Discipleship (Page 3)
Your Frontline Is Not On Hold
It’s been a strange year, hasn’t it? Parts of life that were once so stable we rarely gave thought to them have been disrupted. Our life rhythms and habits have been interrupted. Your work life may have changed. Maybe you’re working from home. Maybe meetings are via Zoom instead of around a conference table. School life has changed, with virtual learning. Community spaces have changed, with limits to our access and interactions in places like restaurants, coffee shops, and gyms.…
Living As a Blessing in a Time of Struggle
From the very beginnings of the biblical story in Genesis, the Bible envisions God’s people as a means of blessing to the world. This theological principle gives us a good framework to consider what faithfulness looks like on the frontline. We are a means of blessing when we do good work and employ our gifts for the good of others. We are a blessing as we model the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and…
The Unsung Stories of Everyday Discipleship
It is rare for the churches I’ve attended to invite others to the front to share. It’s typically reserved for progress reports of church ministries and events, visiting ministry partners, and people leaving to go on missions trips. She fell into that last category. They called her forward one Sunday, gave her time to share, prayed over and commissioned her. She was nervous but passionate, her pale cheeks flushing as she shared her desire to serve God and be willing…
Equipping and Encouraging for the Frontline – We Gather to Scatter
One of the key steps in cultivating whole-life discipleship in the life of a church is reevaluating and reimagining the role the church plays in the lives of faithful disciples. If Sunday morning corporate worship is not the purpose and most “spiritual” moment of the week, if all Christians are called to ministry, if everyone has a frontline where they’re invited to be a part of God’s work in the world, then our time gathered together becomes about equipping and…
Reenvisioning the Frontline
Last week, we talked about the Great Commission and the call to make disciples “as you go.” This mission of the church isn’t just for the “professionals,” it is a call for every follower of Jesus, as we seek to live faithfully in our everyday lives. Thinking about the mission of the church in this way changes where we expect ministry to happen. Gone is the divide between the “sacred” and the “secular,” as if God can only work under…
The Great Commission & The Purpose of the Church
What is the purpose of church? It’s a question I’ve been reflecting on over the last several months, as “church time,” as my two-year-old calls it, has shifted to a digital experience. As we’ve had our normal rhythms stripped away, it’s given space to reflect once again on the purpose and nature of the gathered life of the church. This is a question theologians and Christian thought leaders have written shelves-worth of books about, so I in no way presume…
Everyday Incarnation and Waiting on Jesus (Luke 2:22-32 Devotional)
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the…
Advent Hope for the Valley (Christmas Devotional)
We find ourselves now in the season of Advent. It’s fitting, really, that we end our Through the Valley series during this season, for I believe it’s in the promise of Advent that we find hope as we walk through whatever valleys life may bring our way. Some, I suppose, may deem the topics we’ve covered over the last several weeks to be “depressing” or too heavy to dwell on for too long. We’ve waded into some deep waters: racism…
How to Survive Enduring Uncertainty and Transition
Rashad Clemons was in the middle of a major transition when the pandemic struck. He’d recently moved back to the east coast with his family to become the new pastor of Reality Church Boston. The plan was to do a one-year handoff, in which he would be the pastor-in-residence and slowly receive responsibilities and leadership as the planting-pastor transitioned out. When the pandemic hit in the middle of this year, the plan had to change. Rashad remembers that he and…
Passion Week Readings from the Gospel of John
Passion Week Readings from the Gospel of John: – Sunday: The Triumphal Entry of Jesus (John 12:12-19) – Monday: Jesus demonstrates His humility and love (John 13:1-14:7) – Tuesday: Jesus is the Vine (John 15:1-14) – Wednesday: Jesus prays for His disciples and us (John 17) – Thursday: Jesus is betrayed and denied (John 18) – Friday: Jesus is the crucified Savior (John 19:1-37) – Saturday: Sunday’s coming! (John 19:38-42) – Sunday: Jesus lives!! (John 20) Photo via: https://pixabay.com/photos/piece-religion-israel-holy-land-3241434/
Spiritual Formation in the Midst of Chronic Illness (Mary and Peter Frey – The Frey Life)
“Mary, how has having cystic fibrosis affected your relationship with Jesus?” This question from a summer camp nurse sparked Mary Frey’s curiosity years ago. Since then, part of her journey with a chronic illness has been learning how to ask how following Jesus fits into a broken situation. “The illness that I have does not define me, in the sense that it is not the entirety of who I am, what I am, and my purpose in life,” Mary says.…
Encountering God in Loneliness (Jason Gaboury Book)
Jason Gaboury says he’s wrestled with loneliness his whole life. He felt this sense of disconnection in a particularly powerful way when he was in his mid-thirties, with two young kids at home, doing campus ministry. His home was in a “constant state of relational connection,” but he still felt lonely. “My assumption was that if I was lonely, there was something wrong with me,” he says. “A lot of people assume that. They assume that if I’m lonely, I’m…