The Relational Mission

Last week, I wrote about five things we can learn from small group house churches from the first three centuries. Actually there is a sixth, but the last one is so significant—and so often overlooked in our day—that it merits its own post. This attribute of the early church is related to how leadership operated in early house churches; it was team based. If we are academically honest about how we understand the history of the early church, we have to admit that we have very little detailed data about how leadership operated. Some have argued therefore that the early church was absolutely flat, that there were no appointed leaders. Then there are others who read the modern approach of singular leadership into the early church. We cannot read the New Testament to find some kind of house church leadership manual. We have to enter into the story and read between the lines. And we must be careful not to read our current experience into theirs. New Testament theologian, Gilbert Bilzeki...

Yesterday, I wrote about the challenge to live beyond functional atheism in our personal lives as we go about our day-to-day activities. ( See post here. ) It is so easy to go about life and work, even work that is supposedly "the work of the Lord" in the church, completely unaware that God is near, that God is speaking and leading. God fully surrounds my every move. This makes me think about a few lines from St. Patrick's morning prayer:    Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,    Christ beneath me, Christ above me,    Christ on my right, Christ on my left,    Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height,    Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,    Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,    Christ in every eye that sees me,    Christ in every ear that hears me. This makes me think about how we do small groups. Do we have the imagination...