In the late 70s and 80s, Tony and I lived in the East End of London, an area of London where people ended up when there was no place lower to go. (The PBS series, “Call the Midwife” took place right where our medical practice was. We were there a couple of decades later, but most of… Read More
Tag: community
In the late 70s and 80s, Tony and I lived in community. We didn’t all live under the same roof, but many families lived in a very small area of the East End of London, which at that time was 92 percent government housing. They were amazing days. We shared meals, tools, at times, cars.… Read More
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From Tablet to Table: Leonard Sweet
Len Sweet is one of the most influential Christians in North America. So when he writes a book (From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed) that espouses principles that we who are involved in the simple/organic/house church movement hold dear, I sit up and take notice. From Tablet to Table examines… Read More
Jesus told his disciples who fished for a living, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Commercial fishermen are disappointed if, when they pull in their net, there is only a single fish flopping about. They hope and expect to catch multiple fish at a time. Remember Peter’s dejection when he’s fished all night and… Read More
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Making disciples
As part of my study on Disciple Making Movements, I’ve been reading through the gospels to see how Jesus approached making disciples. Jesus invited people to become his disciples. In Mark 2:14, Jesus said to Levi (Matthew), “Follow me and be my disciple.” He didn’t tell him, “Follow me and when you’ve learned enough, you… Read More
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An evening to remember
Last Friday the church in our home had one of the most beautiful times together that I ever remember in more than 20 years of meeting in house-church sized groups. The presence of Jesus was so real, it was almost tangible. Young kids (three of them aged around five) were there, watching spellbound as things… Read More
Arthur Wallis, a British “elder statesman” in the Kingdom wrote a fascinating foreword to a book by Frank Bartleman called Another wave rolls in: (formerly) What really happened at “Azuza Street?” The book describes from a first-hand perspective, the events at Azusa Street–the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement. In this foreword, Arthur described how the life of the early… Read More
The word, “missional” has become something of a buzz-word over recent years. Several friends such as Linda Bergquist and Alan Hirsch were involved in writing a Missional Manifesto which was published last year to help describe the term. Here’s the first sentence from the manifesto: God is a sending God, a missionary God, who has called His… Read More
Photo credit: phill.d (Creative Commons) The way this country is trending, unless the Lord intervenes, it may not be long before the USA is a post-Christian nation. Only 4% of adults currently have a Biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making. We are potentially only a generation away from being like many countries in… Read More
Photo credit: antgirl (Creative Commons) Recently, God has spoken very specifically to Tony and me from the book of Haggai. His prophecy, “I am with you, says the Lord” was enough to get the Israelites to resume the work of building the temple after a 20 year hiatus. Those of us in organic/simple church believe… Read More