Simply ChurchA few months ago I was in a used bookstore and was struck by the cover of an old book Megatrends (John Naisbitt). I was curious to see if the book had accurately predicted the future. Turning to Chapter 8, I read the title From Hierarchies to Networking and knew I would have to get… Read More
For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open… Read More
This seems a glaringly obvious question, but I have found from experience that even Christians who ought to know better give a variety of vague answers that fall short of a biblical answer. To do good, to preach the gospel, to save souls, to heal the sick, to baptize bodies are all good and true… Read More
From the Parousia Weekly Update Letter For The Week of January 26, 2006 A feline fracas is fomenting and the fur is flying fast and furious (don’t you just love alliteration). I’m referring of course, to the release of Barna’s latest and perhaps most controversial book, Revolution. And the current fracas involves a recent commentary… Read More
“Jeff, can we sing Kum Ba Ya?”, Judy asked. I must admit I had a hard time to keep from rolling my eyes at her rather “childish” suggestion, but since I was leading a prayer time for the East African people group we live amongst in northern Wisconsin, I thought I should respectfully follow her… Read More
Even if the supply of men and funds from Western sources was unlimited and we could cover the whole globe with an army of millions of foreign missionaries and establish stations thickly all over the world, the method would speedily reveal its weakness, as it is already beginning to reveal it. The mere fact that… Read More
A few weeks ago I was investigating story telling as a means of communicating with non-literates. This was tied in to a possible trip we were taking to an Asian country where we would be working with primarily oral learners. I was keen to explore it, and so tried it out with our home church,… Read More
When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him and become “fishers of men”, this was more than just picturesque speech! He was giving them a word picture that would serve them the rest of their days. Let´s examine this situation a bit more closely: And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make… Read More
Once upon a time, Almighty God told a farmer to build a boat out of wood. For its time, it was a really HUGE boat! God told him to build it 300 cu. x 50 cu. x 30 cu. Beautifully simple, round numbers, don’t you think? He also told him that there should be a… Read More
One of the urgent issues in the growing (dare I say fledging ) house church movement in the USA is the subject of leadership. It seems we are at odds with the institutional / program-based church so much we have swallowed the idea that “What was bad for them is bad for us.” In longing… Read More