Church Life
What love does cost is our will; the first thing that we must do for true love is sacrifice our strong-willed, self-centered selves and focus on the person and work of Christ, and what He has done for us. Once we realize that life is about sacrifice and costs as much as it is about the experience of love and relationships, then we will have a better understanding of life and comprehend how we must live and function as a church.
We do not keep these commands to earn our salvation. Salvation comes only on the basis of the altar, which represented Christ's death in space and time. We must accept salvation with the empty hands of faith. Rather, the commands are the conditional statement in the midst of the unconditional promises. For example, do you as a Christian want to be forgiven existentially by God? Then have a forgiving heart toward other men. That is what Jesus was saying. - Francis Schaeffer
Churches are crippled because members go around harboring a list of wrongs. The lists turn into resentment that grows and grows until the church is filled with people harboring resentment and all attacking one another as if they were soldiers of war with their guns of truth loaded with bullets, each one a record of the wrong they may have received.
Did you know if you want to be successful as a church you must be willing and able to love? And... real love takes us beyond ourselves!
The Unwillingness to Forgive One Another
If you want to be successful as a church you must be willing and able to Forgive. And... real forgiveness takes us beyond our hurts!
What Society Expects from Christians
People expect Christians to behave to a certain standard; that is why Jimmy Swaggart, PTL and Ted Haggard made such big news. Christians are human, full of sin and frailty, and will mess up. I do this a lot; we all...
Focusing on Our Own Will and Desires over the Mission of the Church
The best way to destroy what God desires is to trade in His purpose for our purpose, or to push aside the truths of Scriptures and what a church is, and replace it with our own trends, whims, and reasoning.
As human beings, we are prone to make mistakes, either intentionally or unintentionally. We all have hurt people, and we have all been hurt; we are all in the same boat. So, when we refuse to forgive one another, it is like escaping the disaster of the sinking of the Titanic in a lifeboat, only to poke holes in the very lifeboat that saved us.
There is possibly nothing greater and more dramatic to us, as Christians, in regards to God's character, than His capacity to forgive! Most non-Christians cannot fathom this quality, and do not believe God can, or even should, forgive them.
How to Build a Good Personality
The Essentials to Building Good Relationships! Make sure you have a godly disposition!
God's love must be our model for life. It must flow into us by who Christ is, and in return flow out of us to those around us. God's love is the ultimate power for the Christian and the Church.
Communication is, in essence, all about giving and receiving a message. Whether we are deaf and mute or a polished public speaker, we all communicate...
ATTITUDE the Prelude to an Effective Church!
The attitude will be the impact that strikes at the issues of life. Breaking them away from our hurt and pain to the absorption of grace and the acceptance of Christ.
Developing limits with your time and church relations will not happen overnight, as you have trained your church and self in patterns that are very much ingrained. Yet it is a must to reform, before it is to late. So what can we do?
TEN WAYS TO IMPROVE Relational Skills
Faithful to my Lord's commands, I still would chose the better part; Serve with careful Martha's hands And loving Mary's heart
The Simple Problem of Most Churches is...
To say it flat out, the problems our churches face are not so much how we do things; it is how we are! The problem is not what we do in our worship services; it is how we treat the people that go to our services...
Pastor and Elders refusing to adhere to the purpose of the Church
It amazes me how quickly we Christians get caught up with programs, new ideas, and putting out the fires of personal conflict, spinning our wheels but never giving full attention to what we are all about.
