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Teachings

Posts linking to teachings from the simple church alliance or other encouraging sources.

From Ordinary to Extroardinary: A note on the “Launch” (Audio)

A note on last Sunday’s official “launch” from First Alliance: I am very grateful to First Alliance Church for their encouraging words and support over the past year and a half and especially this past Sunday.  I only hope that ALL who are part of simple church felt encouraged and commissioned as Karla and I did.  My hope and prayer was that the focus of the “send off” was on Jesus and His call to all of us to go and make disciples.  I believe that for disciples and simple churches to multiply a bottom up, grassroots movement, must occur.  I’m convinced that leadership is a gift from God and a gift to the church and that Jesus’ leadership model was one of  servant leadership.  I believe strongly that discipleship and simple church multiplication is… Read More »From Ordinary to Extroardinary: A note on the “Launch” (Audio)

Making The Call – Part 1

I recently shared some of my thoughts on calling others to faith in Christ at First Alliance Church in Lexington. As always my message (which you can listen to by clicking here) was primarily directed toward me.  What a tremendous relief it truly is to realize that our job is simply to proclaim the Good News and not to “save” people!  What an encouragement it is to truly realize that we can’t “loose” when we share our faith out of love!  Even if we are rejected for being a witness, we are blessed! 1 Peter 4:14 “If you are rejected for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit and glory of God rests upon you.” Luke 6:22,23 “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they reject your name as evil, because… Read More »Making The Call – Part 1

What Is A Disciple And How Do We Make Them? (Part 2)

Recently,  I took the opportunity when speaking at First Alliance Church and the Simple Church Fall Celebration to answer two crucial questions that any follower of Jesus would do well to answer. The questions, which I addressed previously here, are:  1)What is a Disciple? 2)How do we make disciples? You can listen to the message entitled The Dirty D Word: D#$%@!&*%@! in your browser here: In the message I define a disciple as someone who loves Jesus, hears Jesus, and follows Jesus.  I then explain how making disciples primarily about connecting others to Jesus and His family such that they can love Jesus, hear Jesus, and follow Jesus.  I share how Jesus, when he gave the Great Commission, did not ask his disciples to do something that He had not modeled for them.  Thus connecting… Read More »What Is A Disciple And How Do We Make Them? (Part 2)

The Word of Christ

Colossians 3:16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Does the word of Christ dwell richly in you?  This was the question I posed to those attending the Summer Celebration Gathering a few weeks ago.  For simple church to work, the bar for discipleship truly has to be raised.  We cannot simply lower the bar for having church gatherings.  Everyone has to be disciples and making disciples simultaneously.  I’ve thought about this a great deal and it is truly hard to imagine how the Word of Christ could dwell in someone richly apart from a steady diet of His word.  Without written copies of Christ’s words accessible,… Read More »The Word of Christ

Mission Possible? (Audio)

This past Sunday I had the privileged to speak during both services at First Alliance (Lexington, KY).  The message I shared was in many ways a summary of the main truths that God has shown me so far in the simple church journey. Click the link below to download to your computer or listen online to the message.  The audio quality is not the best but hopefully it will be a blessing to you… Click to Download:  Mission Possible:  Six Truths That Will Make the Mission Possible Message Points: 1.  It’s Mission Not Missions 2. God Desires To Release the “APEs” 3. Everyone Must “Go!” 4. Move From Additional Thinking to Multiplicative Thinking 5. Move From A Knowledge Based Faith to an Obedience Based Faith 6. The Heart is at the Heart of The Great… Read More »Mission Possible? (Audio)

Meeting Ideas (Part 1)

I wanted to share some abbreviated notes from Frank Viola’s book Finding Organic Church.  Perhaps it may encourage you as we “learn how to meet” together in our simple churches.  Please note that, to my knowledge, the Frank Viola that wrote this book is not the same Frank Viola that played for the Mets and signed the ball above. Chapter 15:  Learning How To Meet : Meeting Content 1) Sing Together – without instruments, without a song leader or a music leader, learn lots of new songs together. 2) Share Together – Viola suggests the following “share together” exercises for the first six months (it could vary in time depending on the number in your group.) Exercise 1: Life Story.  Each person share their life story including their testimony of how they came to faith… Read More »Meeting Ideas (Part 1)

Neil Cole: Short Audio Teachings

I would encourage you to take a listen to some of these short audio teachings from Neil Cole.  You can listen to them on your computer or download them to your ipod, etc.  I think you will especially find the entry on “Starting Awakening Chapels” (4:50) to be of interest in light of the journey we are on here. VISIT AUDIO PAGE AT CMA RESOURCES HERE

Introducing…Jesus Christ!

Below is the link to download/listen the message I shared at First Alliance yesterday entitled Introducing…Jesus Christ! A friend of mine told me this morning that it was “the best 20 point sermon he had ever heard.”  I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that…  I’ve also linked the video that I showed at the beginning of my message.  The video is shows Steve Harvey introducing Jesus. Listen To “Introducing… Jesus Christ!” Here Steve Harvey Introducing Jesus Christ… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCd_ANIKys]

A Country Ham and A Skateboard (Message)

You can download my sermon entitled “A Country Ham and A Skateboard” from First Alliance last Sunday.  This sermon addresses some key principles for all believers and especially those of us who will will take part in the “new church.” Update:  This message gets into the story of how skate church began in Lexington, Kentucky and how some of the reasoning behind it.