If we feel we are forced to make trade-offs between ministry and investing in our marriage, we know automatically that we have taken a huge false step. All the alarm bells ought to be ringing.
Read moreLeadership Lessons: Wrong DNA
Whenever we see leadership difficulties - or the difficulties of an individual leader - in a church there is a high likelihood that they can be traced back to ecclesiological errors - that is, to wrong DNA.
Read moreRandom Questions For Christian Leaders
I'm wiling away a few minutes in the Royal Festival Hall in London, enjoying their excellent free wifi and realising how long I have been away from blogging. Am going to try to return more regularly. Here, as a start are a few completely random questions for leaders o ask themselves that are on my mind today:
What is God doing in your life at the moment?
How is your worship and prayer life?
Are the sources of spiritual input available to you adequate for your discipleship and leadership?
How goes it with your home - are you living in the love of God there?
Are you acceding to requests and demands to do things that are outside what you should be doing?
Are you or your congregation confusing what leaders do with what the whole church should be doing? What is the package of care that you have for your soul, your spiritual growth and your marriage?
Does your church have a disproportionate number of passive receivers - if so what are you missing or what has gone wrong?
What are you seeking to disciple people in - practically?
Do you have capacity to invest in new leaders?
Are you enjoying grace at the moment?
Are you excited about Jesus?
Does your church want to grow as it should - if not what has gone wrong?
Are you working 60+ hours every week - if so why?
Is your church's vision to be a grace-filled community of disciple-making disciples - if not, why not?
Relativism, Rioting and Hacking
What connects the phone-hacking press scandal and the riots erupting around the country? At rock bottom it is the question of value, or values. Why do we hold certain things to be important, sacrosanct, precious, worthy of careful protection. And other things not. And, most importantly, where does consensus come from on those matters?
A relativistic approach to truth claims there are no universal things that are true for everyone. Merely individual truths or personal preferences. Where the rubber hits the road with this pernicious teaching, is that the corollary is that there are no such things as reliable shared values and that authority is considered to be prima facae a bad thing - an imposition of power on freedom, a tyranny.
Read moreWhat is a Missional Community?
Very good, short definition of missional disciples and communities on the Desiring God blog, here. Quite similar to some of the stuff I have been writing about recently, but very well expressed and worth a look.
The question that springs instantly to mind is, aren't all churches missional communities? Isn't the phrase "missional community" an exact synonym for "local church"? And the answer is: no, they should be, but often they aren't. There are plenty of "churches" that define themselves according to non-biblical activities, principles and definitions. And to the degree that they aren't, they aren't being truly biblical.
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