Satisfying the Hunger
About this blog
Satisfying the Hunger... is a blog written by the ministry staff of Evangelism & Church Growth
Recent posts
- Simple Church?
- One of the Challenges for Missional Church Planting in Urban North America
- The Prayer of the Troubled Heart
- The dog days of summer
- Discipleship, learning to value what the Lord values....
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Simple Church?
I've been rereading Brothers Karamozov and reading Eugene Peterson's book, The Pastor. And I've been struck again by the overwhelming grace of God and God's call to us to be a people of grace on mission. In Brothers Karamozov, there is a poignant scene in which a woman is struggling with losing her faith. The advice she receives is to love and serve others. It is in reaching beyond self to one's neighbor that faith has the opportunity to take root and grow.
As I travel across our church, I continue to meet wonderful people. They want to follow Jesus. Yet there is a huge sense of being stuck and waiting for someone to come help bring assistance and direction. The focus of the church has become survival. The activity of the church is centered on budgets, buildings, staff, and programs. And there is a pervasive sense of hopelessness because people are not showing up inside the church walls.
Eugene Peterson writes about starting a new church. As he started this new church, he was helping people come to terms with their own faith stories as they encountered the birth and development of the early church in Acts. As we see our stories as a part of what God is doing to rescue a broken world, we begin to claim our place in God’s redemptive mission.
So what if we started again with these stories: our story and God’s story of being on mission through the church. Would we realize again that our call is to share with others the story of what has changed our lives? And would we take more risks in venturing beyond our homes and churches into the lives of people around us?
As I continue to grow up more and more into Jesus, I realize that my faith grows and deepens every time I have the opportunity to either serve another person or share my faith. Maybe, just maybe, being church is this simple: we serve and share God’s grace with the people around us.
August 14, 2012
One of the Challenges for Missional Church Planting in Urban North America
The following is an excerpt from an article, “Top Challenges for Missional Church Planting in Urban America” by my friend Dan Steigerwald, President of Christian Associates North America – a non-affiliated church planting organization.
July 24, 2012
The Prayer of the Troubled Heart
Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings.
Psalm 61:1-4 The Prayer of the Troubled Heart
When pushed to its limits physically the body needs care. It needs water, shelter from the elements beating down on it, a place to recline, and replenishing nourishment. This “body” includes ...
July 17, 2012
The dog days of summer
The dog days of summer got here early this year. We hit records a number of days running where I live (in Nashville, TN)– one day is was 109 degrees! On those kinds of days, the desire and need isfor relief and respite from heat and even more importantly, water for a parched land. The past two days have brought a series of summer thunderstorms and you can almost hear the land breathe a sigh of relief for the rain. The most recent news stories are now telling us this may be our new normal. If that is the case ...
June 12, 2012
Discipleship, learning to value what the Lord values....
Recently I was meeting with our elders and one of them said, “We know what we need to do, we need to make disciples. We know how to do that!” I confessed to our elders that right now, at this time, in this place, I was not sure how to make a disciple. I asked the elders for some help, “How do we make a disciple today?” The answers ranged from actions like feed the poor and volunteer in the community to study scripture and worship in Spirit and Truth. It became clear to us the possible things we could ...
June 8, 2012
Anxiety Swaddled Within Hubris
I, like many, have based much of my self-worth and peace of mind on what I have done, am doing and hope to do. Personal possessions are almost meaningless to me. I would say I own a dog, but the wonderful truth is that she really owns me!
I have hoped that I would be a parent who could help his sons grow to be morally strong men, a husband that could be trusted to be supportive and loving, a man who would choose to respect and protect others simply because they’re the right things to do, a person ...
May 29, 2012
DOES ANYONE HERE NEED RESCUING?
I was sitting enjoying lunch on an outdoor sidewalk cafe the other day when I heard a voice: "Does anyone here need rescuing?" I reeled around to see where the voice was coming from, and it was a police officer sitting in his air conditioned cruiser. Befuddled and not sure I'd actually heard what I thought I'd heard, I responded with a less-than-intelligent, "What???" "Does anyone here need rescuing? I just got a 911 call that came from here and I need to know if someone needs rescuing?" "I'm not aware of a problem, but that doesn ...
May 11, 2012
Are you a big, fat liar?
This month I wrote an article for Branching Out, the Presbyterian College Chaplains Association periodical, entitled, “That’s Not My Job.” It was an encouragement for the chaplains at our PCUSA-related institutions to help the church realize that Presbyterian student ministry on a Presbyterian-related campus is not the chaplain’s job.
May 1, 2012
What Have We Seen
“… what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …” 1 John 1:1
Last week, during an annual youth ministry conference, I attended a lecture and then a class designed to be a follow-up seminar to the lecture. The topic of both of these activities was the Saint John’s Bible. An artistic, calligraphic rendering of the Bible. A ten year effort, created and collaborated on lovingly by a group of ecumenical artists from around the world. I think it’s fair to ...
April 24, 2012
Connecting in sips
There was a very interesting article in the Sunday New York times recently (“The Flight from Conversation” by Sherry Turkle, who is a psychologist and professor at M.I.T. and the author, most recently, of “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.”). Here is a quote I found compelling:
We are tempted to think that our little “sips” of online connection add up to a big gulp of real conversation. But they don’t. E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, all of these have their places — in politics, commerce, romance and friendship. But no matter how ...