Tag: Bible

We are all priests

Find out what everyone’s leadership gifts are. We all have them, there are no exceptions. We all have the role and duty and joy of encouraging and equipping others for service. We must build one another up in love. It’s part of discipleship, part of becoming like the Master.

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I’ve been finding I don’t have time to post as often as I’d like, and one way to deal with that is to post shorter messages based around material I already have to hand. So as part of the mix I’m going to start posting single point extracts from JDMC, and continue with short image posts as well. We’ll see how it goes.

Created with GIMP (Wikimedia)

These single point extracts are intended to spark fresh thinking individually or in group discussions of up to ten or fifteen people – (Christian Unions, home groups, small groups, churches meeting at members houses and other kinds of group).

The emphasis is on working together, perhaps in much the way church met and operated in the first couple of centuries when the gospels and New Testament letters were being written and circulated. This time I’ve updated an older article for re-publication.

JDMC POINTS – 1

No, the title ‘We are all priests’ doesn’t mean I’m suggesting you all sign up for holy orders – but we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen race (1 Peter 2:9). In Israel the royal and priestly functions were separate. But in Christ they are combined, he is King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) but he is also our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). We have Royal duties because our Father is also the King’s Father, so we have functions in leading and ruling. But we also have priestly duties because we’re brothers and sisters of the High Priest, and we have a role in bridging the gap between the people around us and our Father in heaven. Every single one of us is a servant of Christ and should be fully active – it’s part of being a disciple. We do what he does, we say what he says. The people we interact with will hopefully benefit from our activity among them.

So find out what everyone’s leadership gifts are. We all have them, there are no exceptions. We all have the role and duty and joy of encouraging and equipping others for service. We must build one another up in love. It’s part of discipleship, part of becoming like the Master.

Discuss

I can guarantee that everyone in your group has taken the lead in
some way, great or small. Can you identify some of these leading abilities?
It might be initiating something, reminding the group to listen to what the
Spirit is saying, spreading a good idea to another group, getting people to
care for one another and cooperate, or explaining something. Can you identify anything apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, or teaching here?

Taken from JDMC page 19.

See also:

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Partying with an evangelist

Doing it Jesus’ Way

It’s completely astounding that the Almighty Creator of the universe lived as a man among the village folk of Galilee for thirty years as a carpenter – and nobody noticed!

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These single point extracts are intended to spark fresh thinking individually or in group discussions of up to ten people – (Christian Unions, church home groups, house churches for example).

JDMC extract – 2

Be wary of reforming people, persuading them to wear different clothes, eat different food or change their customs, culture and language. This won’t reveal Christ to them. If you claim to represent Jesus, they will assume that he is like you. Jesus came to live among the ordinary people of Judaea and Galilee and he expects us to live among the people around us and identify with them just as he did; this demands that we go deep, something Paul understood and practised (1 Corinthians 9:19–23). Jesus shows us how to do it, he ate with Pharisees and tax collectors. He was fully present. He came as a servant and he shared the good news. It’s completely astounding that the Almighty Creator of the universe lived as a man among the village folk of Galilee for thirty years as a carpenter – and nobody noticed! That shows us how deeply he involved himself in the local culture, he became invisible.

Jesus is our example for going out and going deep. These two activities work together so that the gospel (good news) and the church (the gospel people) become firmly embedded in the local community. Rapid expansion is not going to happen any other way. We need to understand that knowing Jesus more deeply will lead us into both going out (Luke 10:1-4) and going deep (Luke 10:5-7). That will affect what church looks like in the place where we live. If we let him, Jesus will take us first into mission and then into new church life shaped as he wants it to be. And this will be different depending on whether we live in France or Fiji, inner city or village, or among the poor or rich.

Discuss

Will you identify with people as you find them, or will you bring your own culture with you as if that, too, is part of the good news? Jesus came in weakness, he came to give up his life. Talk about what that might mean for you as you follow him.

Taken from JDMC page 21.

See also:

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

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The art of persuasion

Dinosaurs and the Bible

We are to learn about love, fruitfulness, brokenness, restoration, and our place in this Universe, responsibility, culpability, truth, life and wisdom. We are to understand these things in our own lives, in one another, and also in and through Yahweh.

Dinosaur (Wikimedia)

ad hoc post – 2

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Click to enlarge (Wikimedia)

I recently listened to a podcast by Two pastors in a pub (episode 55).  I enjoyed the episode which was about the questions asked and statements sometimes made, to the effect that the presence of dinosaur remains in the fossil record demonstrates the Bible to be incorrect. All sorts of these points are examined and discussed during the podcast. But I think there’s a much more fundamental argument to be made – and it has nothing to do with dinosaurs.

The underlying questions, I believe, are:

  • ‘What is the Bible for?’ That is, ‘What is it’s purpose?’
  • ‘Why was it written?’
  • ‘How was it written?’ and
  • ‘How should I read it?’

What’s in a name?

The background to my answers to those questions is to say that I believe there’s a power of some kind invisible to us, external to the Universe yet responsible for its existence and its nature. We’ll come back to the questions soon, but first let’s go a bit further with the background.

Note first that there is no way I can prove this belief of mine to be true or false. It’s a matter of faith, not of proof and not of evidence. It’s simply something I believe to be true. The set of provable statements is limited to those within and about the Universe; this set does not, cannot, apply to anything exterior to the Universe.

I give this creating and sustaining Authority in which I believe, a name. I like to use the name ‘I am what I am’. It’s the name offered for use by Moses when he asked, ‘Who shall I say has sent me?’ In Hebrew, this enigmatic name is יהוה ie YHWH, the vowels being left out. It’s transliterated into English variously as ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Yahveh’, ‘Yahoveh’ or in the past frequently ‘Jehovah’.

You can read more about Moses and the name in Exodus 3.

Taking the trouble to use something akin to the name given to Moses makes it easier to think this through. A name implies a person; so let’s imagine this creating and sustaining authority as a person called Yahweh.

Back to the questions

What is the Bible for? What is its purpose?

First remember that this person called Yahweh is not here with us inside this Universe we inhabit. Yahweh is outside it, if I make something I cannot also be a part of the thing I made. Suppose I write a story and there are characters in my story, as the author I might want to communicate with the characters. I think that’s the simplest way to answer the question, ‘What’s the Bible for’. I suggest that it’s Yahweh’s way of communicating with us. By influencing people like Moses, but also many others down the long ages of history, Yahweh has encouraged them to write down accounts that explain so many things that we need to know. That is the purpose and function of the Bible. It’s a collection of writings from many times and places written by many different contributors, but all inspired by Yahweh’s character and nature. That inspiring process is so fundamental that we might even regard Yahweh as the author, working behind the scenes.

Why was it written?

If the Bible had not been written, we would know little or nothing about the author. The fact that Yahweh wants you and me and others to know is reason enough. We are to to learn about character, purpose and relationship in particular. We are to learn about love, fruitfulness, brokenness, restoration, and about our place in this Universe, responsibility, culpability, truth, life and wisdom. We are to understand these things in our own lives, in one another, and also in and through Yahweh.

There’s plenty of geography, poetry, history, story, wisdom and more in the Bible, yet it’s not a geography text, or a poetry text , or a history text. Instead, the Bible employs all these forms to put across the core message. When Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan, or the woman who lost a coin, they were not necessarily historical events or real people, the story was to clarify something deeper and far more important than mere, everyday fact. And everything in the Bible, including the Genesis creation account, is there for that kind of purpose. None of the accounts in the Bible is required to be true palaeontologically, that’s not their function. They are there to explain relationship, responsibility and a deeper kind of truth.

How was it written?

Little by little is one answer. The books of the Bible were written at different times, by the efforts of many diverse authors, and based both on the author’s knowledge of the ways and history of the times in which they lived, and on direct inspiration by Yahweh.

How should I read it?

As it was (and is) intended! Don’t go searching for scientific evidence, geographical facts, or historical analysis with supporting documentation. Expect to have flashes of understanding from time to time, particularly about the nature, purposes and character of Yahweh. Most importantly, try to understand Yahweh’s perspective in dealing with characters in stories both imagined and historical. And especially try to grasp and crystallise what you are being shown about yourself, particularly in terms of your relationships and attitudes to others and to Yahweh as well.

Dinosaurs

Given all of that, you should now be in a good place to see that dinosaurs in the fossil record contradict nothing in the Bible. There is good, geological and palaeontological evidence for creatures living on the land and in the oceans of Earth way back in the past. There’s good evidence too to show that they were reptiles and that some of them were very large. There’s further good evidence to reveal that they did not, after all, die out completely. One branch of the dinosaur line survived and gave rise to all the birds that still live in the world today.

But none of this in any way contradicts my personal faith in a power external to the Universe.

And finally

There’s just one more point to make. What I’ve written here is only the merest beginning. You’ll find more right here in Journeys of heart and mind. I suggest using the search box near the top of the right-hand column (you’ll have to scroll up to find it). Try searching for Yahweh or for Jesus. Alternatively begin with this post:

Why on earth would I follow Jesus?

So, is Jesus the same person as Yahweh? I can only give you a weird answer – Yes, he is, and no he’s not! There’s a great deal more to be said about this, and I plan to write more soon. When I do, I’ll leave a link right here.

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

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Living in the presence
How life begins
Image of the day – 89

Gifts for building-2

Talk together about the gifts you see in one another, give one another feedback; most people are strong in one or more gifts.

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This article is an updated extract from my short book, Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC). The bite-sized piece below is roughly two percent of the book. This is the second part of the fourth forgotten way.

B – Activating the forgotten ways (continued)

2 – Encouraging one another
As you go out to reach the world together, put time aside to think and pray about what you are doing. Ask one another questions about how things are going. A weekend retreat now and then will help with this sort of planning and remembering. Don’t slip back from mission and become inward-focussed; it happens all too easily.

Reawaken one another to the gospel, are you drifting away from your first calling as mission-minded people? Avoid becoming lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-22), be wary of busyness and make mission an essential part of life. Mission-focussed prayer helps the six elements work together as they should, so keep mission at the heart of your prayer together. This will help everyone remember that Father stirs up mission and is involved in it. Jesus said we should pray for more workers in the harvest (Luke 10:1-4). Consider prayer walking areas where you’re connecting with people.

Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). So what sort of environment has he provided in which this building (or growing) will take place? History shows that whenever there has been major growth in mission there has always been apostolic leadership at work.

Discuss – How are you doing in these areas? Talk together about successes
and failures, ways you might do more or improve your focus. Pray  about it.

C – Identifying purpose

There will be a reason that your group exists, it is likely to be something to do with a shared passion which has been implanted in you by the Spirit for a specific purpose. Read Isaiah 55, and especially verse 11. Find out what you are passionate about, Papa will reveal it to you, and he will walk in it with you as well. Is it a particular function (such as helping the poor, feeding the hungry, or reaching the lonely)? Is it to reach out to a specific area or people group? Whatever it may be, talk about it, pray about it, and ask one another significant questions. Apostolic leadership will help this process.

It takes patience and commitment to discover purpose. Pray regularly, reflect and work together, ask outsiders who are familiar with what you do. Here are some useful questions… Why did the Lord create the group? What was the original dream? How has the group been used? What does the group do best?

Discuss or consider – What is your purpose? If you don’t yet know, agree to spend some time investigating.

D – Growing the gifts

Read and watch material that helps you develop an understanding of the five service gifts – they’re often called ministry gifts (Ephesians 4:11-12). Check out the JDMC section on The APEST gifts as a starting point. Talk together about the gifts you see in one another, give one another feedback; most people are strong in one or more gifts. Recognise that these gifts are not limited to experts, but are distributed throughout the body. If any of the gifts is significantly absent in your group, ask Jesus to bring the right people to join you. There’s no room here to examine all the service gifts in depth, but make time to understand them early.

Use the do it and consider it approach mentioned earlier. Provide books, DVDs and articles and encourage people to go to conferences and workshops. Find suitable networks. Explore ‘For more information’ at the end of this part of JDMC and use the material.

Be careful not to control anyone (Matthew 20:25-28), there’s no need for it and it undermines the life that Father has poured into the group. Instead, just inspire people and let them do what they do best. People don’t have power because it’s been granted by a leader but because it’s been granted by Jesus (Acts 1:8). Look for passion, ask questions, encourage experimentation. Free up time for all this, don’t over-programme, and aim to get the group dreaming.

Discuss or consider – Delegate five people from your group (or five small teams of people) to find out more about the five service gifts. One person or team to investigate one gift. Agree a time to report back, perhaps a week or two.

E – Sparking connections

Apostolic people link others together for positive action (Acts 11:19-30). Encourage them! They are starters, full of ideas, and inspire others. As catalysts, they get people talking and connect those with similar passions. They intuitively keep track of people and relationships. Sometimes they even network networks. If that sounds strange, just think of the internet. It’s called the internet because it networks company, government, and other networks. Apostles sometimes work at that sort of scale – Paul did.

People with an apostolic gift are widely connected and love to put the people they know in touch with one another. Sometimes the results are startling and unpredictable (in a good way). Movements really need people who can do this, it makes it far easier for good ideas to be shared widely and rapidly. A well-connected movement is an agile movement. Not everyone who sparks connections is apostolic, but all apostles are good at this.

scuss – Do you know anyone with this ability to connect people and
build networks? Could you do this too? Like all the gifts of service, this is
part of the church DNA that is in all of us to some degre

Discuss or consider – Do you know anyone with this ability to connect people and build networks? Could you do this too? Like all the gifts of service, this is part of the church DNA that is in all of us to some degree.

Develop and encourage each other

Bounce ideas off one another and keep thinking about the gifts of service. Try to work out where each of you is strongest and encourage any strengths (2 Corinthians 13:11). Tell one another, ‘I noticed you come alongside Steve when he was struggling. It seems to me you have some of the instincts of a shepherd. Well done!’, or, ‘I’m glad you reminded us to pray earlier, we needed to hear that.’ And above all, look for and encourage everyone who shows signs of going out to actively press forward with new things, laying foundations, making a fresh start, stirring people up, drawing out dormant gifts.

More sections of JDMC

Introduction – JDMC, what does it contain? – Using JDMC – how to approach it

Working together in six ways – Intro and Way 1 – Ways 2, 3 and 4 – Ways 5 and 6, six ways

Way One, Jesus at the centre – Jesus at centre 1 – Jesus at centre 2 – Jesus at centre 3

Way Two, Becoming disciples – Disciples 1 – Disciples 2 – Disciples 3

Way Three, Outward and integrated – OutAndInt1, OutAndInt2

Way Four, Gifts for building – GiftsForBuilding1, GiftsForBuilding2

Way Five, A living organism – LivingOrg1, LivingOrg2

More sections will appear here…

The work of the Spirit – Intro – Jesus, disciples, outward – Gifts, living, community, help

Other church leaders – Intro, bishops, elders – Deacons, pastors, priests

Last words – The end can also be the beginning

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Read the book

This was extracted from Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC), pages 17 and 18. Download the whole thing or read it online – GetJDMC.scilla.org.uk

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Gifts for building-1

By watching Jesus at work we see what the Father is like. And by watching us at work people will see what Jesus is like. Now go and turn that theory into practice.

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This article is an updated extract from my short book, Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC). The bite-sized piece below is roughly two percent of the book. This makes a start on the fourth forgotten way.

Everything that happens in life depends on its surroundings, and that can have a big impact. Any gardener will tell you that some plants need plenty of sun and a freely draining soil, others need moist and shady conditions, and yet others only grow in acid soils. And of course almost nothing grows in a desert.

Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). So what sort of environment has he provided in which this building (or growing) will take place? History shows that whenever there has been major growth in mission there has always been apostolic leadership at work.

Discuss or consider – What do you think an apostle is? What does an apostle do? Don’t worry if you are vague about the work of apostles; church in the West has had little to say about them for a very long time.

Gifts of service

People with an apostolic gift draw the church back to its essential task, guiding it into reaching and changing the world. This work of mission has been forgotten again and again throughout church history. Not only that, apostles stir us up into developing our own gifts and callings.

These people care for the gospel and remind us of its eternal purpose. They pioneer new forms of mission and church, they take care that all six forgotten ways are present and active. They keep things on track, and they offer a nurturing home where other essential gifts can work to good effect. In the list below, each gift produces a suitable environment for the next one.

Work of an Apostle > Work of a Prophet > Work of an Evangelist > Work of
a Shepherd > Work of a Teacher – (APEST).

These are all gifts of service; the purpose of the gifts is for the building up of the church so that we can all become mature (Ephesians 4:11-16). Throughout the long history of the Western church, the apostolic and some other service gifts have been overlooked and only those of pastor (shepherd) and teacher have been widely used. The results have been ineffective and short on impact. There is no space in this section to detail the other gifts, but they’re all covered in Part 9, The APEST gifts.

We’ll look at the five main activities of apostles (A – pioneering mission, B – activating the forgotten ways, C – identifying purpose, D – growing the gifts, and E – making connections). See if you can spot people like this in your own group; they’re almost certainly there. Help them to become active, value them, encourage them. And why not try for yourself? Anyone can do apostolic things at some level, but people with an apostolic gift will revel in them and excel.

Great places to look for inspiring examples are Acts and the New Testament letters. Paul is a wonderful example of the gift of apostle. Read Journeys to Significance for more about Paul. And don’t forget that Jesus reveals in himself all of the gifts from apostle right through to teacher, so look for powerful examples in the gospels too.

Discuss or consider – Can you find at least one or two examples of of each of the five apostolic activities in the New Testament? If you’re stuck, come back to the question after completing the rest of this part of JDMC.

A – Pioneering mission

Releasing new communities is a healthy thing to do, so always have new projects on the go. Dream, pray, form teams, and make a start (Luke 9:1-6). Apostolic stimulation and guidance are needed for this to happen, and it can’t be rushed. Close supervision and micromanagement are very unhelpful.

Try lots of new ideas even if they seem risky: see failure as a chance to learn. It’s useful to think about Christianity as always pioneering things; there are plenty of biblical examples of this; find them and study them. Make and cheer on some heroes (people who will go out and try new things). See how quickly Paul seized an opportunity in Athens (Acts 17:16-34).

Implant the idea of mission in the heart of the community. Tell stories about the early church and the church in China. Suggest everyone reads books like The Starfish and the Spider. Get everyone to consider how to make church simple and reproducible.

Map out the process needed and get people to work through it. Often, the map will emerge later and can be written down when it’s clear.

Discuss or consider – Are you at a stage where you can begin to spawn off new communities? Even if you are a very new group yourselves, you can dream about it, pray about it and talk about it. If you’ve been together for more than a year, ask yourselves, ‘What is holding us back?’

B – Activating the forgotten ways

1 – Thinking it through – This is all about a culture and a way of life. Encourage people to work through JDMC and read The Forgotten Ways; help them understand the ideas they contain. It may not be clear to people at first; parts of it have been forgotten for a long time and are not part of normal church life in the West. Clarify thinking about the entire system, not just the six parts individually. Active mission helps us live out Jesus’ calling. Apostolic people will help a group absorb these ideas by explaining their value and guiding their development.

As a group, think about Father’s work in redeeming his creation through the Son (Revelation 21:5). Read and explore the Bible on this, go to conferences together, listen to recorded teaching, share books and articles about going out and going deep. Retelling stories of success is an inspiring thing to do. It will help you see how you’ve been used, remind you of your calling and make the future clearer. Write down your most exciting stories, ask people for memories, keep photos and make slide shows, interview people and collect the stories in a book.

Here’s the theory – by watching Jesus at work we see what the Father is like. And by watching us at work people will see what Jesus is like. Now go and turn that theory into practice. Demonstrate Jesus’ love and grace to the people around you. To do it you will need to live a life that’s deeply integrated in the local culture.

Discuss or consider – Even if you are a new group, it’s likely you have at least a few stories to tell. Re-share them and write them down now, before they are forgotten. They’ll be useful later!

See also:
More sections of JDMC

Introduction – JDMC, what does it contain? – Using JDMC – how to approach it

Working together in six ways – Intro and Way 1 – Ways 2, 3 and 4 – Ways 5 and 6, six ways

Way One, Jesus at the centre – Jesus at centre 1 – Jesus at centre 2 – Jesus at centre 3

Way Two, Becoming disciples – Disciples 1 – Disciples 2 – Disciples 3

Way Three, Outward and integrated – OutAndInt1, OutAndInt2

Way Four, Gifts for building – GiftsForBuilding1, GiftsForBuilding2

Way Five, A living organism – LivingOrg1, LivingOrg2

More sections will appear here…

The work of the Spirit – Intro – Jesus, disciples, outward – Gifts, living, community, help

Other church leaders – Intro, bishops, elders – Deacons, pastors, priests

Last words – The end can also be the beginning

< Previous | Index | Next >

Read the book

This was extracted from Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC), pages 17 and 18. Download the whole thing or read it online – GetJDMC.scilla.org.uk

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!