The story of Nick Vujicic is moving and astonishing. Amazingly, he can be a witness to Jesus Christ, despite having been born limbless.
Watch this video interview with him and ask whether most of us, who have suffered far less, can be witnesses for Christ.
Watch this:
The website churchleaders.com asks in response to this, ‘What if we became God’s love letter to the world?’
How can you imagine us doing that?
Australian Christian Deb Hirsch raises this question here. Watch the video:
Churchgoers by Herr Kaczmarek on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Do you find that friends see no point in going to church? Novelist Michael K Reynolds gives his reasons for church attendance.
See what you think of his reasons, and of his signs of a good church listed at the end of the article.
Well, the Book of Acts summarised in three minutes, actually:
John Ryeland
John Ryeland of the Christian Healing Mission invites us to ask this simple question: how can I show love today?
Would a simple daily prayer like that revolutionise Christian mission?
This video needs a lot of translation into British English. Not many church buildings have a whole ‘campus’ here, nor would many of us refer to our worship area or sanctuary as an auditorium. Some too will express the gospel differently from this speaker. We may also see newcomers far less frequently on a Sunday morning.
However … this is someone who takes hospitality seriously. I found a couple of useful takeaways in this. One was not to overwhelm newcomers with information they didn’t need. Another was in the insistence upon calling such people ‘guests’ and not ‘visitors’: language is important.
See whether you find this helpful.
First Place, Second Place, Third Place by gumption on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Exponential have a worthwhile free podcast available here. Go to the podcast dated 30th October 2013 by Brad Brisco, entitled ‘Engaging Your 1st, 2nd and 3rd Places’. Our ‘first place’ is our home, and so Brisco discusses the missional importance of hospitality. Our ‘second place’ is our workplace, and so he looks at the rôle of vocation. Our ‘third place’ is the location in our community where we socialise and relax – the fitness centre, the pub, the Women’s Institute, etc. – and Brisco looks at how to identify, create and support third places in a community.
What can Christians do in these different places to be a positive influence in word and deed for Christ?
Birthday Cake by Will Clayton on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Pope Francis seems to have it right: mission is not about doing attractive things in our Gothic buildings (or whatever architectural fad we follow), it is about inviting people to a feast. And he doesn’t simply mean, “Come to Mass.”
Perhaps he knows this wonderful story that Tony Campolo tells: arriving in Hawaii from the US mainland, his jet-lagged body kept him awake, and he found himself at a Honolulu diner in the middle of the night. Many of the clientele at 3:30 in the morning turn out to be local prostitutes. One, named Agnes, was commenting that the next day would be her birthday, but she received nothing other than a surly response from one of her friends. Agnes replied that she wasn’t angling for anything. She didn’t want a present, and she had never in her life had a birthday party.
Campolo had a word with Harry,the owner of the diner, and his wife. As a result, the next night there was a birthday banner up for Agnes, and a chocolate cake. Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her when she came in at 3:30. The cake, with lit candles, was brought out and Harry urged Agnes to blow the candles out so that everyone could have a piece.
Dumbfounded, Agnes asked Harry if she could keep the cake a little while first. He agreed, and she took it to her home, a couple of doors away.
As people stood in stunned silence, Campolo offered to pray. At the end of his prayer, Harry said, “Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
“I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
“No you don’t,” said Harry. “There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”
Was Harry right?
People on the question-and-answer website Quora have been discussing the man who ran in the New York marathon (and others) dressed as Jesus, with a cross on his back.
Apparently, he was running in aid of the Boston shooting victims:
Is there a place for initiatives (stunts?) like these in raising the profile of Christianity? Whether you answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, how do you come to your conclusion? (Sorry if that sounds like an examination question!)
And while you are thinking, here is a song this brought to mind:
Thinking About Mission 