So What?

Recently I had a conversation with a Christian businessman regarding his witness and walk with Jesus. He is what I would call a FAD Christian: Frustrated and Disenchanted. Like many Christians he has pursued what is popular in church, serving, Bible studies, evangelistic courses, training seminars, conferences and so forth. Yet he was failing to see the point of it all as he saw little difference in his life and that of others. How is it that someone and many others like him can have so much Biblical and training input yet find themselves asking so what? What difference does it make in everyday life other than being a moral and nice person?

The Way of Love

I think sometimes that we have lost our way in the Western church. It seems the most important thing is growing in our Biblical knowledge. Biblical knowledge is essential to our faith but it seems that growing in Biblical knowledge has for many become the measure of their Christian growth. Sadly it is not and I know of many extremely Biblically knowledgeable people whose lives leave much to be desired. Biblical knowledge is not the way of Jesus.

Images Vs Real People

Where ever we go today we are continually bombarded with images of beautiful people, celebrities, sport stars, people who have “made it” through the media. The message that comes with these images is that these are the people who you should be like, who we should aspire to emulate, the people by whom we should measure our own worth. Many of us may deny this, saying to ourselves that they mean nothing to us yet I think if we look deep within ourselves we would discover a longing that we could be as beautiful, popular, athletic, successful, articulate, influential, etc. as they are.  Many of us may feel that our lives aren’t all that consequential, that we are just making the best of it, doing our duty, maybe making little contributions here and there but for the most part as we look back on our lives little if anything really stands out. 

Love Calls for Rootedness

Our family moved to London 10 years ago and the longest we have lived in any one place is two years. Renting in London is precarious and expensive. Two years ago we moved into 53 St Margarets as renters. A couple weeks ago our lease came up for renewal and our landlord offered a two year lease with no rate increase. This is unheard of in London. So it looks as though we will at least live 4 years in one place. This is especially significant with what we are learning about being rooted in a place.

Ministry and Faithfulness

 Next month it will be two years since we moved to St Margarets Rd and began our adventure of neighbourhood ministry. How has it gone? I would like to say that we’ve seen a number of people make commitments to follow Jesus but that isn’t the case. So have we failed?

Biblical Study Does Not Equal Discipleship

In the West we have a love affair with information. We believe that the more information we have the more power or wisdom we have to make good decisions, become better people and change things. The Western Church’s approach to discipleship reflects the belief in the power of information with it’s emphasis on preaching the word, Bible studies, discipleship and theological courses where the assimilation of information is central, and with our love affair with “How To” books, online videos, bloggs, sermons and articles and so forth. Never has a group of Christians had so much access to so much Biblical information. If Biblical teaching is the key to discipleship, why aren’t Western Christians leading the way in demonstrating what it looks like to follow Jesus? 

Recovering Discipleship: Growing by Living

The church in the West has been in decline for sometime now. There are a number of reasons for this but I think one of the major ones is that discipleship is misunderstood by most of the church. Unfortunately we the church have bought into a rationalistic approach to discipleship. The emphasis is on teaching the word in the belief that it will lead to transformation. For some time that was my own view.