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;… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
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.
What does it mean to demonstrate the Kingdom? 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… Read More
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… Read More
Should one ever go against principle? When it comes to baptizing people, I believe there are times when it is right to go against principle. Two of the principles I have mentioned in the last few blog posts are The person who leads someone to the Lord baptizes them Baptism is immediate Whenever baptism is… Read More
I was christened as a baby, but when I made a serious commitment to Christ, I decided to get rebaptized by immersion. As Pamela commented on a previous post, salvation consists of hearing the gospel, coming to faith in Jesus, repentance, and baptism. Acts 19: 3-5 says this about Paul's encounter with some new believers… Read More
You can! If you lead someone to Christ, you baptize them. In most legacy churches, only the trained professional baptizes new believers. There is nothing in the Scriptures to indicate that only a trained professional or a leader can baptize. John 4:1-2 says this: Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more… Read More
I have led many workshops on the Great Commission, but one in particular stands out in my memory. As the group of twenty or so, many of whom had been believers for a long time, went through the passage (Matthew 28:18-20), the focus of the very interactive discussion kept returning to baptism. By the end,… Read More