we be church

Grill a Christian Feedback Followup

I just want to say a BIG thank you to all who provided feedback on how to run Grill a Christian events. The advice and tips are really helpful as we look to putting on this type of shindig in the future, and there is still loads of time to send me your own experiences If you have not done so already. At some stage I will compile a guide to running this kind of event and publish it over at grillachristian.com, but first I would like to put one on. With that end in mind I have started building a website with a feature set that will compliment question asking at these events. Watch THIS space.

The Context for Using Web Technology as a Church – Tradition, Trend or Truth

There are two dangers when using web technology within the church, trend and tradition, but we need to be concerned with the truth. This post will provide a brief overview on how to recognize trend and tradition then make the case for gospel truth to be our absolute objective when we come to use web technology as churches.

As Tim Keller suggests there are three ways to live, legalistic, liberal or gospel centric, I want to suggest these three ways influence how we approach the use of web technology as churches. Most of our technological shift in the last decade has been communication based and this effects how churches are reaching people with God’s revolutionizing truth. We all sway towards tradition or trend on different issues, I know I do, but it is helpful to understand where we mostly stand so that we can line up with what the Bible actually says and have the Gospel centric view taking time to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying.

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Web Tech and the Church: A New Blog Series Starting.

Cartoon by David Walker

One of my great passions is the internet and related technology and how it can support churches in their mission. Want I want to do is write some really solid posts on how churches can use the web to impact the culture and locality. Why? Well I think the climate is right we have some fantastic examples out there now of Churches engaging with culture and even the media through web technology. Some churches are beginning to ask how they too can achieve such things. So what qualifies me despite my passion to write and talk about this? Here is a bit of my background and journey related to the topic.

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Sharing Your Faith on Facebook – BE BOLD

Recently I have been in contact with Roger Van who will be leading a seminar on internet evangelism at Agape’s Fire Seed Conference for Students held in Nottingham. Facebook is going to be a large focus as many students will hold existing relationships on that social network. Facebook is like a mirror for every day activity, why not faith sharing too? While in New Zealand I came across a great acronym for sharing your faith relationally “BOLD”. I adapted it slightly to “BE BOLD” and shared it with Roger to use in the seminar. I thought I would post it on this blog too.

1. Be who God made you to be – so many young Christians feel overbearing pressure to share their faith. So what is a noble deed tends to be born out of frustration and legalism. Rather you need to be able to share your faith under the knowledge of God’s lavish grace. Understanding that he is for you, that he called you and has given you his power to share His Story. Ephesians 2:6-10

2. Edify – If we are to be who God made us to be then we were made to spend time with God in the Spirit, enjoy being with him, read your Bible and listen to what He is saying. Enjoy His love, peace and joy. Philippians 4:4-9

3. Be on the lookout – (for the right situation) Get to know people through common passions and hobbies. Luke 19:5 is a great example of Jesus being on the lookout and basically inviting himself round to Zacchaeus’ house to chill out.

4. Ordinary conversation – Again don’t put yourself under pressure to share Christ 5 people a day, God is not interested in that. Also listen, do a lot of listening. How can you expect someone to listen to you if you don’t listen to them? Eventually you will be able to…

5. Leap in with the Gospel – Share who Jesus is and what has done and why he is significant to you personally. This is a great opportunity to also demonstrate your faith by praying for people to be healed and leading them in a prayer them selves or to receive the Holy Spirit.

6. Don’t give up – keep speaking to them, keep answering questions, keep serving them, keep listening and finally keep praying for them when your alone with God.