Come As You Are: Introduction

Posted: 28 April, 2011 in CAYA2011, Seminar Notes, The Church
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I love it when church isn’t ‘churchy’ – and especially when people encounter Jesus, are added to the church and start growing in him. I dream of churches where imperfect, desperate people gather to worship a perfect God and are gradually changed to be more like him.

Don’t get me wrong, I love church people. I am very blessed to have grown up in a Christian family, gone to Sunday school, youth group, Christian Union, and all the rest. I am blessed to have a rich spiritual heritage, and have benefited from knowing many faithful, mature Christians along the way.

However, if we’re really following Jesus and doing what he’s asked (i.e. going into all the world and making disciples) then our churches shouldn’t be filled with people who have my background. There should be people who have never crossed the door of a church before. People who have never been trained in the ‘proper’ way to behave in church (praise God!). People who have messy, broken, sinful lives, who are in the process of being changed by Jesus.

And then, of course, we have the greater reality that people like me need to get: That no matter how ‘churchified’ I might be, I am a long way from being perfect and am in desperate need of Jesus to help me, and change me.

That’s why I loved the book “No Perfect People Allowed” by John Burke when I read it a few years ago. A few weeks ago I attended a conference hosted by Willow Creek called “Come As You Are (but don’t stay that way)” – with John Burke and James Emery White. In the following posts I will be passing on my notes from the sessions.

Jesus has no other plans

Posted: 8 March, 2011 in Christian Life
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Imagine Jesus returns to heaven and is interviewed:

Interviewer: You suffered much and died for the whole world. What have you done about making known that love to all the people in the world?

Jesus: I have asked Peter, John, Andrew, James and others down there to make it known, and for the people they tell to tell others, and so on.

Interviewer: Yes, but suppose they don’t?

Jesus: I have no other plans.

Jesus started and ended his ministry with one plan in mind, to call a group of people to himself, make disciples, and send them out to make other disciples.

When it comes to sharing the good news of the gospel, Jesus has one plan: For every believer to go into the world and  make disciples and make a difference.

He has no other plans.

What’s the point of church?

Posted: 2 March, 2011 in Christian Life, church, Discipleship
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Good stuff here: What are we trying to do as church? Play at church’s got talent, or make disciples and make a difference.

From @edstetzer http://ow.ly/3nHs6:
Rather than seeking to be the next big thing – the church version of “America’s Got Talent” – let’s become the next transformative thing. Instead of our neighbors saying, “Wow, you’ve got a big church,” let’s create a movement where they say “Wow, your church makes a difference in our community, and around the country.”

London – That Great City

Posted: 1 March, 2011 in Christian Life
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London: A city with great problems and great potential. If you want to make a difference in this world then  London is a great place to start.

Here’s a few reasons why we do what we do:

The Simple Life

Posted: 4 January, 2011 in Christian Life
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In a world that gets ever-increasingly complex, I often find myself longing for what Paul calls the “simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3, NKJV)

Here’s what A.W.Tozer wrote in 1948. Some things don’t seem to change much:

“Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and the servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.” – The Pursuit of God

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