Library of Thoughts

Friends, I am sharing an article my son wrote that has several poignant lines about how we relate to one another… I hope you enjoy it! Vern http://theechonews.com/need-argue-christians/ How we need to argue as Christians November 16, 2018 11:00 am · C.S. Lewis and the need to remember common ground G. Connor Salter | Contributor “Christians have become known more for what they disagree on than the gospel they believe in .” Pastor Ronnie Floyd said in a discussion with Ed Stetzer, published in the April 2018 edition of Christianity Today. As hard as that sounds, Floyd knew what he was talking about. These days, every religious idea that comes up in American Christian circles seems to be divisive. Whether we’re talking about whether social justice fits Jesus’s teachings, which political theories to support, what we need to do about environmental problems – we all seem to be arguing with little consensus on anything.  Certainly, we understand some of this fr...

We make too much of leaders… we exalt them, which makes them think they are worthy of exaltation. " Do not be called leader, for one is your leader, and that is Christ ." Matthew 23:10 HCSB. You can translate it master, teacher, instructor, or… leader. I once had a guy I was discipling call me master. I quickly stopped him, and asked him to NEVER say that again. He was a 20 year veteran of the Air Force, and a retired Lt. Col.. Some thing was deeply wrong in how he understood discipleship. In our time together I invited him to explore why this mindset was so unhealthy. But in his world everyone was trying to be a leader. Adopting a "posture" of leadership… Like the person who comes into the room and waits for space in the conversation so he can speak. He isn't listening and present with those in the room. He isn't gathering information about their needs. He stands "looking and acting the part". We should make much of shepherds… Shepher...

There comes a day when in discipling, you recognize that it is not the tools or the behavioral practices that have furthered the transformation of the laborer. But the laborers greatest transformative moments revolve around the Gospel. The daily decisions to allow the gospel to rule and reign exclusively in their life. You have helped others enough to know that you can interchange disciplines and tools and produce no more fruitful labor. Produce no more obedient disciple.  It is easy to believe that the glory of God needs help. A focusing lens to make it potent. A framework to make it scaleable. So what do you do when you realized that the glory of God, through the gospel is not assisted buy your perfect practices? What is your gospel trajectory? What do you do in the future? I hear over and over from equippers that they are learning to believe that the answer is  to live in the glory of God and to train your disciples to live in the glory of God as exclusively as possibl...

These short videos touch on central concepts in disciplemaking: Harvest - 5 Video's on Discipleship

"People don't apply discipleship principles because we make it too complex. We need to make it simple." There is a movement afoot to simplify following Christ. It's premise is that the modern discipleship movement is too complex to be applied by most people. I see the point! It is sometimes, maybe often, a valid point. Some have created model's for discipleship that take 6-8 years to complete. Sifting out behavioral stages from scripture, hoping that if we order them correctly, and mentor people correctly most christians would choose to be disciples because it would be clear, demonstrated, packaged. Moving in the opposite direction, this simplification mindset says that many more will choose to follow Christ if we ignore all but the key principles and commands. It's clear, it's demonstrated, it's simple. Hard to argue with that, right? Except that both have the potential to miss the key. The power of the gospel. Both move past the gospel so qui...

The posture of true manhood… Outward… Biblical masculinity is aimed outward. A true man walks into a room and asks himself, "What is my responsibility here?" I am settled and strong. Because I know that the task He has given me, He will do through me. I'm just a steward. In the doorway of this room I see people who need their value affirmed. I see women I may need to protect. I know that God is looking from eternity at eternal beings He perfectly made. They are like Him. Purposefull, not victims. At work, not consumers. Managers, just like me. We are corporately humble before Him. I dress in the clothing of a man who wants others to know I am His man. I look into people's eyes, to make them lift their heads. I shake their hands, or connect with words that say, "I know you are special!" Inward... Masculinity aimed inward festers. A temptation of our day for biblical men is to be thinking, "How am I being received here?" To not enter...

"I seek your face; your face, Lord, I will seek." He is not your God of "all comfort", because you can know Him. He is ALL comfort because you are fully known BY Him… If you think you know God, than you are far from knowing Him. It's the very nature of God that we will be knowing Him even as we arrive face to face with Him. The intellectual thinks he knows God as He is… The experientialist thinks he knows God because he has experienced His presence… Yet the church of God in America seems determined to rebrand Him, and thus are missing Him entirely. His presence seems less here, and our hearts seem less and awed by His infinity. We are not pursuing Him, because we want many things more than Him. We want a sunday morning religious experience with hi tech, constantly flowing messages of experiental ecstasy. Much like the perpetual need for a dopamine hit from each "like", we are remaking knowing God. How much do you want Him? Be perpetually see...