The Beacon

Detoxing from Church

Detox from church - interesting read

read this blog

I was checking out mike bishop's blog today and he mentioned this other guy's blog, and well anyway you should check out this post.

late night

I think that I do most of my best work at night - all is quiet and and I have a chance to think. Well anyway - this week at school we having a ministerial conference that really stimulated me today in my thinking about many things.

They are -
1) Prayer - everywhere I turned today I heard something about prayer. Whether it was the story of James the Just or David Brainerd in a seminar on church history or whether it was one of my professor's talking about the importance of prayer in his own church. Today I was saturated wih talk about prayer. Today more than ever I am totally ready to be made willing to be a man of prayer.

Here are some insights about prayer I want to share. I put them in Nathan's journal earlier for him when he grows up - but I want to share them now with you guys.

a) No believer's spiritual life will rise to stay above the levelof his/her praying.

d) No believer's prayer life will rise above the level of his/her own personal, regular, daily time of worship with God.
Taken from Prayer: Life's Limitless Reach by Jack Taylor

2) Holiness - we need to be holy. I know that in my head - but my life does not represent that like it should. I want a love - a perfect and deep love for others and for the world. I want to have a passion for the kingdom of God and his righteousness - and seek to radically live that out on a daily basis.

I hope to see some changes in my life. I hope to see some changes in our fellowship. God is about to pour out His Spirit on us in ways that we could not even imagine. I don't know about you guys - but that excites me to participate in the life of the triune God.

3) Mission - Are we fulfilling our mission as a body of believers? Are we reaching the hurt and the broken with good news of Jesus as Lord and Savior? Are we planting small communties to reach the world around us? Do we love our Lord enough to join in what he is doing? Are we being intentional in our relationships to exalt the Lord? I think in our zealousness to be non-confrontational and less "sin management" oriented that we have forgotten to share our Lord's life with those around us. What does it take for us to love the Lord enough to share His love around us?

I love you guys. Think about the things I said and respond if you get a chance.

top 5 reasons why we are a cult

Here are the top five reasons why that people think that we are a cult.

5) We don't belong to a denomination. After all you know you never go into heresy if you are part of a denomination. Just ask the Episcopals.
4) We follow the bible. Not in some legalistic - control you sort of way - just obedience, scripture style - we wonder why to some "normal" Christianity - wild, holy abandon to Christ is weird. Guess that's what the bible means by a pecuilar people.
3) We don't have a building. We meet in homes. We would rather help christians from all stripes financially or help the poor instead of spending 5 million for an edifice to worship. We take the scripture "As you have done to the least of these you have done unto me" seriously.
2) We take tradition seriously. We believe that the church did not take a vacation for 1900 years before the reformation after the last apostle.

And the top # 1 reason is ....
1) Incredible ignorance. Many things that are done by the church have no biblical basis whatsoever. But we keep doing it. It is what AA calls insanity.

evangelism made simple

From Off the Map -

The Paralegal OA

Nine months ago I started a paralegal class. On the first day I met woman who looked really scared so I prayed for her (behind her back!).

Over the past nine months we’ve developed a friendship and I discovered how much she has suffered over the years. I wanted for her to get to know Jesus, but I wasn’t sure how to approach her. I just decided to be real with her and be myself (which includes my relationship with Jesus).

Last week, much to my surprise, she asked if she could come to church. As I was sitting there with her, I suddenly realized that it wasn’t my boldness or evangelistic fervor that got her there – it was simply me being me. She enjoyed herself and got a lot out of the experience. So did I.

When all else fails… try being yourself