Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

Design

The church is designed. It is not carelessly thrown together. It is not haphazardly planned. The ministry does more than “just happen.” It is thought-out. It is structured. It is designed with care.

—Thom S. Rainer, SIMPLE CHURCH

Christianity Today: Iran’s Persecution Backfires

A very interesting development in the Middle East. Trevor Persaud of Christianity Today reports:

Analysts say [that] Islam is losing credibility after 30 years of theocracy. Resentment against the reigning regime is spreading and deepening—especially since the disputed 2009 national elections.

“Before the [1979] revolution, the clerics were promising that once Iran becomes an Islamic state, it would be utopia, it would be brotherhood, and everything would be fine,” Dibaj said. But since then, Iranians “have seen nothing but war and fighting and international isolation and hatred, [and] they are thirsting for change.”

“The Iranian public basically doesn’t trust the government anymore,” Ghaffari said, “and they don’t trust the Muslim clergy anymore, because they have seen a lot of double standards and hypocrisy.”

Converts in smaller communities still risk persecution from their own families, but tolerance is growing in urban areas and among the younger generation. “In fact,” said Dibaj, “in places like Tehran and more educated communities, if you say, ‘I have become a Christian,’ they will respect you because of your courage and your independent thinking.”

If anything, government persecution has made Christianity much more attractive, said Yegh-nazar. “When government officials are on television telling people not to read the Scriptures, that generates more interest in the Scriptures.”

You can read the whole report here: Public Enemy: Iran’s Persecution Backfires (Christianity Today, June 1, 2011).

Scott McKnight on Discipleship

Scott McKnight talks about aiming at nothing with regard to discipleship in the church:

“They’ve got all the right programs, and they’ve got a preacher who can preach the congregation’s socks off, and they’ve got a band that rocks the house, but the average Christian leaves a week-to-week routine of attendance to live a week-to-week routine of … going on with what they go on with.

The church runs well, the money comes in, the money goes out, but discipleship doesn’t happen unless it’s intentional and personal and concrete and developmental and adjustable. But this takes careful planning- like weeks working on a mission statement and set of outcomes, exploring how those outcomes can be achieved, working with people to achieve those outcomes at a personal level, and then assessing both the people and the outcomes to see what needs to be done next.

It is far easier to gather, sing songs, preach and go home.”

Excerpted from Will Mancini, Scott McKnight Reveals His Measures for Discipleship.

Thom Rainer on “Where Have All the Churches Gone?”

Thom Rainer recently posted Where Have All the Churches Gone? at churchleaders.com

Interesting insights from the post and the comments section. Here are the bullet points:

1. The primary metric for measuring church size in 1969 was Sunday school attendance. Today, the metric is worship attendance.

I wonder what caused the shift?

I have yet to read a book that tackles the place of Sunday school prior to the cell church movement and why it was literally phased out from most churches in the late 90s. I started attending church in mid-90s. We still had Sunday school back then but little by little, we just sort of chucked it out from our weekly activities. Now when I hear the word Sunday school, ancient images of flip charts and poorly attended meetings come to mind.

Continue reading Thom Rainer on “Where Have All the Churches Gone?”

Be (Very) Patient

Sanctification is a process—an extremely slow process—for us all. Comprehending truth, applying truth, mortifying indwelling sin, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit—it’s a process that usually takes place by small increments over a lifetime. Normally, people don’t grow dramatically as the result of a single sermon or sermon series. And neither do you.

—C. J. Mahaney