I introduced the topic of mutual submission a couple of weeks ago and wanted to jot down a few thoughts. First, a question. When Jesus took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist and began washing the feet of the disciples, would you consider him in a position of strength or weakness?…
Tag: Discipleship
I Thought This Was Supposed to Be Fun
A couple of weeks ago, Liz had a new violin student show up. I realised the other day I hadn’t seen her since. I asked Liz where she was, and she told me the person realised that she didn’t want to practice and wouldn’t be coming back. If she had stuck with it, in about…
Fat Guy in a Little Coat
This post is number 4 in a series on the major streams of Christianity and my time in each. So far, I have mentioned:Orthodox (the one major stream I have had no involvement with)Catholic and Mainline Protestant Pentecostal ( I consider Pentecostal/Charismatic largely under the same umbrella. Our next stop would also fall under the…
Drawing a Crowd
I am officially on holiday!! I’m hoping to post some photos here over the next week as we will be in some scenic places. Today I wanted to repost something put up here a few years ago as I think it ties in well with the series we just completed. :: originally posted 18 December…
Voting for Jesus
Confession time.
Sometimes a situation arises and my brain kicks into problem-solving mode.
Occasionally that can be positive. I’m learning more and more that when the “something that happens” is a person, seeing them as a problem to solve is a mindset I need to give up.
5 Costly Mistakes of Judging Those Who Suffer
Who sinned, this man or his parents?
You may remember the story. Jesus and his disciples are walking along and see a man who was blind. In fact he had been blind from birth. So they ask Jesus “Whose fault is it that this person is blind?” “Did his parents do something that caused him to be born without sight, or did he, somehow, do something that brought this about?”
What We Are Dreaming
As we have spent time over the past 2 years dreaming about this new community and what it will look like, some key themes have risen to the top. This section seeks to outline some of these core ideas:
We will focus on discipleship above church planting.
We believe that when you focus on making disciples, a church will be a natural outflow.
Carrots and Sticks
Over on our family blog (TheWilsonsInDublin.com), I’ve started a series of posts explaining how we got from Ithaca to Ireland. In one of last week’s posts I talked a bit about a very difficult time our family went through from 2007 to 2009.
In recounting that period, it got me thinking about how God has worked in my life repeatedly.
I think it is how he works in the lives of most people.
And for lack of a better phrase I’ll call it the “carrot & stick method.”
A Couple Thoughts on Transformation
What is our goal? Whether we are talking about our Sunday service, our kinships, or really anything we do as a church, when we get to the question of, “what are we hoping to see happen out of this?” it always comes down to transformation. Will what we do, & how we do it, help…
Week of Prayer & Fasting @ the Vineyard
If you’ve been at the Vineyard over the past couple of Sundays, then you’ve probably heard that we are taking this next week as a week of prayer & fasting. While we’re sure some of you have had some experience with prayer & fasting in the past, we recognize that for many people this may be the first time, they’ve actually had an opportunity to be part of something like this. So, I thought I’d take a few minutes, explain why were doing this, & then give a bit more information on what fasting involves.
Discipleship @ the Vineyard
One of the most common questions we’ve gotten since we started the Vineyard back in 1999 is how discipleship works/happens here. Most of the time as we dig into the question a bit more, what we find is that the person is asking about a class system where younger followers of Jesus are taught by…