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Archives for April, 2014

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Staying and Welcoming

29 April, 2014   
Published by Naomi Walters in Being Church

April has been a very busy month for this over-committed preacher/student/teacher/writer/mother/wife, so I wasn’t able to write something new for this month’s issue of “Being Church” like I had hoped. Instead, I’ve included below the text of my talk from the Sunday that the Stamford Church of Christ announced that I was going to start working there as an Assistant Ministry (July 7, 2013). This text already exists on…

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Fluid Church – Becoming More Nimble and Adaptable in a World that Requires It

28 April, 2014   
Published by Matt Dabbs in Being Church

One of the main words that comes to mind when reading Acts is the word “fluid”…they were on the move and they were nimble. They were adaptable…able to move and shift in necessary ways to continue being and doing the things they had been called to be and to do. When persecution broke out, they scattered. When they scattered, they took the Gospel message with them (Acts 8:1-4)….

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Updates From Wineskins

24 April, 2014   
Published by Matt Dabbs in Being Church

There are a few things we wanted to make you all aware of looking ahead. First is the site. Our current site is a magazine style platform that allows us compile articles and issues together in some really great ways. The downside of the way it is structured is that RSS doesn’t recognize new articles. An additional issue has been that email subscriptions only work with posts, not articles….

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Updates from Wineskins

24 April, 2014   
Published by Matt Dabbs in Uncategorized

There are a few things we wanted to make you all aware of looking ahead. First is the site. Our current site is a magazine style platform that allows us compile articles and issues together in some really great ways. The downside of the way it is structured is that RSS doesn’t recognize new articles. An additional issue has been that email subscriptions only work with posts, not articles….

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Performance Anxiety

15 April, 2014   
Published by Sean in Being Church

A year ago our congregation was visited by a family of five – wife, husband, and three kids. They looked like the kind of family every church secretly covets; good-looking, educated, well-ordered, and young. From all accounts they enjoyed our fellowship. They were already familiar with several members of our church and their energy was obvious. After three weeks, I felt confident they would join our congregation and mission.

They…

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What Place do Pedophiles Have in the Church?

8 April, 2014   
Published by Jimmy Hinton in Being Church

After Jimmy Hinton’s previous article on “Protecting Our Children from Pedophiles” I asked him to write a follow up piece about what we can do as Christians to continue to understand how to interact with people who struggle with this as they are people just as in need of Jesus as anyone else. This article is Jimmy’s response to that question. Jimmy just presented on this at Tulsa…

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Being Church…Learning to Dream Again

7 April, 2014   
Published by Matt Dabbs in Being Church

It doesn’t take long on the internet to find a negative view of church. The criticism runs the gamut from atheists to ministers…it seems as easy as ever to be critical of church. We have far more people casting a negative view of the church than we do proactive and intentional people who are casting a positive and healthy view and vision for the future of the church. Maybe…

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On the Spirit’s Ordination of Elders

3 April, 2014   
Published by Jay F Guin in The Work of the Holy Spirit

When I mention “elders” in a Church of Christ forum, I immediately receive a negative reaction, as though all elders in the Churches of Christ are just awful — troll-like, even — just like in the illustration.

And yet our elders don’t ordain themselves. Every church I’m familiar with requires the members to nominate candidates and to comment on the scriptural…

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Rethinking Youth Ministry Part 4 – A Story About Faith-At-Home Youth Ministry

2 April, 2014   
Published by jsingleton in The Work of the Holy Spirit

This is the last in a series on how one traditional church and traditional youth ministry took steps to transition to an approach where the parents were equipped to disciple their children. We are including all four parts in a pdf that you can download and/or pass along to any ministers or churches you know who are trying to figure out this transition. The more youth ministers I talk…

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The Holy Spirit: Keeping in Step

1 April, 2014   
Published by Sara Barton in The Work of the Holy Spirit

I was scared of the Holy Spirit for a large portion of my life.

Scared.

Fearful.

Even terrified.

It couldn’t have helped that the name for the Spirit I heard was “The Holy Ghost.” As a child, I had this vision of a ghost, not nearly as friendly as Casper, who could come and go through the walls of my house, checking on me. For a time, I was sure that it was…

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