So I didn’t keep up with blogging through the Radicalis Conference I went to to learn about church planting, so I am going to give a bullet point summary in this blog. Even if you are not into church planting there is some great wisdom in here to glean!
How Do We Get Back To Real Christianity? Through the 5 Stages of Renewal:
- Personal Renewal–Corporate Renewal always starts in the heart of a leader.
- Relational Renewal–2 Signs of relational renewal: Singing improves because a church that is being renewed relationally likes to sing together. And people hang-out longer after church is over.
- Missional Renewal
- Structural Renewal
- Cultural Renewal
“If you have no risks in your life, you have no faith. In ministry you are being unfaithful by not taking risks.” –R. Warren
There was a great tangent comment about his (Rick Warren) wife (Kay Warren). He just paused and pondered how his history would have been different if his wife hadn’t been willing to take a risk on him and the ministry vision he had. He commented that if she had said “no” he would not have planted the church he did. I was thinking how would all of Christianity be different. I don’t agree with all of Warren’s theology, but I value a lot of his methodology and his conviction to love and serve people! This moment was just significant for me because I thought about how we as spouses need to be mindful to support God’s vision in our significant others life!
Radical Faith Is– (Hebrews 11):
- Believing when I don’t see it (Heb. 11:1)
- Obeying when I don’t understand it (Heb 11:7, 8). 1,050 commands in the Bible, every time we obey one we are exhibiting faith and receive a blessing from God.
- Persisting when I don’t feel like it (Heb. 11:27, 11:1). Spoke here about the secret of success is to out love, out last, and out fruit your critics 🙂
- Annoucing what God is going to do in order to experience it (11:22; 11:3; Ps. 33:9; Rom. 4:17; Rom. 10:10). There is a direct connection between your words and your faith! You can’t speak doubt and then hope that God proves you wrong. “Rather than telling it like it is, tell it like it could be.”
- Giving When I Don’t have it (Heb. 11:4; 2 Cor. 8:2, 3; Prov. 3:9; 1 Cor. 16:2). There are two types of giving the first takes no faith. Giving by reason–to give a reasonable amount based on what is within reason. Faith giving though is giving by Revelation–A number that God directs that goes BEYOND reason. “Finances are the acid test of faith.”
- Thanking God before I receive it (Heb. 11:30; Mk. 11:24; Mt. 9:29).
- Trusting even if I don’t get it here on earth (Heb. 11:39-40; Rom. 10:17). This comes from a daily connection in God’s Word.
Steven Furtick spoke our second day and his message made me cry because I’ve known for a long time that God is calling me to step out in greater faith and I haven’t been faithful to that because I am scared…
Okay my boy just asked me to read him some books…so I guess I will have to finish the rest later…