Monday, July 26, 2010

Great Advice

Below is the link and blog from Thabiti Anyabwile. Many of our members may recognize his name from his book on our book table entitled “What is a Healthy Church Member” - it is outstanding! He summarizes a sermon that was preached and in it he lists 20 recommendations…these were outstanding (especially in light of our Church series we are going through right now). So, I thought I would link to it here and encourage our members to take a few moments to think through these 20 recommendations….

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/


THABITI ANYABWILE|1:54 PM CT
What to Do Now
I love reading or hearing from Kevin DeYoung on the local church. From C.J., recapping Kevin DeYoung’s message at Next 2010:
To close out his Next 2010 conference message, “The Church,” Kevin DeYoung gave a list of suggestions for how to be a difference maker in the local church. He said:
• Find a good local church.
• Get involved.
• Become a member.
• Stay there as long as you can.
• Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
• Join the plodding visionaries.
• Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
• Be patient with your leaders.
• Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
• Bear with those who hurt you.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
• Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
• Volunteer for the nursery.
• Attend the congregational meeting.
• Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
• Invite a friend.
• Take a new couple out for coffee.
• Give to the Christmas offering.
• Sing like you mean it.
• Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
• Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
• Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
• And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).
I cannot recommend this message too highly. Please take time to download and listen to “The Church” by visiting the resource page at www.thisisnext.org.