immerse. experience. transform.
Whether you are a millennial yourself (and could use some self-awareness about your age group), or an older person scratching your head about how to deal with them, here’s some practical insights for working with millennials:
Millennials… Continue reading “Secrets to Working Well with Millennials”
By Joyce Ahn (based on the teachings of Dick Scoggins)
So many of us have issues we want to deal with and hurts from our past that keep us from fully living to our potential. But often, the question is how do we get healed? Many of us seek out advice from counselors or friends, but more often than not, our wounds remain and so does the accompanying pain.
When we look at Jesus’ teachings, it is clear that living in His Kingdom means that we are transformed. In fact, most of Jesus’ interactions with people recorded in Scripture involve him radically disrupting their life, and often liberating them from a physical or spiritual issue.
If we say we follow Jesus, why is it that so many of us lack that transformative lifestyle and freedom from brokenness? Here’s a few insights into the process of experiencing deep transformation: Continue reading “Community: The Key to Healing and Transformation”
By Dick Scoggins
The Apostolic Calling
My early thinking on apostleship was shaped by Watchman Nee, a well-known Chinese theologian, who made a distinction between “the Church” and “the Work” – two distinct entities in the Kingdom of God with different spheres of influence. “The Church” is the larger body of believers who are called to bring the Gospel to the family, friends and neighbors around them. “The Work” is the apostolic work – the small bands of pioneers willing to take the Kingdom of God to where the Church does not yet exist whether geographically or with hidden people groups inside places where traditional churches exist, but not in forms suitable for these other culture/people groups. The apostolic community’s goal is to establish new forms of Church that will fit these people groups and reproduce locally expanding the Kingdom to every segment of society. Continue reading “Apostles: A New Generation of Movers and Shakers (Part 1)”
This is Part 2 in our series Learning Environments for Apostolic Apprentices.
Three Important Environments for Apostolic Apprentices
As we have trained apostolic apprentices over the years, we have seen three invaluable environments where learning must occur. In our apprentice training we try to give each apprentice substantial time in any of these environments that they have not experienced previously. We realize that they will learn much more than we can teach by being immersed in these environments.
1. Home fellowships (organic communities)
The most important environment for an apprentice to be immersed in is the kind of Kingdom community they are going to try to plant. Continue reading “Learning Environments for Apostolic Apprentices [part 2]”
This is the final part in this series. Check out previous posts for Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3. At the end of this post is a link for the entire paper “Communities of the Kingdom of God,” by Dick Scoggins.
One Kingdom, many diverse communities
Modern Christendom has created a model of community (church) that may serve some well. But Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, and in that era his hearers would have recognized that although the “city on the hill” was powerful and impressive, it needed many other types of communities to keep the kingdom strong: caravans to bring goods from afar; military to guard against raiders and foreign armies; small villages where crops can be raised; navies to export goods across the great sea; etc. Continue reading “Communities of the Kingdom of God [Part 4]”
(If you missed them, click to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, “Communities of the Kingdom of God.”)
A Strong Kingdom Is Made of Many Different Types of Communities
But the point is that there are likely a myriad of different types of communities which serve to promote and strengthen the Kingdom of God. Each community needs to be built to suit and serve the ones who are living out their lives in that Kingdom community and against the backdrop of the particular darkness they face. Continue reading “Communities of the Kingdom of God [Part 3]”
This is Part 2 in our series “Communities of the Kingdom of God”. If you missed Part 1 check it out here.
Different types of Communities are required to make strong Kingdoms
If we think of an earthly kingdom, we realize that healthy kingdoms are made up of a number of different types of smaller communities. The most impressive of these is probably the “city on a hill”. There is no question that fortressed cities are indeed impressive, as I have seen in my living in Europe and travelling throughout the Middle-East. Jerusalem in Jesus’ time was very impressive to the apostles when they were with him. Continue reading “Communities of the Kingdom of God [Part 2]”
Communities of the Kingdom of God
For many believers, the Kingdom of God is synonymous with “The Church”, and the only valid expression of a Kingdom Community would be churches. For a long time I held this view. But as I have studied the Scriptures in light of the experience of walking with Jesus in many communities over decades, I have come to the conclusion that there are probably many different expressions of Communities of the Kingdom of God. Continue reading “Communities of the Kingdom of God [Part 1]”
The Guild Network 