Category: Writings

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Pastoral Letter regarding the Xenophobic Violence in SA

To listen to the audio of this Service of Confession, Reconciliation and Healing, regarding the xenophobic violence in SA, click on this link
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/the-current-xenophobic-violence-in-south-africa/

Dear family and friends – fellow travellers in Following Jesus!

It is with a heavy heart that I (we… I speak on behalf of the Oversight Team) write to you. We are experiencing attacks, with rumours of more attacks, on foreign African nationals in SA. Tens of thousands are living in fear, with their extended families in their home nations worried and perplexed as to what’s going on. It can explode into terrible ethnic violence in SA and retaliatory violence in our neighboring nations… God forbid! What a shameful day to be a South African! We humble ourselves, confess and turn from our sin, asking God for mercy to heal our land of all the blood that’s been shed – not only in this wave of violence, but in our long history of shameless murder and racist violence.

Because of the seriousness of the situation I decided to set aside my planned teaching and hold a service of confession, reconciliation and healing. We humbly ask ALL the foreign nationals, particularly Africans, in our church, to forgive us for what we South Africans are doing to them. God’s house – his Holy Temple, the Church of Jesus Christ – is a “House of Prayer for All Nations” (Isaiah 56:7, Mark 11:17). We are blessed by God to have a growing number of (inter)nationals worshipping with us. What a great opportunity to model here and now God’s future reconciled family worshipping at his heavenly throne: “I saw a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9). May we truly become God’s House of Prayer for All Nations, God’s instrument of reconciliation and healing in society, the hope of Africa!

Read the statement from the Vineyard  (below) in response to the xenophobic violence. I won’t comment further – simply to call on us to actually do points 1 to 4.

Prayer is still our primary ‘weapon of warfare’ in the spiritual battle behind the racism of xenophobic violence. We had a powerful time of prayer on Friday night, pouring out our hearts before God in confession, repentance and intercession. Why not commit to come every third Friday night of every month to do ‘prayer-warfare’ with us? Continue reading Pastoral Letter regarding the Xenophobic Violence in SA

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Fishing the World for God!

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-fishing-the-world-part-34/

We’ve come to our third core value – fishing the world – which helps us be and become God’s Beloved Child(ren). To fully appreciate the meaning of this third value we need to re-look at Jesus and his essential message and mission: The Kingdom of God.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God (read Mark 1:14-20)

Mark’s text summarizes Jesus’ ministry: Wherever he went he proclaimed and inaugurated “The Kingdom of God.” What did it mean? It was the dramatic end-time (“eschatalogical”) socio-political announcement of The End & New Beginning: The climax of Israel’s destiny and world history has come – both judgment and salvation – God is now becoming King in fulfillment of the prophets. It meant confrontation: The kingdom (rule and works) of evil is being judged and people are being saved into God’s Rule & Reign of Love. The promised future age of God’s Kingdom was breaking into this present evil age, changing everything!

How do we escape judgment and enter God’s Kingdom? “Repent and believe.” To repent is to turn from sin to God, changing your mindset. Believe means opening yourself to God’s great works of salvation, entrusting yourself to his Rule & Reign in Messiah Jesus. “Repent and believe” in practice meant “Come, and follow me.” Jesus embodied God’s Kingship, his presence and power. To follow him was to be delivered from Satan’s rule and enter and experience God’s Kingdom of Heaven here on earth… in Jesus of Nazareth. Continue reading Fishing the World for God!

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Forming (in) Community: The Practice of Equipping

For the audio teaching of these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-equipping-the-saints-forming-in-community-part-32/

Intro: Equipping is the fourth priority and practice in forming – and being formed in – Christ’s covenant community. The practices follow on from each other: relationship leads to healing, and healing leads to discovering and practicing servant gifts in the Body, which leads to ongoing equipping and training for life and ministry in Christ. We look at what is ‘equipping’ and then how we practice it.

WHAT is the practice of equipping?

John Wimber made Paul’s words, “Equipping the Saints” (Eph 4:12, King James Version), a ‘mantra’ in Vineyard Churches. This is what he wanted to be known – the phrase is on his tombstone! It’s meaning was reduced to ‘equipping the saints’ for healing ministry: that all believers can lay hands on the sick, not just leaders. But Paul meant that the gift ministries of Christ are to equip the saints for LIFE and ALL kinds of ministry. This priority & practice of equipping/preparation for life and ministry is part of spiritual warfare: God’s Church is his ARMY that enforces evil’s defeat, already suffered at the hands of Jesus.

What does this equipping mean? Paul’s word katartizo in Eph 4:12 is used in Mark 1:19, to “prepare” fishing nets as in knotting the strands. To equip means to prepare people by joining them in right relationships – God’s big fishing net – that the saints can serve in their gifts, to “do works of ministry so that the Body of Christ may be built up.” So, this equipping for all kinds of ministry is about developing one’s gifting, lifting the level of skill and excellence in doing ministry, to best serve God’s people – for his glory! Continue reading Forming (in) Community: The Practice of Equipping

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Forming (in) Community – Practice of Servant Gifts (3)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-servant-gifts-3-part-30/

Recap and Intro: Paul’s earliest teaching (54 AD), on what I called ‘The Manifestations Gifts’ of the indwelling Holy Spirit, is in 1 Cor 12. Though he lists nine such gifts in vv.8-10, it’s clear from vv.28-30 that it was not a fixed and final list of spiritual gifts. Let us look at some of those other gifts that he mentions, from Rom 12:1-8 (‘The Motivation Gifts’ in the Body of Christ) and Eph 4:7-13 (‘The Ministry Gifts’ of the ascended Christ). Once again, they’re ALL servant gifts, given by God via each member of Christ’s Body, to heal, form and grow us to maturity. The gifts represent THE ministry (service) of Jesus Christ: it’s not ‘my ministry’; we’re doing HIS ministry! Each of these texts teaches the key of relational inter-dependence and unity for the gifts to function effectively – next week’s teaching.

Motivational Gifts of the Body of Christ in Rom 12:1-8 (written in 57 AD)

The context: Rom 1–11 is Paul’s ‘theology’, his breathtaking vision of God’s plan and work of salvation. Rom 12–16 is his ‘praxis’, his practical application: how THEN do we live and behave for God’s sake? He begins with, “Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God… which is your spiritual act of worship” (12:1). The rest that follows – all that we obediently do in our bodies – is our worship of God. Continue reading Forming (in) Community – Practice of Servant Gifts (3)

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Forming (in) Community: Practicing Servant Gifts (2)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on this link
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-servant-gifts-2-part-29/

Recap on Servant Gifts (1): I made three basic points regarding the practice of servant gifts to form – and be formed in – Jesus’ community: 1) The local church is Christ’s Body, that operates organically by spiritual gifts (charisma, “enabling graces”) given through each member. 2) The right motivation (heart) and context (attitude) for the operation of the gifts is servanthood. The gifts are service (“ministry”) in Jesus’ name to one another; thus we speak of servant gifts. 3) The model of servanthood is Jesus, the Servant of YHWH who, in his service, suffers our sin and brokenness in love, to cleanse, enfold and heal us into his life and community (as he dramatically enacted in John 13).

Peter summarises this well: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet 4:10). God’s graces fall into two categories: supernatural gifts (by direct Spirit inspiration) and natural talents (by birth and training). Both are spiritual gifts because they are all God-given. The challenge is: are we faithful stewards of God’s multiple enabling graces, that come through each other in all their rich diverse forms, to heal and grow us to maturity in Christ?

Paul on Servant Gifts in the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:1-31)

Paul gives specific teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12 (“manifestation gifts”, written in 54 AD), Rom 12:1-8 (“motivational gifts”, in 57 AD), and Eph 4:7-12 (“ministry-gifts”, in 60 AD). I examine each of these passages in that order to reflect Paul’s developing thinking.

The context of 1 Cor 12 is Paul’s teaching on public worship services – when the church gathers together (see 11:33, 14:26) – from chapter 10 to 14. It’s essentially about the local Body of Christ functioning organically in relational harmony through spiritual gifts. Continue reading Forming (in) Community: Practicing Servant Gifts (2)

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Forming (in) Community – The Practice of Servant Gifts (1)

Listen to the audio teaching of these notes:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-servant-gifts-1-part-28/

Recap Forming (in) community: its Four Practices. The second core value in following Jesus daily, both individually and corporately as church, is forming – and being formed in – Jesus’ local community. This value becomes real and is lived out to the extent we practice four priorities, what we call spiritual skills and disciplines:

  • Relationship: church is God’s family, not a social club for paying members
  • Healing: church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints
  • Servant Gifts: church is the organic Body of Christ, not a franchising organisation
  • Equipping: church is a school of life, of spiritual formation to live God’s kind of life, not a place of entertainment or spectator sport.

Servant Gifts

Over the next weeks I will teach on the what? and how? of servant gifts. The essential message is: we must see Jesus’ family, the local church, as the organic Body of Christ, as Paul discovered (in Acts 9:4-18) and taught (e.g. 1Cor 12:12-31). That simply means – the first key point – church operates organically via God’s enabling gifts functioning in and through each member of Christ’s (local) Body. Church is not an organisation or business operating by appointments, titles, position, power, hire and fire. This does not mean we don’t need certain kinds or levels of organisation and structure to facilitate organic life: the skeleton enables the body-life; the wineskin enables the wine-flow (Mark 4:22). But even these are gifts… of “leadership” (Rom 8:8), “helps and administrations” (1 Cor 11:28). Paul’s Greek word for gift is charisma, God’s “enabling grace”. Grace (charis) is pure gift, not merited, nor deserved. The grace-gifts (charismata) are not for ourselves, but for each other. They flow through us to each other as we make ourselves available to serve… graciously! Continue reading Forming (in) Community – The Practice of Servant Gifts (1)

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How to Follow Jesus Very Closely in 2015

To listen to the audio teaching click http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/the-call-to-a-lifestyle-of-discipleship/

Call to a Lifestyle of Discipleship: Lectio in Psalm 84 

Exercise in Lectio Divina (‘divine’ or spiritual reading of scripture): Be still before God; invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the text; slowly read Psalm 84 out aloud and let God give you a word, or phrase, or thought, or picture, etc, through the text… then meditate on it and pray it through. Then record/journal what God has said to you.

Here’s my own lectio on Sat 3 January 2015, early morning, in my study.

As I began my time with God I noticed two little Cape Sparrows flying in and out of a bougainvillea bush beneath my study window. They were busy building a nest within one and half meters of my chair and prayer stool, in perfect view. What a beautiful sight! I wondered why they were doing it so close to me, to my place of daily prayer? And why was God allowing (or ordering) this? What was God saying to me through this? Then I recalled Psalm 84:3, “Even the sparrow has found a home for herself where she may have her young – a place near your altar O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.”

So I did lectio divina in Psalm 84 and here’s what came to me, what I journaled:

– As the sparrows were building their nest/home right near my altar of prayer, God is calling me afresh to make my home very close to him in 2015. Sparrows, remind me!

– God’s house is beautiful because he (his presence) literally dwells there.

– It makes me want to live there… such strong desire: my soul yearns, even faints, for your presence, my heart and my flesh cry out of the living God… I prayed Ps 27:4. Continue reading How to Follow Jesus Very Closely in 2015

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Forming (in) Community: Practicing Healing (2)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-being-formed-in-community-by-practicing-healing-2-part-26/

Recap Forming (in) community: the Second Practice of Healing

We “do community” (forming and being formed in community) through the practice and discipine, firstly of healthy relationships, and secondly of healing. Last week I focussed on healthy relationships/community as the primary means of receiving healing and growth to wholeness and maturity. The discipline of healing has two sides: the practice of receiving healing, and that of ministering healing. Here I focus on how we minister healing to one another in Jesus’ name – though we practice both at the same time as ‘wounded healers’ as taught in last week’s notes and my qualifying comments!

First let me paint three pictures of God’s church. The local church is a hospital for sinners that practices healing for wholeness. It’s NOT a hotel for saints – some churches are hotels and cost you dearly depending on how many stars they have! Church is not only a hospital, it’s a family for God’s children, practicing loving relationships for growth to maturity. If there’s not a critical mass of wholeness and maturity as family to absorb and heal the broken as hospital, the family will be overwhelmed and become dysfunctional. Thirdly, the local church is also God’s army at war with evil in all its forms, advancing God’s rule and reign of love in society. So, we’re all wounded healers – both patients and healers – and we’re all spiritual siblings and parents. But this is all with a view to being trained soldiers fighting the good fight of faith in society (1Tim 1:18 cf. 2Tim 4:7). We’ll come to the last one when I teach on our third value: fishing the world for God. Continue reading Forming (in) Community: Practicing Healing (2)

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Forming (in) Community – The Practice of Healing (1)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-forming-community-by-practicing-healing/

Recap on Forming (in) Community – The Second Practice of Healing 

Last week Meg Willows introduced the practice of healing… in forming, and being formed in, God’s community. She shared our vision for healing ministry in Following Jesus: what is healing and why we practice the healing ministry that Jesus committed to his followers, the local church. I want to focus on the how to of healing. But first some general comments.

Our highest core value is following Jesus (relationship with God) with its four practices. Our second value is forming and being formed in community (relationship with one another) with its four practices. Relational intimacy with God leads to relational intimacy with one another, and vice versa, which in turn facilitates healing. Relationship is the first, and healing is the second practice of community. The practice of healing as two sides: a) how to receive healing for personal growth and wholeness, and b) how to minister healing to others in the name of Jesus. Healthy community is a primary means of healing, growth and formation toward wholeness, while dysfunctional relationships is a primary source of brokenness, sickness and destruction. Thus we face the ongoing challenge to build healthy community/relationships in marriage, family, home groups, ministry teams, and church. Continue reading Forming (in) Community – The Practice of Healing (1)

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Forming (in) Community by Practicing Relationship – Part Two

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes click on: http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-the-practice-of-family-relationships-part-24/

Recap on Church as Family – The Practice of Relationship

While I was away for the past two Sundays Waynne Pienaar and Lerato Moselane taught on Church as family, and Jo Robolakis taught on how to resolve conflict for relational health. We have said that the first practice of forming – and being formed in – community, is being family. That essentially is about relationships. We’re a relational church: God’s family, a home from home. What does this mean? How do we practice this?

Relationship with God (“Come, Follow Me”, following Jesus) is the basis of all relationships: “How can you say you love God whom you haven’t seen when you don’t love your brother and sister whom you do see?” (1Jn 4:20). The vertical relationship with God is the source and means and measurement of our relationships with one another. And the quality of our relationships with one another is the test of the authenticity of our relationship with God.

Therefore, the NT teaches “church” as a “relational happening” at various levels of gathering – because of Christ’s relational presence – beginning with 1) the two’s & three’s who meet in Jesus’ name (Matt 18:20). This is like the nuclear family on which all human society is built, but sadly is now falling apart. Then 2) the home group is the next level of “Church Relational Happening” (Rom 16:1f). That’s why we’re a ‘Home Group Church’ (they’re the place of real belonging and growth), rather than a ‘Church with home groups’ (where home groups are an optional extra program in the church). Then 3) when the home groups gather in the town or suburb it’s the local congregation (see 1 Cor 14:26f). Then 4) there is the church in the city, the nation, and the universe – we’re all relationally connected in Christ! Biblically speaking, there is no such thing as belonging to the universal church of Jesus Christ without concretely belonging in committed relationship in the local (house) church. Continue reading Forming (in) Community by Practicing Relationship – Part Two