 One of the really cool tools on your smartphone is the You Version Bible App. It's a great resource for reading the Bible but also offers some really helpful reading plans and devotional plans which you can use to grow. One really helpful aspect of many plans is the ability to read through them with others and to interact with one another and the content of the plan. Come, Let's Go! Discipleship and Evangelism is a new plan that was recently created by the folks at Zume. This is a seven day reading plan. Each day has a short devotional reading which includes a short teaching video from Zume. Then there are a number of Bible passages to read. Finally, there is an opportunity to talk it over, answering the question, "Based on today's reading, what is one thing God is saying to you?" (If you do not have the You Version Bible app you can get it at your app store on your phone or learn more here: www.youversion.com/the-bible-app) Starting tomorrow, anyone who would like to join from the E2E community will begin reading through and interacting with this study. You can sign up now, but we'll start reading tomorrow, October 2nd. Here's How It Will Work
 
0 Comments
 It was early 2008 when I was first introduced to movement thinking at a world wide gathering for the mission agency I was working with at the time. I was new to the mission field, to church planting and so the week long seminar I attended rocked my world. There were so many paradigm shifts in what I was hearing, so much that was counter intuitive to what I'd done my entire church life in the U.S. It was disorientating at first but it struck a chord deep in my soul. Church planting movments (CPM), disciple making movements (DMM), the spontaneous expansion of the church - all of it seemed born in the pages of scripture. Reading the case studies of movements happening in Asian and Africa looked like the book of Acts far more than my own church experience. And we we living in a country that was less than 0.01% Christian. Doing what we'd always done was just not an option. Over the next several years, we got some great training, had a great coach and dove into our own personal journey of rewriting the paradigms of church that had been embedded in us by a lifetime of North American church culture. I also began reading everything I could get my hands on in order to help me grow in my understanding and practice of all that it would take to see a church planting movement birthed where we were. The first book that I read over and over again was the book of Acts. It is where everyone should start. But after that I began to find other books that helped me learn what God was doing in the book of Acts. And so here are seven books that I found helpful on that journey.
These seven books will do much to help anyone interested in multiplication and movement. The paradigm shifts needed to begin to apply the Biblical principles of multiplication are enormous. These books will help you make those shifts. A few other helpful books:
 At every E2E and gospel conversation training that we do, we always start with the Father's heart. If we can help the church dive into scripture to discover God's heart and desires for our world, we have a great place to begin training disciples who will make disciples. We've turned that beginning session into a worksheet so that groups of Christ followers can discover together the Father's Heart and we want to share that today. Gather a group of friends. Set aside an hour and work through this discovery study. And then begin to pray and dream into the final question. You can work through the study below or download the worksheet HERE. Assignment: Together with a group of friends, read each passage below and write a simple summary of what the passage reveals about God’s heart and desire for our world. Passages
Finally, work through these two questions together.
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Steve Smith discusses what a disciple making movement (or church planting movement) is, and how to help it maintain its health in terms of biblical orthodoxy and biblical morality. Helpful books by Steve Smith: Start working toward catalyzing a movement in your neighborhood with Zume.  I’ve had a great summer. One of the highlights has been connecting online with Ali, an Egyptian engineer. We connect every Monday over lunch and it’s been a joy to get to know him and his family. We have recently started reading through a creation to Christ overview in the Bible. Next week we’ll tackle Genesis 3 and the fall. Ali is Muslim. I am the first true follower of Christ that he has ever met and this is the first time he has read the Bible. This summer I’ve also connected regularly with Mustafa, a young Muslim man in Syria and Mohammed, a Muslim college student in Lahore, Pakistan. It has been a joy to build a relationship with both of them. I’ve been able to connect with them because of Embassy. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims living in hard to reach countries speak your language and are going online to find friendship, language partners and answers to their questions. Embassy exists so that they will meet a committed follower of Christ. Embassy offers training, encouragement and community and then helps you discover new Muslim friends online. “Embassy volunteers use secular, public-access forums to connect with Muslims in closed countries who speak English. As men and women begin to read the Bible and engage in questions about Jesus, we invite them to include their friends and family in the conversation: small seeds growing to something great (Matthew 13:31-32).” * Embassy is an amazing opportunity for the North American church to be on the front lines of the great commission.
What could God do through the local church? Through your local church? Imagine if you - yes you reader - were to go back to your home church and help form an Embassy Team. Imagine if you could gather a group of friends who would begin reaching out individually online while also meeting regularly as a group to pray together, encourage one another and continue with ongoing equipping. God is on the move in the Muslim world and this is an opportunity to join in that work. Steps to Forming Your Embassy Team
“The Great Commission is for every church in every culture in every generation. There are no exclusions. But . . . every church in every culture in every generation must determine the way in which they respond to this responsibility -- in a way that is appropriate to time and context." Forming an Embassy Team is your opportunity to respond. You can learn more about Embassy and sign up to volunteer at their website: https://www.crescentproject.org/embassy Stories About Embassy Encounters * This quote is from the Embassy homepage.
|
The E2E Community
Categories
All
Good Books
Archives
May 2024
|
Proudly powered by Weebly