The following video was posted on YouTube on Junuary 10, 2012 and at this moment has over 10,000,000 views. Check it out.
The most intriguing thing about this video is how millions of young adults have responded to it. I am a pastor of new church in New Orleans that focuses on offering the Hope of Jesus to young adults who are disenfranchised by Religious activity but who desire to know Jesus and experience the beauty of Christian Community.
I have found the beautiful, fully satisfying, grace of Jesus. I am grateful to be a part of a community of faith that deeply knows and loves Jesus. A group of my friends and I have started a church here in NOLA called Hope Church because we want those who yearn to know how good Jesus is to be satisfied by Him.
I WOULD LIKE YOUR FEEDBACK PLEASE:
As a young pastor in New Orleans seeking to reach and teach other young adults to know and love Jesus, I am interested in how people who are not involved with church feel about Jesus, Religion and the Church. I am interested in learning how you would reach out and build relationships with young adults who live in a city that are caught up in empty religious activity.
PLEASE SEND FEEDBACK either here on my blog or message me on facebook.
So if you're in NOLA and looking for a church please hit us up. We'd love to hang with you... to seek Jesus together. We are a pretty imperfect crew that relies on God's great GRACE. We're imperfect but we certainly set our sights on knowing and loving Jesus and serving our city. Our gathering times and my contact info is on our website.
www.hopenola.com
Christmas Update from Hope Church & the Tipton Family
Thank you for your prayers and support in 2011! Church planting in New Orleans is a difficult task that could not be accomplished without faithful friends and family who PRAY, GIVE and SERVE Hope Church.
Click HERE to read our end of the year letter.
Click HERE to make an end of the year donation to Hope Church.
Mike Breen: Why The Missional Movement Will Fail
It’s time we start being brutally honest about the missional movement that has emerged in the last 10-15 years: Chances are better than not it’s going to fail.
That may seem cynical, but I’m being realistic. There is a reason so many movements in the Western church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional church or a missional community or a missional small group is the new car that everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won’t go anywhere.
The Engine of the Church
So what is the engine of the church? Discipleship. I’ve said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.
If you’re good at making disciples, you’ll get more leaders than you’ll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you’ll see people come to faith who didn’t know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing.
Always.
READ MORE AT THE VERGE
That may seem cynical, but I’m being realistic. There is a reason so many movements in the Western church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional church or a missional community or a missional small group is the new car that everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won’t go anywhere.
The Engine of the Church
So what is the engine of the church? Discipleship. I’ve said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.
If you’re good at making disciples, you’ll get more leaders than you’ll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you’ll see people come to faith who didn’t know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing.
Always.
READ MORE AT THE VERGE
Tim Chester: 10 Simple Ways To Be Missional
1. Eat with other people
We all eat 3 meals a day. That’s 21 opportunities for church and mission each week without adding anything new to your schedule. And meals are a powerful expression of welcome and community.
2. Work in public places
Hold meetings, prepare talks, read in public spaces like cafes, pubs and parks. It will naturally help you engage with the culture as work or plan. For example, whose questions do you want to address in your Bible studies – those of professional exegetes or those of the culture?
3. Be a regular
Adopt a local café, pub, park and shops so you regularly visit and become known as a local. Imagine if everyone in your gospel community did this!
4. Join in with what’s going on
Churches often start their own thing like a coffee shop or homeless program. Instead, join existing initiatives – you don’t have the burden of running it and you get opportunities with co-workers.
READ MORE ON THE VERGE
We all eat 3 meals a day. That’s 21 opportunities for church and mission each week without adding anything new to your schedule. And meals are a powerful expression of welcome and community.
2. Work in public places
Hold meetings, prepare talks, read in public spaces like cafes, pubs and parks. It will naturally help you engage with the culture as work or plan. For example, whose questions do you want to address in your Bible studies – those of professional exegetes or those of the culture?
3. Be a regular
Adopt a local café, pub, park and shops so you regularly visit and become known as a local. Imagine if everyone in your gospel community did this!
4. Join in with what’s going on
Churches often start their own thing like a coffee shop or homeless program. Instead, join existing initiatives – you don’t have the burden of running it and you get opportunities with co-workers.
READ MORE ON THE VERGE
Article About YOUR Missionary Call
Don’t Complicate the “Missionary Call”
I was never called to be a missionary, nor was I drafted. I volunteered. No special call was needed. I chose to go; I wanted to go; I was compelled to go. And where I go is always determined by an open Bible and a stretched-out map of the regions where Christ is still unknown and un-praised!
I chuckle when I hear missionaries and pastors talk about “surrendering to the call” of ministry. I always want to ask, “After you surrendered, were you water-boarded, or just hauled off in handcuffs and leg irons.” Was it really necessary for you to be abducted by a heavenly vision before you would go into the work of the gospel?
The missionary call is not like a prison dog that tracks us down, sniffs us out, and hog-ties us for the nations. That is silly-talk and really bad theology. Nowhere in Scripture is a mysterious (supernatural) call a prerequisite before we can respond to the Great Commission. The opposite is actually true………
READ THE REST BY CLICKING HERE
Written by David Sitton. David is a career church planting missionary who lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for 16 years, making first gospel contact with several headhunting, cannibalistic tribes.
I was never called to be a missionary, nor was I drafted. I volunteered. No special call was needed. I chose to go; I wanted to go; I was compelled to go. And where I go is always determined by an open Bible and a stretched-out map of the regions where Christ is still unknown and un-praised!
I chuckle when I hear missionaries and pastors talk about “surrendering to the call” of ministry. I always want to ask, “After you surrendered, were you water-boarded, or just hauled off in handcuffs and leg irons.” Was it really necessary for you to be abducted by a heavenly vision before you would go into the work of the gospel?
The missionary call is not like a prison dog that tracks us down, sniffs us out, and hog-ties us for the nations. That is silly-talk and really bad theology. Nowhere in Scripture is a mysterious (supernatural) call a prerequisite before we can respond to the Great Commission. The opposite is actually true………
READ THE REST BY CLICKING HERE
Written by David Sitton. David is a career church planting missionary who lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for 16 years, making first gospel contact with several headhunting, cannibalistic tribes.
