Skip to main content

Modern day praxis for churches and their leaders.


The Five essentials of any church.

Acts 2 : 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

For me there are five essentials needed in the modern church. Firstly I must reiterate here that the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has not changed, but the method by which we do church has. The ancient church, new to the things of God, did four things that we have incorporated into our church practise as a given. In other words we would not be church if we did not do these things. But church is much more than praxis it's about life, relationship with God and people.

My modern day essentials are as follows;

1.       Christ: he is our only constant and total devotion. We must be devoted to him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week—not just on a Sunday Morning.

2.       Commission: going into the whole world is a cooperative and ongoing mission with the Holy Spirit, not just a Sunday morning event.

3.       Connectivity: who we make part of our lives and who we connect with through the workings of the church matters.

4.       Accountability: it is important for Christians to connect with other Christians. The Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17 KJV). Church is about the people who attend, the congregation.

5.       Celebration: it is our highest priority to come to worship Jesus.

The mistake many churches make is to try and incorporate all of these elements in one Sunday Morning service. There is too much content and no real focus. We must realise that church is much bigger than the Sunday morning gathering; we represent Christ, who is the centre of our lives, throughout the entire week. Everybody ought to be excited about bringing people to church to meet others within a Jesus-centred culture and to celebrate and worship the living God. During the week, those same congregation members meet and connect with one another. They meet needs, pray together, encourage, and minister to one another through the Word of God and even lead others to Christ through work in the community.

If you are interested in more then read. Blueprint for Growth



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The myth of Ministry Leadership.

The myth that all leaders are leaders. Not everyone who leads in church is a leader. I think it is wrong, for Church leaders to believe that those they train up to take various ministry leadership positions, are in fact leaders in their own right. They are not. At best I would categorise these people- that many churches call 'ministry leaders' as ministry managers.                 "At one level there is nothing wrong with title inflation; it is a cheap way of recognising people who work hard and make serious contributions" Jo Owen. I am of the opinion that this title inflation undervalues both the leader and the ' ministry manager' and can often bring about confusion and mismatched expectations. Many churches have ministry training evenings for their volunteers. Many use the reason for this training is "to make a person a better leader," when in fact the only thing actually happening is that th...

The 1970's Christian Coffee Shop

I remember as a new Christian being invited into a Christian Coffee shop in the town where I grew up. It was clean and tidy, the table tops were all brightly painted in different colours,  but mainly yellow and scattered on top were a random selection of Christian tracts. Fish symbols and Christian posters proclaiming that there was but 'One Way' to heaven were everywhere. The music playing out of the stereo was The Bill Gather Trio or Dolly Parton singing Gospel. The crockery, was a mixed assortment of coffee mugs, donated by keen supporters of this outreach to the unsaved sinners and ungodly people living in the city. The coffee was a local brand heavily mixed with chicory. In all the years the Coffee Shop operated, I never saw a non-Christian go in and I never heard of a person coming to faith through having coffee there. I never really understood its purpose. Fast forward to today, when I was asked recently, to advise on helping a local community church open a c...

Playing well with others.

Today's rambling. Looking over some of my old school reports the other day and was amused at how some of the comments, that teachers made about me have shaped my life and in many respects made me who I am today. One teacher wrote that I didn’t play well with others, I was 5 at the time maybe I had an excuse. Another teacher in my high school years, the wood working teacher or wood shop teacher for my American friends wrote; “If you value your life you will keep him away from power tools and other dangerous equipment. I can’t remember why he wrote this, obviously I did something that made him fear for his life. Today as an adult I have to say that I don’t do well in committees, for most of my life I have been self- employed. I have steadfastly stayed away from power tools and other wood working equipment, basically anything that can cut something off and is a danger to life and limb. Over the last 10 years I have been looking at and teaching about Emotional Intelligence ...