The vine. Part 3 – Much Fruit
You will bear much fruit. In exploring the metaphor of the Church as the branches of a vine, let’s consider the fruit we produce.
You will bear much fruit. In exploring the metaphor of the Church as the branches of a vine, let’s consider the fruit we produce.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus’ metaphor/parable of himself as the vine and his Church as the branches is a powerful demonstration of teaching that is visual, every day, …
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus’ metaphor/parable of himself as the vine and his Church as the branches is a powerful demonstration of teaching that is visual, every day, …
How the British church is perceived within the global Church, and how individual missionaries are received within unreached spaces is, like it or not, one of the small realities upon the ever-shifting terrain of global perception and reception of Britain more generally.
I’ve really been enjoying discovering the New Testament word συνεργια / synergia. This word means co-work (syn- means together or cooperative, -ergia means work or labour). The English equivalent of this word is synergy.
Pentecost was a prophetic sign of the destination of the gospel in all cultures and languages through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 20-21, Paul wants to show that the seeds sown 3 decades previously in Jerusalem are indeed bearing fruit among many cities and ethnicities.
In Genesis 29, the patriarch Jacob rolls a stone away. It’s a foreshadowing of Easter morning in multiple ways.
Passivity or reactivity is under appreciated in Western leadership manuals. What is celebrated is initiative, forward movement, aggression. The Western leader thinks about his own strategy and vision, throws pieces forward. He does not adequately consider the contours of the culture, the whole board of history and geography and the entrenched dispositions of the status quo into which he or she is stepping.
What We Are Learning About Best Practice For Sending Churches. Sending Churches Forum February 2024 Andy McCullough shares at the Sending Churches Forum on ‘A Scattered Influence.’ What can we learn from the tribe of Levi as we think about good practice in our sending churches among the Newfrontiers family of churches. To connect with …
We really hope you’ve enjoyed the third season of Margins2Mic. We really love platforming voices from across the Newfrontiers family and from around the world. These talks are not merely cosmetic or exotic, it’s not just virtue-signalling. We expect the content presented here to educate you, challenge you, instruct you. It really is only worth …
Are you already a sending church with people overseas? Would you like to become a sending church? What is best practice in direct sending across the Newfrontiers family? What are we learning about the legal and financial aspects of support? How does local church pastoral care work alongside apostolic ministry into a church planting team? …
The focus on peacebuilding/reconciliation is super important. Part of our mandate is to bring aspects of the wider missions conversation into the Newfrontiers family, and this is a key area of conversation at the moment. The speakers at the conference are literally world-class. As well as our keynote speakers Owen Hylton (UK) and Michael Feulner …
Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Miss the Unreached Conference Online This Year Read More »
It’s important to read Christian books about God written by Christians who don’t look or think like you. I hope these ideas serve as a way in, however imperfect.
This is the latest blog in the Called?! series. For previous posts see Persuaded, Sent, Prepared, Teamed, Sown But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry… And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:1, 4) When we enter a new culture, we expect to be changed. For the better. The little book of Jonah …
You are being buried, my friend. It’s a baptism. It’s cruciform. It’s heroic. It’s apostolic. It’s sacrificial. It hurts.
Some reflections this Easter on these verses from the crucifixion story. Mattthew 27:6-7 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “it is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. …
This is Number 4 in the Called?! series of posts. Persuaded Sent Prepared Ecc 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecc 4:10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another …
This is part three in my Called?! series of blog posts. Click for parts one and two. Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow …
Latest update (8th Feb) All giving for Turkiye and Syria can be now be gift aided via https://catalystnetwork.org/donate/ Join many from around the world to pray on Friday 10th February 2023 at 7pm-8pm (UK time) online via zoom Add Prayer Meeting to Calendar Join Zoom Meeting Details https://zoom.us/j/95328361775?pwd=ZEFaa3YxekR2SEFobVZpM1F5Y1RBUT09 Meeting ID: 953 2836 1775 Passcode: Catalyst …
Earthquake Latest: Amended Details/ Pray and Give Read More »
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach …
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon …
The following is an extract from my book The Bethlehem Story: Mission and Justice in the Margins of the World There is another ancient oracle that seems to have been in Matthew’s thinking as he wrote of the wise men. There are definite resonances of Isaiah 60:1-7 in the Matthew 2 story. Arise, shine, for your …
Decolonisation must be by evolution, not revolution. An evolution, however, punctuated by moments of revolution, of revelation. This is a journey both systemic and deeply personal. I’m sitting in the airport on my way home from 10 days in a Middle Eastern context where the very things that have been discussed here are being wrestled …
Decolonising Apostolic Ministry 5: Evolution not Revolution Read More »