Resolve08

Have you found your tribe?

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:25:00 +0000

In less than a week the doors of the church we are planting opens as Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow. Please pray for us as we seek to put the finishing preparations together for this work. Pray for the children's ministry and worship team in particular- that their ministry amongst us will be both bold and lcear in it's witness to God's great glory and excellence. I am reminded often about a conversation I had with a friend around 18 months ago. He asked me this question which came to have a huge impact on our thinking and led to us eventually planting Harvest Glasgow- 'have you found your tribe?'

It caused me to seek a way to invest myself in ministry with others who shared the same priorities, passions, pursuits and prayers as I did.’ Where do you belong? Who are you going to give your life with? It is a question about finding people who share the same priorities, apssions, pursuits and prayers as you do for the cause of the Gospel.

Priorities
The four pillars of Harvest Glasgow give a clear statement of what we regard as central. We want to be unapologetically Biblical, lift high Jesus name in worship, believe firmly in the power of prayer and bold with the Gospel. We contend that if we as a church look after the depth, God will look after the breadth.

Passions
We are fired up about following God with all that we are and all that we have.
The things that we are passionate about, and the extent to which that impacts our lives demonstrates the focus of our worship.

Pursuits
We are called to pursue one thing and that alone- God’s glory. We long to see a local church who together spur one another on to a deepening walk with God, living for Him alone.

Prayer
We are praying that God would be glorified in this city, and that lives would be transformed by the Gospel. We are praying for you that you would find a church that increases your impact for Him.

http://www.harvestglasgow.org

Nehemiah 9

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Restoring a City: Nehemiah 9- Time to confess and commit.

Confession (1)- there is a time for responding to God’s Word with Godly grief. (2 Corinthians 7: 10)
Contrast (2)- The major distinction between the church and the world is by way of the sin diagnosis.
Commitment (3-4)- This is no slap-dash exercise by a concentrated and intentional measuring of oneself against God’s Word and throwing oneself upon God’s grace
Context (5-15)- When we confess to God, we come to one who is full of power and faithful with promises.
He creates /He chooses/He promises/He sees & hears/He rescues/He leads/He rules/He provides.

Marks of rebellion
Presumptuous (16a): Not considering the Lord
Stubbornness (16b): Not listening to the Lord
Disobedience (17a): Not following the Lord
Unthankfulness (17b): Forgetting the Lord
Idolatry (18): Replacing the Lord
Rebelliousness (26a): Opposing the Lord
Spiritual hardness (26b): Rejecting the Lord

Miracle of redemption
Forgiveness (17b): But you are a God...
Patience (18): Even when....
Grace (20): You gave...
Deliverance (28): Yet when
Mercy (31): Nevertheless...

God is unchanging even when we are inconsistent (17).
God is patient even when we are persistent (30)
God is faithful even when we are fickle (32)
Because of all God is- time to confess and commit.

Nehemiah 8

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:45:00 +0000

As a launch team at Harvest we have been looking at Nehemiah under the title 'Restoring a City.' On Sunday we spent some time in chapter 8 and looked what does it mean to have God's Word as central to what we do. Here are my notes from it:

Restoring a City: Nehemiah 8
Word-centredness produces worshipping community.

What would we suggest being at the heart of such an occasion?
They don't ask for a show
They don't crave a circus
They ask for God's Word
Call for us to abandon attractional tendencies and pursue Biblical priorities.

Anticipation breeds attendance (1)
Starving ears and hearts come longing to hear from God.
Thirsty people will gather where they will be quenched.

Appetite breeds attention(2-3)
The absence of something vital tends to focus the mind.
People willingly listen when they know there is life in the message.

Ascendance breeds acknowledgement (4-5)
The place given to God’s Word in a church defines the place it will have in the believer’s heart.

Ascription breeds adoration (6)
The priority given to God in a church defines the priority He will have in the believer’s heart.
The place of God's Word and the priority of God are inseparable- if we don't elevate what God's Word says then we cannot worship God for who He is.

Explanation breeds application (7-8)
Preaching for transformation not just education.
If we invest in the depth God will take care of the breadth..

Designed to replace grief with joy as lasting fruit. (9-12)

Some stuff you might find useful

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:31:00 +0000

I haven't linked to a bunch of useful stuff for a while so here is a list of links that you might find helpful:

What to do if your church goes emergent.

For the Love of God Vols 1 and 2 for free.

8 common problems with evangelism.

Brian Ingraham gives an update on Re:hope

Free book on the life of John Calvin

Children, Communion and membership (HT Church Matters @ 9 Marks)

Pastor-theologian/ Theologian-pastor- Carson/Piper discussion review

Welcome to Harvest Glasgow

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:16:00 +0000

Untitled from Scott Hamilton on Vimeo.

Praying for Harvest Glasgow

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:19:00 +0000

Here are some things to be thankful for and to be praying for us as we seek to plant this local church.

Thanksgiving
The number of people who are still expressing an interest in being part of Harvest Glasgow, and who are excited about the vision that we have for ministering impactfully as a local church.

The way that our Men's ministry, 'Fortify' and womens ministry 'Flourish' have already begun to develop deeper disciples living for God's glory- for the amazing sense of community that God has begun to produce amongst the launch team.

Alison and I were working out some rough Geography for our small groups and noted that we had 30 people who needed to be accommodated between the core launch team members and others who have expressed a commitment to be part of the church from launch.

We have one confirmed intern for next year, a theology student at a local college, and others who are praying about the possibility of giving time to the work ranging between 10-20 hours. Our desire has been to create a team environment and we are thankful that God has gone ahead of us in this regard.

Prayer
For our children's ministry and worship teams to develop strongly, for wisdom in the leadership of these and for a clear sense of unity and direction in these areas.

All our incorporation papers are submitted- please pray that this process would be completed quickly so that we can be properly established. Likewise our bank account is in process of being opened.

For the resources, human and material, that we need to undertake the work in such a way as reflects the excellence of God's greatness. He has already proved himself so faithful in providing for us and we continue to trust in Him for all things.

A number of people are still pondering whether to make Harvest Glasgow their church, pray that for those God has for us He would plant within them an urgency to be part of what God is doing in this local church. That God would meet our needs in regards to drawing to us Godly men and women with a passion for God's greater glory, a heart for the local church, a desire to deepen their walk with Jesus, and a recognition that they are called to love for something greater than themselves.

Launch Sunday will come quickly and while there is much to do our most important prayer is that the fruit of that service will be life transformation to the glory of God. Pray for those who attend and for those who prepare that God, by His grace, will change lives in such a way as can only be explained by pointing to Him.

Thanks once more for your prayers. Do get in contact and let us know how you are and how we can serve you or if we can give you any more information about how you can get involved in what we see God doing here in Glasgow.

James MacDonald on Young Preaching Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:35:00 +0000

http://blog.harvestbiblefellowship.org/?p=2414

Pray for Re:Hope

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:18:00 +0000

Please take time to pray for our friends at Re:Hope and if you have any wisdom that you can share, any practical help you can offer or such like please do so. Above please pursie this strong in prayer before the Lord- asking that He would use this to multiply their work as evidence of His grace upon Brian and the team there.

'Well, it is time to pray hard. Time to pray for me. This church. This mission.

After two years of living with two weeks notice we have received our official and final two weeks notice. We must completely leave our church building and hand in the keys in no more than 13 days from today. Meaning, we will have church in our building tomorrow and next week then we must be leaving.

I am sure many will feel shock and grief at this. No doubt you may have many questions that I have NO answers to. Why? What will happen? Where do we go? I have no answers for these questions at all. I do know it is time to pull together.First of all, we need a MASSIVE prayer covering. If you could commit at least 30 minutes a day to specifically praying for me and our church situation for these next 20 days we NEED it.

Secondly, if you are local and have ideas on places we could go either short or long term please send me the details. Find out how much, how long we can be there, how soon we can move in, is there place for our stuff, where is it located… ? Then send me all that data via email as soon as possible. (brian-at-rehope-dot-co-dot-uk)

Thirdly, if you live locally you are also very welcome to join us Monday morning at 9am at the church for prayer and planning over this quick and unexpected change.

If you are wondering how I am feeling? I am confident that “The One Who Leads” sees and knows and cares about our situation. I am confident that the One who began this work will be faithful. No doubt this moment is not my favourite of all time, and I would love to stay where we are forever. There is shock and grief. However, I do find myself grinning at the unknown, sure that God will lead us, and what seems horrible in the moment we will look back upon as important, pivotal and amazing for our future.

I have been looking ahead at the passage for our final Sunday in the building, 8 days from now, and it could not be more perfect. God has set us up for His final message to us in this great building as we get ready to enter our second exodus from the same place.

Father, lead us clearly through the unknown.'

Read the whole thing here.

Harvest Glasgow Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Prayer that Repairs

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Today saw the beginning of a look at the book of Nehemiah with the Harvest Glasgow launch team. We are entitling the series 'Restoring the City' and today we looked at 'Prayer that responds and repairs' from chapter 1.

Jerusalem had broken walls and burnt Gates which made God's people vulnerable to attack
But the persistence of it pointed to an abdication of responsibility. We can learn four things from this:
Weak boundaries produce ransacked hearts.
We are too readily content to put up with spiritual squalour.
Trouble and shame is the fruit of this ungodly contentment.
There is a need for certain men to stand up and be counted.

Nehemiah sets us an example of passionate and persevering prayer that believes that God can rebuild what is broken and restore what has become ashes.

Prayer that repairs-
Rejoices that God is great (v. 5)
Regards God with humility (6a)
‘Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.’ John Calvin
Repents personally- no finger pointing allowed (6b)
Recognises that sin is always against God first (7)
Remembers God’s Word- learn to cling to God's promises (8-9)
Rests on God’s grace and mercy (10-11)

I love this- particularly the final paragraph!

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:33:00 +0000

John Piper (HT Colin Adams)
Preaching Is Expository
Expository means that preaching aims to exposit, or explain and apply, the meaning of the Bible. The reason for this is that the Bible is God’s word, inspired, infallible, profitable—all 66 books of it.

The preacher’s job is to minimize his own opinions and deliver the truth of God. Every sermon should explain the Bible and then apply it to people's lives.

The preacher should do that in a way that enables you to see that the points he is making actually come from the Bible. If you can’t see that they come from the Bible, your faith will end up resting on a man and not on God's word.

The aim of this exposition is to help you eat and digest biblical truth that will
Make your spiritual bones more like steel
Double the capacity of your spiritual lungs
Make the eyes of your heart dazzled with the brightness of the glory of God,
Awaken the capacity of your soul for kinds of spiritual enjoyment you didn’t even know existed.

Preaching Is Exultation
Preaching is also exultation. This means that the preacher does not just explain what’s in the Bible, and the people do not simply try understand what he explains. Rather, the preacher and the people exult over what is in the Bible as it is being explained and applied.

Preaching does not come after worship in the order of the service. Preaching is worship. The preacher worships—exults—over the word, trying his best to draw you into a worshipful response by the power of the Holy Spirit.

My job is not simply to see truth and show it to you. (The devil could do that for his own devious reasons.) My job is to see the glory of the truth and to savor it and exult over it as I explain it to you and apply it for you. That’s one of the differences between a sermon and a lecture.

Preaching Isn't Church, but It Serves the Church
Preaching is not the totality of the church. And if all you have is preaching, you don’t have the church. A church is a body of people who minister to each other.
One of the purposes of preaching is to equip us for that and inspire us to love each other better.
But God has created the church so that she flourishes through preaching. That’s why Paul gave young pastor Timothy one of the most serious, exalted charges in all the Bible in 2 Timothy 4:1-2:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.

What to Expect from My Preaching and Why
If you're used to a twenty-minute, immediately practical, relaxed talk, you won't find that from what I've just described.

I preach twice that long;
I do not aim to be immediately practical but eternally helpful;
and I am not relaxed.

I standing vigilantly on the precipice of eternity speaking to people who this week could go over the edge whether they are ready to or not. I will be called to account for what I said there.
That's what I mean by preaching.'

DeYoung on Prayer in the church

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:48:00 +0000

A great reminder today for me as a church planter about the importance of cultivating a prayerful dependence from Kevin DeYoung. Incidentally his blog is now one of my favourites. Worth scrolling back over the last couple of months for some great mini-series blog posts.

'If I could snap my fingers and change one thing about myself, I would ask God to make me more devoted to prayer. Don’t get me wrong, like you, I do pray. I pray almost every morning. I pray at staff meetings. I pray before meals. I pray with my kids before bed. I go on prayer walks. I pray in hospital rooms and in people’s homes. I pray for folks over the phone. My life is not devoid of prayer. But yet, oh how I wish my commitment to prayer were more, much more--more earnest, more faithful, more saturated in Scripture. What to do with Acts 6? I’m not sure what it would look like for me and my elders to hand off almost everything else so we can be fully devoted to the word of God and prayer (Acts 6:4), but I can’t imagine we are looking just like it quite yet.

I desperately want my church to be known as a church of prayer (not known for the sake of being known of course). We certainly aren’t failing in prayer. But I don’t know that we truly believe we would fail without prayer. Several weeks ago I listened to an interview with Ben Patterson where he talked humbly about the prayer meeting he leads at the church he attends and about the four hours he spends in prayer each morning. Hearing Ben, who I know from my days at Hope College, talk about prayer did not make me feel guilty. It didn’t make me feel competitive, like I need to pray as much as he does. And it didn’t make me feel skeptical, because I know Ben and know people who know Ben and I know that he is the real deal when it comes to prayer. Listing to the interview made me feel like I want to pray more. It made me want my church to pray more.

I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt that the church in North American is know around the world as a church committed to prayer. We have money, education, books, a lot of missionaries, and some great teachers. But do we have a reputation for serious, importunate, long-suffering prayer? What if the single biggest answer for the decline of Christianity in America and our paucity of evangelistic fruit was not the lack of a new strategy for engaging the culture or the lack of new music or the lack of new ways of doing church, but the lack of prayer? What if your church, my church, took a fresh look at all we are doing, put everything on the table and said, “Let’s put prayer first and we’ll see what we can fit in after that?”

Of course, we need prayer plus–prayer plus good preaching, good doctrine, good leadership, good strategy. But so often we think of everything else we can do besides pray. We end up minimizing prayer because 1) it’s hard and we aren’t very good at 2) we probably don’t really believe in its power. Deep down I think we believe that if we spend a lot of time praying, we’ll still have the same problems left to deal with. We just won’t have as much time to deal with them. Prayerlessness is the measure of our unbelief. We don’t really believe that God answers prayers. We don't really believe that we have not because we ask not. We don't really believe that God can do more than we ask or imagine. True, God doesn't need to hear from us, but he ordained prayer so that we might be convinced of our need for him and he might be glorified in answering our prayers.

Reformed Christians believe most deeply in the sovereignty of God, the mercy of God, and in the power of God to whatever he desires. And yet, we often lag behind our brothers and sisters from other traditions when it comes to prayer. If the recent interest in and identification with Calvinism is truly a work of the Holy Spirit, and not just a passing trend, then we will see among the young, restless, and reformed a passion for God, a passion for truth, a passion for people in body and soul, and, infusing it all with unction and authority, a deep passion for prayer.'

Resurrection Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Elevation Church Easter Opener from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

The Curse

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:30:00 +0000

Verticality Quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Here are ten questions to help a church gauge where it's orientation is. It comes at the end of an article that you can read here

10 Question Verticality Quiz: (Give 5 for the strongest yes and 0 for the weakest yes.)

1. Are the songs we sing about God or about what God has done for us?

2. Do the people on the platform come across as ministers or as entertainers?

3. Is the sermon coming clearly/continually from what the Bible actually says and does it cover the hard parts of Scripture, not just the popular ones?

4. Does the sermon challenge me to change and grow, versus just something to know?

5. Am I pressured over time to join a smaller group where I can express and experience biblical community?

6. Do I find the people I meet to be humble and overt in their love for Christ, or more guarded and private about their faith?

7. Am I challenged to find a place of ministry where I can use my gifts and shoulder weekly kingdom responsibility in working for God?

8. Do the leaders of my church find ways to draw the focus away from themselves and onto Christ and what He is doing?

9. Does my church invite me into sacrificial work for Christ that does not benefit our church at all: feeding the poor, church planting/missions, etc.?

10. Does my church seek to follow the biblical pattern for church governance and elevate the Word of God in all it does, including church discipline?

SCORE:

Vertical Church: 40+

60-Degree Church: 30-40

Horizontal Church: 20-30

Find a New Church : 0-20

Harvest Glasgow Online

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Harvest Bible Chapel Launch team announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:59:00 +0000

So, those of you who have stuck with this, will have noticed that it's been a bit quieter round these parts over the past few weeks. The reason is that I have been enormously busy beginning work on the new church plant, Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow.

A couple of friends have put some stuff up on their blog relating to what we are doing (thanks James MacDonald and Colin Adams.

Last night we had our first information open house and were really encouraged that 40 people came along, particularly given we have only been back in Glasgow for three and a half weeks. We are now putting together a launch team- so if you know of anyone (or is someone) in the Glasgow area who is looking for a Bible teaching church (systematic exposition with a strong emphasis on application: believing that truth transforms) with contemporary worship and intentional small group structure allied to a desire to be bold in prayer and evangelism then why not consider contacting me via the e-mail address on the sidebar. Also if people have unsaved family and friends in Glasgow who we could be praying for and, if appropriate connecting with that they also consider passing names on to us to see how we can serve the Lord in those lives.

Harvest Bible Chapel Invitation

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:26:00 +0000

Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow Open House Invite from Scott Hamilton on Vimeo.

RSVP via comments section or the e-mail address on the sidebar.

Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:17:00 +0000

Please pray for the new church plant I will be leading as of now. Having spent six weeks in Chicago with Harvest Bible Fellowship and being thrilled by what we saw the Lord doing there, the life transformation that we witnessed and heard testimony of we are priveleged to plant Harvest Glasgow.

We are so excited to see what the Lord will choose to do in the coming days and are praying that He would do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine in our city.

Men used powerfully by God

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:13:00 +0000

Horatius Bonar, writing the preface to John Gillies' Accounts of Revival, proposes that men useful to the Holy Spirit for revival have been marked in these nine ways:

1. They were in earnest about the great work on which they had entered: "They lived and labored and preached like men on whose lips the immortality of thousands hung."

2. They were bent on success: "As warriors, they set their hearts on victory and fought with the believing anticipation of triumph, under the guidance of such a Captain as their head."

3. They were men of faith: "They knew that in due season they should reap, if they fainted not."

4. They were men of labor: "Their lives are the annals of incessant, unwearied toil of body and soul; time, strength, substance, health, all they were and possessed they freely offered to the Lord, keeping back nothing, grudging nothing."

5. They were men of patience: "Day after day they pursued what, to the eye of the world, appeared a thankless and fruitless round of toil."

6. They were men of boldness and determination: "Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness and loses many a precious opportunity; it wins no friends, while it strengthens every enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness, nor gained by fear."

7. They were men of prayer: "They were much alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain, that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water."

8. They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind: "Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than a two-edged sword."

9. They were men of solemn deportment and deep spirituality of soul: "No frivolity, no flippancy . . . . The world could not point to them as being but slightly dissimilar from itself."

HT Ray Ortlund posted it, Tim Challies linked to it.

This past weekend at Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:58:00 +0000

THis was our final weekend at Harvest. It was awesome. Here is how it is described at James MacDonald's Straight Up Blog (It's worth following the link for the encouargement of seeing many drawn forward by the Gospel message):

'Wow, what a great weekend, truly a plentiful harvest at Harvest. Greg Laurie, a dear friend who pastors a different Harvest in Riverside California and a truly gifted evangelist, came and preached the gospel at “our Harvest” as hundreds made first time decisions to follow Christ. Among those professions of faith were some people we had been loving and praying about for months or even years.

Hey, not just at our church but around the country as I travel . . . why does it seem that most of the people talk talk talking about reaching the culture are doing such a meager job of it. Why is it that from frustrated old college professors to angry young mega church haters, the vast majority of people waxing eloquent about their passion to penetrate the culture with the gospel are bearing such scanty, sparse, spartan, even scarce fruit? By fruit I mean actual living breathing men and women turning from sin and self and embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and Master of their souls.

Occasionally this comes to mind when we are seeing a great harvest of souls in our own church, ’cause we never spend any time talking about ‘how to reach our culture,’ we just keep praying and sewing the seed and proclaiming Christ. Yet individually and together we are seeing upwards of 1k adults annually embrace the cross in all it’s glory. We’re not sneaky, were not clever; I’m not writing any books or holding any conferences on ‘how to do it,’ but by God’s grace we are penetrating our culture with the gospel. I think some people need to be a little more honest about what they really mean when they say “reaching the culture.” Here’s three things I think they mean:

1) They mean reaching people very different from themselves. Who doesn’t long to see people so different than we are taken and shaken by the awesomeness of who Jesus Christ really is? Such conversions are the best stories in any church and even in the book of Acts, yet more typically don’t we see people reaching people like themselves? Isn’t it much more common for us to win lost souls from inside our own cultural subset? Mom’s are the best ones to reach hurting mom’s. People who have been through a broken marriage are better at reaching someone in that heartache. Converted homosexuals will always be most effective at reaching back into that darkness and pulling others to light and liberty, etc.

2) They mean reaching secular people who have no interest in God All of us feel the weight of the teaming masses of people passing by us on the freeway or at the mall with no apparent interest in Christ, the joy of our souls. Every sincere believer has felt their faith numbed by the democracy of unbelief. Of course we want to win the aimless arrogant graduate student so articulate in his atheism, but why? Could it be that we want to win such people because framing the arguments to penetrate their secularism bolsters our own faith. Do we see Jesus spending a lot of time targeting people with no time for God? Do we see Paul dialoguing ad nausea with high profile intellectuals? Might the fascination–even preoccupation–of some churches with Mars Hill/Acts 17 flow from a misguided fear that the gospel is not universally relevant if it is not successful in every quadrant of society?

3) They mean reaching cool people who make them feel cool. One of the most disturbing trends in the emergent church is the focus on ’style.’ Living in Wrigleyville, (Chicago) or Greenwich Village (New York) etc. is most assuredly ‘cool.’ And seeking to share Christ with the masses of immensely immoral 20 somethings that inhabit such regions is a worthy goal; but why is that target so popular? Almost everyone it seems wants access to the arts district in Austin Tx., or the uptown area of Atlanta. Who is this about really? When did style statements, and fashionable eye wear, and how I dress and how I act, and my toootally tasteful music preferences become such a key ingredient in reaching ‘the culture?’ Who is all this really about? Is it about lost broken people in these areas dying without Christ and without hope? Or is it about me choosing a place of ministry that advances my personal mission of self expression? I’m just asking . . .

2Corinthians 4:2 “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Cultures don’t come to Christ, Individuals do. Watch a couple of our recent baptism/highlight videos and you will see that people from different races, varied social economic sub groups, and very different backgrounds all come to Christ for the same reason.

1) I thought my life was going great ’til God dropped a ‘boulder’ (some point of acute need) on me and I saw how pointless, empty, dark, or dismal my future was without Him.

2) A caring person intersected my life with true compassion just as my heart opened to the reality that another round of self repair was not going to fix anything.

3) the good news of Jesus Christ’s love and forgiveness was given to me boldly and plainly and I opened my heart by faith to what I finally knew I needed most of all.

I think it’s high time we started challenging the ‘talk about it people’ to get over themselves and dive into the messy business of actually doing it. Cultures don’t come to Christ, people do, one at a time.'

Penultimate Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Apologies once more for the infrequency of posting. Our time here is rapidly reaching it's conclusion and we will be home on March 1st. It has been an outstanding time for us and has really served to hone our thinking in regards to ministry. Alison has had some good opportunities to relate to some of the women here and to speak to some of the people who oversee the women's ministries in the church here. Church this morning was the penultimate message in James MacDonald's series on trials. As before, if you are interested, you can view it here by going to the message part on the available drop box. Once more, thanks for your prayers and I will post some further items for prayer later in the week as we begin to turn our thoughts towards home.

Family Day

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:05:00 +0000

Church and E3

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:02:00 +0000

Church this morning was great and we had the opportunity to hear James MacDonald continuing his series on trials. You can watch it by clicking here and going to the message part of the drop box. Tonight was an opportunity for me to attend E3 which is Harvest's training event for small group leaders. It was great to see the chair of the elder board speak encouragingly to the small group leaders of his joy at leading small groups and giving testimony of his experience of discipleship and his ongoing pleasure at pursuing discipleship groups.

Transformed lives

noreply@blogger.com (Resolve07) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:33:00 +0000

Harvest Bible Chapel Spontaneous Baptisms, December 2008 from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.