by Robby McAlpine | Dec 29, 2017 | Disciple Making, Discipleship, Ethics, Evangelicalism, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups
Our church recently completed a sermon series on the book of Ephesians, and one of the repeated bylines for this series was the phrase: “Bringing our behaviour in line with our beliefs”. And in a nutshell, that is precisely what Roger Helland’s newest book, The Devout...
by Robby McAlpine | Dec 31, 2016 | Church Life, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Engagement, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Ethics, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology, Revival, Small Groups
“I’ve decided to stay out of those discussions, until I can be sure that we can have a non-hysterical conversation about it.” A “non-hysterical conversation”… The moment my friend casually uttered that phrase, I was immediately...
by Brad Blocksom | Sep 27, 2016 | Church Life, Church Planting, Cross-Cultural Ministry, Cultural Engagement, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Family, Leadership, Messy Church, Missional, Money, Practical Theology, Prayer, Preaching, Small Groups
I came across these podcasts and, quite frankly, they were pretty eye opening for me (they’re kind of all related). So I wanted to share them here and see if we could get some good discussion going in the comments below. And, here they are: This one talks about...
by Brad Blocksom | Sep 11, 2016 | Church Life, Devotionals, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelicalism, Leadership, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups
2 John 12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete. (ESV) John is such a person of the heart. He prefers to be there face to face, so that he can...
by Brad Blocksom | Sep 15, 2015 | Church Life, Church Planting, Devotionals, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Leadership, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Prayer, Small Groups, World Misions
Acts 20:11 And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. (ESV) It was Sunday. Paul had already preached past midnight. They continued to talk and share a meal together (perhaps two...
by Robby McAlpine | Aug 14, 2015 | Church Life, Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups
No look back at Bob Girard’s Brethren, Hang Loose would be complete without revisiting the topic of house groups. “The ‘great revivals’ of American history were nearly always preceded and followed by small groups meeting for prayer and...
by Robby McAlpine | Aug 8, 2015 | Church Life, Church Planting, Discipleship, Leadership, Practical Theology, Revival, Small Groups
There really is nothing new under the sun, as these quotes from Brethren, Hang Loose ably demonstrate: “Every ministerial convention is more of the same. The pastors of the big, successful churches are there to tell you how it’s done, how to organize,...
by Robby McAlpine | Aug 7, 2015 | Church Life, Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups
(Image source: Parable of the Hidden Treasure, Wikicommons) As I continue to re-read Bob Girard’s Brethren, Hang Loose, I find gems chock full o’ wisdom like this one: “The spiritual ministry of each individual member must be a spiritual ministry...
by Robby McAlpine | Aug 5, 2015 | Church Life, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Leadership, Practical Theology, Revival, Small Groups
Re-visiting your roots from time to time is a healthy practice, I’ve found. And as a typical book-learnin’ nerd, there have been some significant authors whose influence in my life came through their writings. (I blogged my way through one of them,...
by Robby McAlpine | Jul 12, 2015 | Church Life, Discipleship, Leadership, Practical Theology, Revival, Small Groups
“Your first song is always a throw-away.” Those words have always bugged me, even though I’ve often seen it to be true. If you know any worship leaders, ask them, sometime, about their struggle to bring people together to worship. I’m currently...
by Luke Geraty | Jan 30, 2015 | Devotionals, Discipleship, Missional, Practical Theology, Preaching, Small Groups, The Vineyard Movement
For the past few months I’ve been working on writing a booklet for Vineyard USA, edited by my good buddy Ramon Mayo, on the Lord’s Supper. As many of you know, I’m a huge advocate for the regular celebration of the Lord’s Supper. In fact, the...
by Luke Geraty | Sep 26, 2014 | Church Life, Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelism, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups, Small Town Church
As we’ve entered into the fall, our attendance at Trinity Christian Fellowship has been growing and we’re seeing new and old faces, together. It’s beautiful to see Jesus’ community gathered to experience the Spirit’s presence/empowerment....
by Brad Blocksom | Sep 17, 2014 | Church Life, Evangelicalism, Leadership, Messy Church, Practical Theology, Small Groups, Theological Training
While the idea of men walking between the two halves of a sacrificial animal as a means of ratifying a covenant may seem strange to our modern mindset, this is exactly what is being pictured when Yahweh “cut” a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:18....
by Brad Blocksom | Sep 2, 2014 | Church Life, Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Leadership, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Prayer, Small Groups
We’ve been talking a lot here at Think Theology lately about Ekklesia (church) thanks to Kenny Burchard and Luke Geraty. So I think what I have to say today will fit right in along that vein. Now I understand all the practical, logistical reasons why churches go...
by Brad Blocksom | Aug 13, 2014 | Church Life, Church Planting, Conflict Resolution, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelism, Healing, Marriage, Missional, Practical Theology, Prayer, Small Groups
So last time we talked about the idea that “Butts in Seats” and “Decisions for Christ” may not be the best way to measure the success of the local church. And I proposed that we should focus not on church growth, but rather on discipleship as a...
by Brad Blocksom | Jul 29, 2014 | Church Life, Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Disciple Making, Evangelicalism, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups
So I’m continuing to explore the idea of more organic forms of church. I came across this blog post entitled How the Local Movement is Revitalizing Church. Its basically about “reclaiming the ancient idea of the parish” – that’s right a...
by Brad Blocksom | Jul 22, 2014 | Church Planting, Conflict Resolution, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelicalism, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups, Theological Training
Yep, I’ve been reading up some on the organic church movement as well as perusing that ever dependable source of indisputable facts on the internet – the Blogsphere & Facebook! Truth be told, there is a lot that really attracts me about more organic...
by Luke Geraty | Nov 29, 2012 | Ecclesiology, Small Groups
Continuing some foundational reasons to participate in small groups, Gareth Icenogle writes, “The ecclesia are small groups of Christians who are scattered around the world, bound together by a common Spirit. Meeting in all arenas of human systems and...
by Luke Geraty | Sep 18, 2012 | Ecclesiology, Small Groups
An important part of koinonia is that of sharing. Sharing is integral to the Trinity and extremely important within the context of the church. Or, as Icenogle writes, Wherever the person of Jesus calls together two or more other persons, male or female, young or old,...
by Luke Geraty | Aug 9, 2012 | Ecclesiology, Small Groups
I’m happy to report that there has been a renewed interest in the Resurrection. N. T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God (2003), Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything (2009), and the most recent...
