Simply ChurchThere’s a virus that going around the world. It’s a dangerous virus that could change your life. Unlike most other viruses, I hope you catch it. This virus is the 10:2b virus. It comes from Luke 10 and verse 2. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So… Read More
It’s 2001, and Tony and I are in India where we are speaking at a conference. Another of the speakers is from India, and he’s someone we’ve wanted to meet for a long time because we’ve heard that he’s in the middle of an extraordinary, multiplying church planting movement. So in every break, I take… 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
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
I’ve recently become fascinated by the life of a woman I call Mrs. Zebedee, mother of James and John, wife of a fisherman from Galilee. Photo Credit: Hindrik S via Compfight cc This is what Matthew’s gospel says about Mrs Zebedee on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion: And many women who had come from… Read More
Sometimes the life of a minor character in the Bible suddenly comes into focus. Since I wrote a post on the female disciples of Jesus, I’ve been fascinated by “the women,” a group of women from Galilee who took care of Jesus. My imagination has been particularly captured by “Mrs. Zebedee,” a simple fisherman’s wife.… Read More
It sometimes puzzles me that women weren’t included among the twelve disciples. How easy it would have been for Jesus to have six disciples of each gender. But as I’ve been pondering it over recent days, I’ve come to a realization… Jesus never seemed to care too much about his reputation. In fact, sometimes it seems… Read More
Oh, but he did! Jesus chose twelve men to be with him. What is often forgotten is that a group of women accompanied him too. Luke’s gospel describes these women: Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took… Read More
This weekend celebrates the most important event in history. Check out this video (you'll need to click on this link to view it:
Continuing the topic of church planting: I immediately went through the Gospels looking at every reference to fishing. There were several. Even though in Mongolia, I did not have a concordance, it became apparent that several different methods of fishing were described. Sometimes the disciples threw or cast their nets into the water (e.g. Matthew… Read More