did not get to see it all of the way through. That program exists today, but it was a long time before it was able to be the success it is today. Now, I have to start in a place that I do not know and that does not know me with the purpose of building a successful team program. It was obvious from the start that this was way too big of a job for me and I needed help. After seeking the council of friends in the field and my prior experience in tire sales for a major tire dealer I began to put a plan into action. Months went by and we saw little to no change. A flurry of emotions started to set in; fear, anger, doubt, and regret topped the charts. At this moment of desperation I fell to my face and sought the wisdom of the One who knows best. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know that 70% of all women in Internet pornography are forced into it? Listen to this interview with Patrick about his work rescuing girls from slavery.
The Fight for Unity
Posted: October 10, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: paige patterson, preaching, unity
I was recently at a preaching conference in Louisiana on expository preaching and the keynote speaker for the plenary sessions was Dr. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Seminary. At the closing of one of his sermons he was talking about preachers being good and faithful servants and he made the statement, “As long as you are doing God’s will it does not matter how many churches you are ran off from.” I understand the whole concept of doing God’s will and not being concerned about the thoughts of people but what troubled me was the seemingly accepted idea of churches running pastors off whenever they wish. I am not bashing Paige Patterson in this blog but am sharing a concern of what I saw when this statement was made. It seemed that everyone at the conference, about 200, totally accepted being ran off from a church as “just part of ministry.” However, I believe that this is shameful and should not be so among professing Christians. We teach Scripture that commands unity yet we show very little of that unity among the intimate fellowship that we try to recruit people to join. How are we to ever reach the world if we cannot cultivate togetherness in the body of Christ? I do not blame the local congregation for being naive to the Scripture but the pastors who are being ran off from these same congregations. I have seen many pastors teach about how the church is the body but few of them would ever think of helping another local expression of that same body. They discuss the importance of fellowship yet how many of them invited me into their homes? They speak of Christ-likeness yet blast their personal agendas from the pulpit. This should not be!
Ephesians 4:3 says that we should be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Eph.4:12-13 “[12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 5:20-21[20] giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21] submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Phil. 2:4 [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Gal. 3:28 [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (italics added).
Just think, what if we the leaders of the body were to truly grasp the fullness of unity and learn to put others before ourselves, what could we do for the kingdom? Many times we speak of unity but we do not truly mean unity. We want to be left alone and we agree to not disturb others as long as they do not disturb us. This is the reason for pastors being ran off, they begin to disturb people. Now how do we fix this? First, we cannot take issues personally. If we truly believe that the church is God’s then why do we get upset with change? If the church is God’s why are we angry when things do not go our way? We may claim that we know the direction God is leading the church and the people are going the wrong way. However, it is our job to proclaim the way of the Lord not to make people follow it. We as leaders MUST fight for unity no matter how much pride we have to swallow. This unity cannot stop at the doors of our local expression either, it MUST proceed to the next church, denomination, culture, economic status, and country or we will continue to struggle with this accepted status quo of what we call ministry.
Seth L. Green
by Billy Mitchell and Tim O’Carroll
(From Billy) For the first year of my time in Port Saint Lucie, FL, I put a lot of effort into starting a new church. I wanted that church to help start new churches down the road. Most of my time and effort was spent making this church grow and, hopefully, become self-sustaining. It’s funny how every pastor says, “We are all about the Kingdom” and “We want to be a church planting church.” I’ve yet to meet a pastor who doesn’t say those things. To be honest, I said those exact things often. My goal was to grow the Kingdom, but only by growing “my” church. There was nothing territorial about the strategy. I was just trying to accomplish Jesus’ mission by working in a vacuum. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently a couple of friends and I went to Lakeland, Fl for the Live Sent Conversation where Alan and Deb Hirsch were speaking. One of the main things they talked about was the state the church is in. They discussed how most churches try to go out and drag the lost into a church (organization) and try to get them to change so that they fit into the mold that the church members believe a good Christian should fit in. Therein is the problem, what does a Christian look like? The only example I can think of Christ. This is how we should look and our expressions of the church body should also portray this look. The church should be a living and breathing organism that is alive and moving throughout the community and world, not an address that we drag people to in order to get them fixed.
Alan laid out model, which described what should determine the church.
Christology→Missiology→Ecclesiolgy
That is, our view of who Christ is determines what our mission is and our mission determines what the church is. Many times people try to decide how the church will look then try and fit Christ into the box they have created. After this they go out and do missions instead of living missions. We wonder why our local expression of the church is not growing and many times it is because we are not focusing on who Christ is but who we want to be.
Seth L. Green
Visit Alan Hirsch’s website http://www.theforgottenways.org/
Also, Live Sent http://livingsent.blogspot.com/
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