opportunities

 Colossians 4:2-4

2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Paul was not some super professional Christian going round starting churches and dishing out advice, he knew he needed support and prayer for His ministry. He asks them to give him and his companions opportunities for spreading the gospel and that they would take those opportunities, speaking clearly. Do we pray for our leaders? Do we pray for people that seem to be successful in whatever they’re doing? Do we pray for each other and other churches, other Christians, that we would have opportunities for spreading the name of Jesus? Do we ever say we’ve got no prayer requests, that everything is going fine? We all need pray that God would give us opportunities to show and talk about God’s love and that He would help us take them! It’s a dangerous prayer, but if we don’t want to pray it, maybe we don't fully understand the depth of what God has done for us!

characteristics of evangelistic christians

Taken from Seven Characteristics of Highly Evangelistic Christians by Thom Rainer

1. They are people of prayer.
2. They believe in the urgency of the gospel message.
3. They are people who spend time in the Word
4. They are compassionate people.
5. They love the communities where God has placed them
6. They are intentional about evangelism
7. They are accountable to someone for their evangelistic activities

 For more detail on each point, read the full thing here

simplified missional living

simple ideas for living as a missionary in your culture from Jonathan Dodson:

1. Eat with non-Christians
2. Walk, don't drive
3. Be a regular
4. Hobby with non-Christians
5. Talk with your co-workers
6. Volunteer
7. Participate in city events
8. Serve your neighbours

for an explanation of each point, read the full article here

missional church

reading this on facebook and can't see the video? click "view original post" below

thinking missionally 4

What do your non-christian friends/family/colleagues think about the church?

What do they think about Jesus?

What spiritual beliefs do they have?

What is this about? Read the introduction here

thinking missionally 3

Where do your non-christian friends/family/colleagues spend their time and money?

Where do they shop?

Who do they trust?

What do they think makes somebody a good person?

what is this about? read the introduction here

thinking missionally 2

What TV shows do your non-christian friends/family/colleagues watch?

What music do they listen to?

What do they read?

What do they find funny?

What's this about? see the introduction here

characteristics of a missional church

thinking missionally

We are called to be missionaries in our workplace, in our family and in our groups of friends. To do this, we need to know a bit about people. Over the next few days, we will be posting some questions to help us think missionally about the culture around us. The questions have been adapted from the book, The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll, which we highly recommend. Please share your answers in the comments section.

What do your non-christian friends/family/colleagues do in their free time?

What do they fear?

What are their ambitions and dreams?

talk about Jesus