An Explanation

This picture should sum up why I avoided Sportscenter, NFL Live, First and Ten, 1310 The Ticket and all other NFL talk this week.

As King James Only as One Can Be

King James Bible Only!
As King James as they wanna be...isn't that a rap album title of the late 90s? Read this interesting part of the statement of faith for the Believer's Church in Touchet, WA.

We are as "King James Only" as one can be. Don't even consider for a moment quoting any Greek or Hebrew definitions and/or those infamous 'better words,' etc. that seem to go with today's so-called modern Biblical scholarship. We want God's words, not principles. We believe the KJB is the inspired and preserved word and words of God - it makes no sense to us to lean backward into the past nor is there anything 'new' coming other than Christ Himself. We believe that which is perfect to be the King James Bible and that it has all come spiritually. I Corinthians 13:10 I won't even take up my time with anyone arguing with them about the originals, etc. We are face to face spiritually today through that King James Bible and someday we will be physically face to face with the Saviour Himself.

All those new modern perverted and corrupted Bibles bring to folks 'another spirit' and 'another Jesus.'

As you can see, we truly as King James Only as one can be!

This is all interesting to think about when you realize that there was NO English translation of the Bible for more than the first 1300 years of Christian History. The KJV came along 1500 years after the writing of the New Testament manuscripts. Oh well, at least that have that issue resolved in their minds. You would hate to take up your time and actually consider the truth. BTW, I guess that means that all of the people groups this "missionary" movement want to reach must first learn English to be able to read the "KJB".

Some More Good News

Radiohead coming to St. Louis

St. Louis is confirmed as a stop on British rock band Radiohead’s upcoming North American tour. Exact dates and venues are to be announced.

See the brief article here.

Good News about Evangelism?

Get it? Good news and evangelism, see what I did there? Anyway...I have really found some great value lately in the Lifeway research website. I think it is a valuable tool for anyone seeking to impact their community for the kingdom of God. The current article examines our society's attitude toward organized Christianity and their attitude toward Jesus. And surprise! They are not the same. (For two good books on this subject, see Kimball's They Like Jesus but Not the Church and unChristian by Kinnamon and Lyons.)

Here are some excerpts from an article from Lifeway's research site:

A majority of unchurched Americans are turned off by the institutional church and don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus, yet they believe Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life and would enjoy an honest discussion with a friend about spiritual matters.

Those are just a few of the findings from a new study of unchurched Americans conducted by LifeWay Research in partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research. LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources, and the North American Mission Board are both entities of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"A full 72 percent of the people interviewed said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites,’" (Ed) Stetzer said. "At the same time, however, 71 percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus ‘makes a positive difference in a person’s life’ and 78 percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity."

Despite their negative opinions about the institutional church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that:

--78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age.

--Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs.

--78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend.

"Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith," Stetzer said. "We think religion is a topic that is off-limits in polite conversation, but unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters."

Two Chapters in One Post!

Chapter 10 – Revitalization to Missional Ministry

Here are the things I thought were relevant to this chapter for us. It was kind of a research project. I’ve adapted this to our situation.

Make a list of the fastest growing, biblically faithful, and culturally engaged campus ministries/churches and go visit them. Then bring home what you’ve learned and discuss it. What are these ministries doing and why is it working? What are we doing and why is it not working? What can we learn from these ministries? What can we try in our group that we saw them doing?

Planting Missional Ministries (chapter 11)

Church planters who break the code are learning a better way than franchising the successful models of the mega-churches; they are finding methods and models that connect with their community. How?

1. They are learning their contexts before choosing their methods. I have often told people that each new campus mission will look different than all of the others. We need to know our students before we try to reach them and choose a method.
2. They are learning from others without copying them. Instead, they are modifying.

Are My Teams in Place?

Before going public with any kind of public launch (if this even applies to any of us), we need to examine the state of our teams. Our families must be on board. We need a planter’s ministry team. By ministry team, the authors are referring to one or more people who feel called to commit their life and ministry to the church-planting (or campus mission planting) endeavor. We need an initial group of adult investors. We need a significant number of team players committed to the plant before we are ready to launch.

Have We Solved the Resource Challenge?

Questions:

1) What will it take? We need to consider a start up budget, operational budget, and salary support.

2) How much will it cost?

3) Who will pay for it?

Do We Have a Clear Vision?

Values – what are the core convictions that drive the form and function of the campus ministry?

Vision – What will it look like twenty or thirty years from now?

Mission – How are we going to accomplish the vision?

Strategy

Results

Have We Networked My Community?

What niche does our mission fill on our campus (or community)? Imagine if a large segment of the community or your cultural group could answer that question. Networking in a community involves a number of things which are represented in this list:

• Determining the spiritual climate and reading the culture,
• Creating a positive perception
• Building credibility within the community
• Penetrating social and relational networks
• Building personal relationships
• Inviting people into a biblically functional community
• Baptizing new believers, and
• Sending believers back into relational networks with purpose.

My Favorite Commercial

Can't explain it, but it is. Happy peanuts, everybody!

"Breaking the Missional Code" Continued

Chapter 7 – Contextualization

The Way Worship is Experienced

Stetzer and Putman discuss worship in context and note that there were times in Scripture when worship was conducted in a public forum where large groups of nonbelievers were engaged (Acts 2-3). With this in mind, many churches see the purpose of their worship gatherings as a place and time where they can create a safe environment for both believers and seekers to experience life change. This happens when the worship gathering takes on a form and expression that is familiar to the cultural group.

Churches that break the codes recognize this and are served by asking questions like these:

1. Is the setting inviting and familiar?
2. Are those attending and participating familiar with music?
3. Can those attending and participating relate to the communication style of the preacher/teacher?
4. Is the Bible being taught in a way that people can experience and grasp the message?
5. Is the language used understandable and true to biblical content?
6. Is the way in which people are invited to participate in truth clear and engaging?
7. Is there enough tension created to cause people to move forward in faith?
8. Does the creativity used connect with those attending and participating?

The Way Evangelism Takes Place

We are talking about not only getting people to say yes to some propositional truth, but we are talking about leading people to change their worldview. We need to be totally committed to reaching out to disconnected people.

The way we should engage people in a meaningful way is radically different. It is a shift to journey.

This assumes some very important things, such as:

• Trusting God to be at work in the lives of lost people.
• Building relationships with all kinds of people and valuing who they are.
• Listening and learning where God is already at work in their lives.
• Praying that God will reveal to you and give you words to share with others on their journey.

The Way We Make Disciples

It seems that the longer individuals took to finally go public with their faith, the less likely they were to fall through the cracks or go out the back door.

A note from a recently returned missionary to Malaysia – in the culture from which he had just returned, when someone experienced conversion, they were already firmly grounded in Scripture, often engaged in community, and usually involved in some kind of service within the church. Discipleship was a journey that took place while participating in the local community of faith.

As believers recognize that they are missionaries, they will find more and more ways of engaging those outside the church in authentic relationships.

Churches that understand the discipleship process are also proactive about creating strategic and specific experiences for those who are on the journey. Worship gatherings are designed to create space where people can experience God and progress at their own pace.

Discipleship often involves participation in service prior to conversion.

Yet, churches that “break the code” are serious about conversion and make a big deal about people going public with their faith.