I've Been Thinking About This…

Dino Rizzo:

Phil 3:10 -that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,…

1. To know Christ – privately, in marriage, for your children, at work. Lift Him higher.
2. To know the people that you serve, and the hurts they’re suffering.
3. To know your partnerships. Churches can link up with other groups that develop their reach into the communites.
4. Know the poor in your community. Hungry, widowed, those with health issues. Small acts of kindness can go a long way in someone’s life.

Keld Dahlmann (Denmark):

History of Finland – 3 principles  from WW II the Winter War USSR vs Finland:

1. Determination – the Finns had to win the war – know your ‘must win’ battles.
2. Know your context: too often the world knows the context better.
3. Travel light; guerrilla model of warfare: look for lightweight ministry – sustainable; doesn’t demand overwhelming support.

Jorge Acevedo:

“Lord, send us the people that no one else wants”

How often do we commit spiritual malpractice? We tell people that Jesus can change lives, but we fail to provide adequate “places, spaces, people and processes “?

Are we lowering the crime rate in our city? If we went away, would the crime rate go back up? Real life change is bone-deep.

Sometimes we can get the inside cleaned up, but the outside – health, education, jobs – don’t get supported. A whole person is someone transformed inside and out.

Nanacy Beach:

What happens when you serve in the support circle of someone who, as you get closer to them, displays less of Christ, not more?

Above all else, guard your heart:

1. Prov 4:23 – guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
2. Do you have safe relationships?
3. People who will speak truth without condemnation. Are you growing?

Stephen Furtick:

I want to inspire and raise the level of your faith to the audacious level.

1 Kings 17  - And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Elijah did exactly what the Lord told him to do, but the brook has dried up. It wasn’t because Elijah disobeyed or was forgotten, but so that God could move him to a new level of power and service.

Reggie McNeal:

People of God, partnering with God

1. People of God. Church is a ‘who’ not a ‘what’. Nowhere in the NT is a church referenced as being smaller than a city – it is a ‘who’.
2. Partnering with God. We don’t own the mission – it’s God’s. It started in the Garden of Eden – to bless the world. Try praying to bless 3 people each day. It’s not “God so loved the church” – it’s “God so loved the world“.

Noel Heikkenin:

The story about the moth coming out of the cocoon.

• God wants to squeeze our egos out of the ministry
• Pastoring is something that elders do
• Pastors should be able to spread the load across the elders and lead with them in unity – it’s the NT model
• It’s painful, but it’s the way God set up the church.

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