As summer runs its course and the school year starts here are some questions that will help each one of us to consider how to best spend our time…

1. What weekly commitments do I find replenishing and which do I find depleting?
2. What do I need to stop doing?
3. Whose approval means the most to me? Why?
4. Are my priorities honoring my life in Christ? If Jesus was living my life, would he commit himself to the same weekly things I am?
5. I know spiritual growth doesn’t just happen- so, how am I going to intentionally invest in my spiritual growth this year?
6. How and when am I going to spend time with my family or closest friends each week this year?
7. Who will mentor me this year?
8. Who will I mentor this year?
9. Who am I going to “do life” with this year? (a community question)
10. How and when will I exercise in order to stay, or get, physically fit this year?
11. How will I grow stronger in Christ & stay closely connected to his family, this year?

1. Regular time with God reading the Scriptures and continuing to learn how to listen.
2. A regular time with same-sex friends sharing and supporting each other.
3. A weekly time with my church family worshiping God together on Sundays.
4. A regular weekly time volunteering and serving others.

The picture above is the Cenacle, or “Upper Room,” and is the last standing portion of a Byzantine and Crusader Church (“Hagia Sion”) heir to the primitive Apostolic Church (Acts 2-15). The Last Supper (Lk 22:7-38), the gathering place for the 120 (Acts 1:13), and the and Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).

• To take a fresh look at the establishment of God’s kingdom and spread of the early church. (In his book, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, Alan Hirsch calculates that the early church grew from 25,000 in 100AD to about 20,000,000 by 310AD!)
• To examine the holy passions and their out-workings which marked that church
• To consider how these might relate to our church situation today.

“More and more I believe that this book is in the NT to prevent the church from coasting to a standstill and entering a maintenance mode with all the inner wheels working but going nowhere, out-reaching into no new people groups or seeing no new ventures or no new exploits for the kingdom. The Book of Acts is a constant indictment of mere maintenance Christianity. It’s a constant goad and encouragement and stimulation to fan the flame of our part in God’s purpose – “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

1. The work of the Holy Spirit  
2. The missional witness of the church
3. The expansion of the kingdom of God
4. Spiritual Gifts 
5. Spiritual Formation
6. Church leadership 
7. Church polity (or government) 
8. The transition from a Jewish church to a Gentile church

This is from a series of articles by S. Michael Craven, a Christian Post guest columnist. He makes some excellent points regarding the implications of the gospel of the kingdom – which we will be looking at in our study of Acts. It’s time to get back to the basics – authentic kingdom must include BOTH the words and the works of Jesus…

Thus far in my series on reevangelizing the church I have addressed the problem of gospel reductionism, a condition that has reduced the gospel to nothing more than the privatized plan of salvation. In response, I have sought to recover the broader historical understanding and implications of the gospel of the kingdom and, in light of this, explain how the church should best express this gospel. I have offered a threefold approach for expressing the gospel of the kingdom that is drawn from Scripture:

1. I have written that the church must first manifest this good news of the kingdom by demonstrating what life looks like under the reign of God within a distinct community: the church, a community characterized by its radical love for one another (see John 13:34, 35; John 17). 
2. Second, this unique community manifests the gospel by serving the world through acts of service, compassion, and mercy, working to reverse and/or mitigate the effects of sin (see Matt. 5:16, 22:39; Eph. 2:10; James 2:14–26).
3. I now turn to the third and final aspect: proclamation of the gospel. How and what do we tell others about Jesus and this kingdom that has come into the world? The modern approach to this question seems to have gravitated, almost exclusively, toward highly simplistic and formulaic expressions of the gospel story. What I mean is that we have tried to condense the gospel to the most basic “facts” about Jesus, formulate simplistic mediums or tools for the conveyance of these facts, and then send folks out among strangers in an organized and frequently impersonal fashion.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the Lord can’t use these means to accomplish his ends. He can and often does. However, the commission that we were given by Jesus (and that which we should take as our guide) was to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, 20, ESV). Clearly, the process of making disciples involves more than simply sharing some propositions about Jesus.

To read the whole article click here.

I’ve been rereading Resident Aliens. It’s a difficult and challenging read – tough words are spoken to the Western Church.  Recently I came across this article from The Center of Christian Ethics at Baylor University (2003) by Keith Putt.