Category: Kingdom Community

Fellowship and koinonia

humility

Upside-Down Leadership-Part 1

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You just finished leading a great meeting. Everyone was happy and happy with you. Several smiled and thanked you personally. At home you are feeling thankful for being able to lead. Then as you relax your mind starts wandering and thinking about what a great person you are. You are a fantastic leader, so much better than most…whoa! What happened here? You were just thinking about being thankful then you started getting delusions of grandeur. How quickly spiritual pride rears its head. Scripture teaches that you have an old self, or “flesh” that you have to fight. This explains why these temptations and impulses rise up within us. We also have an Enemy that takes advantage of our old self. So we shouldn’t get discouraged by temptations to pride. The early devout Christians considered pride the deadliest of enemies for those pursuing spiritual growth. They observed that once someone decides Continue Reading →

relationships, couple

12 Keys To Tackling Relationship Difficulties – Part 2

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This is Part 2 of this post, Part 1 can be found here. KEY 7: Be courageous. One of the big reasons we don’t tackle relationship difficulties is that we are afraid. We are afraid of conflict, we are afraid of getting hurt, we are afraid of doing it wrong, etc. In order to combat this ask yourself if you are afraid. Then ask yourself if the fear is really as big as you think. Then ask yourself if that fear should really stop you from tackling a difficulty. Is it worth some discomfort to improve a relationship? The antidote to fear is faith. Trust God to help you and to help you learn. Trust the advice you have gathered. Trust the fact that your heart is in the right place and if you express true care then nearly everyone will respond reasonably. KEY 8: Grow your communication skills. When Continue Reading →

relationships, couple

12 Keys To Tackling Relationship Difficulties – Part 1

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The purpose of this post is to learn how to deal with difficulties in relationships according to scripture, understand the root attitudes needed to tackle difficulties, and allow the difficulties to transform us into the new Christformed person God is making us. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love others. This is the foundation and end of spiritual growth, spiritual formation and spiritual theology. So relationships are the most important element of Christianity! This means we should learn to master relationships and how to love people. Thus, relationship difficulties are our biggest testing ground and our biggest growth opportunity. This post looks at keys to dealing with the difficulties we have in relationships. Part 2 of this post is found here. KEY ONE: Know your weaknesses. We all have relationship weaknesses. If we can be honest about them we will be able Continue Reading →

Church Bashing Part 2: Positives in the American Church

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  Last week the topic was church bashing. (Last week’s post.) This week continues the topic with an emphasis on the American church today. Criticizing the American church has become very popular in the last few years. This post looks at some issues surrounding this trend. Following is an example of the criticism of American Christianity from a recent popular blog: “The connection economy is an arena where the church — the body of Christ — should be leading. But it’s not. The world has blown past it. In the connection economy, building connections with like-minded people is valued higher than acquiring “stuff.” For instance, suppose I handed you $2,000 to spend on whatever you wanted. Your mind may default to a new refrigerator. Or that curved HD TV you’ve been eyeing at Best Buy. Or a new set of golf clubs. Or those rare coins for your coin collection. Or you Continue Reading →

The Dangers of Church Bashing – Part 1

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For some reason it has become popular among many Christian writers to make critical statements about the Christian church as a whole, either the present church or the historical church. My question is whether these statements are fair and good. If I took the time I could come up with endless examples of sweeping criticisms. I will give one example from a very well-known spiritual formation author. He wrote “We’ve been at this for two thousand years now…Clearly, the church is not making much headway in eliminating what is wrong in the world and making everything right.” Is this historically fair? The Roman empire was a brutal empire ruled by brutal and often grossly immoral and hedonistic emperors. After Christianity was legally accepted in the 4th century the morality and humanitarianism in the empire greatly improved. Unwanted babies weren’t left to die on hillsides. Bishops like Ambrose had the influence Continue Reading →