Hi. Today was a good day. Mondays have become my administrative work/study/not-be-around-many-other-people day. It's normally quite productive, and today was no exception. But what made today especially pleasant was my office (oddly enough). The weather in Atlanta was gorgeous, so I moved my office from my house to a picnic table on the lake at Stone Mountain Park. I'm not sure how much say you have in where your office is - but if you ever get the chance to have it at the park on a beautiful day, I highly recommend it. But enough small talk, let's get into big talk.
We've mentioned in previous posts a monthly gathering we created for various small, simple churches around the city to get together. Well, there have been a few kinks in the system (for example, normally our church is the only one there). We've definitely got some learning to do. We're currently trying to discern if most house churches just generally don't play well with others or if there really is a way to bring them together periodically. If it's indeed possible, we just need to figure out how. If it's not possible, then we'll find something more productive to do. We'll keep you posted.
In recent months, we've formed relationships with several folks who are ministering overseas but needing administrative help and spiritual support from folks back in the States. It's a good opportunity for us to provide practical help and support for folks who are engaged in cross-cultural ministry. In the future, we'll try to give you more details (as much as possible) about the work these folks are doing. If you'd ever like to give toward their work, just let us know.
It appears that I'll be spending most of this summer helping out with a ministry in Germany. Should be quite fun. I'll keep you updated on that. We'll also keep you updated with other upcoming spring and summer happenings.
There's much more to tell, but this will have to do for now. Your comments are always welcome. Thanks for your time.
--Derik
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
New Links
Hello there. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we've recently been changing around the items in our "Links" section. I thought it may be beneficial to give a brief description of each link and perhaps mention why we like it.
The International Mission Board (IMB) is a Southern Baptist entity whose focus is bringing the good news of Jesus to people outside of North America. We support the IMB not only because we have some affiliation with Southern Baptists (some days more than others), but because they do good work. While many believers in the US have a hard time caring about anything outside the walls of a church building, the IMB looks outside its own culture and seeks to be a part of what God is doing all over the world (which in turn affects our own culture). They pour themselves into making disciples around the world and work tirelessly mobilizing others to do the same. We especially appreciate their focus on keeping church simple, adaptable, and easy to multiply.
Church Multiplication Associates (CMA) is an organization that exists "to facilitate church multiplication movements by focusing resources on reproducing healthy disciples, leaders, churches and movements" (quoted from their website). This ministry is headed up by Neil Cole, who has written several very useful and thought-provoking books (including Organic Church ). The site has many valuable resources, articles, and information on conferences.
The third link is to a prayer guide organized by Operation World. The focus of Operation World is gathering and guiding prayer for the nations. The link will bring you to their online prayer guide. Click on the map and you'll be given some facts about the country and specific ways to pray for the people there. I also encourage you to invest in a copy of Operation World's prayer handbook . It's an excellent resource for both personal and corporate times of prayer.
Waymakers is a ministry whose purpose is mobilizing people to saturate their community and the world with prayer. They are especially adept at the ministry of prayerwalking (which they call praying on-site with insight). This powerful method of praying can be done almost anywhere by almost anyone. The site is stocked with practical prayerwalking instruction and useful resources. Check it out and start covering your community with prayer today.
Universal Disciple is a little-known site devoted to ideas on discipleship, leadership, and cross-cultural ministry. Some of the ideas may make your head spin a bit if it's your first exposure to them, but there's some really great stuff here. Perhaps you haven't heard of Thom Wolf because most of his stuff isn't published, but he's been been among those leading the way in missional thinking for many years. It's well worth your time to check it out.
Well, I think this sets a record for lengthy Logos blog posts - but hopefully it was beneficial. I'll try to post an update on recent thoughts and/or Logos happenings soon. Thanks for your time.
--Derik
The International Mission Board (IMB) is a Southern Baptist entity whose focus is bringing the good news of Jesus to people outside of North America. We support the IMB not only because we have some affiliation with Southern Baptists (some days more than others), but because they do good work. While many believers in the US have a hard time caring about anything outside the walls of a church building, the IMB looks outside its own culture and seeks to be a part of what God is doing all over the world (which in turn affects our own culture). They pour themselves into making disciples around the world and work tirelessly mobilizing others to do the same. We especially appreciate their focus on keeping church simple, adaptable, and easy to multiply.
Church Multiplication Associates (CMA) is an organization that exists "to facilitate church multiplication movements by focusing resources on reproducing healthy disciples, leaders, churches and movements" (quoted from their website). This ministry is headed up by Neil Cole, who has written several very useful and thought-provoking books (including Organic Church ). The site has many valuable resources, articles, and information on conferences.
The third link is to a prayer guide organized by Operation World. The focus of Operation World is gathering and guiding prayer for the nations. The link will bring you to their online prayer guide. Click on the map and you'll be given some facts about the country and specific ways to pray for the people there. I also encourage you to invest in a copy of Operation World's prayer handbook . It's an excellent resource for both personal and corporate times of prayer.
Waymakers is a ministry whose purpose is mobilizing people to saturate their community and the world with prayer. They are especially adept at the ministry of prayerwalking (which they call praying on-site with insight). This powerful method of praying can be done almost anywhere by almost anyone. The site is stocked with practical prayerwalking instruction and useful resources. Check it out and start covering your community with prayer today.
Universal Disciple is a little-known site devoted to ideas on discipleship, leadership, and cross-cultural ministry. Some of the ideas may make your head spin a bit if it's your first exposure to them, but there's some really great stuff here. Perhaps you haven't heard of Thom Wolf because most of his stuff isn't published, but he's been been among those leading the way in missional thinking for many years. It's well worth your time to check it out.
Well, I think this sets a record for lengthy Logos blog posts - but hopefully it was beneficial. I'll try to post an update on recent thoughts and/or Logos happenings soon. Thanks for your time.
--Derik
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