Recently in Grow Category
CCN is tremendously pleased to announce the official launch of our latest and most innovative project with Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend: SolutionsonVideo.com!
Don't you long for more time, more answers, and more counseling resources to support your congregation? SolutionsonVideo.com is your solution!
Best of all, this site is absolutely FREE to you, your church, your friends and family:
- Search over 1,200 video answers to questions on emotional issues, marriage, parenting, leadership, dating and more!
- Ask the Drs. your personal questions and receive continually updated video answers
- Dialogue with SolutionsonVideo.com community and receive input from Drs. Cloud and Townsend themselves
- Watch weekly video blogs by John and Henry
A summary of what's in the greatest book of all time.
by Jim Townsend
Wouldn't you love to be able to grasp what the entire Bible contains in just a few minutes? This compilation of the themes of the Bible will allow you to do just that. The following is a summary of what each book of the Bible contains. Keep it handy to refer to as you study and read.
Here's a sample of one book of the Bible:
2 ChroniclesGet the summary of the entire Bible.
- God supplies wisdom to those who want it (1)
- God values worship (3-5)
- God hears sincere prayers (6-7)
- God honors those who stand for what is right (14-17)
- God has his confronters (18)
- Some lives are a patchwork of obedience and disobedience (24)
- God is honored when leaders seek purification and reform (29-31, 34-35)
- Otherwise godly people can end life in a less than godly manner (32:24-33)
- Ungodly leaders wreak havoc on a nation (33)
When Pastor Richard heard Pastor Wayne Cordeiro (from New Hope Christian Fellowship in O'ahu, Hawaii) teach about Life Journaling during the Foursquare Live Training Event, he thought it was a great tool to encourage discipleship, Bible study, and regular small group participation at Grace Chapel. If you haven't heard about Life Journals yet, you will. Pastor Richard will be sharing his passion for this devotional tool in an upcoming Sunday message. These resources will help you get started.
Journaling Step By Step
Daily readings online
Downloadable/Printable journals and yearly reading guide
A Hard-To-Recognize Hazard for Christian Leaders
by Ruth Haley Barton
Dangerous tired is an atmospheric condition of the soul that is volatile and portends the risk of great destruction. It is a chronic inner fatigue accumulating over months (and sometimes years) that doesn't always manifest itself in physical exhaustion. In fact, dangerous tiredness can appear to be quite the opposite because it can actually be masked by excessive activity and compulsive overworking. When we are dangerously tired we feel out of control, compelled to constant activity by inner impulses that we may not even be aware of. For some reason we can't name, we're not able to linger and relax over a cup of coffee. We can't keep from checking voice-mail or e-mail "just one more time" before we leave the office or before we go to bed at night. Rather than reading anything for the sheer pleasure of it, our nightstand is piled high with books and professional journals that cram our heads full of more information that will keep us at "the top of our game." The idea of taking a full day off once a week seems impossible both in theory and in practice. We rarely, if ever, take time for a real break or vacation, choosing instead to work through holidays and break times. Not surprisingly, we might find that even when it is time for well-deserved sleep or rest, we are unable to relax and receive this necessary gift.While our way of life might seem heroic, there is a frenetic quality to our activity that is disturbing to those around us. When we do have discretionary time we indulge in escapist behaviors such as compulsive eating, drinking, spending, television watching—because we are too tired to choose activities that are truly life-giving. When we have drifted into the realm of being dangerously tired, we might also be numb to the full range of human emotion. It might seem like a relief to be unhampered by the negative emotions that bog other people down, but when we are dangerously tired the positive emotions become elusive as well. We don't feel much of anything—the good or the bad.
Does any of that sound too familiar? If so, please read more.
I know, it's not a test. It's an evaluation.
New Hope Christian Fellowship has a great tool anyone can use to help discover what their spiritual gifts are.
A few quotes from the article:
Willard appeals to those haunted by the question: Why don't Christians look more like Christ? To those bothered by the statistics indicating in the areas of divorce, materialism, sexual promiscuity, racism, and physical abuse, that American Christians behave no differently than the culture around them.
The problem, Willard says, is that we do not practice spiritual formation. Churches have not designed their ministries to help people believe and behave differently, because many church leaders have simply gotten the message of Jesus wrong.
Willard: Pastors need to redefine success. The popular model of success involves the ABCs—attendance, buildings, and cash. Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and so on—fruit in keeping with the gospel and the kingdom.
Zander: Spiritual formation needs to connect with what people are dealing with in their daily lives. For example, you tell the congregation, "We're going to learn how to live without anxiety and fear; is anybody interested?" Most of the folks won't believe it's possible. You start by teaching what Jesus said about anxiety. Then begin practicing the simple disciplines that help reshape our minds. And share stories about how you're doing through the process. We don't start with the disciplines; we start with the real life issue.
From an article by James Dobson:
True commitment to building strong families requires strategic action. Here are some specific concepts a church might implement in its setting:1. Mandate a vigorous premarital counseling program. The best ones provide a trained person to do at least six sessions before the wedding and two or more "check up" sessions six months afterward.
2. Assign couples as department heads, teachers, and other workers. The idea is to get families involved together instead of further fragmenting their time.
3. Be diligent not to overwork the more dedicated members. Families of the committed are vulnerable. The wise pastors I know keep track of how many nights per week families are expected to attend church activities.
4. Provide free baby-sitting whenever the church doors are open. Many mothers desperately need relief from constant childcare. Some of them may not be able to attend if childcare isn't offered.
5. Target young mothers. One of the best forms of family outreach I've seen is a program called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). It is an educational, recreational, artistic, and spiritual program each week for young mothers, who can be some of the most harassed people on the face of the earth. While these moms are engaged in Bible study and craft activities, the children have an interesting program elsewhere in the church. Mothers love this program and will come even if they have no interest in or knowledge of the church. Then, if the program is conducted properly, they usually begin attending the Sunday services.
Using the Disciplines to Keep Ourselves in Check
by John C. Ortberg, Jr.
It's easy to feel discontented and guilty about our lack of spiritual development. Some days we wonder, Am I making any real progress in spirituality? Am I really any more like Christ today than I was five years ago? How do I even pursue that?Since Jesus practiced solitude, silence, prayer, simple living, submission, and worship on a regular basis, the only way for us to become more like him is to arrange our lives as he arranged his. . . .
Thomas Merton wrote, "We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners all our life!"
Perhaps the main thing the disciplines teach us is hope—that the effort to become more like Christ has a definite shape. Given a lifetime, change is possible.
Reason #1
Because Christian history is everywhere in our culture. No matter what your religious background (or lack thereof), you just can't understand the modern, Western world unless you know your Christian history!
Reason #4
Because whatever question is on your mind, someone smarter than you has already seen it clearer, thought about it longer, and expressed it better. Why reinvent the wheel? Also falling under this heading: There are no new heresies—only old ones in new clothes. And again, they've all been answered with more wisdom and erudition than we'll ever be able to muster.
