I'm posting this article (which I originally wrote for Shapevine) as a response to the excellent discussion you all initiated from the last post on the difference between "getting saved" and becoming a follower of Jesus. On May 23rd 2008, I became an American citizen. In a large gymnasium hastily converted into a courtroom, before… Read More
After the last post I wrote on the Roman Road pattern of leading someone to Christ, Jared commented: "I wonder if we should be encouraging people to confess the "Romans Road", or focus more on following Jesus. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but which ever we lead with will (purposefully on inadvertently) be… Read More
"Tell me how to become a Christian!" Would everyone in your simple/organic church know how to lead someone to Christ using the Scriptures? If we want to see a multiplication of new disciples and therefore new churches, it is essential that ordinary believers know how to make a disciple, how to lead someone to Christ.… Read More
I became a Christian at the age of 11 through reading a book from my school library (Treasures of the Snow by Patricia StJohn). I had no direct contact with any Christians that I remember. I understood an absolute minimum, but when I finished the book, I went down to a shady grove at the… Read More
In his book, Church Planting Movements, David Garrison tells the story of "John," who taught a group of thirty farmworkers how to tell their stories and encouraged them to tell their story to five people. After the first week, seventeen of the thirty had shared their story, but one farmer had shared with eleven people.… Read More
The function of the 5-fold ministry in Ephesians 4 is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. What is the ministry we are equipping them for? Expanding the Kingdom by making disciples, helping them to mature and equipping them to do the same for others. In the one of the last posts we… Read More
Easter celebrates what our Christian faith is all about. We rejoice that Jesus died and rose again. As the song by Graham Kendrick goes: Over sin, he has conquered (hallelujah he has conquered) Over death, victorious (hallelujah, victorious) Over sickness he has triumphed (hallelujah he has triumphed) Jesus reigns over all!
Our friends in India, who are seeing hundreds of thousands of new believers each year, have various training topics with which they equip people, the majority of whom are oral learners. Everyone is equipped, and those who are in any kind of leadership are trained not only in the concepts, but also in how to… Read More
Like it or not, we have been born again into a world where spiritual battles rage. In a post on the reality of the spiritual realm, I asked if anyone had stories of how the spiritual realm had impacted their lives. This one by Frank was too good not to post: "About 10 years ago,… Read More
We are currently part of a fairly new simple church with about 30% new believers. The other evening, one of them mentioned that a friend had approached him to find out more about his faith. As we discussed how he might handle the situation, it became apparent that only a few of those present had… Read More