House Church Action Plan

LEAVE your comfortable Christian activities, go outside your comfort zone, and take the time to build and invest in relationships with those around you like workmates, neighbours, and students.

FOCUS on living in such a way that Jesus’ message is clearly expressed through our lives. We can trust God to do the rest.

LIVE as a participant in the natural activities of culture while maintaining lines of clear conscience and non-compromise.

LOVE generously, genuinely, and with no sincere strings attached.

LISTEN in a way that demonstrates interest in others.

BRAINSTORM and pray for specific ideas about living on mission. For example ... Adopt a park. Adopt a family. Help a neighbour. Start a storytellers group. Donate to a food bank. Volunteer at a homeless shelter.

CHOOSE an activity you can do as a house church.

GO and just do it.

FOLLOW-UP the activity with a meeting as a group to prayerfully determine what worked and what did not.

READ Hugh Halter and Matt Smay’s book The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community.

Used with permission from @oikosministries. Taken from the latest edition of Starfish Files (Canada's house church magazine), now available for download from the Oikos Ministries Web site.

10 Marks of a Missional Community

1. It's members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood/pocket of people they're sent to.
2. Members speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms & phrases.
3. Members don't use disdainful and embattled language about their city/neighborhood /pocket of people.
4. They apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture/city/neighborhood.
5. Engaged w/ the lit/art/thought of the culture & can discuss it both appreciatively & yet critically.
6. Deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money.
7. Purity and respect with regard to opposite sex.
8. They show humility toward people of other races and cultures.
9. They do not bash other Christians and churches.
10. Seekers/non-believing people will be invited & will come & will stay to explore spiritual issues

I got these 10 Marks of a Missional Community from a series of tweets posted by the Austin Stone Missional Community twitter account starting on September 28th. You can follow them on twitter at @AustinStoneMCs.

Connecting with your Tribe(s)

It's been over four months since my last blog update, I guess the handful of people who were reading my blog may wonder where I have been. For those of you who don't know, I guess I should explain.

Things at the office have been keeping me really busy as my responsibilities as the IT Director at Strang Communications increased when the IT Department increased in size, merging with the Digital Media Group which is responsible for all of our Internet projects including our Web sites, Email Newsletters, Social Networking, etc.

I started working at Strang in the Internet Department in 1998, but was promoted to IT Director in April of 2008, so the last year I have not been directly involved in any Internet related projects. These last four months have been very "stretching" but also have provided me a great opportunity to expand my responsibilities as a leader within the company.

In my personal time I have been doing a lot of reading of both some work related books like Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson, Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can't Afford to Miss by David Cottrel & some non-work related books like He Loves Me! Learning to Live in the Father's Affection by Wayne Jacobsen, Like Your Neighbor?: Doing Everyday Evangelism On Common Ground by Stephen W. Sorenson, The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today's Church by Tony Dale, Felicity Dale, and George Barna, Search & Rescue: Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference by Neil Cole.

One thing I have learned by reading all of these books is that I am part of many different "Tribes", and it is my responsibility to learn how to connect with all of these different "Tribes" in many different ways. I guess that is what I have been doing over these last few months, is learning how to connect with these different "Tribes" both personally and professionally.

I can't promise that I will post many more blog updates in the coming months, but I can share with you where you will find me on-line, connecting with my "Tribes". You can keep up with me and everything that is going on in my world by "following" me on twitter here: http://twitter.com/jgrubbs or becoming my friend on Facebook here: http://facebook.com/jonathangrubbs. You never know, you may find out that you are also in some of my "Tribes".

New Blog Layout

After six years with the same blog layout, I thought I would try something new. Let me know what you think about the new layout. I will be adding some more widgets and tools in the coming days.

BoneMan's Daughter review by Jonathan Grubbs

I had the opportunity to read an Advance Reading Copy of BoneMan's Dauguters by Ted Dekker. I submitted the following review to Christian Retailing magazine. You can read the edited version the published on their Web site here: http://tinyurl.com/dybpgq

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BoneMan's Daughters, the first general market targeted release from popular fiction author Ted Dekker, is just as intense and suspenseful as Dekker's Christian market releases, including the best-seller Three. The book takes the reader on an emotional and spiritual journey, as the author puts the characters through hell on earth, tearing them down, stripping them of any pride or judgment of others, humbling them in a way that helps them understand that they are just as capable of the same evil that lurks within the villain that torments them.

After being taken by the serial killer Boneman, who breaks the bones of his victims without breaking their skin, Bethany is able to identify with her captor. She is very much aware of the shallowness of her mother's love, and is scarred by the abandonment of her father, Ryan Evans. After facing his own traumatic life-altering situation, her father would take on the whole world, even a serial killer if he got the chance, to save his daughter, but more than that, win her trust and her heart back to himself. Ryan seeks to rescue her while wondering if he will find her too late, after she has already been broken and killed. This father's devotion to his child, mirrors that of the Heavenly Father for His children. Dekker has such a great talent and ability to keep your adrenaline flowing, and your heart wrapped around his characters.

The overall theme deals with the issues of the pain of abandonment and rejection, and the ever increasing problem of Faithlessness that faces society today. It is a picture of the importance of a father in the lives of not only their children, but their children's mother as well. Without the father, we are broken. Longtime Dekker readers will once again be captivated by this book, although some Christian readers may find some of the language in the mainstream-targeted book questionable.

AndroidTapp.com will be giving away a New T-Mobile G1

AndroidTapp.com will be giving away a New T-Mobile G1 cell phone (a $450 value)! Plus Free shipping as well. The winner will be chosen at random. Promotion starts Monday 11:59pm CST December 22, 2008 and ends Monday 11:59pm CST January 19, 2009. There are several ways to enter the promotion and win, multiple entries are allowed based ONLY by the criteria at the following URL: http://www.androidtapp.com/androidtapp-tmobile-g1-cell-phone-giveaway-promotion/

A Thought from Dave Black

Hey, fellow pilgrims! Here's something to do today if you have a spare minute. Go to your church's website and see who in your church is mentioned first. My guess it's gonna be the leaders (elders, pastors, staff, etc.). There will probably even be a nice photo of your pastor. Think about that. What is that telling visitors to your site? That the people who count first and foremost are the "ministers." But if we're all ministers (as the New Covenant clearly teaches), why not highlight what the so-called laity are doing? For example, you could mention how brother so-and-so is visiting the nursing homes, or how sister so-and-so is working in the local food pantry, or how the congregation is having a prayer meeting for missions, or how this family is passing out tracts, or how people are getting together during the week for fellowship and Body-building. Put their pix on your home page, rather than your pastor's. Why not revamp your home page to make it a little less top-down and a little more bottom-up? You know, sort of like Jesus (Mark 10:45) or like the way Paul greets the saints in Philippi first, and then mentions their overseers and deacons, almost in passing (Phil. 1:1)? Come to think of it, in most of the openings to his letters he doesn't mention the leaders at all!

Just a thought....

Source: http://daveblackonline.com/blog.htm

The Shack by William Paul Young

The author of The Shack, William Paul Young, joined Steve Brown Etc. to talk about living in a jacked-up world full of pain and loss and…full of a God who loves us. I encourage everyone who would like to know more about this book to listen to this fun interview with Steve Brown.

I went to Walmart to purchase this book after seeing the author interviewed on James Robinson's television show. My wife and I loved this book, we are sharing it with many family and friends. If you do a Google search for this book you will find many in the Church who are very critical about this book. Most of these critical reviews I have read seem to take parts of the book out of context of this fictional story, however. I think Wayne Jacobsen has done a good job of answering the question, Is The Shack Heresy?

Visit TheShackBook.com for more on the book and visit WindRumors.com for more from Mr. Young.

The 2008 season is here!

Preseason Week 1:Redskins (0-0) vs. Colts (0-0)

The 2008 season is here!

The Redskins will open the NFL preseason against the Indianapolis Colts in the 46th annual Hall of Fame Game on Sunday, Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio.

The contest will kick off at 8 p.m. ET at Canton's Fawcett Stadium and will be televised nationally on NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Are We Willing to Wash Osama's Feet?

http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/2007/11/washing-osamas-feet.html