When Do You Get On Board?

By Henry Neufeld

Christian Girl at College has an answer: Now!

Oh, well… I can’t do that now. I’m too young; I’m not really in control of my life – my actions. I’ll change after college, when I’m on my own. It’ll be a big turning point. That’s the perfect time to start being the Christian I [...]

January 1st, 2011 | Category: Christianity, Discipleship, Religion | - (Comments are closed)

Quote on Worship

By Henry Neufeld

From C. Michael Patton:

What I have been coming to realize over the years is that there is simply no one way to do church. …

You need to read the whole post at Parchment and Pen to get the real drift of what he’s saying, complete with evangelical discomfort with a [...]

July 12th, 2010 | Category: Author Related, Christianity, Discipleship, Religion, Worship | Comments are closed

Christian Perfection – Not So Plain to Me!

By Henry Neufeld

One of my early experiences teaching in a United Methodist Church involved giving a series on the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection. That may seem surprising for a new member of a United Methodist congregation, but my background in the Seventh-day Adventist Church involved a good deal of Wesleyan talk (though not the doctrine [...]

July 2nd, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Christianity, Discipleship, Religion, United Methodist Church | - (Comments are closed)

Fouling the Water and Trampling the Food

By Henry Neufeld

That’s my post today on the Worldprayr blog. It’s based on parts of Ezekiel 34.

April 24th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Religion, Uncategorized | Comments are closed

What Allegiance Comes First

By Henry Neufeld

Dr. Bob Cornwall posts his sermon today, on Acts 5:27-32, dealing with an issue that is quite controversial in the American church, though I think it should not be: Where is my first allegiance as a Christian?

He tells stories of early Christian martyrs and refers to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He concludes:

Peter is [...]

April 15th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Christianity, Discipleship | Comments are closed

Kingdom Christians

By Henry Neufeld

Dave Black has a new essay titled Are You a Kingdom Christian?. This is something that is dear to my heart. I’ve written about it before from a different angle.

He says:

… For us, the human organization is somewhat arbitrary. I say this as a committed Baptist. Baptists are not the only [...]

April 7th, 2010 | Category: Christian Mission, Christianity, Discipleship, Religion | Comments are closed

Gossip vs. Flattery

By Henry Neufeld

… at AdrianWarnock.com.

January 21st, 2010 | Category: Asides, Christianity, Discipleship, Religion, Uncategorized | Comments are closed

Is Christianity the Best Deal in the Universe?

By Henry Neufeld

So says Ann Coulter, paraphrasing an accusation made against Brit Hume when he suggested that Tiger Woods should become a Christian:

With Christianity, your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean and your eternal life is guaranteed through nothing you did yourself, even though you don’t deserve it. It’s the best deal in [...]

January 7th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Christianity, Discipleship, Religion | - (Comments are closed)

The Bad Name of Evangelism

By Henry Neufeld

Via Shane Raynor on Twitter and the Wesley Report, I found this article on UMPortal about early Methodist evangelism. What struck me, was how many of the ideas there could be found in Acts.

Here’s a key quote:

She [Rev. Laceye Warner of Duke] defined evangelism as preaching the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ and “living it out.”

I think we can trace the bad name of evangelism to two things:

We have separated evangelism from discipleship, i.e., we equate evangelism with persuading people to say a particular prayer
We think evangelism is about talking people into joining our particular church

While the symptoms are varied, including much obnoxious behavior, I think at least most of the symptoms can be traced back to one of those two points.

A return to the long term, often difficult work of making disciples would be rather valuable, I think.

August 27th, 2009 | Category: Author Related, Christianity, Discipleship, Religion | Comments are closed

Exceptional, Must-Read Article – Be Farmers, not Recruiters

By Henry Neufeld

If you’ve been on a church nominating committee and experienced the task of persuading someone to take a job that just has to be filled, or if you’ve been on the other end of that phone call when you’re begged to take a job for which you know you are not gifted or called, [...]

August 13th, 2009 | Category: Christian Ministry, Christianity, Discipleship, Religion | - (Comments are closed)
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