1) encourage genuine Christian fellowship
2) pursue maturity in Christ
3) training a new generation of Godly pastors
4) multiplication of Christian leaders
5) encourage evangelistic zeal
6) channel God given fervor to doctrinal maturity

I do want to reiterate the importance of simplicity in the midst of overwhelming cultural competition for the individual’s time and focus.

Just a few ideas written from my phone while my girls are scrap-booking.

Great blog Jody!!

Thanks Bekah, Bonni, and Kathy for contributing!

So what’s missing??? Maybe more teachings about our roles. Very important to teach new “babies” Christians, once they decide they want to follow Jesus, what their role is.

That starts out with volunteering, which is learning to humble yourself and serve others instead of yourself.

Next, with joining a small group or class, so you can build relationships and get to know other people. This way you show up to Church and actually know people there (other than the ones you walked in with), that list of people grows and grows. It becomes personal for you. At that point, you are committed to a Church because you are a part of helping it grow, a part of helping touch lives. That is so important to people. It makes it harder to walk a way when you feel you are a part of something.

After that, we need to make each other accountable. Are we doing what we are supposed to? There are so many ways to reach people. But…some people are not naturals at this and some are super shy. We have to teach people ways to disciple others. We have to provide the tools and equipment. Have classes that focus on how we can reach people.

Again, I stand behind teaching people their roles. From the first I want to ask Jesus into my heart, let’s face it, most people don’t know how easy that is or how freely available it is, until they are taught. I didn’t know it was as easy as it was. I didn’t know I didn’t have to sit down with a priest and tell him about all the stuff I did over the last year, months, days or whatever. No clue. I didn’t know I could just say I believe in you, what you did, and Jesus come into my heart and stay with me! Show me the way! That’s it! That changes will come naturally, but not overnight and that not everything will change. The Holy Spirit is who guides me. I just didn’t know. I needed to be taught. If it’s a married couple, wow, they really need extra attention to make sure they understand their roles and that everyone has a role. The man is not better than the woman. He isn’t more than, etc. Things like that must be taught. People have such a wrong impression of their roles. It’s amazing to me how I easily accepted my roles, when they were spelled out. In the past a man threw my roles out to me, but only made it sound convenient for him and I was his doormat. Guess what I learned??? Nuh uh! I’m no doormat, in fact, I should have been the most precious thing to him. I didn’t get it, until I was taught. I would have rather rebelled against a husband completely if I wasn’t taught my role and he get taught his role. We have so many roles, it’s hard to keep up sometimes, so we need good teachings about that! We have roles as child, sibling, spouse, parent, other family member, friend, brother/sister in Christ, co-worker, and stranger. We are born with sinful hearts and have to be taught how we should be reacting to situations so we recognize when we don’t do quite what we should. The Holy Spirit helps us with that too, but there are still things we need to be taught. We need to help one another. Again, part of the accountability thing!

Sorry if I rambled on and on, I could write about this subject for days!

from my own life, i know i always long to have a woman older and wiser than me, investing in my life. it’s rare to find someone that wants to have that kind of relationship and truly commit to it. because i know that about myself, i often look for a younger girl that God could use me to invest in them. it is not an easy task and sometimes uncomfortable, but it is what we are called to do as the Body of Christ.

that’s my 2 cents, or more like, 50.

Dave you are correct as in individuals that are changed because of faith will want to share this with others. If they don’t have this what is there to share? Where does the desire come from?

Great points!

Faith – God gives us chances to join him at play (I like to use the word play instead of work)- we have to make the choice whether or not to jump in.

Faith to know that he may take us down a path no other human has ever seen and if that is the case – it will be a Good thing/ it will be exciting – Colossians says that Christ is where the action is (in the Message). In other words keep your bags packed by the door and when He offers to take you with him on a trip, don’t ask when you’ll be back – just GO.

Faith – to say, I don’t have to know what the plan is/ I just have to know He is the one leading our steps and Courage to test the direction of the path by making sure it is NOT based on our experiences or knowledge of the world, but by our experiences and knowledge of God. But we have to know God to be able to do this or we have to have a strong spiritual guide to do this for us.

The early church was made up of people that had a single objective to share the wonder of what Christ had done for All people. I don’t believe they did this because it was an assignment (they were human after all), they weren’t talking about a good book they had read, they shared exciting personal experiences with God and it was an easy thing to share and their message spread like none before or since.

So, if the church is made up of individual Christians you need a church with folks that have experienced God at work. If a church is made up of folks that have never seen God at work, they will likely have good intentions but they won’t have anything to share…or at least nothing that other folks will be interested in hearing about…Christianity IS MYSTICAL, trying to make it logical is futile – but this is what many churches do because they don’t have Faith that God is there and don’t encourage Christians to jump in and get wet.