Can you give feedback on a multimedia ebook?

June 6, 2011 in Gathering to Listen with 20 Comments

I've just completed a 40+ page multimedia ebook on the subject of listening to God. (By multimedia, I mean it has videos and other links that are part of the book.)  I'd love to have feedback from a few people so that I can make any relevant changes before I "go live" with this.

Picture 1

My hope is that a few people will go through it over the next week. If they then answer eight brief questions, that will help me decide if there are changes to be made. It's a fairly short read, but if you view all the videos too (which I would prefer), it will take about an hour longer. It has to be viewed on a computer (rather than a Kindle) because of the video content.

If you'd like to be one of those who review this ebook, please respond by adding a comment to this post or tweet me (@felicitydale). 

Many thanks.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has responded to this. Between those who have left comments here on the blog and those who have responded via Twitter, I now have more than enough people who are willing to give me feedback.  The revised book will be available soon via House2House. I'll keep you updated.

Heresy in the house (church)

June 3, 2011 in House church, Organic church, Simple Church with 14 Comments

Yesterday I did a radio interview about the release of our new book, Small is Big! Unleashing the big impact of intentionally small churches. (It's a paperback version of The Rabbit and the Elephant with new and updated material.) The interviewer asked a question we find frequently comes up with people new to the concept. 

"What about heresy in the house church? When there isn't a well-trained pastor, isn't a small group liable to go off the rails?"

Here's the gist of my answer to him:

Where does heresy come from? If you study the history of heresy, it most frequently starts at the top of an organization. The head of a denomination or a seminary or megachurch teaches something off the wall, and the people follow. Renewal, on the other hand, tends to be a grass-roots movement. The lack of hierarchy within the simple church movement is a safety. Besides that, even if a simple/organic church does acquire some wrong doctrine, it is unlikely to have any impact beyond that group.

Where does our authority lie? When teaching occurs from the front, the authority lies in the teacher. When all of us study from the Scripture (as usually happens in a simple/organic church), the authority is in the Word itself. This is especially true when whoever is facilitating (or is well trained in the Word) doesn't answer people's questions, but points them back to the Word for answers. When everybody is trained to study the Bible for themselves, they will quickly pick up on weird doctrine.

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. We have frequently seen this in action. For example, in a church we helped to start in low-income housing projects where the average reading level was around 2nd grade, I was frequently amazed at how often I heard people quoting Scriptural concepts. They had picked them up from the passages we studied together, but they were applying the principles to other situations.

Small is Big!: new release

June 1, 2011 in House church, Organic church, Simple Church with 0 Comments

Small-is-big-150 (1)

Tyndale House Publishers is releasing Small is Big!: Unleashing the big impact of intentionally small churches today. This is essentially an updated, paperback version of our book The Rabbit and the Elephant, but contains two totally new chapters on what is happening with mega- and legacy churches too. Many of these larger churches are working with those of us in simple/organic church  and using the principles of simple/organic churches to reach out to the communities around them. 

The book is available via Amazon, (who are still linking the contents to the original hardback version although this is due to change soon). You can see it here.

Here's the product description from the Amazon site:

"Church planters Tony and Felicity Dale and acclaimed researcher George Barna bring a big message to God’s church. How might we change the world if our Christian faith began multiplying at a rapid pace—through a way of life that is explosive and transformational? It happened once before, in the early days of the church; what will it take to bring us to that point of urgency and determination again? Small Is Big (originally published as The Rabbit and the Elephant) offers keys to 21st-century evangelism: leveraging the power of the small—and taking the gospel to where the people are and the pain is. And as God uses us to channel Jesus’ love into a hurting, desperate world, we’ll see his church grow beyond anything we could have imagined."

We would love your help to get out the word about this new edition of the book. You will be doing us a big favor if you  tweet and pass on this message via Facebook and other social media sites.

Many thanks for your help.

Small is Big!: new release

June 1, 2011 in House church, Organic church, Simple Church with 1 Comment

Small-is-big-150 (1)

Tyndale House Publishers is releasing Small is Big!: Unleashing the big impact of intentionally small churches today. This is essentially an updated, paperback version of our book The Rabbit and the Elephant, but contains two totally new chapters on what is happening with mega- and legacy churches too. Many of these larger churches are working with those of us in simple/organic church  and using the principles of simple/organic churches to reach out to the communities around them. 

The book is available via Amazon, (who are still linking the contents to the original hardback version although this is due to change soon). You can see it at http://amzn.to/smallisbig

Here's the product description from the Amazon site:

"Church planters Tony and Felicity Dale and acclaimed researcher George Barna bring a big message to God’s church. How might we change the world if our Christian faith began multiplying at a rapid pace—through a way of life that is explosive and transformational? It happened once before, in the early days of the church; what will it take to bring us to that point of urgency and determination again? Small Is Big (originally published as The Rabbit and the Elephant) offers keys to 21st-century evangelism: leveraging the power of the small—and taking the gospel to where the people are and the pain is. And as God uses us to channel Jesus’ love into a hurting, desperate world, we’ll see his church grow beyond anything we could have imagined."

We would love your help to get out the word about this new edition of the book. You will be doing us a big favor if you  tweet and pass on this message via Facebook and other social media sites.

Many thanks for your help.

A suggestion for Memorial Day

May 30, 2011 in Kingdom of God with 0 Comments

The US holiday of Memorial Day commemorates citizens who have laid down their lives in military service for our country.

Around the world, there are citizens of the Kingdom of God who face death on a daily basis because of their faith. I have spent time in nations where believers are persecuted for their faith; they are ostracized from their communities, will likely lose their job or housing, they may be thrown out of the family. Everyday life is much more of a struggle because of their faith. I have friends who have spent time in prison because they have shared their faith, others who have had to flee their country, others who are spied upon or questioned by security police.

In some nations hostile to Christianity, if it is discovered that a family member follows Jesus, it is a matter of family honor that they are put to death. In some nations, known Christians live with the reality of potential violent death every day. 

I have had the privilege of sharing life briefly with some of these believers, facing possible danger because of my faith, but I come home to safety. My brothers and sisters cannot leave.

An average of 171,000 Christians worldwide are martyred for their faith each year (World Christian Database)

Here's my suggestion for Memorial Day: let's honor those who have died in military service for our country, but let's also pause  to pray for our fellow-citizens of the Kingdom who face martyrdom because of their faith.

Meeting people at their point of need

May 27, 2011 in House church, Kingdom of God, Organic church, Simple Church, Social impact with 0 Comments

There have been some fascinating and insightful responses to this series of posts on having a social impact. Here are some of them.

Gary said:

Jesus wasn't going around thinking "How can I have social impact in this town today?" Being about His Father's business included that aspect as well. My point was that if we do the works of Jesus, and focus on things from a spiritual perspective, we'll have the social impact we're looking for. If we come at the problem from a purely "social impact" perspective, and are only concerned about how we can impact people's physical needs and fail to preach the gospel, we have failed.

Gary again:

While many are trumpeting social impact/issues, they usually forget the spiritual aspect. To spread Jesus without taking care of a person's material needs is not really helping the cause of Christ that much. After all, Jesus was concerned about the whole man not just the spiritual. Feed someone first and then they are more readily willing to accept the "why" behind what you did. My point was–and is–that to talk about "social impact" without including the real gospel being preached is to miss the mark.

Dan said:

To go too far that direction (of only preaching the Gospel) would create an imbalance in the teachings of Jesus. I think evangelicals in general over the last 40-50 years have been mostly out of balance in that direction. Many openings for the Gospel have been created in recent years through groups like World Vision, Samaritan's Purse and my denomination's ReachGlobal ministries that are going into Muslim countries and unreached areas to help those suffering from natural disasters, hunger disease, etc.

UnkleE said:

"Jesus wasn't about social impact; He was about his Father's business"  Jesus said caring for people was his mission – see Luke 4:18-21:  So proclaiming good news of the Lord's favor, setting the oppressed free, freeing prisoners and healing blindness are all parts of Jesus' mission. And it is clear from Jesus' ministry that he was addressing both spiritual and physical blindness, oppression, captivity and freedom. When he sent his followers out to teach the kingdom of God, he told them to do both physical and spiritual ministry – Luke 10:9: "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’" Then he tells us to go out and do the same – Matthew 28:18-19: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." What he had commanded them was both physical and spiritual ministry, and that is surely what he still commands us to do today. So if we want to truly follow Jesus, we won't miss either aspect of the good news of the kingdom of God.

Jesus met people at their point of need. If their need was physical, he ministered to that need (healing, feeding the five thousand–even providing wine for a wedding) and that opened the way to speak about the Kingdom. If their needs were emotional, he dealt with those (deliverance, reassurance of God's provision etc). He taught on Kingdom lifestyle (Sermon on the Mount). And obviously, he dealt with people's spiritual needs by giving them the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Good news to the poor

May 25, 2011 in House church, Kingdom of God, Organic church, Simple Church, Social impact with 7 Comments

Here is how Jesus characterized his own ministry in Luke 4: 17-21:

And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 
    "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
         BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
         HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
         AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
         TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 
    TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."

 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

When we lived and worked in the East End of London in the UK, at that stage a very socially deprived and poor area, historically one of the problems the churches there faced was that when people became Christians, in general, their physical/financial situation improved to the point that they could move out of the area.  That is to say, the impact of the Gospel was not just spiritual, it affected other aspects of life too.

What did Jesus mean by good news to the poor?  What would Jesus say to this beggar?

Beggar

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 6 components of a kingdom

May 23, 2011 in House church, Kingdom of God, Organic church, Simple Church, Social impact with 12 Comments

Wolfgang Simson has done a great video on the Kingdom of God. It's well worth watching, especially in the light of thinking through having a social impact.

 

The Kingdom and social impact

May 20, 2011 in House church, Organic church, Simple Church, Social impact with 12 Comments

What does it mean to demonstrate the Kingdom?

Homeless

In the last post I gave three examples of networks of organic/house churches (and one slightly more traditional church) that are changing lives, making disciples, but more than that, they are having a social impact.  They are changing their communities, so much so that their cities are taking notice. 

Is community change a part of God's Kingdom? The Lord's prayer says, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We know that God wants social justice (see Isaiah 58). He's pleased when the fatherless are taken care of, when the homeless are housed.

Our friends in India who are seeing huge numbers of people becoming believers are no longer that interested in numbers of baptisms and healings. What they are looking for is the resulting community transformation–clean water and electricity for the village, no more malnutrition among the kids, roads built, jobs created etc. The expansion of the Kingdom produces these kinds of results.

So what do you call it when groups who are definitely not Christians produce these same results. Is this expansion of the Kingdom too? It is definitely good, and I believe God is pleased, but where is the King?

It is only true Kingdom when the King is in control.

What do you think?

Can we have a social impact?

May 18, 2011 in House church, Organic church, Simple Church, Social impact with 7 Comments

The Lord has been challenging me over the last couple of weeks.

It started a couple of weeks ago when I went to Exponential–not so much the conference itself (which was good) but through some of the stories I heard. I went straight from there to a conference run by the San Antionio Baptist Association where Tony and I were speaking on the principles of simple/organic church.  God is doing some amazing things through the people involved there. Again, the stories were captivating.

Let me give you a some examples:

There is a network of organic churches in California that looked at the problems their city faced and found that homelessness was a major issue. As they prayed about it, they sensed God wanted them to tackle the problem. Their involvement has reduced homelessness by 25% but more than that, has involved them in all kinds of projects like teaching life skills, interview techniques etc., as well as housing and job creation. They have come to the attention of the city council and the local social services. They are making a social impact on their city.

Another network of house churches, this time in Colorado, asked their local middle school what they could do to help. The answer surprised them. They needed bicycle helmets. When they met that need, other needs surfaced. The result, 18 months or so down the line, is that they are working with the social services in their city in all kinds of different areas. Twenty-five of them from their network of churches leads a group of around 200 volunteers, many of whom are not Christians, to meet the needs of their city. They have all kinds of opportunities to introduce people to Jesus. The social service department often calls them when they have a crisis. Again, they are friends with the mayor, the city council and others in authority in their city. They too are having a social impact.

A third example is a group who the Lord led to work with kids in the poorest section of their city, an area of predominantly federal housing. They started kids clubs and now have more than 500 kids, aged 5-18, involved. What these kids need most is parents. They find themselves going to court with these kids when they get into trouble, visiting the schools with them when there are disciplinary problems, working with the families. Recognized all through the area where they work because of their yellow shirts, they have access to many of the families in the area and are leading many to Christ. Social impact yet again.

What can God do with a group of people who make themselves available to him for their city?

What stories are you aware of?

Apartment

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