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Primer for Everyday Mission–An Introduction

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This is an introduction post for a new blog thread entitled “Primer For Everyday Mission”.  This thread of posts will be presented for 10 weeks and will look at “Five Questions” that need to be asked with regard to living on mission for God in the everyday journey of life.  The goal of these questions will be to develop a heart and strategy for loving and bringing the hope of the Gospel to those that God has placed in the natural paths of our lives.

One of the sources of inspiration for this thread will be book entitled “A Field Guide for Everyday Mission: 30 Days and 101 Ways to Demonstrate the Gospel by Ben Connelly and Bob Roberts, Jr., but there will be many resources used and cited for these posts.

Over the next 10 weeks there will be a blog post for this thread every Tuesday and Thursday, and there will be weekly audio podcast posted each Saturday.  Please check back regularly to stay up to date with the material and challenges presented.

“A church without the broken is a broken church.”
Ed Stetzer

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The Costliness of Caring

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Sometimes I find sermon preparation difficult.  The main reason that I struggle with it is that there is always 10 or 100 times the material than I will be able to present.  This last week as I worked through chapter 2 of Mark this was very much the case.  I am excited to use the blog as a way to provide extra material to augment the sermon for those who desire more information.

There was one portion of chapter 2 that I would like to have unpacked more, and that was the story of the men who brought their paralytic friend to be healed by Jesus.  I am inspired by this narrative.  In this story, we see a few vital lessons for us as we seek to show the love of Christ to those that God has put in our path of life.

The first thing we see is the compassionate concern that the friends had for their suffering friend.  We do not know much of the background, but we do know that these men wanted their friend to find healing and restoration.  They must have seen his pain throughout his life, and they wanted him to have a better and more fulfilled life.  To them this might be possible through the healing touch of the new teacher of whom they had heard.

Secondly we see their faith.  They just believe that if they can deliver their friend to the feet of the Messiah then there would be hope for him.  So in hope they put their plan of action into play.  They seek to get him to the master, but when they can not make it into the crowded room they are ready with Plan B.  If they can’t come through the door they figure they will go through the roof.  Their faith is that strong that it drives them to be creative.

Our compassion and faith can sometimes be costly, and their creativity would come with a cost.  For them to open the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching would assume that they would be willing to exert the effort or pay the cost to have the roof repaired after all was said and done.  To them the hope of healing for their friend was worth the price that they would have to pay to get their friend before the Saviour.

Are we in our lives compelled by a genuine compassionate concern for our friends, neighbours, and loved ones?  As we seek to meet the needs of those around us, as we desire to get them to the foot of the cross, are we walking in faith?  Are we  willing to pay the cost for such a cause?  It has been my personal experience from my life and the observation of the lives of many that we often hold to these values in theory, but struggle to put them into practice.

Be inspired by the story of these men.

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Welcome to My Blog

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I want to welcome you to my blog and to let you know how to use this site. This blog is maintained primarily as a place for additional resources for the community of Leduc Fellowship Church.

I will have an occasional random thought on here, but I am striving to have resources for three primary purposes:

  1. To allow the Christ-Follower or the spiritually seeking to grow in a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus. Articles, videos, podcasts and other resources for this purpose can be found by clicking the “Discipleship” button above.
  2. To encourage and equip the Christ-Follower, who feels God’s call to be a missionary to those whom God has placed in the natural path of their lives. Articles, videos, podcasts and other resources for this purpose can be found by clicking the “Missional Living” button above. The topics addressed here will seek to help us love our neighbour in the everyday aspects of life.
  3. To strengthen and prepare those called to give missional leadership within our LFC community. These tools will be found by clicking the “Missional Leadership” button above. While geared toward leadership, these resources are available and may be of benefit to anyone so take a look there too.

Blessings,

Dennis

Above is a video interview with Jeff Vanderstelt.  This is part of a promotional package for a book called A Field Guide for Everyday Mission: 30 Days and 101 Ways to Demonstrate the Gospel.  I am currently reading this book and I will begin a series of posts based on this book in the next few days.  I feel the straight forward approach to living on mission presented in this book will make for great conversation and thought.

For now please enjoy and be challenged by the interview with Jeff.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (Doubleday Canada, 2012)

This is a book that I have found very helpful in understanding and addressing bad/unproductive habits as well as habitual sin.  It is a business book and I don’t like to recommend business books often, but this one is worth the read for those who want to understand the forming and reforming of habits.

“A Helpful Message on Changing Habits With Application Toward Habitual Sin In Our Lives”
by Andy Stanley

Sorry, listening to the audio on this website requires Flash support in your browser. You can try playing the MP3 file directly by clicking here.

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast
December 5, 2014

Over the Christmas break I had the privilege of reading a great book entitled “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg.  It is a very interesting book on habits, the forming of habits and the reforming of habits.  It is a bit scientific in the beginning (which I actually enjoyed) as it addresses the anatomy of habits, but transitions into helpful advice on how to set good habits and change bad or undesirable habits into productive habits.

It has been a long while since I have read a “business” book, but I found this one very interesting as I made the application to the curse of habitual sin in our lives.  It made me realize how ingrained some sins and unhealthy habits are in our lives.  So much so that we are often two to three steps into the sin before we even realize we are headed that way.

I will be writing more about this in the next few weeks as I have been spending much time thinking on this topic and know the struggle that we all find ourselves in with regard to sin habits.

For now though I wanted to share the podcast interview with Charles Duhigg conducted by Pastor Andy Stanley.  It is brief and just begins to touch on the topic, but I found it interesting.

In a few weeks I will have the distinct privelage to be with a handful of other NAB pastors under the teaching leadership of Jeff Vanderstelt.  I have known Jeff for many years since he was a youth pastor in Seattle.  He is an amazing leader with an amazing passion to see the Kingdom of God grow and multiply.  I know that I will be challenged with the two days that we will be with Jeff and his church family at Soma in Tacoma.  The video above is a snippet of the teaching we will be receiving.

The Power of a Gospel Journey

I am very excited to be walking through the Gospel of Mark as a community in this new year.  I, as I said during my sermon on Sunday, always enjoy walking through the Gospels.  This study of Mark will be a fun and challenging journey.  I hope to be able to use this blog as a spot for further notes and thoughts.