Reculvers, UK 2011

"We need communes
To create a new society
Within the shell of the old
With the philosophy of the new
Which is not a new philosophy
But a very old philosophy
A philosophy so old
That it looks like new."

- Peter Maurin via http://astrangerandthekingdom.wordpress.com/

Alan Hirsch states “if you wish to grow a contemporary church following good church growth principles, there are several things you must do and constantly improve upon: 
1. Expand the building for growth.
2. Ensure excellent preaching that relates to the life of the hearers.
3. Develop an inspiring worship service with an excellent band.
4. Make certain you have excellent parking facilities.
5. Ensure excellent programs for children and youth.
6. Develop a program of cell groups rooted in a Christianised model.
7. Make sure that next week is better than last week. 

In contrast to the above, Hirsch discusses the nature of, or innate purpose of the church according to scriptures: 
1. A covenanted community
2. Centered on Jesus Christ (“Jesus is Lord”).
3. Worship, defined as offering our lives back to God through Jesus.
4. Discipleship, defined as following Jesus & becoming like him.
5. Mission, defined as extending the mission of God through the activities of the covenanted community.

"The church exists for nothing else but to draw men
into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are
not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions,
sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of
time. God became a Man for no other purpose."

- C. S. Lewis

@ralphgroeneveld You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford

"It’s not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity."

- Francis Bacon

Lang gesprek met VS uitgever over boek Claiborne. Agents, representatives and blabla. Amerikanen hebben volgens mij werkelijk geen idee hoe klein de Nederlandse markt is.

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The reality is that the impact of a conference speaker is shallow compared to that of the one who pours his or her life into a few people in a mentoring relationship.

Jesus never settled into a public speaking ministry for this reason. He would never give his heart to the crowds and always withdrew to the few who would listen and be changed. Jesus had the capacity to draw huge crowds, but instead he invested his life in a handful of people who would turn the world upside down.

"

- Neil Cole in “Organic Leadership”

It amazes me to consider how much effort and how many resources (time, money and people) are expended for a single hour once a week. We have made church nothing more than a religious show that takes place on Sunday, and after it’s done we all go home, until church starts again next week, same time, same place. Is this what the bride of Christ is? -Neil Cole - Organic Church.

Prachtige tekst op de website van de OLV Abdij in Oosterhout: Oosterhout kent al enige jaren diverse muziekevenementen zoals: ‘parkpop’; Oosterhout live; en het country festival. Mensen staan in de rij voor een kaartje. Maar een kaartje hoef je eigenlijk niet te kopen want het geluid wordt zo geregeld dat je in heel de stad kunt meegenieten. Wij hebben zo onze eigen parkpop… s’nachts geven de kikkers een overweldigend concert met veel bijval. De buurt heeft nog niet geklaagd, wat ons soms verwonderd. 

Vanmorgen was er een concert, georganiseerd door diverse vogelsoorten. Daar waren te horen: de vink, de groene specht, de koolmees, de blauwe specht, enige uitbundige zwartkopjes, de roodborst, de houtduif, de goudhaantjes, en er was het vervaarlijke geratel van een winterkoning met jongen. Het was waarlijk een concert met ieder zijn eigen partij. Het koste geen cent, de melodie was gewoon te verstaan, niet te zacht en niet te hard. Even genieten.

MISSIONAL LIVING

By James Rudd

As a youth pastor one of my biggest challenges was to make the teachings of the Bible relevant to teenagers. I struggled with it on a weekly basis. It didn’t matter what kind of vocabulary, games, videos or illustrations I used; it seemed that I was always at least 6 to12 months behind the trend. However, I did the best that I could. Then I became a church planter. And it got worse.

It seems that no matter what form of ministry we are in, we will always be challenged to make the Christian faith relevant to those we minister to. However, we must take care not to strive for relevance at the expense of faithfulness. True apostolic Christianity requires both.

Recently, a new word has emerged to describe how modern Christians should relate to the rest of the world: “missional.” In his book Planting Missional Churches, Ed Stetzer states: “Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound. Think of it this way: missional means being a missionary without ever leaving your zip code” (p. 19). While living missionally may not require us to leave our zip code, it does require us to leave the confines of our homes and church buildings. Core to a biblical philosophy of missions is the conviction that we should “go and tell.” However, most church outreaches operate with a “come and see” mentality. One has to ask, if we didn’t have church buildings, could most of our attempts at outreach survive?

Church father Tertullian, in a statement directed toward the Roman Empire, wrote: “We have filled every place among you—cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces, the very camps, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum. We have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.” Ray Bakke, in A Theology as Big as the City, comments on Tertullian’s statement: “Early Christians penetrated the whole city, but not by claiming space for church buildings or programs of their own. They penetrated everybody else’s space instead” (p. 193). Could this be what Jesus meant when He called His followers the “salt of the earth”?

Finally, by serving as missionaries within our own zip code we recognize that while some may be called to reach Judea and Samaria, many more are called to reach Jerusalem.

What are some practical steps we can take? Below are practices that have been fruitful as our church seeks to be alive missionally:

• Rather than joining a church softball league, try joining a public league. Better yet, flood a public league with people from your church.

• Pastors, commit to spending at least one workday a week outside of the church. Find a library or other public area to do things like return e-mails, write reports or study. Even if you don’t make any connections, you’ll get some great “real-life” sermon material.

• Do one-on-one discipleship training in a public area like a restaurant or coffee shop. You’d be surprised how many nosey people will interrupt your conversations. Of course, you need to be willing to be interrupted. These surprise encounters could lead to some interesting “on the job” discipleship training experiences.

• Ever wonder where early Christians gathered before church buildings existed? They met in homes. Try decentralizing your church ministry and moving it into the community.

• Rather than reinventing the wheel by starting “Christian” community organizations, join existing service groups and witness for Christ while volunteering.

• Become a “regular” somewhere. Find a restaurant, coffee shop or other business to patronize weekly. Try to learn the employees’ names; maybe they will even learn yours.

• Rent your facilities to a community organization. This can be risky, but it’s a great way to build bridges and break down some of the barriers that people have toward coming into a church.

• Create inroads for spiritual conversations. When you’re at the hardware store, instead of asking where the paint is, say, “I’m helping at my church. Can you direct me to the paint section?” In my experience, at least half of the time, the person responds with “What church do you go to?”

• When possible, walk rather than drive. It gives you a better feel for your neighborhood, you’ll be more likely to pray and you’ll actually meet people. Remember their names!

If you follow a few of these tips, at least two things will happen: you will dig deeper into the Bible as your faith gets stretched. And you may see people show interest in your faith. This may lead to new relationships that culminate in gaining new brothers and sisters in Christ.

James Rudd is pastor of True Vine Church Community of the C&MA in Philadelphia, Pa.

Dit is een mooie illustratie. Zou het gebaseerd zijn op juiste historische gegevens? 

We can live only in relationships. We need each other. A rather crude and cruel experiment was carried out by Emperor Frederick, who ruled the Roman Empire in the thirteenth century. He wanted to know what man’s original language was: Hebrew, Greek, or Latin? He decided to isolate a few infants from the sound of the human voice. He reasoned that they would eventually speak the natural tongue of man. Wet nurses who were sworn to absolute silence were obtained, and though it was difficult for them, they abided by the rule. The infants never heard a word — not a sound from a human voice. Within several months they were all dead. 

"As John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas have pointed out, among others, the church is a new polis. It is a God-created community that embodies a new politic and new definitions of leadership. The church, therefore, is a colony from another realm, representing the rights of its sovereign Lord. So our politics is embodied in the life that we’re called to live out together as God’s people—as the church.
In this sense, the church is the new order. We are the beginning of God’s kingdom that is already happening in the midst of the old order. If the church is operating properly in a given locality, the kingdom of God is seen. Justice, peace, love, mutual care, giving, etc., are made visible. Christ is seen on the earth again."

- Jesus Manifesto