At the end of Acts 7, we see that Stephen is killed by stoning by the members of the Sanhedrin. Saul, who will soon come face-to-face with Jesus, is there as a zealous Pharisee and Acts 8:1 says that he is giving approval to the killing of Stephen. Saul begins to persecute the church, scattering […]
Throughout the scriptures, whether in Jesus’s teachings, in the first church, or in the subsequent efforts from the apostle Paul, we can see that discipleship of Jesus leads to starting churches. Jesus’s teaching If we return to see how Jesus taught his disciples in the parable of the sower, we see that the parable ends […]
It has been interesting to realize, once again, how true it is that words have specific meanings, yet depending on your experience, a particular word may have one meaning to one person, and a very different meaning to someone else. I have seen this to be true as I have talked about the word “church” […]
Jesus said that, because he was given all authority on heaven and earth, his disciples should therefore go and make disciples for him among all of the nations. He didn’t call us to go make converts or believers. Instead, he said that we are to go make disciples. I believe that this is a core […]
I think it is safe to say that the most prolific church planter that we can read about in the scriptures was the Apostle Paul. He started many churches where there were no churches before and taught new disciples to do the same. As a result, as we think about a Biblical Roadmap for Starting […]
Jesus said something that I believe is very important as we think about people coming to Christ and new communities of believers beginning to form. Jesus said: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day…” John 6:44 As we have […]
Over the last year, I have been reading through the Gospels and the book of Acts in an attempt to understand how Jesus and his disciples thought about starting new churches. It seems clear that Jesus intended believers to live out their faith in community, and both Peter and Paul, the primary leaders that we […]
I’ve moved around quite a lot in my life. Because of my Dad’s changing job situation and some other factors at the time, I went to a different school in each of my four years of high school. That was followed by my first and second years of university at different schools. Gina and I […]
On Thursday, Paul and I met a good friend from Gambia after not seeing him for several months. As we were catching up, we learned that he had recently baptized another young man and was now going on to disciple him to follow Jesus. It was great news, and it seemed that he was developing […]
So as I wrapped up my session talking about birthing spiritual grandchildren (see the previous posts on part 1 and part 2), we moved to Matthew 13. We read verses 1-9: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got […]