Here is some more on the book "Reluctant Pilgirm" and it's author: Enuma Okoro. Enjoy.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Trees need to walk
One of the most challenging and intimidating words most people in and outside of the church would agree upon would be: EVANGELISM.
There are visions of angry people shouting Bible verses, picketing the streets and knocking on doors. These are the pictures that often keep people from getting involved with the mission and ministry of evangelism.
What if, instead of these intimidating examples, evangelism looked something like this:
A friend taking a friend out for coffee and talk about how God has provided for their needs.
One neighbor helps another neighbor with repairs to their home.
A co-worker can invite an office mate to worship.
A group of friends read a book about faith together.
A person visits someone who can't make it out to worship due to illness or other difficulty.
A student invites someone who is excluded at school to walk to class or sit with them at lunch.
A small group gathers to pray together for a period of time in order to ask God's leading on just how to reach out to people not yet in the church community.
Food drives are made for the benefit of people in the community that can't afford to buy groceries.
Lawns of the elderly are raked, children of single parents are cared for, and paintings have been painted to redeem a shabby neighborhood wall and create an environment of beauty.
The means and methods of 'evangelism' are as limitless as our imaginations - if only we allow our hearts and minds become challenged to become like the 'walking trees' referenced in Colossians 2:6-7.
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
This scripture from Colossians, came out of a discussion at Holy Conversations book group that meets each Wednesday at 12:05 in the FLC Fellowship Room. We were discussing ways Christians can share their faith and what is necessary for that to happen effectively. While it is important for people to receive proper education to understand what and why they believe what they believe; we all came to the conclusion that if a persons' experience with Christ is limited to head knowledge - there is a problem. Without both head AND heart involved, sharing our faith is almost impossible. For example, a person can quote many scriptures, but if they fail to take pause and listen to the person they are trying to reach out to, sharing faith could come across more like a sales pitch.
Evangelism is an action that must be prepared in prayer, moved to action by the care, compassion and love God nurtures in our hearts for others, and continued weather or not the people we reach out to respond to the effort. While we work to love people in the name of Christ, it is only God that draws a person's heart into relationship with him.
It is when we partner with God - in simple and sincere ways - that the word evangelism changes and begins to look more like, "evange - love - them."
Colossians 2:6-7 can be confusing because of it's mix metaphors of being rooted and still being able to walk. How can we be rooted in Christ and be mobile? The last time I checked, trees couldn't walk! What I see in this scripture is: when our faith is rooted in Christ, we will be so flexible that we will actively live and share out faith in whatever environment we happen to be - or God calls us to be. Being strong and sharing means that there are a million different places and ways that we can reach out to others in the name of Christ.
We all have specific skills and gifts that God would love to use in the efforts of, "evange - love -them". Imagine yourself as one of those walking trees from Colossians 2, where do you imagine yourself walking? What are you doing?
Evangelism needs to change from an activity surrounded in fear and anxiety, to one that is motivated out of prayer and thankfulness for our own relationships with God, compassion for others and the love that God fills our lives with.
Be a part of the solution, become a walking tree and use your gifts to 'evange-love' someone today.
This mural, painted by T.L.Eastman is in the education wing of First Lutheran Church of Jamestown.
There are visions of angry people shouting Bible verses, picketing the streets and knocking on doors. These are the pictures that often keep people from getting involved with the mission and ministry of evangelism.
What if, instead of these intimidating examples, evangelism looked something like this:
A friend taking a friend out for coffee and talk about how God has provided for their needs.
One neighbor helps another neighbor with repairs to their home.
A co-worker can invite an office mate to worship.
A group of friends read a book about faith together.
A person visits someone who can't make it out to worship due to illness or other difficulty.
A student invites someone who is excluded at school to walk to class or sit with them at lunch.
A small group gathers to pray together for a period of time in order to ask God's leading on just how to reach out to people not yet in the church community.
Food drives are made for the benefit of people in the community that can't afford to buy groceries.
Lawns of the elderly are raked, children of single parents are cared for, and paintings have been painted to redeem a shabby neighborhood wall and create an environment of beauty.
The means and methods of 'evangelism' are as limitless as our imaginations - if only we allow our hearts and minds become challenged to become like the 'walking trees' referenced in Colossians 2:6-7.
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
This scripture from Colossians, came out of a discussion at Holy Conversations book group that meets each Wednesday at 12:05 in the FLC Fellowship Room. We were discussing ways Christians can share their faith and what is necessary for that to happen effectively. While it is important for people to receive proper education to understand what and why they believe what they believe; we all came to the conclusion that if a persons' experience with Christ is limited to head knowledge - there is a problem. Without both head AND heart involved, sharing our faith is almost impossible. For example, a person can quote many scriptures, but if they fail to take pause and listen to the person they are trying to reach out to, sharing faith could come across more like a sales pitch.
Evangelism is an action that must be prepared in prayer, moved to action by the care, compassion and love God nurtures in our hearts for others, and continued weather or not the people we reach out to respond to the effort. While we work to love people in the name of Christ, it is only God that draws a person's heart into relationship with him.
It is when we partner with God - in simple and sincere ways - that the word evangelism changes and begins to look more like, "evange - love - them."
Colossians 2:6-7 can be confusing because of it's mix metaphors of being rooted and still being able to walk. How can we be rooted in Christ and be mobile? The last time I checked, trees couldn't walk! What I see in this scripture is: when our faith is rooted in Christ, we will be so flexible that we will actively live and share out faith in whatever environment we happen to be - or God calls us to be. Being strong and sharing means that there are a million different places and ways that we can reach out to others in the name of Christ.
We all have specific skills and gifts that God would love to use in the efforts of, "evange - love -them". Imagine yourself as one of those walking trees from Colossians 2, where do you imagine yourself walking? What are you doing?
Evangelism needs to change from an activity surrounded in fear and anxiety, to one that is motivated out of prayer and thankfulness for our own relationships with God, compassion for others and the love that God fills our lives with.
Be a part of the solution, become a walking tree and use your gifts to 'evange-love' someone today.
This mural, painted by T.L.Eastman is in the education wing of First Lutheran Church of Jamestown.
Monday, October 18, 2010
SWB: Belonging Bread
Nope I'm not talking about being in the pits today, I'm talking about PTS as in Princeton Theological Seminary. Specifically the Certificate in Youth Ministry program. It's not that I'm trying to sell you on the program, even if I do happen to do that, what I'm trying to express and encourage you to consider today is this meme question: "Where do I have the greatest sense of and least sense of belonging?"
On Saturday, my husband, myself and two youth volunteers went to a one day intensive in Cleveland, Ohio that featured key note speaker Mark DeVries, and session leaders Becky Hart and Neil Myer. This day was a condensed version of what I experienced in April when I attended my Certificate retreat and Forum week on Campus at Princeton Seminary. If you are looking for a means of continuing education in the field of youth ministry, I'd insist you take a look at the program; but if you are simply looking for some "bread: for your Monday Sleeping with Bread - I have a point here as well.
On Saturday, when I arrived in Cleveland and saw some the faces of the peers from my cohort, I was washed over with memories of that week this April and a great sense of belonging. It was wonderful to introduce my peers to my husband, and for him also to be welcomed and loved right along with me. In the past seven months vocationally on a day to day basis, I've be feeling a little on my own. Having this day, and knowing there are more upcoming opportunities to be in that community, was uplifting to my heart. I'm so grateful to God for this gift of belonging bread.
So, how about you? In the last week or so, where have you felt least and most on the belonging? How has God tapped you on the shoulder to say, "See, I do love you an understand what you need." Where are you still needing a sense of belonging - or have you already found it?
On Saturday, there was no place like PTS because it felt like home - and that home was bread enough for me.
On Saturday, my husband, myself and two youth volunteers went to a one day intensive in Cleveland, Ohio that featured key note speaker Mark DeVries, and session leaders Becky Hart and Neil Myer. This day was a condensed version of what I experienced in April when I attended my Certificate retreat and Forum week on Campus at Princeton Seminary. If you are looking for a means of continuing education in the field of youth ministry, I'd insist you take a look at the program; but if you are simply looking for some "bread: for your Monday Sleeping with Bread - I have a point here as well.
On Saturday, when I arrived in Cleveland and saw some the faces of the peers from my cohort, I was washed over with memories of that week this April and a great sense of belonging. It was wonderful to introduce my peers to my husband, and for him also to be welcomed and loved right along with me. In the past seven months vocationally on a day to day basis, I've be feeling a little on my own. Having this day, and knowing there are more upcoming opportunities to be in that community, was uplifting to my heart. I'm so grateful to God for this gift of belonging bread.
So, how about you? In the last week or so, where have you felt least and most on the belonging? How has God tapped you on the shoulder to say, "See, I do love you an understand what you need." Where are you still needing a sense of belonging - or have you already found it?
On Saturday, there was no place like PTS because it felt like home - and that home was bread enough for me.
Love is like...
Love is like super glue - it holds us close together, is essential in tough spots and puts us back together when we fall apart.
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