You gotta smile when you watch this...we should be showing this daily to the people who are the Church!

When We Say Church from Doug Peterson on Vimeo.

Len Sweet and some thoughts on "Evangelism"...

Below is a video that I watched a bit ago - Len Sweet is someone I've followed for a long time in my journey not only as a leader but also as a follower of Jesus. I find his writings extremely exciting...he's been used by the Spirit to shape many of the aspects of life and discipleship (disciple-making as well) over the past years. This video gives you a snapshot of Len's new book on Evangelism...now, I come to that topic with a "rich history" of all sorts of different "techniques" of doing evangelism. But my heart and mind has been transformed over the years in this regard. I don't "do" anything in sharing Jesus with others...I simply try to find out what God is doing and join HIM there...I look for the fact that God is arranging Divine Appointments for me throughout my day...helping me see that there are relationship bridges that can be built...that God is already at work in the world and I attempt to do what Jesus did...join God is HIS mission of love, power and grace in the context of the world and story that He is writing in and through my life. That's a different perspective friends...that's a shifted paradigm...so I would encourage you to take a peek at the video. Then think about your life as a disciple...you live the mission of God...you join God in what He is already doing through His Holy Spirit in the lives of people you meet.

By the way, here's what my SoCal friend Spencer wrote about the video that he produced in this regard...it is a helpful intro to the video as well:

Leonard Sweet calls us to make an impression—a God impression—a nudge, a dent on everyone we meet. But how we do that is to listen to discern what the Spirit is already doing, and to nudge that person toward understanding that God is working in their life. And by doing so, by recognizing and naming those nudges, we are nudged as well. We discover incredible ways that God is working all around us. We observe His creativity and imagination in all our senses—hearing, tasting, seeing, touching, smelling.

The subtitle of Nudge is “Awakening each other to the God who is already there.” Every person you meet is a divine appointment, says Leonard Sweet as he talks about his new book, Nudge, with Spencer Burke, host of ThinkFWD. The overarching premise is that we don’t “take” Jesus anywhere, but that wherever we go, God is already there and our job is to find out what He’s doing and join in.

This thinking takes a different approach to evangelism. Rather than thinking of evangelism and discipleship as two distinct “tasks” of followers of Christ, Sweet suggests that they are bound together. Whereas in the past, evangelism was touted as “go and tell,” Sweet says we need to “shut up and listen.” Our role is not to come into a situation and tell our story, but rather to listen, to hear, to study what is happening in another person’s life, or in the community we are in. By doing this, we are recognizing that God is already there and we are following His lead. Sweet quotes John Wesley’s life-changing words, “Go and see the poor in their hovels, for Jesus is already there and He will be with you.”

Very likely, it was not just one person that helped nudge you in your journey to faith in God, but it was many people’s influence in your life. Many impressions that moved you to faith in God. And this is the part we can play for each other, awakening each other to God who is already at work all around us.

People's creativity astounds me...

I think we have alot more creativity in the "church" that goes untapped. We have our ways and our traditions sometimes cherished at the expense of great ideas many of which get squelched in the name of "we've always done it that way before". Here's a video that I just watched on the blog I read daily...it is one produced by a local faith community to alert people to the teaching that is coming from the pastor in week's ahead - I don't know if it was done for JUST children (since it is one a children's ministry blog) or whether it came in the midst of an entire congregation...all I know is that it got my attention! What creativity can we unleash to not only bless those with those gifts by giving them a forum to offer their gifts to God but also by having their gifts bless others? Your call! Here's the video:

Bewitched Intro from redeemer.tv on Vimeo.

And now a moment of humility...

It's been a long time...but how about this?

Yep, even blog editors have to take some time away for real life...recently, I (Robin Dugall) moved and accepted a call to Peace in Monroe, Washington. So, give me another week or so and I'll get back to regularly posting. For now, here's a jpg/powerpoint slide that spoke to me about the type of life God is calling us to live!