http://sjchurch.org/ en webmaster@sjchurch.org Copyright 2010 2010-08-31T19:52:10+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/community-of-neighborly-advocacy-part-ii-relational-fornication/ http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/community-of-neighborly-advocacy-part-ii-relational-fornication/#When:19:52:10Z In my last episode we had a spirited discussion about the nature of community and true friendship. Moreover, what this post really came down to was love. I thought on the whole that the discussion was productive, and intended to move onto another subject this week. However as providence would have, not so. As much push back as I received, I find myself remaining unrepentant as to my position... 2010-08-31T19:52:10+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/community-before-commitment-relational-equity/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/community-before-commitment-relational-equity/#When:16:02:04Z In this sermon Pastor Todd continues to explore the principle of “community before commitment.” But in this second installment we explore in particular what he calls “relational equity” of two types, the first “qualitative” referring to the substance of particular relationships, and “quantitative” referring to the multiplication of relationships. Here it is suggested that it is this quantitative side that is normally overlooked by proponents of “friendship evangelism.” He then goes on to demonstrate the greater influence is exerted on a person ideas, world views, and tendency to change them by immersion into a new community of relationships. This is demonstrated both by the biblical missions we see in Acts and many modern sociological studies. The goal of mission and witness then is not conversion per se, but to bring community to people and bring people into community which will naturally bring about transformation and conversion as a result. Unvangelism, Genesis 2010-08-29T16:02:04+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/personal-bible-study-prayer-and-community-huh/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/personal-bible-study-prayer-and-community-huh/#When:07:00:04Z As followers of Christ we sometimes feel as though we have it all together, because reading, praying and attending Church is enough? Isnt it? But how important is community? Community 2010-08-27T07:00:04+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/i-pity-the-fool-but-i-pity-the-proud-more/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/i-pity-the-fool-but-i-pity-the-proud-more/#When:18:55:51Z The book of proverbs has a lot to say that is practical and applicable to everyday life. Some even use it as a morning devotional, there are 31 chapters so it fits well to read a chapter per day monthly. Proverbs is a book full of little independent sayings of wisdom: some are funny, some are sobering, and all of them are good. Gospel Living 2010-08-25T18:55:51+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/community-is-attendance-on-sunday-enough/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/community-is-attendance-on-sunday-enough/#When:09:00:30Z When I first became a christian and got serious about my faith, I did so in a pretty Fundamentalist setting. I was taught that if I didn't "show up when the doors were opened" that I was a sub par christian. I started looking around on Wed's night prayer meetings and Bible study nights to see who was there. I began to get very self righteous very quickly as I noticed that many people who were there on Sunday were not there at other events. I came up with the acronym SMO which was a negative term for Sunday Morning Only folks. I really felt that I was better than them, and much more holy for showing up for Wednesdays, prayer meetings, Bible studies and even Sunday evening services! I felt that because I showed up, I was spiritually health when in fact the sin of pride was much more repulsive to God. Gospel Living, Gospel Identity 2010-08-25T09:00:30+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/imago-dei-and-the-fall/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/imago-dei-and-the-fall/#When:21:34:19Z One puzzle that I find intriguing is the idea of good and evil within humanity. For many of us, we tend to spend most of our lives focusing more on the good within ourselves and our camps, and the evil of certain other camps. Questions such as "how could anyone do that", and "some people are just sick" are a common response to atrocities seen and heard around the world. Stories 2010-08-24T21:34:19+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/community-of-neighborly-advocacy-ruminations-inspired-by-jean-alexander-a-p/ http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/community-of-neighborly-advocacy-ruminations-inspired-by-jean-alexander-a-p/#When:16:03:34Z I was inspired by Jean Alexandre's fine blog post today and wanted to share some thoughts of my own. I have found a common misconception about community in the Church that is essentially this; "Spiritual growth comes from getting into really deep and connected relationships." This is very common relational dysfunction of many house church types. The emphasis is on closeness. However the idea that relational closeness leads to “spiritual maturity" is actually a relational fallacy. In fact, I have surprisingly found that 2010-08-23T16:03:34+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/negative-perceptions-of-community-done-right-or-wrong/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/negative-perceptions-of-community-done-right-or-wrong/#When:09:00:40Z Some of us have had experiences with churches or “church people” that have put us off. This sometimes leaves us with thoughts like “that place is a cult”. I’ve used this term in the past to describe churches I’ve been to. I’ve also had conversations with others about certain churches and their likeness to cults. This is especially prevalent in churches where community is done either very well or very wrong. Church Practices, Community 2010-08-23T09:00:40+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/the-one-minute-sermon-does-this-really-honor-god/ http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/the-one-minute-sermon-does-this-really-honor-god/#When:12:39:52Z ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGnEuGwvXqU 2010-08-20T12:39:52+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/11-false-righteousnesses/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/11-false-righteousnesses/#When:09:20:35Z In the Gospel Centered Life, we learn the following common areas that turn to for our righteousness (things that make us feel acceptable to God). The Gospel calls us to look to Jesus alone and his perfect life that he lived for our righteousness. Gospel Living, Gospel Identity 2010-08-19T09:20:35+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/repent.-believe.-repeat.-part-1-the-scars-remain/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/repent.-believe.-repeat.-part-1-the-scars-remain/#When:15:18:44Z If you are a Christian, you are a new creation in Christ. Your old nature has been crucified with him. You have absolutely been born again. The Holy Spirit will use this new nature and the Bible to transform your mind and kill your sin. The Christian life revolves around 2 practices: repentance and belief. In repentance we are a sinner and turn to God, in belief we exercise the new creation we’ve become and stand in His grace. 2010-08-18T15:18:44+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/turn-your-critics-into-coaches/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/turn-your-critics-into-coaches/#When:10:57:12Z Back in March of 2009, I was blessed to attend a church planting boot camp at Mars Hill in Seattle. I listened to a sermon about how to endure from Mark Driscoll that greatly impacted me. You can watch the video here. One of his points was that we need to endure emotionally. Most of his sub points had to do with how to deal with critics. One of the points that hit me between the eyes was "Turn your critics into coaches." You can see all of the sub points to the sermon below which I ganked from this blog. 2010-08-17T10:57:12+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/thoughs-on-an-article-in-wsj-called-the-perils-of-wannabe-cool-christianity/ http://sjchurch.org/blog/details/thoughs-on-an-article-in-wsj-called-the-perils-of-wannabe-cool-christianity/#When:09:42:01Z In this article, the author who identifies himself as a "27 year old evangelical" presumes to speak for all Evangelicals his age.  He has some very relevant critiques of pop evangelicalism.  He particularly points out how many are trying to use "shock" tactics as marketing spin, especially using "sex" as a topic of sermons and books to garner the youthful gaze.  I have to say that I agree to one level, but  on another, I found that he paints with too broad and indiscriminate brush strokes.  He seems to take the posture that talking about any cultural hot topic that identifies relevant questions young people are asking is an attempt at gimmicky marketing.  One thing he really fails to mention is 2010-08-17T09:42:01+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/making-disciples-proclaiming-and-shaping-a-world-view/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/making-disciples-proclaiming-and-shaping-a-world-view/#When:12:06:49Z Typical evangelistic techniques of our day are oriented toward short presentations often called a “plan of salvation” closed by an invitation to “receive Jesus.” In this sermon, we address the over-simplified and Gospel minimizing nature of such approaches. Here we learn about how preaching the Gospel and making disciples is about proclaiming and shaping a Christian world view. Our goal is not shallow conversions, but a life process whereby disciples are continuously trained to think Christianly. Here we learn that the mistake of modern evangelistic practices is “failing to see that a Christian must maintain a posture of exploring and learning a Gospel centered world view for the rest of oneʼs Christian life!” And we therefore also learn that the goal of discipleship is “to think Christianly; it is to develop a new world view where we interpret and practice life in light of Creator and Redeemer.” Unvangelism 2010-08-15T12:06:49+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/dysfunction-witness-detached-evangelism/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/dysfunction-witness-detached-evangelism/#When:13:34:17Z In our third sermon we deal with the second part of dysfunctional witness dealing with forms of detached evangelism. Detached evangelism are methods that remain emotionally and relationally distant from the person whom the Gospel is being communicated to. A few example we deal with is program/mechanical evangelism, the “drive by shooting,” and apologetic evangelism. Here we explore how relational credibility is critical for the success of any Gospel witness. Here then Pastor Todd proposes an epistemology of compassion, that it is atually entering into peopleʼs lives and stories through real relationships and vulnerability we garner the credibility for effective Gospel witness. People will come to know we are Christʼs disciples because we love one another and them. Unvangelism, Acts 2010-08-09T13:34:17+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/proud-evangelism/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/proud-evangelism/#When:13:22:09Z Pride is the sin behind all others and the Christian life is the call to continually deal with our pride. However we often fail to se how we carry our pride even into our witness for the Gospel. In the first of our two sermons in the series on “dysfunctional witness” we will look at prideful and arrogant postures in the way we share the Gospel and how when we take such postures, we undermine the very credibility of our personal witness and the Gospel. Some aspects of this are “project evangelism” where we make certain individuals into a project rather than a mutually reciprocal relationship and “apocalyptic evangelism” that has an inherent judgmental tone. In Luke 9:46-56 we rather see a contrast between the judgmental posture of the apostles and the redeeming posture of Christ. Unvangelism, Luke 2010-08-09T13:22:09+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/forgiveness-is-really-forgive-me/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/forgiveness-is-really-forgive-me/#When:11:06:13Z Forgiveness is Really 'Forgive Me' Gospel Living 2010-08-09T11:06:13+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/evangelism-implosion/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/evangelism-implosion/#When:12:01:24Z In this sermon we started our new series on learning to have a healthy Gospel witness. We as Christians talk a lot about “evangelism” event though the word is not in the New Testament, but more importantly, how we use it is not there either. When the church normally uses it, we tend to think of efforts at converting people as a separate discipline from discipleship, pastoral care, service, etc. But the NT does not use these limitations, but rather calls us to “make disciples.” In this sense, everything the church does is oriented toward converting and shaping faith and spiritual life. The witness of the Gospel is for both non-Christian and Christian. In the church we are meant to encounter a gentle reforming process of spiritual formation where the Gospel can take root in our lives over time. Unvangelism, Luke 2010-07-28T12:01:24+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/the-unknown-god/ http://sjchurch.org/media-library/details/the-unknown-god/#When:11:45:16Z In this sermon we we follow up on the theme of repentance that we looked at in Jer. 18:1-11, but from the perspective of a New Testament Text. Here we look at Acts 17 and Paulʼs preaching to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens. Here Paul acknowledges how religious they are even in their worship of “an unknown god” to which he responds, that this time of ignorance God was patient with but now because of the Gospel, God calls all men everywhere to repent. One major question dealt with is the question of Godʼs need for worship. Here it is suggested it is not that God need our worship, but rather that we need to worship him. Special, Acts 2010-07-28T11:45:16+00:00 http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/jesus-call-to-repent-and-believe/ http://sjchurch.org/community-blog/details/jesus-call-to-repent-and-believe/#When:08:59:31Z In Mark 1:15 Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God​​ is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”. This call to repent and believe is something very important to the scriptures and to the Christian faith. Apart from this call, Christianity would be no different than other religions. Theologians will call this the "External Gospel Call" because it is something done openly to all people. God has called everyone, everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel and it is our job as Christians to share this Gospel Call with people. This call is not exclusive in any way, but it is for all people. Gospel Living, Theology 2010-07-26T08:59:31+00:00