A Theology of Workflow is a top little article on Christians and productivity. It’s in Christianity Today, a magazine which has good stuff and not so good stuff, so read with care. The article itself is an excellent brief interview with Matt Perman, producer of the extremely useful What’s Best Next blog.
Category Archives: Everyday Christianity
Jars of clay: Page by page
Everyday Ministry
Like many good ideas, this one was pinched from someone else. It was 2003, and Ben (my husband) and I were enmeshed in our first year of ministry training with the Evangelical Christian Union (ECU) at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. At a recent area committee meeting, we heard Peter Hughes (who was then a staffworker at the University of Western Sydney) talk about his decision to do away with main campus meetings and, instead, focus on small groups. He had started giving his students a double-sided A4 broadsheet each week as a way of building relationships, maintaining community and injecting a bit of sound teaching into their lives. The front featured a short article he’d written about the Bible or Christianity; the back had Bible study questions and prayer points. (more…)
Suffering and decision-making
Everyday Ministry, Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel
Is it better to choose a more difficult ministry, or an easy one? Is it more godly to choose suffering over comfort when we make decisions about life and ministry? After all, suffering makes us more like Jesus, and surely that’s good for us, isn’t it? (more…)
Connecting in your street
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I loved Ben’s 10 in 2 post the other day. But I have to admit I’m more a 2 in 10 guy. I find evangelism hard. My courage fails easily. But one of my biggest problems is just not spending time with those outside the kingdom.
In my neck of the woods, the Connect09 campaign last year at least had the impact of making me think about getting to know the people in my own street.
10 in 2
Everyday Ministry
In January 2010 I set myself a goal that has transformed my diary, my thinking, my reading and the way my home operates.
In January 2010 I pledged to work at the goal, prayerfully and dependently, of bringing ten people into the Kingdom of God by 31 December 2011.
‘Missional Lifestyle’: Education
Everyday Ministry
In this series I’ve been working my way slowly through various facets of life (home, education, work, sport, etc.), talking about the opportunities that each presents for being involved in the lives of others for their good and their salvation, and the idolatries that have the potential to destroy us and our witness by luring our hearts away from Christ. In this post, having set out a general framework and taken a brief look at the opportunities and idolatries of the home, I want to turn to the topic of education (our own and our children’s) and the opportunities that it provides for mission.
The power of example
Pastoral Ministry
Mexico in the 1940s was a country trying to come to grips with the 20th century. While discoveries of oil and a developing infrastructure encouraged foreign investment, basic social indicators like literacy rates, health care and basic wages demonstrated that for the vast majority of Mexicans, life was still a great struggle. It was in this context that Ávila Camacho was elected president in 1940.
Teaching Scripture: An alternative to door-to-door evangelism?
Everyday Ministry
In these Sola Saturday posts, we’ve been looking at past contributions to the old Briefing ‘People in Ministry’ column, which focused on evangelical ministry worked out in practice. Firstly, David McDonald told us about the impetus behind Canberra Christian Youth Convention. Last week, Ken Simpson talks about ministry to doctors. This week, Michael Blake explains how he uses school Scripture to reach parents:
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Fellowship of Medical Evangelism
Everyday Ministry
Sisters for those with no sisters
Life, Sola Panel
I grew up with one brother and no sisters. I love my brother, and never longed for a sister (unlike my daughter, who loves her three brothers, but has always wanted a twin sister). But I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a sister.
A layperson’s guide to giving up your life
Everyday Ministry
Have you ever felt like you’re headed in a certain direction and then the door you’re poised to walk through suddenly slams in your face? That’s how I felt at the end of 2004. I had just completed a two-year part-time ministry apprenticeship with the Christian group at the University of Wollongong alongside my husband, Ben. Although the time I had spent working with students and children had been encouraging and eye-opening, it had also been draining and often discouraging. During the apprenticeship, I had led and co-led Bible study groups and training courses, I had organized a women’s retreat, I had discipled girls, I had taught and coordinated Sunday school, and I had given my first evangelistic talk to an audience of 60 women (none of whom became Christian). But as it ended, I realized that working in people ministry was not something I could sustain full-time. (more…)
‘Missional lifestyle’: Home (the idolatries)
Life
In my last post, I suggested some of the opportunities that our homes provide for serving God in mission within his world. But a home doesn’t just create opportunities for mission, it also creates opportunities for idolatry. Instead of being a place where God is worshipped and served, home can itself become a god we worship—or a shrine for the worship of other gods.
A remarkable woman
Life, Sola Panel
I met a remarkable woman the other day. To be honest, she’s not the kind of woman I normally feel comfortable with. She’s had an immoral past, a pagan background, and a life of change and crisis. She’s brave, shrewd and outspoken. I might as well come out and say it: she was once a prostitute. But I reckon she knows more about God than any number of women from safe Christian backgrounds (like me).
The greatest expectations (When God comes to church)
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel, Sola Panel
Once I got to church on time, but God arrived 20 minutes late. On the other hand, occasionally I’ve been to church and God didn’t manage to turn up at all. At least, that’s the impression you’d form if you judged by expectations. (more…)
‘Missional lifestyle’: Home
Life
I’m hoping in my next few posts to look at a few different areas of life (home, education, work, sport, etc.). I want to discuss the opportunities that each present for being involved in the lives of others—for their good and their salvation. I also want to examine some of the idolatries that we can be tempted to serve in each of these areas—idolatries that have the potential to destroy both us and our witness by luring our hearts away from Christ. I’m going to start with the most obvious one: our homes.
There are two big opportunities for mission that our homes open up for us: proximity and hospitality.