Month: July 2013

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Amazon.com and supporting @EncompassWorld Partners

You can support the work of Encompass World Partners while buying items from Amazon. Go to our Encompass Store Front using the link below!

We don’t approve of everything at Amazon.com, but while you are buying through our portal, we receive a small percentage of your purchase as a referral bonus! It is at NO extra cost to you!

Click here (and bookmark it too!) http://astore.amazon.com/encompassworldstore-20

 

Encompass Amazon StorefrontOne little trick, you can SEARCH for anything you want using the search box in the upper right hand corner,
but you have to select the Category you want to search in:  e.g., Music, Toys & Games, Books, Apparel & Accessories, etc.

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“God Hates Visionary Dreaming” – Bonhoeffer

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretensions. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own laws, and judges that brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Quote retrieved from Ordinary Community – Chris Marshall

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A Future For The Latino Church – Dr Daniel Rodriguez via@PlantLB

Daniel Rodriguez (’78, MA ’81), associate professor of religion and Hispanic studies at Pepperdine University, has noticed a worrying trend in Latino churches across America. While the Latino churches as a whole are growing, the younger, bilingual generations seem to be giving up on worship. Somewhere between a church’s fellowship hall, where the Spanish-speaking congregation will typically meet, and the auditorium, housing the English-speaking congregation, the children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants are getting lost.

In his latest book, A Future for the Latino Church: Models for Multilingual, Multigenerational Hispanic Congregations, Rodriguez makes the argument that Latino congregations need to be “sensitive to idiosyncratic differences between generations that are sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle.”

Ultimately, Rodriguez doesn’t prescribe spiritual medicine to Latino churches to cure fractured congregations, but instead hopes to inspire through the achievements of congregations that are successfully bridging the generational divide.

 

“My hope is that the leaders who read my book can keep their churches intact so that the grandma who doesn’t speak any English, her grandson who doesn’t speak any Spanish, and the father and mother who are bilingual can all fit under the same roof,” he says.

Read the entire article at Pepperdine Magazine

Discovered via @PlantLB » A Future For The Latino Church – Dr Daniel Rodriguez.

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Shocking Statements of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew: My Top 20

Today I was reading Keith Minier’s blog and realized their church family @GracePick is just starting a series on the Shocking Statements of Jesus. ShockingStatementsMatthew

A while back I did a series on that, but just pulled statements from the Gospel of Matthew. In a quick tour of the first half of  Matthew, we outlined a list  the Top 10 Shocking Statements by Jesus. Then we continued in a second week with the second half of the book and did 10 more…so we ended up with a Top 20.

Here’s my list:

Shocking Statement #1: And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” bible.us/Matt4.19.NASB

Shocking Statement #2: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but... bible.us/Matt7.21.NASB

Shocking Statement #3: “So that you may know that the Son has authority on earth to forgive sins…Get up, pick up your mat… bible.us/Matt9.6.NASB

Shocking Statement #4: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” bible.us/Matt9.12.NASB

Shocking Statement #5: Do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you…bible.us/Matt10.19.NASB

Shocking Statement #6: But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. bible.us/Matt10.30.NASB

Shocking Statement #7: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, & I will give you rest.” bible.us/Matt11.28.NASB

Shocking Statement #8: “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.” bible.us/Matt12.6.NASB

Shocking Statement #9: For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother & sister…bible.us/Matt12.50.NASB

Shocking Statement #10: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls & finding one pearl… bible.us/Matt13.46.NASB

Listen to the Message on the first 10 Online
Check out the Powerpoint of the first 10 Online

Top Ten Shocking Statements by Jesus in the second half of the book.  

Shocking Statement #11:  I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. http://bible.us/Matt16.18.NIV

Shocking Statement #12: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves & take up their cross & follow me… http://bible.us/Matt16.25.NIV

Shocking Statement #13: Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven… http://bible.us/Matt18.4.NIV

Shocking Statement #14: If your brother or sister sins, go & point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen…http://bible.us/Matt18.15.NIV

Shocking Statement #15: Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant… http://bible.us/Matt20.25.NIV

Shocking Statement #16: The tax collectors & the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you… http://bible.us/Matt21.31.NIV

Shocking Statement #17: Jesus took bread broke it & gave it to his disciples, “Take and eat; this is my body.” http://bible.us/Matt26.26.NIV

Shocking Statement #18: My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. http://bible.us/Matt26.42.NIV

Shocking Statement #19: Jesus cried out in a loud voice…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?http://bible.us/Matt27.46.NIV

Shocking Statement #20: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…I am with you always…http://bible.us/Matt28.18.NIV

Check out the Message recording of the #11-20 online

Check out the Powerpoint of #11-20 online