so sunday nite i made a space for testimonies for people to share what God has been doing in their lives... the second person who got up was a man named P (well not really, but let's call him that for now) who i know pretty well from being around church and from having an amazing story of being homeless and God and the church bringing transformation in his life and so now he and [...]
i really enjoyed enGAGE (our sun evening congregation) tonite i was away for two days this week so didn't do my traditional thursday morning sermon prep and so yesterday (sat) i put some stuff together and it felt decent, but when i was looking over it today it suddenly clicked into place and i really felt super amped about it and then when i was preaching tonite i just had a sense of God telling [...]
one of my weekly thort for the week reader friends wrote me an email containing this line: 'It doesn’t matter how much doctrine I know, if I don’t reflect the God I serve in my daily life, it’s pointless.' which in essence is a paraphrase of James 2 - faith without works is dead - and James 1.22 don't just read it, do it. and it was part of an email from a guy who [...]
for they will be seen as human! i'm not sure why i was thinking about this today but i was driving back from dropping off our recycling (oh wait, it just hit me, never mind) and this thort came in to my head - i wish that i knew how to relate to handicapped people better when i was a little kid my folks used to take me to this place called the Avril Elizabeth [...]
so my beautiful wife Val has posted this post on poverty and our gut reaction vs a more thort out one and it's a bit of a catch 22 of which one is right or not but the key thing it teaches is to think which is something we need more of in all aspects of life, and is often one of the most frustrating things about many christians who 'have the right answer' without [...]
"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs and organise the work. Teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean." Antoine de Saint-Exupery
so i recently wrote a 5 part ‘reasons to hate Christianity’ blog series which was (for those who read it) intended to be a tongue-in-cheek statement on some of the basic things Christianity is actually meant to be about – things like love and forgiveness and looking after people in need which are all things that actually no-one in their right mind would hate... but yet people hate christianity and have issues with the church... [...]
in this amazing book 'Exiles' by Michael Frost i am reading i came upon this quote today by antoine de saint-exupery - 'If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs and organise the work. Teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.' if they build it they will come kind of idea - another move in the big what is church wrestling currently taking place [...]
i really liked what my buddy kleinfrans (yes, he's a giant with a name like that) commented on my recent 'reasons to hate christianity' blog series so i thort i would share it... its quite sad the way christianity is being perceived as a box of crayons. you look at the packaging (baptist/catholic/…) and you know exactly what colour crayons you are going to find inside. or at least that is what those that see [...]
Awesome SA is a site dedicated to the good news of what happens in South Africa that we seldom get to read about in the newspapers or watch in the news - they send out regular newsletters with testimonies of south africans living and loving large and helping make this nation the thing it truly can be - i encourage you to get connected 'Awesome SA is about encouraging South Africans to positively influence the [...]