The Disciplemaking Parent

Deuteronomy 6:5 contains what Jesus called the greatest commandment—‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,’ (NIV).  This verse is not just the greatest commandment; it is the beginning of a framework.  In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 we find a blueprint for parents to disciple their own children.  We see God’s plan for reproducing faith, values and lifestyle in the next generation. Continue reading

Dreams

Part of leading any organization, I suppose, are dreams. Dreams about the future, about what could be, what must be.  Over the past few years God gave me a dream for our congregation.  Three years ago our community lost our full-time Youth for Christ worker.  The local ministry has continued with a part-timer and her volunteers, but  they can’t do a full-time work.  Two years ago my oldest started Karate.  As we’ve gotten to know other parents, we’ve heard a common complaint–nothing for youth in our small town.  Shoot, we don’t even have a movie theater.

So, as our new building began to take shape, one of the dreams I found was a drop-in center.  A place where community kids could come after school, hang out, be safe, have fun and hear about Christ.  It seems to be strategic, in that there is really nothing for the youth of Beecher.  It seems to be missional, in that we can love the families of Beecher through this ministry–and win the opportunity to share Christ.

Like all dreams, this one has costs–financial costs, volunteer costs and, no doubt, unknown costs.  Currently I’m praying for 100 kids, and the volunteers, money and whatever else we need to minister to those kids.  As I’ve already written about, God’s been faithful with this building.  And He isn’t giving it to us as a knick-knack–He wants it used.  I look forward to seeing how God will do more than we can ask or imagine in using this ministry to reach this community for Christ.

Was Jesus really born in 1 AD?

While the calendar we use is based upon the birth of Christ, Christ was actually born a few years B.C.  A Christian monk named Dionysius Exiguus began the practice of dividing the calendar into B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord) in the sixth century.  His purpose was twofold.  He desired to allow for accurate dating of Easter and to move away from the Diocletian system, which honored an Emperor known for his cruelty to Christians.  As he devised this system, Dionysius wrote that the current year was 525 years after Christ’s incarnation, or A.D. 525. Nowhere does Dionysius explain this claim, he just states it as fact.  While Dionysius devised this system, it was 200 years later when Bede popularized the convention in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Modern scholarship questions Dionysius’ dating based upon our knowledge of events mentioned in the Gospels.  Both Luke and Matthew indicate that Jesus’ birth took place before King Herod’s death in 4 B.C.  From this information, we can safely date Jesus’ birth in or before 4 B.C.

More precision is impossible.  We simply do not have enough evidence, inside or outside of Scripture to place an exact year upon Christ’s birth.  Yet, we can confidently say that Christ was not actually born in year 1 A.D.

Another Look at Church Buildings

We are in the midst of constructing a new building.  The walls are up and the interior is in process.  So, I found this article from LeadershipJournal.net quite interesting.  I’d encourage you to read the whole thing, but this quote kind of sums up my view of our new building:

Ideally, we are a church without walls. Were trying to create “living temples,” people who live for Christ and make a difference in the city wherever they go. Buildings arent bad—we need creative, adaptive spaces. But we want our facilities to reinforce the message that the church is not primarily a monument but a people, living temples.

via Space Frontiers | LeadershipJournal.net.

Perspective is Key

Part of teaching people how to fly is teaching them how to land.  In fact, the landing may be the hardest part of taking a new student pilot and turning him into a private pilot.  The challenges of landing an airplane are many.  Precise airspeed control, a well-flown traffic pattern, glide slope, control coordination and communicating on the radio.  I know when I first learned to fly, I felt like I was doing 20 things at once during the first few landings. Continue reading