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Disciple Making Shift #2 – From Going to Church to Going to Lost People
In our last post, we discovered the first shift to Jesus-style disciple making: from seeing our identity as church members to seeing our identity as disciple makers. In this post, we’re going to discover Shift 2. And whereas the first shift asked, Who are we? Shift #2 explores the question, How do we live? Let’s reread...
Preston Conder
Losing My Faith…in Progressive Christianity (Part 1)
I grew up in the South. When I say south, I mean population of 3,000, 97% white, Southern Baptist, praise-God-and-bless-America, evangelical-as-it-gets Alabama. In that bubble I was completely happy. Just about everyone in my family was a Christian, so from an early age I knew I wanted to be one too. At 8 years old,...
Dave Stovall
Disciple Making Shift #1: From Church Members to Disciple Makers
Here’s Part 1 in this series on 5 shifts to return to Jesus-style disciple making. First, here’s our problem: We want to make disciples but we have a problem. We aren’t making disciples who make disciples. Thankfully, we have a guide. We have someone who can teach us: the Master Disciple Maker, Jesus. Here’s Jesus’...
Preston Conder
The Father, Son, and Spirit Are Missionaries
In recent data presented by the Barna Group, we discover that a good percentage of young American Christians struggle greatly with the concepts of evangelism and missions.[1] This comes as no surprise to anyone that has engaged this age group and listened well. What is simultaneously fascinating and alarming about this scenario is the fact...
Chris Dewelt
Walking: More than Exercise for the Disciple of Jesus
I can’t remember a time when there was more foot traffic through my neighborhood and the adjacent walkways. It began with the first shutdown when the pandemic struck. People, quarantined at home and wanting a change of scenery, some fresh air, and exercise, started walking. Some walked a couple times a week. Some, daily. Others...
Debbra Stephens
Church, It’s Time to Bring Back Apprenticeships.
In the fall of 1998, I became the director of a campus ministry serving Arkansas Tech University. It was my first ministry job. The son of a preacher, I probably understood many aspects of ministry life better than most. I had also experienced campus ministry as a college student, which is what had drawn me...
Chris Buxton
Sermon on the Mount: Hunger and Thirst
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Mt. 5:6) The doctrine of justification by faith may be killing us. Before you get out the matches and kindling, I’m not saying that the doctrine is wrong. I’m saying that “justification” is a very complicated word. In his highly recommended...
Jeremy Bacon
On Gender and the Bible: Where Does Egalitarianism Lead? (Part 9)
Books which propose a “third way,” whether Christian or secular, can easily come across with a bit of arrogance. Many of you are too liberal and the rest of you are too conservative, but I’ve figured out the perfect balance between the two, they seem to say. However, with secular philosophies like Critical Theory and...
5 Shifts to Return to Jesus-Style Disciple Making
We all want to make disciples, but we’ve got a problem. Barna, a leading Christian research organization, found only 17% of professing Christians know what the Great Commission is. Exponential and Discipleship.org found less than 5% of churches in North America are making disciples who are personally making disciples. We lack awareness and effectiveness in...
Preston Conder
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A Tragic Choice for a Hill to Die On
We aren’t as strong as we think we are. Heaven-hell cycles seem to be speeding up. So small was the latest cycle that those of us who are Americans couldn’t make it a week after merrily ringing in a new, unsoiled year before seeing radicals breaking windows and scaling walls of our own US Capitol....
Daniel McCoy
Disciples of Jesus Choose Hope – Q&A with Michael Patterson
*Editor’s Note: In an anxious and angry season, how can disciples of Jesus practically show the world the hope of Jesus? At the juncture of 2020 and 2021, I was able to speak with Michael Patterson, church leader and history professor, to get his perspective on how to cultivate hope in difficult times such as...
Critical Race Theory: Check Box Identity
This is Part 5 of a 5-part series on Critical Race Theory. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4. In 2017, Damon Young wrote an article titled “Straight Black Men are the White People of Black People.” In it he argued that straight black men enjoy the same type of privilege over black women...
Chad Ragsdale
When You Compare, Beware.
”An argument started among them about who was the greatest of them” (Luke 9:46, CSB) We like to think that in the Christian world comparisons don’t exist. After all Paul called us the body of Christ. Every part of the body is important. Jesus said that anyone that does the will of the Father is...
William Butt
A New Year…in the Eyes of the Lord
I have had the same New Year’s resolution for the past several years: read through the Bible in the year. The first time I did this from start to finish was in 2011, when I read from cover to cover. In reading different translations, languages, and reading plans, it’s amazing to me how the Scriptures...
Taffeta Chime
Top 10 Renew.org Articles in 2020
An eventful 2020 has been a year for Christians to live out compassion, get creative, and think hard. We are grateful that so many of you have engaged with our website to help navigate a perplexing year. This year, we at Renew.org have wrestled with how we can live out a faithful and effective faith...
Renew.org
The Stages of Disciple Making: Go and Make Disciples (Part 5)
(Here is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 in this series on the stages of disciple making.) The fifth phase is the replication phase. Disciples need to be sent out to become disciple makers themselves. They have been trained to be like their teacher (Luke 6:40). Note, the multiplication phase continues to require growth—we...
Bobby Harrington
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