Sermon ‘Can You Have A Good Fight?’ (1 Timothy 1) by Paul Harrington is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/29hA9gT
Read the Bible text: http://bit.ly/296MgRb
Category Archives: 54 1 Timothy
What is Peer Discipleship?
Peer Discipleship is when two or more Christians encourage one another toward Christlikeness with Bible in hand.
That is another way of saying – be intentional as a godly friend!
But let us retrace some steps and see how it is that we get to this definition!
Why leave a ‘church’?
The question ‘Why leave a ‘church?’ may be a dangerous question to ask, especially on a church blog!
The reality is that all churches have people leave them – for both wise and unwise reasons. It is worth spending some time thinking about why one would take the step of leaving a ‘church’ and then further considering how to do that well. That said, I am hoping that no one reading this will in fact leave 5pm Church as a result!
In the previous two articles we have considered ‘What is ‘Church’?’ and then ‘What to expect of ‘Church’?‘ which as background should help establish that leaving a church should be thought about carefully – that is not a decision that should be made hastily or prayerlessly. If ‘church’ is about God’s people gathering as a family in Christ around his Word, it should give some pause for thought to a person when deciding to stay or to go. Leaving means leaving a family and a place where God’s word should be key to their fellowship.
Changing churches or leaving church altogether is no small thing.
What to expect of ‘Church’?
The beginning of the year is often the time when people check out church (‘It is a new year, thought I would give it a go’), join church (‘I have moved and want to make this my church’) or leave church (‘I am making a life change’).
As such, it is reasonable that one consider ‘What should I expect of ‘Church’?’.
In the last update we considered ‘What is Church?’ and suggested that church was a place for believers (whilst still open to not-yet believers) and a place where God’s people gathered as a family in Christ. Expectations of church then are important because they help a person decide whether this church is doing what it should be or not.
There are a couple of ways to arrive at an answer.
What is ‘Church’?
Christians do Church. Some more regularly than others!
Why on earth do we commit ourselves to regularly going to Church? To answer that, let’s first think theologically about ‘church’.
What is ‘Church’?
Presumable if we are to be members of church, we need to understand what Church is!
Very simply, Church is an assembly of God’s people.
The Lost Art of Inviting!
It is invitation time!
Christmas is coming, now the question is: who is coming to Christmas?!
For some of us the idea of inviting someone to celebrate Christmas with you is a no brainer. It is what friends do. If Christmas is important then it is important to have friends of all walks of life celebrating with you!
For some, this doesn’t feel so easy!
Here is a challenge – try to invite just five people to something for Christmas. (some would say, ‘just five’ – fine you invite more).
Inviting takes many forms and giving this some thought may actually present a myriad of possible ways to invite someone – and hopefully one of them at least would be manageable for you!
Want some tips….
churchcentralonline.com 