BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

This is from Sam Metcalf, who got it from Steve Addison who was hevily influenced by Paul Pierson. I am posting it for two reasons. One, if those guys think it is worth processing then it is worth processing. Two, if I don’t put this somewhere I will probably misplace it.

• They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church.
• They are motivated by a transforming experience (grace) of God by an individual or group.
• The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.
• Face-to-face groups for prayer, Bible study, and mutual encouragement are important.
• New methods of selecting and training leaders become important. These are less institutional, more grassroots and lay-oriented.
• There are theological breakthroughs, that is, rediscovery of aspects of the Biblical message that have been forgotten or overlooked by the Church, usually they involve a focus on the gifts of every believer.
• There is a levelling effect, distance decreases between clergy and laity, social classes, races, men and women, and denominations.
• The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society.
• Consequently there will be opposition by many in the dominant culture and church.
• There will often be manifestations of spiritual warfare. Such movements sense the reality of evil and the need to recognize the victory of Christ in the cross and resurrection.
• At times there will be unusual manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit; healings, visions, glossalalia, miracles, etc.
• More flexible structures of church and mission will be needed and often emerge, different from traditional structures.
• The movement will be led to significant re-contextualization of the Christian message, which will be communicated more widely by lay persons to those outside the church.
• New music is often a characteristic.
• Biblical concepts ignored by the traditional church but relevant to the hearers are often discovered.
• There will be a growing concern for the marginalized, often expressed in ministries of compassion.
• At a later stage this often leads to concern for broader social transformation.
• As the movement matures there will be concern for the renewal of the broader church.
• As the movement continues to mature many will see themselves not only as part of the particular movement but also as citizens of the Kingdom of God, transcending their own movement.
• Finally, every movement is less than perfect and often messy at the edges and sometimes, at the center. This is inevitable as long as sinful humans are involved.

Neil Cole, founder of the Church Multiplication Associates in Los Angeles has some good words on discipleship.

If you can’t reproduce disciples, you can’t reproduce leaders. If you can’t reproduce leaders, you can’t reproduce churches. And if you can’t reproduce churches, you can’t reproduce movements.

We are in the business of ‘making disciples.’ This has global implications for tomorrow. There is an interconnectedness and ‘domino’ effect that consistent, effective ‘disciple making’ has on the trajectory of the Christianity of tomorrow. The more attentive we are to the ‘great commission’ the more potentially vibrant the church of the next generation.

In George G. Hunter III book, Church for the Unchurched he lists off attributes of apostolic congregations. The top three are:

1. Apostolic congregations take a redundant approach to rooting believes and seekers in Scripture.

2. Apostolic congregations are disciplined and earnest in Prayer, and they expect and experience God’s action in response.

3. Apostolic congregations understand, like, and have compassion for lost, unchurched, pre-Christian people.

When I started working for NieuCommunities, I was surprised to see so many ‘on fire’ Christians not in love with the bible. As I continued to look around I saw pastors and missionaries not enjoying God’s word.

I find myself calling a generation to return to the basics. They may chase after apologetics and ethics, but so many are missing a love for the word and a passion for prayer.

It is the simple things that make the biggest difference.

I have rewritten this several times today and now I am just going to give up. In short, these words of Jesus have been hanging in my head these past two days.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” (Jn 10:10)

This is straight from Steve Addison’s blog…

Margaret Wheatley believes streams can teach us about organizations (movements) and the need for adaptive methods

I am attracted to the diversity I see, to these swirling combinations of mud, silt, grass, water, rocks. This stream has an impressive ability to adapt, to shift to the configurations, to let the power balance move, to create new structures. But driving this adaptability, making it all happen, I think, is the water’s need to flow. Water answers to gravity, to downhill, to the call of the ocean. The forms change, but the mission remains clear. Structures emerge, but only as temporary solutions that facilitate rather than interfere. There is none of the rigid reliance on single forms, on true answers, on past practices that I have learned in business. Streams have more than one response to rocks; otherwise, there’d be no Grand Canyon. Or else Grand Canyons everywhere.

” Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revised” (Margaret J. Wheatley.)

Here is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Chuck Lawless about prayer and growing churches.

The famous English pastor Charles Spurgeon once wrote words that still demand our attention today: “Do not restrain prayer. … For only through prayer can the prosperity of a church be increased or even maintained.”

Most church leaders want a ready-made program for prayer, but almost every prayer study indicates that a praying church begins with a praying pastor. Pastor, take a moment to answer this question honestly: “If all of my church members prayed as much and as fervently as I do, should I expect my church to grow?” If your answer is “no,” you know where to begin.

Brain…not…working….

Today has been one of those days where my heart compels me towards lofty things and yet my brain is all fuzzy. Days like this drive me crazy. What do you do when your dreams of the moment remain unrealized due to mental clarity issues?

I have not had the joy of living during a time of great spiritual awakening of people far from God, nor a time of revival. Internationally speaking, that may not be true, yet in the context of my life, in the west, I have not seen it… yet I pray for it.

Recently, I finished reading a biography about John Hyde, a missionary to India during a time of revival. What caught my eye was a reflection on what they thought they should have done differently.

“We ought to have emphasised the lesson of absolute obedience more than we did. I believe it was want of obedience that grieved the Holy Spirit and stopped that Revival.”

If we pray, or in the very least hope, for a time of awakening or revival shouldn’t we also be astute to lessons learned from the past? If we desire to be particularly astute in taking heed from the past, we might even seek to lay a foundation of obedience bordering on absurdity before revival even breaks out.

I have seen a shocking lack of obedience in the faith of the young, a virtual absence of integrity in my generation. If lack of obedience squelched the revival in India 100 years ago, it is no wonder a revival can’t even get off the ground in my generation.

Does my generation even know that downloading free mp3’s via peer-to-peer networks is almost always illegal (disobedient to God.) Do they realize you need to pay for ALL the software on your computer? It doesn’t seem so.

I think it is time to call Christians back to their bibles, prayer, and costly and absolute obedience in everything.