The kingdom of God is like a children’s party

As a kid I use to love going to my friends birthday parties, a day of fun and endless amounts of the sort of snacks you are usually only allowed in rationed portions, what could be better! These birthday parties always had one unwritten rule, you bring your friend a cool gift and then you get to partake of all the party pleasures. All parties where run on this unwritten, unspoken rule! This was the best part because your mom would go with you to the shops to buy a gift for your friend which you then gave to them as if it you bought it. And their mom would ask them what they wanted for their party and then go off and buy enough sweets, chocolates and chips to make 30 kids totally ADD for the entire day! And the beauty of it all was that you just got to enjoy it without any personal cost, aside from the possible stomach ach that would often follow. The birthday boy/girl would get all the presents they could want and all their friends got a sugar rush that would last them till the next birthday! And despite the fact that the parents had to pay for all of this, often in more ways than one, they had the joy of seeing their child have a great time!

God’s Kingdom is just like this.

God, our father, out of his abundance, grace and love gives his children amazing gifts of his Spirit which they are then able to give to each other. Gifts which they didn’t earn or pay for, gifts that where simply given to them, gifts that Jesus paid for with everything he had. And then God throws a party and he invites his children to come together and enjoy his presence and the blessing of his presence and each one has a gift that can bless another. As his children, we don’t pay for these gifts or for this party we just come and partake; we just get all the benefits of our Father’s love and provision. As we enjoy his presence and as we give to each other what he has given us and as we enjoy our fellowship with one another, our father who is with us, receives all the glory of his children enjoying what he has done for them.

SA is going “emerging” crazy!

Did you know, that South Africa has one of the highest percentage of Google searches for topics on the “emerging church”, Unbelievable?

Believe it: Stats here

Why is this? Why are we so emerging-mad?

Do you have any thoughts on this phenomenon?

God TV on Todd Bentley

For those of you who are still trying to make sense of what happened at Lakeland, here is the official statement from the people at God TV.

What is your take on all of this?

This will be my last post for a few days as I am on leave, going to JHB and just wanting to relax! So see you all soon!

A reluctant missionary

Jonah and the big 'fish'

In this discussion that is raging on the web about all things missional I think it is always good to just simply get back to the basics, and that starts by getting back to the WORD.

There is a great deal of talk about being missional! But talk is cheap! What does it actually look like to be missional?

Well that’s a huge question in and of itself. But I believe God makes things pretty simple for us, becuase he knows how frail we are. Take for instance the two greatest commandments; Love God, Love people! All of the scripture is in some way are tied into these two simple commands. Its so simple (not easy, but simple) – Love God with all your heart and Love people as you love yourself!

I think the same principle of simplicity relates to our quest for being missional.

Take our friend, Jonah, for instance. He has really been the object of much abuse from Christians becuase we like to have a straw man, who we think is worse than us, to pummel! But honestly, I don’t think we are any better than Jonah.

Jonah was a reluctant missionary! He eventually did what God commanded after much coercion by means of a storm and a big fish – you know the deal. But he went reluctantly. Eventually when his task was accomplished, instead rejoicing, Jonah was deeply depressed.

Jonah, like most Israelites would have disliked the Ninevites quite strongly. The nation of Assyria (of which Nineveh was a capital city) where their arch enemies. They where the ones that would ultimately destroy the Northern Kingdom and they where know for their savagery and violence. No wonder Jonah didn’t want to go.

But what we overlook is that Jonah had a very good missional theology; (Ch4v2), something we value very highly today.

1. He knew that God was gracious and compassionate
2. He knew that God could save anyone (even the Ninevites)
3. He knew that anyone who repented and trusted in God would be saved

Pretty impressive; He sounds like a very missional dude to me!

But he lacked one thing: He did not have God’s heart!

God had a heart for the city of Nineveh just as God has a heart for every single person on this earth who is lost. But Jonah cared more for a plant and for the prosperity of his own nation and for himself than he cared for this city.

We use a lot of missional lingo but where is our heart at?

Do we have God’s heart? (that’s a question I ask myself regularly, and the answer is not always very missional)

“for God so loved the world…”

What about us, do we so love the lost that we will really do something about it?

To me, that is the essence of being missional – its simple really – to have the heart of God!

new church webpage

This is what has been keeping me busy the past few days… so check out our new Church blog/webpage:

thechurchonthehill.net

My 5 theses for the Baptist Union of Southern Africa

In reply to a recent post about how the Baptist Union of Southern Africa could learn a few things from the hard words Mark Driscoll brought to the Anglican Church in Sydney, Stephen asked my opinion on what the major problems within the BU are.

So, instead of simply replying to his comment, I thought I would write a post about my view of the biggest problems within the BU…

!! baptists of South Africa take note !!

The blogs I read are a buzz with chatter about the hard words Mark Driscoll brought to the Anglican church in Sydney at a recent conference. I can understand some of the criticisms against what Mark had to say but I have to applaud his bravery for saying it as he sees it!

(Find a summary here. Scroll to “talk 2″ for the 18 points of criticism he brought)

I have a deep stirring in my heart that many church denominations all over the world need to hear hard words like these spoken into their context. And I can’t think of a group that needs to hear it more than our own Baptist Union of Southern Africa. I am not saying that everything he said about the Anglican church in Australia applies to the BU, but rather that we too need a hard, honest and clear evaluation of this sort. Where are the apostles of the BU, who can call our Union back to the heart of God?

We have become very good at maintaining the status quo to avoid offending those who are standing in the way of much needed change but we are weak at mobilizing our churches to be effective missional communities that are changing lives with the gospel and changing culture through God given influence.

Sometimes it does not matter so much whether every little detail of what is said is accurate but rather that the message hits home! The church in South Africa needs to wake up, today as never before we have the chance to turn this country upside down with the message of TRUTH and real compassion in action!

kingdom parenting (part 1)

There are few things that get my blood pressure up quite as much as bad drivers, unjust political systems and people from older generations who heap all the blame for the current state of the youth in this country on the children themselves!

This especially gets to me when it comes from the mouths of parents who have obviously done a lousy job of raising their children. And sadly so many children of Christian parents are also going astray, why is that?