Christians?

I have been thinking about how many people in church act and think.
Maybe they are not in your church or my church, but they are around.
If we are honest, I think we may be them sometimes.

These people...

• These people are long time church-going Christians.
  
• Church is very important to them.
  
• If you ask them, Jesus is very important to them.
  
• Jesus and the church are almost inseparable in their minds.
• They have never shared the good news with anyone in their daily lives
• They do a lot of good things in and with the church.
• They rarely involve themselves in a church activity/event involving missions or evangelism
• They love to eat with fellow Christians. This happens a lot.
• They will not immediately embrace a newcomer. They must wait to see if they attend for a while.
• They are not involved in their community - many times because it would conflict with church events/activities. Most of the time because they have no clue what their community is doing.
• There is an expectation that the Pastor/Staff will take care of evangelism.
• In their mind, the role of the deacon and staff is to minister to them.
• It is rare that they have any relationships outside the church.
• They give money to the church.

Jesus said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me." (John 15:5)

Since it is rare to see the "much fruit" from these people, sometimes I wonder if they are really believers...

Facebook

Hey:

I just was reading about various ways to use Facebook in ministry.

As a result I uploaded this blog onto my Facebook account.


You can download the book here.

It's a free e-book.

Vision, part 2

So we begin with the thought we are going to be simple, relational and external.
What next.

Then we dive into the vision statement.

Love God, love people, serve both!

How's that?

I know it is not what our church has said, but it certainly what I am adopting as my personal statement.

The discipleship process looks like this...

Learn to love God through worship >>> learn to love people through small group >>> learn to serve both people and God through any means possible.

Vision Part 1

simple...relational...external

I envision a church where we do not get so bogged down in ministry that we forget to serve Jesus.

I envision a church where we really get to know one another and the people in the world around us.

I envision a church where the ministry we do outside the walls is just as important as the ministry we do inside the walls.

God of Mercy and Judgement

I have recently been having this dialog with a genuine seeker. This is not an argument designed just for the sake of argument, but someone who is really struggling with this issue.

I am interested in anyone's perspective on the following:

God is a God of judgement and mercy.
He judges sin and some say that means he is the one then "sending" people to hell.
He provides redemption from sin through Christ on the cross.
But since He truly wants everyone to be saved (9 The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9)
why is there the possibility that some may never hear and thus die condemned?

One example of these people might be people who lived somewhere else in the world at the time of the crucifixion. It seems logically impossible that the message of Jesus would reach them.


I have some thoughts about this, but was curious if others want to chime in...

Writing

Here's and interesting blog I found about writing...

Seth Godin's Blog


I wonder if the fact that i am a bad blogger indicates that I am a bad writer?

MLB Widget added!

I added the MLB scoreboard to the left.
So cool!
Now I can watch the Indians triumph as I blog!

VBS articles

Here are two articles from Baptist Press about VBS


U.S.: VBS drew 1 in 16 elementary age kids


VBS wins souls

Even Better!

indians 10, chisox 8