Jesus himself has given gifts to his people to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, to train and build up the church for acts of service. Jesus gave all of these gifts through the Holy Spirit so that the church would reach unity in the faith and become mature in the fullness of Jesus (Eph 4). The problem is that the church has mostly adopted and been comfortable with three out of five of these gifts. But in order to revive our fellowship and revive our communities, we must embrace them all.
Continue reading “Eagerly Desire Spiritual Gifts”
Worshipping God requires movement. I don’t mean swaying and snapping your fingers (acceptable church of Christ dancing). Moving worship is not just about expressiveness it is about God and the formation of our lives into the likeness of Jesus. I believe worship should be spirited and emotive but more than that it must be spiritual. This involves moving with the Spirit. Here are four movements required for spiritual, Christ-centered, life-changing worship. 
The church must recapture its first priority. The church is not a monument dedicated to Jesus. The church is not a memorial honoring Jesus. The church is not a living memory of Jesus. The church is not an organization or a physical property to be maintained. The church is a movement. 
Church planting isn’t totally like going to space, but it does have some similarities. As a kid I dreamt about becoming an astronaut. I imagined myself going through the months of training and then the day of the launch. Even though I was full of excitement I also had a little bit of fear. How fast would the rocket be going? Would I survive the launch? Would I wet my pants? So many important questions for a kid. And here I am now, definitely not a kid and definitely not an 
If you are part of a club or an organization that only allowed people to join by invitation you would probably be extremely excited to accept their offer to become a member. You made it in! Conversely, after you have accepted their invitation, you might be a little upset if they decided to allow more and more people to join the ranks.