Church - Home Turf Or Base of Operations?

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My son is a captain in the army. His job is what the military calls "vertical construction." That means he and his company erect the buildings at the forward base of operations. His wife is a captain in the same brigade. Her specialty is "horizontal construction." She and her company build the roads, barricades, catch basins and anything else that doesn't have four walls and a foundation. Vertical construction paired with horizontal construction-a match made in heaven!

The base of operations is the place where men, women and materiel are deployed in preparation for battle. Troops don't dig in and wait for the enemy to come to the base. Why would the enemy want to attack the stronghold where there is no tactical advantage? No, troops bring the battle to the enemy. The base is for provisioning, regrouping and redeploying. This is the proper mission of the church building. It should be a place where we prepare for the battle. The enemy isn't going to come to us. We have to go to him.

Rethinking Church

If we are going to use the church building as a base of operations, we need to rethink the way we do church. The church building with its auditorium and classrooms functions as a modern community center more than it does a first century style church, except that community centers are buzzing with activity six days a week. It is designed for didactic activities like preaching, teaching and worship, activities that deluge newcomers with new information. Combine that with the fact that visitors are surrounded on all sides by a whole lot of strangers and a subculture they don't understand, and church can be a very forbidding place! It is easy for newcomers to get lost in the crowd since there is no easy way to distinguish them from regular churchgoers. For this reason, the church doesn't readily assimilate outsiders. So many never return for a second time.

Since most people come to Christ outside the church, perhaps we should think about using venues other than the church for outreach. Community centers, civic centers, club houses, restaurants, retirement homes, public auditoriums, believers' homes, public parks, hotel conference rooms, movie theaters, camps and recreation centers are some possibilities. Pick the type of venue with which your target audience is most familiar.

Church Mission Statement

Draft a mission statement for your church that describes how you will build the Kingdom of God in your corner of the world. Include specific people groups, objectives, and methods. Start with 'the least of these' in your community. Where is the need for the Good News the greatest? Develop ministries that match the objectives and meet folks at their point of need. Get to know their world. Minister incarnationaly-mingle with them in their familiar surroundings before expecting them to come to church. Remember, Jesus equated the church with His body, not the Temple building, so as part of His Body, you are the church wherever you go.

Consider targeting ministry to some of the following groups:

1. The unemployed

2. Broken families

3. Troubled teens

4. Victims of abuse

5. Convicts and ex-convicts

6. The elderly

7. The disabled

8. The destitute

9. The lonely

10. The discouraged

11. Alienated Christians

12. The homeless

13. Fill in the blank

Making Connections

Read the local paper with a highlighter, marking articles that point out needs in your community. Then determine where you might find these people. Try social welfare agencies, the county jail, juvenile detention centers, employment groups, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, civic centers, etc. Form relationships with the police department, courts, department of child and family services, and other social service groups that are at the forefront of the fight for family values, peace and justice. Be prepared to offer your services in a way that supports their mission and provides opportunities for sharing the love of Christ. Then you can say in all sincerity that you have put feet to Christ's command to 'go ye into all the world.'

Take a look inside the book The Casual Christian at: http://casualchristian.net/book-site

Find more articles like this one, visit my blog at http://casualchristian.net/blog

Spiritual Fiction Books - "Shadow of Light"

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"Shadow of Light" by Rodney Christian Power is a very good spiritual fiction book. I have to disclose that the book was sent me for the purpose of providing a review, that Mr. Power is Canadian (so am I) and that his middle name is Christian (so am I). If this taints my review in your opinion, it shouldn't. He has written a very good book, and I wish he had signed it for me.

IT'S LIFE, CAPTAIN, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT...
Ever wonder what the end of the world will be like right before the end? This book may or may not let you know, because it will depend on where YOU are when that comes about. It will also depend on whether or not you believe that the world ends when YOU end. If you happened to be an 82-year-old woman and you dropped dead at the altar of a church, that would be the end of your physical life on Earth, wouldn't it? I believe that would be the beginning of your life in Heaven, however what if a Junior Angel from up above had a different idea? What if he chose to "occupy" your body in an attempt to alter (not altar) the events yet to happen on Earth? Now we have the beginning of a spiritual fiction book, whether or not you believe.

Sarius is the Junior Angel, Kathleen Kelly is the 82-year-old lady whose physical body he occupies, and Brooks Hennessey, his wife Rachel, their dog Reggie and the parrot Arcturus are a few of the characters that he/she encounters after the takeover. If you have even a passing interest in golf, or love to hear and read about the arrogant upper class getting it "put to them", then you will be hooked once Mrs. Kelly challenges Charles Baird, a multi-millionaire at the prestigious Southcott Golf and Country Club, to a match play game over 18 holes for $1,000,000 a hole. Reading about this game is worth reading the book, regardless of your knowledge or interest in golf.

Stories within Stories...
There are stories within the book that have to deal with the end of the world, man's (and woman's) reaction to it, and some fairly technical jargon about stars, space quantum things and spatial interaction, etc. However you do not need any techno-geek knowledge to still enjoy the book (and find out the outcome of the golf game!). To be honest, in my case I ignored most of what I didn't understand. It was enough to know that a star was headed toward the planet named Earth, and even if it didn't hit directly, the fallout would be that there would be no Earth, at least not the one (piece) we have become familiar with.

The Ending, but Not Necessarily The End...
I do consider myself a good book reviewer, so I won't give away the entire ending. Earth doesn't end, and even if it did, there would be remnants of it in the atmosphere. Yes, even you and I would continue in some form, because according to the knowledge we have gathered TO DATE, matter can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed from one form to another. My thoughts? They are created daily..

The Book Title - THAT'S what I want to write about...
"Shadow of Light". I really like that title, and I didn't even give it a thought when I first held the book in my hands. A shadow is usually something ominous, unless you are in the desert at high noon. Shadows are dark and dangerous places, where musty, smelly things live, and a place you want to avoid if you are a character in a slash and kill movie. How, then, can a shadow also be a place of light?

The last time I wrote that "things happen for a reason" I was accused of being a do-good westerner who had never experienced hardship or seen little children murdered and starved to death by other so-called humans. It is true - I have never experienced that. Things either happen for a reason, or they don't happen for a reason - you can't have it one way without the opposite being true. I have no explanation for the choices people make, and harming another creature has no place in any culture.

The title "Shadow of Light" for me is another way of saying that things happen for a reason. In the book, terrible things are about to (and in some cases, do) happen, yet at the end of the book there is light and renewal. A shadow that was to descend on our Earth suddenly becomes light because of the choices that some of the characters in the book make. Was that the author's intent? I'm not sure so you'll have to ask him, however I don't think I'm far off.

"Shadow of Light" is one of the better books I have read, and it is very well laid out, excellently edited and very entertaining. You will fall in love with Mrs. Kelly and applaud her efforts on the golf course (why can't I leave the golf game alone?). If nothing else, if you ever feel that a shadow is descending on you, remember that it takes light to make a shadow, and light will eventually appear again.

Laughter and love,

Rick Fess
"Shadow of Light" Rodney Christian Power

Narrow Road Press www.sheafhouse.com

And if you would like to know more about me and my upcoming book "Is There More?", please visit http://www.spiritualfictionbooks.com/ to access my weekly blog. I regularly review books on spirituality and self-improvement, particularly spiritual fiction books. You can also contact me through the website if you have any questions or comments. Thank you for your interest.

Laughter and love,

Rick Fess

The wisdom of Solomon in the Catholic Bible

The wisdom of Solomon, also known as the book of wisdom, is one of the seven books included in the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible which does not appear in Protestant Bibles. The wisdom of Solomon was written in Greek, probably in the 1. century b.c. in Alexandria, Egypt. The title, translated into Greek as the wisdom of Solomon, attributed the book to King Solomon, son and heir of King David of Israel. King Solomon was celebrated for his wisdom, and the allocation of this book he relies on a great power of the source of the wisdom that he.

The first five chapters of the book of wisdom, explain the function of wisdom in human destiny and compares the fate of the property and the fate of the bad in life and thereafter. Chapters 6 to 9 treat the origin and the nature of wisdom and how it can be won. Ten to nineteen chapters tell the role of wisdom in the history of the people of God chosen Israel, particularly focusing on the critical event of the exodus of Egypt. In this third part of the book, there is a discussion prolonged idolatry in chapters 13 to 15 years.

The author of the book of wisdom speaks as a King in several sections, particularly as it deals with the other Kings of Chapter 6: 1-11. He urged to understand and to be alert because "sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the most high, which will itself be probe your actions and consider your intentions.". (6: 3), He promises to ruthless judgment for leaders who do not follow the will of God, and forgiveness for the humble of pity.

The wisdom of Solomon is addressed to the author colleagues Jews living in the diaspora in Alexandria, Egypt, a large centre of Greek, learning and culture. It was here that the Septuagint, the translation Greek Hebrew entries, has been produced under the Ptolemies and completed by 132 BC. the author takes a few Greek philosophical ideas, particularly the Platonic distinction of the body and soul in the composition of the human person and the concept of the immortality of the soul (9: 15). "It proclaims that God made the human race for immortality (2: 23) and incorruptibility is the reward for the wisdom and the way of God" (6: 18-19).

The author gives a poetic description of the wisdom in the chapter seven:

And now I understand all, hidden or visible, the wisdom, the creator of all things, told me.

For it is a smart, Saint-esprit, single, multiple, subtle, mobile, incisive, honest, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, clever, irresistible, bienfaisant, easy beings human, steadfast, reliable, undisturbed, Almighty, all-survey, penetrating, intelligent, pure and more subtle minds.

Wisdom is faster to move that any request; She is so pure, it permeates and pervades all things.

It is a breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; I know that nothing unclean can find its place in him.

Because it is a reflection of the eternal light mirror, without spot of power of God and the image of his goodness.

For more information, go to http://the-catholic-bible.com/

John Mitton