Resources by Renew.org:
Can a Pastor of 5,000 Understand a Church of 150?
We at Renew.org are attempting something risky. We are hoping to convince church leaders of all church sizes to consider learning a church model from a church of 5,000. But isn’t that precisely the reason so many Christian conferences feel out-of-touch? How many conferences feature megachurch pastors explaining to small-church pastors what has worked so...
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The Gospel Coalition, Matthew Bates, and Renew.org
This is one of the most in-depth posts we have written so far explaining the distinctive purpose of Renew.org. Thank you in advance for taking the time to carefully read it. Can we just start by mentioning how grateful we are for The Gospel Coalition? What a valuable group of men and women who are...
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The 7 Rhythms Played Out
We discover from the Gospels that Jesus modeled 7 recurring “relational rhythms” as he made disciples. Here are the rhythms, and then, below that is a message we received recently from a Renew.org partner who has been following the rhythms as he disciples Chinese new believers: The Rhythms Listed: Grounded in and flowing from FASTING...
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How Didn’t I See That Parallel Before?
Have you ever watched two movies at separate times, only to discover that—wait a second! It’s basically the same movie?! For example, there’s Judy Garland’s In the Good Old Summertime (1949), followed by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks’s You’ve Got Mail (1998). Basically the same movie. A little less obviously, there’s Disney-Pixar’s A Bug’s Life...
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This Is How the Ancient World Received Grace, Part 2
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. As mentioned in Part 1, the ancient world viewed gift-giving differently than we typically do today. For us, there is the ideal of giving a gift with no strings attached. We don’t expect reciprocation. However, as Matthew Bates...
Renew.org
This Is How the Ancient World Received Grace, Part 1
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. To understand what follows, you’ll need to keep in mind that the ancient concept of “return gifting” is different from “gift returning” (something you do at Target on December 26). In Gospel Allegiance, Matthew Bates explains the ancient...
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See if You Can Catch the End Result of the Gospel
*Editor’s Note: Matthew Bates will be speaking at the Renew Gathering on November 6, in Franklin, TN. See if you can catch the end result, the ultimate purpose of the Gospel, according to these passages. Hint: Look for what the Gospel is meant “to bring about.” Romans 16:25-26 Now to him who is able to...
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Just What IS the Gospel?
Just what is the Gospel? It is possible to confuse Gospel-related concepts with the Gospel itself. I found this parable from Matthew Bates’s Gospel Allegiance helpful: It is not that the true gospel is entirely missing or that people are not entering salvation. Far from it. The gospel is still being preached with saving effect....
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