Pastor Mickey

Re-Evaluating Discipleship A typical model for local church ministry reflects two distinct classifications of Christians: the mature and the immature. The New Testament describes the goal of the Christian experience as becoming "mature," but it also reminds us that we will never actually reach this ideal this side of eternity. Certainly, some church leadership positions should not be available to a Christian novice; on the other hand, I'm not sure that developing fully devoted followers of Christ is even possible in this life. A church's determination to relationally separate new believers from their pagan pasts and re-inculturate them into our "fellowships" can actually sabotage its ministry by short-circuiting the organic process of world-change. The traditional paradigm for discipleship requires time, fellowship, and formal discipleship training to prepare Christians to begin their active role in evangelism. But after the required regimen is completed ...

Jesus commissioned us to reach the lost, and He both modeled and taught a strategic formula that would facilitate that great endeavor. Throughout the New Testament, when God's Spirit changed a life, a world-changer was born. Whether it was a demon-possessed man, a swindler named Zacchaeus, a royal official with a dying son, a tax collector named Matthew, a Centurion named Cornelius, a businesswoman named Lydia, or a recently unemployed Philippian jailor, they all were sent back home to their oikos. Oikos, the Greek word for "extended family," encompasses our relational worlds . It will include anywhere from eight to fifteen people whom God has supernaturally and strategically placed in our spheres of influence. Those relationships not only frame our primary evangelistic targets, but in reality they must frame our primary ministry strategies for the church. Our mission is simple--not easy, but simple. Christians who believe that it's their job to witness to everybod...

Jim Wallis took some scissors to his Bible. He was a seminary student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School when he and some classmates decided to eliminate a few verses. They performed surgery on all sixty-six books, beginning in Genesis and not stopping until Revelation. Each time a verse spoke to the topic of poverty, wealth, justice, or oppression, they cut it out. They wanted to see what a compassion-less Bible looked like. By the time they finished, nearly two thousand verses lay on the floor, and a book of tattered pages remained. Cut concern for the poor out of the Bible, and you cut the heart out of it. God makes the poor His priority. When the hungry pray, he listens. When orphans cry, he sees...(Max Lucado-Out Live Your Life) Proverbs 19:17 AMP “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given He will repay to him.” Proverbs 22:9 MESSAGE “Generous hands are blessed hands because they give bread to the poor.” Proverbs 29: 7 AMP “The [cons...