The following thought-provoking one liners come from the pre-conference sessions at the World House Church Conference in India, as shared by Felicity Dale on her blog Simply Church. They are from talks given by the leader of a church planting movement that baptized more than 300,000 on the Day of Pentecost in 2009. Worth taking note!Jesus never said, "Be baptized." He said, "You baptize."
You disciple--you baptize.
Jesus baptized Peter--but only his feet.
You will not see a movement without signs and wonders. Ninety five percent of our house churches have signs and wonders.
Apostolic teaching is the teaching to GO.
There are 19 commands of Jesus to be found in the New Testament. All lead to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Hospitality is the secret to precipitating a movement.
Sit and soak, and you stagnate. Eat and chat and you will multiply.
Goat prayers are "meeee" prayers. They focus on me and my needs, my family and my situation.
Use the newspaper headlines as your prayer list.
Theologians think, not from Genesis to Revelation but from genetics to evolution.
We need a problem-based theology. In our house churches we solve problems--finances, sickness etc.
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So, which of the above grabs your attention? For me the ones that speak loudest are the ones about baptism. Mainly, because, this is an issue we deal with regularly in our own trainings. I am convinced if we could accept the above statement, "You disciple--You baptize" we would see a Church Planting Movement in Ecuador.
8 comments:
Hospitality is critical to being inplanted in this culture. We need to be more hospitable and really open up our homes and our hearts if we will serve others well.
Strider,
In our "new way" of training, we are putting a huge emphasis on this aspect, particularly time spent eating together. We're raising eyebrows by saying, "don't spend your money on tracts, spend it on food and have people over." :)
"Theologians think, not from Genesis to Revelation but from genetics to evolution." What did he mean to say with this quote?
Tim,
I wasn't there to hear the conference in person, but my understanding, from other things I have read, is along the lines of theologians need to be more engaged with practical issues that touch our daily lives, and less about esoteric arguments about trying to understand obscure passages.
I couldn't agree more that "hospitality is the secret to precipitating a movement." To me, it's simply about being kind. Show kindness and listen, and then you find out what a persons needs are. Then I think you could meet them at that need. Having a new neighbor over for a meal is a great way to begin. Thanks for the Blog, guy.
I'm with you on the you disciple - you baptize line. We need to do this better. I'm waiting for some of the formerly Catholic members of our groups to accept baptism. I keep reminding them, "here is some water" like the Ethiopian did, but they aren't brave enough to get wet yet. Any tips?
Dion,
In our context when a Catholic does not want to be baptized, they are more or less saying, I am still not convinced this is the right thing to do. While I certainly affirm that baptism does NOT save, in our Ecuadorian/Catholic context, until a person is baptized they probably are not saved. When a Catholic agrees to be baptized, THAT is when they are saying I am giving my life to Christ and will follow him the rest of my life.
I would continue to nurture and maintain a relationship with your Catholic friends, but it is likely they are still "sitting on the fence."
John,
Our training begins with teaching people how to initiate relationships by having people over for meals. It is a key ingredient in Jesus strategy as outlined in Luke 10 and one we put a lot of importance upon.
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