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Month: September 2013
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Catching Up
Mood:
don’t ask
Now Reading: “Intimacy” by Henry Nouwen
Topic: Rantings of a lunatic
Hmmm…so this is interesting. It’s been a while since I have updated this thing. Well, I have told people that once i get internet then I will update. So i’m updating. This last season was truly strange and new. To catch you up. I graduated, started leading a d-house, got a new job, started dating an old friend (If you read this, you should know that your pretty great.), raised up new leaders for a new lifegroup, got accepted to ATS, and took in a, basically, homeless guy. That’s most of it. Well, that’s a good catcher upper.
Just got done with our leader’s retreat for all the lifegroup leaders and interns. It was refreshing and good. I’m glad it was so…hmmm…what’s a good word? Oh!! Yeah! Refreshing! You know what? I’m refreshed.
Seriously though, it was good. We got to meet with Jesus and not have to lead. It’s good to get away and not have to lead for a day or so. I look forward to doing it again sometime soon. I think my next retreat will be on my own. We need some away from everyone also. Anywho, so now we have internet. So hi -
Check Yourself – Part 4
The last few weeks on Conversatio Morum we talked about having a check yourself mentality, what that means and why it’s important. You can read about that here, here, and here. Today I’d like to talk about another way to gauge this for your entire group. The Purpose driven movement has been well received in large, and at the same time has been given a lot of flack from certain parts of the church. With that being said, I do think that Rick Warren gives some great and practical thoughts on ministry. Specifically, when looking at the Purpose Driven Church the 5 purposes in purpose driven church are thermometer to help gauge how your church as a whole is doing. [tweet that]
If you’re unfamiliar with the 5 purposes listed by Warren and Saddleback, they are:
- Fellowship
- Discipleship
- Worship
- Ministry
- Evangelism
You can pull these purposes out of Acts 2:42-47 so they are rooted in scripture. Now, the question is how you begin to utilize them as a measurement for health and effectiveness. When you begin to think of the 5 purposes as a thermometer they begin to make more sense in terms of a metric to show health. The best way to view this is that each thermometer should be at the same level as a good gauge of health. On the other side of this coin, if you have an imbalance, that’s a good indicator of lack of health. For example, if evangelism is at a 8 and everything else is at a 3, your situation is like growing a 3-year-old with steroids. [tweet that] Not the greatest picture of health.
So part of the goal is to have each of the thermometers be at the same level. The other part of the goal is to have them go higher. You don’t want each purpose to be at the same level and that level be 0. The goal is to continually be growing in each of these areas and, on a scale of 0-10, have them all be at a 10.
This is a common tool used by some of the most effective church’s in our nation. Does this seem like a helpful measurement tool for you? Can you see the advantage of utilizing this tool to determine the health and growth of your congregation?
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So….This Is Awkwardly Awesome
Hey folks. Here’s a post full of both Awkward and Awesome. It’s Awkwardly Awesome. So I was supposed to publish the last of the Throwback Thursday posts in its current iteration today. However, that isn’t going to happen. So that’s the awkward part. Why aren’t you publishing the Throwback Thursday goodness? Well I’m glad you asked. You see, there’s an awesome part of this post.
Xanga, you remember Xanga right? Well, that’s where the original posts are held. Xanga has decided to do something and become awesome. Unbeknownst to me, they’ve moved their backend to some sweet WordPress awesomeness. Great! Right?!?! Go Xanga! So that’s awesome and changes my attitude towards them on a significant level. Now, on another note because of this, they’re in the middle of the transition. So that leaves me without content to move over for the last Throwback Thursday. So sorry. I’ll post it as soon as it comes back up. Hopefully next week.
OK, well, there’s something else that’s awesome. John Saddington‘s new app Pressgram was released today and I got my first name as my username! (I’ve been waiting my entire life for that, considering how hard it is to get Joshua as a username for anything.) If you have an iPhone and WordPress, you should definitely get in on this. So with that, you might see some photo posts appearing on here. I promise I’ll make them go to a separate page in the next few days, but stick with me as I clean up the mess that this may cause. In the meantime, enjoy and photos and throw me some comments.
OK, love you all.
Joshua
