Posts Tagged ‘ making disciples ’

I currently have 81 subscriptions in my feed reader to blogs of various church leaders and thinkers. I find a lot of value in these blogs and thought I would share a sampling of my most valued content. ChurchETHOS is a collection of thoughts about making disciples, planting churches, and engaging culture. So let...
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After Jesus rose, He spent forty days teaching His disciples. Some of that teaching is recorded in the four Gospels and in Acts. Though we often think of Matthew 28:18-20 as the Great Commission, it is actually just one of four sayings that Jesus said to commission His disciples. When we put all four...
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The Lukan Commission is quite different from the Matthean Commission (which is usually the one we think of when we think of the Great Commission). This series of posts is intended to help broaden our understanding of what Jesus wants us to do with our time, our talents, our resources, and our passions. Jesus...
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Matthew is not the only one who records Jesus teaching and commissioning His disciples after the resurrection. In addition to the Matthean Commission there are two Lukan Commissions and one Johannine Commission (there’s also a Markan Commission but it is in a disputed text). Jesus spent forty days after His resurrection teaching His disciples...
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Sadly, there are a lot churches that are really good at addition, subtraction and division, but not multiplication. It’s easy to settle for addition, because at least it is positive growth. Addition is safe. Addition is comfortable. But addition is often the result of a lack of vision and mission. Church leaders get bogged...
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My dad, who is a pastor in Alabama, has been doing a lot of thinking about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. He has been preaching on the topic at his church and has recently started a blog series about his thoughts. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him about this...
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There’s a lot of imagery in Jesus’ parables of sowing seeds. We use the same imagery when we talk about “church planting”. The essence of church planting is simply sowing seeds of the gospel into our neighbors lives. This becomes harder and harder for established churches as the outward focus shifts inward. But that’s...
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Does marketing play a role in the Great Commission? Now that we’ve looked at the philosophical foundations for marketing your church plant, it’s time to consider what the Bible has to say on the matter. But, does the Bible say anything about marketing? After all, modern marketing techniques didn’t exist when the Bible was written....
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Would Paul use modern marketing techniques if he was planting churches today? Did Jesus need a direct mail campaign to establish the Church in the first place? The Church was established and spread through the power of the Spirit and by word of mouth so why would we waste money on telemarketing or a...
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In the past few weeks my wife and I have made the decision to start another church in the Boston area. We have been thinking through what form or expression this new church should take and we’ve come to the conclusion that it won’t be the house church model. So what is wrong with...
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