Gifts Assessment Link

If you are looking to take a spiritual gift assessment to help give you an idea of how you might become more involved with our home group, please use this link. This is the website that we are trying to get all of the home groups to use so that we have a common language as a church. There are three parts to the test... 1) personality 2) gifts & 3) leadership style.

Once you go to the link you will need to create a user name and password and fill out some basic contact info. This all goes to a data base for me (traci) to look at.

We would love to talk with you more specifically about what spiritual gifts are all about and how we view that as an essential part of our group!

Celebrating the Kingdom

Last week several of us when to Stop Hunger Now to package meals to be sent overseas. We learned that most of the meals we were packaging are going to Haiti to help with those who have been hurt by the Hurricane.

Some of the coolest things:

Michael wearing Lisa while packaging boxes. 

Getting to try some of the freshly cooked meals.

Having conversations while scooping soy, rice, and veggies together. 

Watching how quick Nathan moves from station to station. We couldn't have done it as quickly with you! 

Knowing that this organization has a long term process in place to make sure individuals get the nutrition that they need. 

Beating last years amount by 186 meals. 

Thanks for everyone who helped out!

Last Night............

For anybody that wants to listen to the MP3 from last night:

http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/information/sermons/god-in-a-box-rugged-spirituality/

we didn't get a chance to discuss this talk, if you have any thoughts, please start up some conversation.

Paul: An example for us

Although I missed out on home group last week, I got an update about it from Matt and Jeff. Of course I have something to say about the discussion...

It sounded like one of the main points we took away from that night was the ability to talk about our life journeys. If I understand correctly, giving a short example about how my life was on a journey in one direction and then talking about how following Jesus has set my life in a new direction is an effective way to share our stories with people.

I was reading in Acts this morning and Paul was making his defense before Agripa. His testimony to him seems to model this exactly. Take a look. Its Acts 26.

Evangelism and Charity

Good talk last night... good because it left all the wheels in my head turning really fast. The crux of my frustration is that although the "conclusion" we came to was that we have to love, what's often taught and said (in this case, the video) really sends the message "We have to DO". It's not about loving people... it's about how to inject their lives w/ the pestering of proselytizations! DO this and you too can be a good Christian! Because all good Christians show their love to their friends by "working on them" for years and decades.

Earlier in the day, I had a talk w/ my car pool buddy about feeding the poor as Christians. We discussed the motivation and I expressed my annoyance w/ the idea that some Christians would only feed the poor when it fulfilled their mission to evangelize. While one can easily argue that side of things, I think it's extremely difficult to credibly and seriously make the claim that you are going to love people unconditionally when you have ulterior motives... no matter how sincere and love-driven those motives are. If Jesus' ministry had centered around trying to convince people that he was the Messiah or getting them to change their behavior, it would have been an utter failure. He loved people unconditionally. Yet, when we are told the story of the woman at the well, we are ALWAYS reminded that Jesus told her to "go and sin no more". The point of the story was that Jesus loved this woman unconditionally and made her human again in a society that had marginalized her. The point was NOT that people shouldn't commit adultery. So we should feed the poor because we are overflowing with love and care for them and we want to (perhaps as a result of following Christ!), but we shouldn't feed them out of a desire to convert them. Am I wrong here?

So when we talk about evangelism, I have a hard time with it. I realize that the whole point of evanglism is to "convert"! But the way it is executed leaves me (and obviously many non-believers) with a sour taste in my mouth. It's hard to argue that it's about the love. It's easy to see it being about the conversions. It's not just the revival-style either. That video kinda made me sick. I don't want to be someone else's project... I don't care how much they love me! If something really is the truth, won't it be a bit more self-evident than having to spend a decade befriending someone to convince them?

Sorry to be such a stick in the mud on this. Thoughts? Flames?

-Chewie

A thought

A quote keeps coming to mind. In light of the conversation we had last night...

Seek to understand rather than to be understood.

Sometimes I really good at this and other times I really bad.

Building the Stone Wall

I have the privilege of working with multiple groups on building up the body of Christ, and so over the past few weeks I have been reading even more and having conversations that are helping me to understand what questions and opportunities might be helpful for people in considering how we fit together as a group.

These are just a few more questions to ponder:

• What value do you bring to the home group?
• What do you need in order to be successful?
• When dealing with conflict, how do you like to be approached?
• What motivates you?

Could you complete the following statement?

If I am to honor how God made me, I should seek ministry opportunities that require…. And say “No” to opportunities that require…


I think it would be great if we could start a dialogue about this on the blog.

I'll go first...

1) I bring value to the home group by providing motivation and encouragement to fulfill the calls that Christ has for us a group. I am able to bring people together who might become good friends or have resources and talents that could help one another. I like to come up with processes and provide opportunities for other people to be empowered to use their gifts. I would also be a good person to talk to if you have an emotional or spiritual problem and need a listener and encourager.

2) I need feedback on how I am doing and interaction with other people on a regular basis in order to succeed. I need to discuss ideas and opportunities with others. I need to be held accountable that I can't do everything or be everything to everyone. I need to be reminded to slow down and that I'm not Jesus, but that I follow Jesus.

3) As far as conflict goes, I'm not sure... I don't really like conflict, but I would like to be approached in person and preferably in a place where we could work through things. I don't like "you did x, y, and z" wrong statements and often take criticism personally even if its not meant to be that way. I prefer, "I feel uncomfortable, I disagree, I feel hurt, when you did x, y, z" statement. Then I know better how to respond.

4) I am motivated by scripture, books, and talks with others who have a lot of passion. I am motivated if I a specific task that I can check of my list to accomplish.

I'm still working on the last fill in the blank statement...

anyone else want to share?