Thoughts on real meaning of Christmas, gift-giving and celebrations.

As a ministry leader you probably make a lot of coffee. I’ve found using the Toddy Coffee system is the easiest way to make the most coffee with the least amount of mess, fuss and clean up. Here’s how.

The theology of Spiritual Formation assumes there is a level a spirituality that I can have if I do certain spiritual practices. Prayer is typically is one of those practices. Yet, the biblical picture of prayer is not a spiritual discipline that I use to reach a higher spiritual level. Rather prayer is an unavoidable mandatory battlefield in the war of faith.

Not only does the theology of spiritual formation aim at the wrong target, spiritual formation seeks the wrong kind of change. While spiritual disciplines focus on success at outward righteous behavior, the Bible teaches that the goal of spiritual maturity is a strong unshakeable faith.

The theology of Spiritual Formation sounds great on paper, but it is focused on the wrong target. Progress toward greater spirituality is measured by what can be seen (for example, how well I maintain the routines of sabbath, bible reading, confession; how loving my actions are toward others; how much I experience greater joy and contentment; how well I serve and sacrifice, etc.) which means success is measured by outward righteous behavior. But is outward righteous behavior the right target?

“Spiritual formation” is a hot topic today. But does it work? The Old Testament prophet Haggai would answer no.

A conference I attended gave each participant this simple and heartwarming “Conference Survival kit” which contained the following items and Scripture.

In new groups, participants often seek connections through icebreaker questions. How we respond impacts the future community. I’ve learned to employ what I call the “Rule of In”.

Most women’s ministries offer a discipleship program at some point.  While there is no “one size fits all” model for how to implement discipleship, here are some ideas to help you get started.

Once a friend confessed: “I know an essential step of any Bible study is observation. But what am I suppose to observe?” So glad you asked! Sometimes we take this step for granted when talking about how to study the Bible, but observation is a skill we learn and practice like any other.

Generally, the study process begins with the big picture, zooms into the details and then returns to the big picture to put it all together. Observation takes place in the “detail” stage.

Here’s are a few basic things you can “observe”.

The first step in Bible study is observation. The goal is to slow down your reading and generate a list of questions that must be answered to understand the passage. I tend to break observation into the following 4 steps which generally correspond to my first few readings through the passage.

After you’ve done your observation, word studies, outlining and answered the questions you generated, it’s time to start putting it all together. In this step, you want to collect, refine and organize all those details you observed into a coherent meaning. Observation primarily focuses on the questions: “what does it say and how do I know?” Interpretation focuses on the questions: “what does it mean and how do I know?”