Monday, November 10, 2008

Grass roots notes from fran

Brian gave us a nice outline of his talk at the first Grass Roots Gathering. This is what I wrote down from Fran's talk on Saturday morning (both were excellent talks, btw).

He began with two GREAT questions:
  1. Would Jesus go to our church?
  2. Is our church like Jesus?
The five main points of his talk were something like...

1. Jesus is all about the Kingdom of God. (Mt. 4:17; Lk 17:20-21)

2. Jesus preaches differently than we do. (Mt. 13:10)
  • Jesus doesn't tell us so much what to 'do,' but what to SEE.***
3. Jesus' idea of grace is different from ours.
  • Receiving Christ is the departure point, not the destination.
  • If it hasn't changed your life, then you're not on the journey.
  • It's not just a rescue, but a restoration. ***
4. Jesus reflects God's heart for the poor and forgotten.
  • We need the poor more than they need us (to be rescued from greed and consumerism).*****
5. Jesus envisions a community burning with mission. (Jn. 20:21; Ps. 2:8)
  • The church exists by missions as fire exists by burning. ~Emil Brunner.
There is a better kind of community for us to be...
...a community that dances, loves, serves, talks, lives and smells like Jesus.

3 comments:

Rick said...

Sounds like a great conference, some really good stuff. I thought about going but couldn't get away, maybe next year.

JAH said...

Thanks for the summary of the talk - I am glad I got to be there with you!

dan said...

Rick,
I think you would have liked it. Keep your ears open.

Jah,
Always nice to be with you. ;)