I am eager for the March 28 and 29 to get here. Next week, The Village will host an Acts 29 Boot Camp on church planting and mission, with Eric Mason (Philadelphia), JR Vassar (Manhattan), Matt Carter (Austin), Steve Timmis (U.K.), and myself (Dallas) teaching.
The brotherhood that is present among my Acts 29 co-laborers and friends is one of the great graces God has poured out on me in ministry. The Bible has much to say about the joys of pastoring but minces no words about the difficulties, pains, and sorrows that can accompany being an under-shepherd of the flock of God.
Through the highest highs to my lowest lows in my journey as a pastor, my brothers in Acts 29 have celebrated with me, cried with me, and prayed with me. At some of my darkest hours, some of these brothers flew ...
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By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29.
Adapted and excerpted from his message, “Fighting For One Another: Gospel Friendship.”
We face a problem in the church. We’re often too busy fighting with each other and we’re failing to fight for each other. We need to learn to fight for each other with every weapon in our arsenal.
Each of us stands functionally alone unless we have a brotherhood (a band of brothers, a community, a network) that we gather ourselves in and around. Peter reminds us: “be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
I’m sick of fighting with other believers and other pastors over menial ...
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Posted in: Relationship Building
Tags: four characteristics of a gospel friendship, gospel friendship, christian friendship, discipleship, coaching, scott thomas, fighting well, fighting for each other, christians fighting, good fighting, fair fighting, fighting for not against, 1 peter 5, how to be a friend, how to be a christian friend, how to be a gospel friend, how to be a helpful friend, true friendship, band of brothers, pastors need friends, pastor friendship, dallas boot camp, dallas, church planter training, church plant, training, leadership training
"[The next day] I got about seven emails, basically telling me how unbelievably disappointed they were in The Village Church, that a man would be smoking his cigarette on the porch as they came in on the Lord's Day... you see what we're doing down there?"
Matt Chandler preaches the gospel in the center of the evangelical world, and faces self-righteous fundamentalist "older brothers" as a majority demographic. What does it take to preach the gospel to these people? How do we call people towards the gospel rather than moralism?
Here he illustrates the problem with a story of an ex-con visiting on Easter and smoking cigarettes on the steps of The Village Church.
(4 minutes, download clip or full sermon here; notes are here)
(Chandler loads the gun ...
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Tags: moralism, self-righteous, fundamentalists, problems with evangelicalism, preaching to fundamentalists, older brother, what christians should believe, dallas boot camp, the village church, texas, dallas, church planting, is it wrong to smoke cigarettes, is it wrong to smoke
Subash recently became a full member of the Acts 29 Network, and we are thrilled to have him as part of the team! He is ministering to immigrants in Dallas through The Crossroad Church.
W.J. Subash was in Dallas solely to pursue a Ph.D at Dallas Theological Seminary. But God had different plans. After several months at DTS, he realized a great need.
Acts 29: What happened? What was the need?
Subash: I realized that there were a huge number of unreached people groups from south Asia and the churches in DFW are not able to reach them with the Gospel. In March 2001, my wife Alice and I decided to start Bible study groups and invite Asian Indians for the study. God blessed this effort. Within a few months, we ended up conducting Bible studies in five different ...
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This is your last chance to sign up for the Church Planting Boot Camp in Dallas. Read over the information and sign up to attend Depth Church Planting Conference at The Village Church (Matt Chandler is the pastor) Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 10:00 AM - Thursday, November 20, 2008, 5:00 PM.
Whether you are interested to explore the exciting journey of planting a church, to discern a call to plant or to hear the great lineup of speakers, we present this Boot Camp for a couple of days to challenge you to go deep into the heart and mission of the gospel. To go deep means that we look honestly into our hearts and examine the sins that may deter our passion for Jesus Christ. It means that we apply the gospel of redemption by confessing, repenting and reconciling those ...
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