My friend Mark Fields went overseas with The Vineyard Missions to The Philippines. While he was there, he had the opportunity to go visit a marginalized people group who were Muslim in background and not recognized by the government. Because they don’t have birth...
I have heard this question asked by leaders of denominations, pastors, and small groups: “What do I need to do to get my people living more missionally?” As is almost always the case, change starts with the leaders first. It starts with repentance. Repentance means a...
After doing a study on the life of Jesus, which I’ve written about previously on this blog, I have arrived at 7 principles of incarnational living. Living incarnationally means: Staying connected with the Father Living with purpose Dwelling among the people Engaging...
What comes to mind when we hear the phrase “the good news”? Generally we think the gospel, yes. But what gospel? A set of beliefs including the virgin birth, incarnation, death, atonement, resurrection, repentance and salvation? Yes. What else? As I looked to the...
As I looked through the gospels to learn more about what incarnational living out to look like, I noticed some glaring omissions. This is not the way we would write the gospels in today’s church. Jesus didn’t say much or even model much behavior about church/temple...
Another surprise for me as I looked through the gospels is the amount of healing taking place. As Jesus lived on earth, he did a whole lot of healing. Not everyone, of course, but there is a lot more healing than my non-Charismatic background is usually open to...
As I mentioned yesterday, I recently went through the gospel accounts writing down specific things Jesus did during this time on earth. Several things surprised me as I then looked back over the list I had compiled. One was how pronounced Jesus’ emphasis was on the...
Much has been made lately of the phrase “living incarnationally.” The bedrock passage is John 14:12, where Jesus told us, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am...
