Month: March 2013

Proclaiming a Gospel that Breaks Down Walls

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Border Wall

Is our gospel big enough to break down dividing walls between people groups?

[This is part of the series “Multi-Ethnicity in the Missional Church”. Read the other posts here]

By Eric Rafferty

With this series we’ve tried to highlight how multiethnicity can be so much more than another value on the long list of things that we should care about as Christians. Multiethnicity is APE! Multiethnicity is apostolic, rooted in a vision of reaching every people group in our cities or campuses. Multiethnicity is prophetic; it reveals an alternate reality, a living picture of the Kingdom of God. And today we want to highlight that building communities of reconciliation bears witness to the power of the gospel.

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Fueling the Fire

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Fire

By Jon Hietbrink

As APE leaders operating on the fringes of traditional Christianity, we’re keenly aware of a couple things.

  • First, we’re desperate for authentic spiritual vitality in our lives. We know that to see the Kingdom come in power in unreached places requires far more than giftedness or charisma, it takes the presence of the living God. We yearn for genuine spiritual authority that flows out of who we are; we long to embody the message we proclaim.
  • Second, because we’re operating in the margins, the path we tread is far less worn. Whereas many of us were surrounded by plentiful mentors and models when we were younger, now there are fewer folks we can depend on for the spiritual development we need; it can be lonely on the frontier.

As movement leaders, we must obey Paul’s command to “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Rom. 12.11)–we must fuel our own fire.

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Get into Trouble!

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Will you willingly give God your best bull this year?

I want you to think about getting into some trouble this week and more importantly this year!

What if we actively put ourselves into trouble for God, fully aware of our need for Him to rescue us?

What if we did that instead of calculating how much we could really handle and would we really be able to get ourselves out if in fact we did wind up in trouble?

This last week at our Greek Staff Conference with Intervarsity, we had some excellent training by Rich Lamb. One of the things he encouraged us with is the idea of “Leader as Patient”. Not patient as in waiting, but patient as in a sick person needing healing.

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Catching Cats for the Kingdom

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cats

By Sarah Carter

It’s a beach-worthy Saturday morning as they often are here in San Diego, even in the winter.  But instead of soaking up some rays, I’m with a friend at church learning how to catch feral cats.  We put out metal traps, line them with tuna, hide them in the tall brush and watch from a distance. Part of me has that rush of adrenaline when hunting something, and the other part of me is wondering…”What the heck am I doing?” (This thought becomes especially acute when I catch the cats, and then have to keep them overnight, lug them to a vet, and stand in a line to get them fixed. Lest there are some worried cat-lovers out there, we are partnering with a very humane organization.)

The reason I’m spending my Saturdays catching cats is because our church property has become a breeding ground for wild cats, with litters of kittens in the bushes, pooping all over the property.  It might not be that big of a deal, if you can stand stepping in cat poo every now and again, and avoid the cats criss-crossing the church grounds.

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Leading Kingdom Movements

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Mike Breen’s new book Leading Kingdom Movements comes out tomorrow! I want to buy it and you should too. Here is a taste and follow my link to see more from this book and even download a few chapters if you like!

There seem to be seasons where the world doesn’t just need change, but is actually begging for it. It’s aching for it, desperate for it. That’s how the world was in Jesus’ time. And I believe we find ourselves in that world today. This book is about learning to lead Kingdom movements that just might be able to produce that kind of change.

Check out the book here + Free Downloads!