1. What does it mean to have Jesus inside of you?
2. How does Jesus influence your life? What does this look like?
3. What are the most important exercises that allow your heart and mind to be shaped, enlivened, transformed, electrified by Jesus?
4. How is it that we are all so diverse even when we are all influenced by Jesus? How do we maintain our created originality while being fertilized by the commonality of the Spirit of Jesus?
5. What "bread" is uniquely you? How does Jesus function as "yeast" in your experience?
6. What would a Jesus-drenched community look like?
7. How can we become that kind of community--over the long haul?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Group Conversation Questions for "Jesus in Winter" (2)
Jesus is "the way" to God (John 14). What does it mean that he is the pathway to God? What kind of path is he? Do we sometimes confuse the path of "Jesus" with what others say about him?
What does it mean that Jesus is pathway for:
Salvation?
Image of God? (Who he is.)
Vision for human life--how we live?
Priorities of God?
Non-priorities for God?
The intention of God (that he would choose a human form to be the pathway to him--versus a mountain, a rock, a saying, a proverb, an idea, or book)?
People chose a different way in this video ... why? And what does it say about Jesus??? Check it out and share it with some friends for an interesting discussion.
What does it mean that Jesus is pathway for:
Salvation?
Image of God? (Who he is.)
Vision for human life--how we live?
Priorities of God?
Non-priorities for God?
The intention of God (that he would choose a human form to be the pathway to him--versus a mountain, a rock, a saying, a proverb, an idea, or book)?
People chose a different way in this video ... why? And what does it say about Jesus??? Check it out and share it with some friends for an interesting discussion.
Group Conversation Questions for "Jesus in Winter"
Here are some questions to stimulate thinking for group conversations based on the sermon of January 2, 2010.
Passage: Hebrews 1:1-2:1; Colossians 1:15-20
Can we make too big a deal out of Jesus? Is it possible to speak of Him in any way that is to grand? Are there any claims we can make about him that are inappropriately large?
What percentage of what we can know about God can be learned from Jesus?
Here are four theological quotations we used from the January 2 service. What to you make of these?
Jürgen Moltmann
The Crucified God (p. 2-3)
The crisis of the church in present-day society is not merely the critical choice between assimilation or retreat into the ghetto, but the crisis of its own existence as the church of the crucified Christ. The question of ecclesiology, however unpleasant it may be for conservatives and progressives, is no more than a short prelude to its internal crisis, for only by Christ is it possible to tell what is a Christian church and what it not.
NT Wright
The Challenge of Jesus (15-16)
If church leaders themselves spent more time studying and teaching Jesus and the Gospels, a good many of the other things we worry about in day-to-day church life would be seen in their proper light. Church leaders find themselves spending countless hours at their desks running the Church as a business, raising money, or working at dozens of other tasks, rather than poring over their foundational documents and enquiring ever more closely about the Jesus whom they are supposed to be following and teaching others to follow. I believe that each generation has to wrestle afresh with the question of Jesus, not least its biblical roots, if it is to be the Church at all. We should discover more and more of who Jesus was and is precisely in order to be equipped to engage with the world that he came to save. And this is the task of the whole Church …
Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Australian theologians/missiologists of incredibly high regard)
ReJesus (p. 8, 42)
[T]he only way we can truly authenticate ourselves as an expression of Christianity is to somehow measure ourselves against the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it is to him that we must now return if we are going to faithfully negotiate the profound challenges of the twenty-first century.
We believe that Christology is the key to the renewal of the church in every age and in every possible situation it might find itself. The church must always return to Jesus in order to renew itself….[It] needs to find it primal identity in its founder.
Ellen White
The Desire of Ages (p. 74)
It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued by His spirit.
Passage: Hebrews 1:1-2:1; Colossians 1:15-20
Can we make too big a deal out of Jesus? Is it possible to speak of Him in any way that is to grand? Are there any claims we can make about him that are inappropriately large?
What percentage of what we can know about God can be learned from Jesus?
Here are four theological quotations we used from the January 2 service. What to you make of these?
Jürgen Moltmann
The Crucified God (p. 2-3)
The crisis of the church in present-day society is not merely the critical choice between assimilation or retreat into the ghetto, but the crisis of its own existence as the church of the crucified Christ. The question of ecclesiology, however unpleasant it may be for conservatives and progressives, is no more than a short prelude to its internal crisis, for only by Christ is it possible to tell what is a Christian church and what it not.
NT Wright
The Challenge of Jesus (15-16)
If church leaders themselves spent more time studying and teaching Jesus and the Gospels, a good many of the other things we worry about in day-to-day church life would be seen in their proper light. Church leaders find themselves spending countless hours at their desks running the Church as a business, raising money, or working at dozens of other tasks, rather than poring over their foundational documents and enquiring ever more closely about the Jesus whom they are supposed to be following and teaching others to follow. I believe that each generation has to wrestle afresh with the question of Jesus, not least its biblical roots, if it is to be the Church at all. We should discover more and more of who Jesus was and is precisely in order to be equipped to engage with the world that he came to save. And this is the task of the whole Church …
Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Australian theologians/missiologists of incredibly high regard)
ReJesus (p. 8, 42)
[T]he only way we can truly authenticate ourselves as an expression of Christianity is to somehow measure ourselves against the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it is to him that we must now return if we are going to faithfully negotiate the profound challenges of the twenty-first century.
We believe that Christology is the key to the renewal of the church in every age and in every possible situation it might find itself. The church must always return to Jesus in order to renew itself….[It] needs to find it primal identity in its founder.
Ellen White
The Desire of Ages (p. 74)
It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued by His spirit.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Just posted a new video on http://wwuchurch.org/ with Audrey and I in more than a foot of snow in Asheville, North Carolina. Hope this season is filled with meaning for you. I know the story Jesus tells about God--through his life, his miracles, his parables, his death and resurrection--is THE story I'm banking my life on.
And Happy New Year ... just days away from a New Decade!
And Happy New Year ... just days away from a New Decade!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Jesus in Winter
Here's an upcoming series I'm working on for the New Year (decade!) at Walla Walla University Church.
The title is "Jesus in Winter: Inviting Christ to Come in From the Cold."
1.2.10 Preamble: Christology
1.9.10 Chapter One: Jesus?
1.23.10 Chapter Two: Human History
1.30.10 Chapter Three: Religion
2.13.10 Chapter Four: Rome
2.20.10 Chapter Five: Demons
2.27.10 Chapter Six: Inside the Cross
3.6.10 Chapter Seven: Paranormal
3.13.10 Afterward: More Paranormal
Monday, November 30, 2009
Jonna Buell
Just left the memorial service of Jonna Buell. The faith-force and fabric of her family--immediate and extended--is powerful. The way that Jesus is the Way of their way is weighty. Solid commitments to Christ in the face of His Apparent Absence speak, sing, and shout something very, very special.
My walk with YHWH was quickened and deepened today. Thank you Jonna and your bless-ed, beautiful family.
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