discipleship Archives - Page 6 of 6

A Living Together Reality: Meditations on Community Part One

By Joel|2014-08-26T03:23:50+00:00January 24th, 2012|Abandonment, discipleship, Jesus Shaped Community, The Dangerous Kind|

A few weeks ago I grabbed lunch with a friend at Red Robin. Munching on Buffalo Chicken Strips we were talking about the churches that we were serving at, and about where the Lord is leading in those place. Community is the word that came up. God has me (and some leadership of our church) parked on that, and what it looks like in discipleship. My friend then mentioned another conversation that he had where the person shared his dislike of the word community: arguing that it is a buzzword, and not found in the New Testament. While "community" is mentioned once in Acts, depending on your translation, the word 'family [of believers]' appears a lot. [...]

Trust, Part Three: the waiting factor

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00June 24th, 2011|discipleship, prayer, trust, Waiting|

I know that I'm in the middle of a series on "trust," but since the topic is pretty much synonymous, I decided to include this bit on "waiting." I wrote the following article for a prayer site that I've been developing:Waiting is something synonymous with being human, and something that has been a muse for my creativity for some time now. I actually wrote a song entitled “Waiting” that is on my CD Depravity, Grace and Reckless Abandon. The lyrics go:This road is dustyAnd it’s getting to my eyesSo that I can’t see where I’m goingOr even the time But I’ll trust in YouThough it feels hurtin’ to meAnd though I can’t see Job, Abraham and SarahWe could [...]

Consumed by the Call(er)

By Joel|2014-08-26T01:46:55+00:00October 26th, 2009|Abandonment, discipleship|

“God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” William Wilberforce “Calling is the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service.” Os Guinness “Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind. This is the great and [...]

Experiments in Abandon: Part 2

By Joel|2014-08-26T01:15:36+00:00August 7th, 2007|Abandonment, discipleship, Jesus Christ|

a·ban·don [uh-ban-duh-n] 4. to yield (oneself) without restraint or moderation Jesus spoke a lot about the economy of the Kingdom of God, most of it is along the lines of if you want to find, you've got to lose. Lose what? Your life, your hard "earned" social identity (i.e. popularity, reputation), your comfort...most in a humanistic American culture will say different (thanks a lot gnosticism and doctrines of cheap grace). More and more this equation is always morphing in my life. Joel + Jesus=? What does this look like? Well, I know what the answer to the equation must be, but what must happen to find the answer? The equation must have some more integers, surely. But [...]