The missional call is not doing what you already do at a better or more creative level. It’s joining people where they are, bringing the love of Jesus with you, and allowing the Spirit of God to form Christian community.
All tagged worship
Summit: Living Word
ACU is in its 116th year of Summit, and this spring’s edition focuses on the living word of God and the impact it has on our churches, our ministries, and our lives.
What About Revival?
Spiritually, revival is not something one can do. I can restore a house, rebuild a car, or renew an old orchard. However, when it comes to congregational life, revival is God’s work alone.
Sheep Respond to Nurture
This week I saw a sheep with an adopted master, following close because it knew familiarity and care. It had everything it needed and responded simply in acceptance.
Shhh…
In stillness and silence, the gut string chord of striving relaxes to the ringing philharmonic of divine sufficiency; it is enough.
Reflection Roundup: Light Bringers
Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
A Story of Lifting Hands to Heaven
I often hear discussions about raising hands to the Lord, most often in the context of worship. Some are enthusiastic hand raisers; others are not.
Reflection Roundup: Beyond Language
Music, poetry, the vulnerable submission of our blind spots to the examination of trusted others, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to breathe it all in. These are my prayers as we camp in new perspectives and different rhythms for a bit.
Foot Check. Nose Check. Smile Check.
If we acknowledge the physical and/or emotional constraints that limit our capacity, then we also become intentional about focusing our ministry around these essentials and doing so in whatever format works.
Monday to Saturday Faith
This conviction – that God is already in our homes, our Zoom calls, our neighborhoods and parks – offers us a vibrant and hopeful invitation.
Reflection Roundup: Christian Community, Face-to-Face
The mission of God is not something we have to do; we receive it. We share it and spread it around like maple butter on Holy Saturday French toast, savoring the Savior.
Reflection Roundup: Sacramental Hospitality
As the created world hosts humanity, we have much to learn from the soil, from the seeds. Stretching toward the light, cultivated hearts propagate God’s mission.
Pomegranates, Protestants, and Pictures
But are pomegranates and icons really on par with one another? After all, it is not like pomegranates were put in the temple to represent the image of God like Rublev’s icon of the hospitality of Abraham depicts the Trinity.
Reflection Roundup: Where’s the Learning Here?
Do our biggest challenges lie in relation to one another? This week let us fasten our truth-belts and remember our “enemy is not flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12).
Where Did They Go?
Where are our sheep? They are scattered. It is time to invite them back into the care and life of the Christian story!
Be the Church: An Onsite and Online Congregational Initiative for COVID-19 and Beyond
We are asking everyone in our church family – whether onsite or online – to do three things each week: love, grow, and worship.
Live Into Hope!
Let’s use this interruption as a time to re-imagine how we pursue God’s preferred future!
COVID-19 and Controlling Our Responses
Our idea of control is an illusion. We have very little say in what happens around us or to us; we only have a say in how we react and respond to the challenges that we face.
The Complex Questions of Reopening After COVID-19
Is there something we are not experiencing now (online)? If so, what is “it”? Given that “it” comes with potential costs, how do we decide if and when “it” is worth it?
Uncertainty and Hope
We believe that God is faithful, that hope is our lifeblood, and that the future is bound up not in our past but in God’s work of transformation.