Unity

I've been writing and blogging (posting) quite a bit lately about unity in the church, the Body of Christ, and the importance of it for representing our Lord and Savior, and introducing Him to others (evangelism). While more of my personal story and rants can be found at my Facebook page, I found the following to be succinct and right on. http://carm.org/christianity/devotions/unity-body Hope you also find this compelling and will share with your brethren in Christ? We all need to do a much better job of this in our lives, for Christ's sake.

Evangelism -

For many, that word conjures up visions of some "in-your-face" obnoxious religious nut. And, there may be some truth to that in some, or many, instances?!

Honestly, the best evangelism for Christ Jesus sake, is to imitate His character, including; humility, grace, mercy, compassion and kindness. It's simple logic. You can talk about Him and His Kingdom all you want, but if people don't see you acting like Him . . . well, would you want anything to do with Him if all you saw in His purported followers was judgmental critical attitudes and noisy obnoxious proselytizers?!

"Lifestyle" evangelism is the best evangelism, because it exhibits His LOVE. Without that . . . it's all "banging gong or clanging cymbal", not necessarily inviting.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me imitate You in my life more each day until my life is "hidden" in You, and You draw others to Yourself. Then by Your Spirit give me words of love and grace to share my own story when the opportunity arises.

Amen.

A story of “community” –

We live in a neighborhood where there are some of the original homeowners (1950’s). We have seen our beloved neighbors leave our neighborhood, but for heaven, not some earthly destination. This story is about two neighbors, Pat and Margaret, who have both lost their lifelong spouses in recent years. Pat and Margaret live across the street from each other, and immediately across and next to us, respectively.

Community is often where you find it (or live). For Pat and Margaret, they continue to live in their own homes, but the tender care they show for each other as widow and widower is a blessing for me to witness, (however discreetly). Pat loves to bring Margaret his morning newspaper, edge her lawns, etc. Margaret for her part is a wonderful cook and baker, visiting across the street to bring Portuguese bread and casseroles, etc.

It is a simple, but oh so beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ said was the second greatest commandment . . . love one another.

PnP On The Road - 2012 & new seasons

River Life: Discipleship & Teaching

We have called our approach to discipleship by many names, settling on "anam cara" (Gaelic for soul care) most recently. We apply ourselves using "one-on-one" or "twos & threes" settings that afford greater intimacy than larger groups, (we've found that works best for us). :-). Spiritual direction and/or mentoring is done individually, unless we are doing marriage/couples mentoring. The latter is the one time we use a "team" approach, serving together in a couple to couple setting. All this said, we are both excited to participate in 3DM huddles and become part of that Kingdom movement at River Life.

Teaching: Our teaching “style" is to take what we've learned from others; books, classes, conferences & seminars, then combine with our own experiences to create short classes that attempt to focus on the "nuggets" of truth. We assimilate and condense the material into single (one page) easy to understand (and use) handouts that accompany 1-2 hour classes, which usually comprise only two or three sessions. We also apply an interactive & participatory approach to help people "engage". Our hope is to leave participants with useful, applicable tools for daily living as they follow Christ, without overwhelming them. In both our teaching and discipleship (anam cara, soul care, spiritual direction, mentoring), we try as the Spirit leads to tailor our approach and material to the specific groups or individuals we are meeting with. All of this applies whether we are teaching/discipling as a team or individually.

We have taught in the areas of Christian parenting (all seasons), marriage (and couples/relationships) including praying as a couple, spiritual formation and more.

And always, all of this only by Grace and as the Spirit leads.