discipleship
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I was doing some reading yesterday afternoon and came across a prayer from Walter Brueggemann. I thought I would share it with you all. I couldn’t help but think of Sam Gamgee’s question to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings — “What sort of tale have we fallen into?” The prayer/poem is entitled “Swept […]
One of the central surprises within the biblical testimony is the way Jesus’ life expresses God’s power and authority. In many ways, Jesus turns all 1st century understandings of authority on their head. The “but not so with you” (Luke 22:26) of his teaching and his life offended many and shocked everyone. Most who were […]
We face tremendous pressure in our lives today to be simply spectators of thisJesus. But faithful living has never been a spectator sport. Over 150 years ago Danish Christian thinker Søren Kierkegaard emphasized this by drawing a contrast between being an admirer and being an imitator. He wrote: What, then, is the difference between an […]
I was doing some reading this afternoon and I came across a story that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. So I thought I would share it with you and let it do some stirring in your mind and heart. There once was an old monk, wise and holy, who lived in a […]
On a recent trip to Cincinnati I was enjoying a good cup of coffee and a good conversation with Vic Gordon, a good friend who pastors Kenwood Baptist Church. We were discussing how hard it is at times to gain trust, and how rewarding a relationship can become on the other side of the things […]
This morning I was reminded again of Soren Kierkegaard’s phrase “to need God is man’s highest perfection.” First time I heard these words I was sitting in a summer class up at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. Somewhere midway through a morning lecture, Dr. James Houston got off his notes and began to reflect more personally […]
On the walls and columns of a grey stoned sanctuary hung twelve to fifteen prints of Rembrandt’s painting Return of the Prodigal Son. The audience was a mix of parents and grandparents and nuns and pastors and students. We were all gathered in a Beverly Hills’ Anglican church to hear writer/speaker Henri Nouwen speak on […]
After Randy and I hosted our webinar yesterday on “Igniting Adult Believers: A Life Story Approach” I was reminded, yet again, of a high school math experience that has become a sort of parable for me. One of the blessings of 10th grade geometry was that the answers to the odd numbered questions could be […]
Over the past couple weeks I have been in both the Calgary area and the Chicago area hosting Facilitator Training Retreats for Emerging Journey facilitators. They are now half-way through facilitating the eight month spiritual formation & discipleship process in their church and have lots to share about how their groups are going and what they […]
From time to time, we will be hosting webinars to provide church leaders a place to prayerfully reflect upon how they are investing in the growth and maturity of their adult believers. There are so many challenges today within our local church culture that frustrate our efforts to help people “grow up… into Christ” (Ephesians […]
Along a 210-Freeway morning commute to Pasadena, California in the spring of 1996, a seed was planted which would grow into the work of VANTAGEPOINT3. As Randy Reese sat in Los Angeles traffic on his way to Fuller Seminary that spring morning, he considered the legacies of Charles Simeon (1759-1836) and Henrietta Mears (1890-1963). Both people […]