Quotes and ideas from Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart. Dallas Willard is a Christian philosopher who at times is hard to read, yet well worth it when you give it a try. This evening a few of us will be gathering at a local library in Amsterdam to discuss the ideas from this book. Here I have written out some of the main points from each chapter. This book is all about people's lives being changed and that is ultimately what my job should be all about. Seeing people's lives changed through a relationship with Christ. Chapter 1 …the situations in which we find ourselves are never as important as our responses to them, which come from our “spiritual” side (14). The greatest need of collective humanity is renovation of the heart. The impotence of “systems” is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convery some elements of a human system. They were instead, to establish bea...
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The Bible is not meant to be a book used to get information transfer but for life change. --D.L. Moody "We must shift from the traditional model of 'Knowledged Dispenser' to that of model, mentor and organizer of experiences that help students grow." --Lynn Stoddard director of National Alliance for redesigning education.
"Our time, effort, energy and focus must be on houw the gospel is spread and how disciples are being made... It's a lot easier to build buildings, fill them up, and have special events than it is to pour into the lives of people and make multiplying disciples. But it is the only thing that will really work. " -Bob Roberts Jr. The Multiplying Church
Never Work A Day In Your Life. (This story comes from Mark Albion's book Making a Life, Making a Living.) I actually found it in John Maxwell's latest book Leadership Gold. "A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to mae money first so that they could do what they really wanted to do later--after they had taken care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their true interests first, sure that the money would eventually follow. What percentage fell into each category? Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now Category A's comprised 83 percent, or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, or 255 graduates. After twenty years there were 101 millionaires in the group. Once from category A, 100 from category B. The study's author, Srully Blotnick, concluded t...
(Pastor Alejandro & Mayra Lopes in a conference in Costa Rica) Yesterday I visited a Hispanic church here in Amsterdam which was celebrating the opening of its brand new temple. Iglesia El Encuentro con Dios was founded 18 years ago by Mayra Lopez, the wife of Alejandro Lopez who is now the senior pastor. Their new church building has cost them more than 2 million euros (3 million dollars). It sits in the middle of a commercial/factory zone, so you don't expect to find a building packed with 400 Latin Americans worshipping God in their native language. It is an unbelievable story. Pastor Alejandro has planted churches in the other major cities of Holland as well as in New York and the Domican Republic (his native land). What I did not expect is that yesterday he called me and two other missionary families to give us awards. One award was to an elderly American missionary who led his wife to Christ 18 years ago. I mentioned to her that she was the spiritual grandmother of so m...
I found this example of a brief gospel presentation by Tim Keller. It is written to speak to what our expressive individualistic culture in Western Europe looks for and that is things such as"True Freedom", "Community", etc. Why we are here. The one God is a community – a Trinity of three persons who each perfectly know and defer to one another and love one another and therefore have infinite joy and glory and peace. God made a good, beautiful world filled with beings who share in this life of joy and peace by knowing, serving, and loving God and one another. What went wrong. Instead, we chose to center our lives on ourselves and on the pursuit of things rather than on God and others. This has led to the disintegration of creation and the loss of peace – within ourselves, between ourselves, and in nature itself. War, hunger, poverty, injustice, racism, bitterness, meaninglessness, despair, sickness, and death all are symptoms. What puts the world right. But th...