Thankful for Grace

I have been reading an awesome book by Jerry Bridges titled "The Discipline of Grace". I think it may just be the best book I've read in a very long time.(Besides the Bible of Course) The concept of God's grace rescuing and freeing us from the dominion of sin is amazing. I've never seen it explained so well. I've also been trying to read the first 8 chapters of the book of Romans every day for the past 3 weeks. It is so important to understand the reality of grace operating through the power of the Holy Spirit and sanctifying us continually. Understanding grace is so important. When I put into perspective the riches of God's grace toward me it makes me worship. It is the most effective remedy for fighting sin. Romans is so rich with nuggets of truth that need to be marinated on. You will not get it on a quick read through. Marinate, meditate, soak it in, look up some cross references. Think often on the mercy of God revealed in the gospel. Thank God for this unspeakable gift. We are a people that exists to declare His excellencies. have you declared them today? God is doing a work in His people. Philippians 1:6 says "He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ. I like also what he says in Philippians 3 when Paul says basically "I don't want my own righteousness I want Christ righteousness. I just want to know Him....I just want to know Him and the power of His resurrection." You can hear the unction and passion in his voice.
Is the main passion of your life to know Him?? Just to know Him???

Missional???

To be Missional- In order to understand our function in this community we must explore what it means to be “missional.” While this term is very popular in recent church planting trends it can often be misunderstood and used as a trump card to justify any unconventional method used to gather/reach unbelievers. To be missional means to take on the stance of a missionary in your culture and context with the intention of serving and loving them in a way that opens the opportunity to not only speak the gospel but also to show it by actions. It means building relationships with unbelievers in order to discover the cultural barriers that may be keeping them from understanding the gospel. Many people are resistant to the message of Christ simply because the church has built fences around the gospel that are not biblical and have refused to speak the language of the people we are supposed to be reaching. We must identify the barriers and presuppositions of our target in order to speak and act in a way that is biblical, contextual and understandable to the hearers.

-A missionary approach filters through the cultures presuppositions and possible barriers while refusing to create a culture that is inaccessible and hard for unbelievers to engage in. We can and must remain biblically faithful to the message of our desperate need of Jesus and our need to repent and believe in Christ in response to His love for us. We can and must do this in a way that is relevant and easily comprehended by the culture.

What do you think it means to be "missional?" 

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Why bother?

Whats up people? This will be a blog to chat about various theology and church planting issues. Try to keep the profanity and name calling to a maximum of 3-5 per day.

What is church planting all about? Why bother?
The first thing I want to discuss is the purpose of church planting. Some of my friends think that church planting is NOT about evangelism. I agree that evangelism is not what it is ALL about, but evangelism is a primary reason and motivation for church planting, that is, to bring an expression of the body of Christ to a people group that is not being reached and contextualize the message of the gospel into their culture. Another primary purpose is worship. We should desire to see the worship of Christ extend to every people, tribe and nation.

What is the purpose of church planting????