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A friend of mine, Maria Ebrahimji, along with Zahra Suratwala, have just completed their book I Speak for Myself:  American Women on Being Muslim .  It is exactly the kind of book we need so desperately right now in America.  It is a collection of 40 personal essays written by American Muslim women. 

Take a moment to check it out.  Buy a copy.  Read it.  You’ll be surprised to see what we all have in common.  We may not be as different from one another as you may think.

Listen to the sermon, Teachers Among Us here.

2 TIMOTHY 3:10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work . . . . . 4: 1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Acts 2 said they continued in the Apostles teaching – now keep in mind they were apostles, but they were also teachers.  Where and what did they start with?  What Jesus wanted them to be and do – all teaching flowed from that.  It wasn’t a western model of give the information and good luck – it was this is how it’s done.  This is critical for NorthWood for 2 reasons – first, all 5 are equipping gifts to grow and engage and we have to have them for cell life , and second – in leadership and how our church moves forward there is the 5-fold team.  It’s how …

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Click here to hear Brian Hook’s message.

A few weeks ago we were in a series entitled Living Loved. We addressed the subject of receiving the unconditional love of the Father. There are two basic human needs and they both are related to love. One of the two basic human needs is receiving love.  The second is giving love. “Love One Another” we see repeated throughout scripture. To give and receive love is critical to life. We were never meant to be alone and isolated. Isolation is not just bad Christianity, its bad humanity.  We all have been jolted by the images of this past week as an 8.9 quake; the fifth largest in recorded history, shook Japan, and shocked the world.  There are people today that are in desperate need of love – not “feel good” love, but real love in action that rescues them from isolation. Some need water, some food, some rescued, comforted, protection, and security. There is something within all of us as humans, believers and unbelievers that long to love and give love. It is paramount to life.  We have never lived in a time where this love is so needed. We are seeing more adults coming to the end of themselves through life issues, and chemical dependency. Why is that? Families are almost non-existent. 73% of all young men in Dallas - 18 and under are growing up without a dad in the house. Issues such as eating disorders, pornography, and sexual addiction are through the roof. Chemical dependency of drugs and alcohol is now so prevalent we find it fascinating to watch those dealing with it on TV and the News. We used to see men in their 40’s experiencing what we called mid-life crisis. I now see 15-18 year olds experiencing the same hopelessness. What do we do? This is the greatest opportunity for the church to finally understand what it means to love, but it’s going to take all of us to give and receive the love that is needed, and we have passionately moved our church to a cell structure so that we can fully equip you to equip others. The cell is a 10-12-member group that is literally a church. The American Church is still relegating the job of loving to a select few “paid” staff. We call these men, and …

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Listen to Frank Dang’s Sermon “Together We Evangelize”

The following is a message that Frank Dang preached at Northwood church.  It combines all the elements from sharing, to engagement, to doing in the context of a cell, etc.  You must listen to the sermon – he’s incredible. 

The Kingdom work involves two equally important tasks: the task of performing the Good Deeds, and the task of proclaiming the Good News.  Some scholars argue that Evangelism is the core and the heart of the Church’s mission (David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission”, page 412).  This makes sense because how can we make “disciples of all nations” if, first, we don’t hand them the Good News. 

In this series “God Among Us”, we are not talking about an individual church member doing evangelism alone.  We are encouraging and emphasizing the whole Body of Christ performing the task of Evangelism Together!  Over fifty (50) times in the New Testament, we, as the body of Christ, are commanded to do different tasks to “one another” and “with each other” (Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, chapter 18).  Apostle Paul said that “each of you is part of the Body of Christ and you were chosen to live together in peace.” (Col. 3:15).  The early church illustrates this “life together” beautifully as described in Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles- the Life Together, the common meal – and the prayers.”  Thus, together we evangelize.

Before we go further, let us examine the word “Evangelism” to learn its meaning and its definition.  “Evangelism” has its root in the Greek language and it is a combination of two words: “eu” (meaning “Good”, and “angellion” (meaning “message”).  Evangelism means “Good Message”.  Over 50 times, this word is used in the Bible.  The first person who used this word, Evangelism, is the Roman Emperor who wanted to declare to the people of Rome that they have a Great Victory (Roy Fish, Contemporary Evangelism Notes).  So, in the context of Biblical setting, Evangelism can be defined as:
Evangelism is the compassionate sharing of the Good News of Jesus and the Power of the Holy Spirit with all people for the purpose of guiding them to Christ as Lord and Savior that they, in turn, might share Him with others. (Roy Fish’s Definition of …

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Hear my sermon entitled Prophets Among Us.

My primary theological source for this was Wayne Grudem – The Gift of Prophecy

If you don’t stay tight on Scripture you can really get in trouble.  I’ve heard of people getting into the prophetic and telling people and controlling people – that’s not what we’re talking about and that is unhealthy.  But to shut it down because someone abuses it would be to shut down all of Christianity.  What does the Bible teach – when followed it’s very clear and simple.  Whereas 1 Cor 13 is the love Chapter – 1 Cor 14 is the prophecy chapter – many had become arrogant and puffed up and felt superior over their gifts.  Paul is setting the record straight and is giving direction.  Some thought tongues was everything –Paul is saying it’s not – prophecy is above that.

DEFINITION: 1–One with Supernatural knowledge.  2-one who predicts the future 3-spokesman
METAPHOR:  Announcer or Proclaimer
PURPOSE:  To hear God

PROPHETS ARE AMONG US.
You can really hear from God! The creator of the universe wants to speak to you, But not just to you, THROUGH YOU!!!  He does this through what Paul calls the gift of prophecy. Don’t let that term weird you out. You have probably already experienced this is some way as a believer and haven’t even realized you are doing it. Called someone, “The Lord laid you on my heart to pray for you.” Or God told me to tell you…..

In the OT you had these prophets who spoke with absolute authority with zero error. They would say, “Thus saith the Lord….” and if any part of their message was false they were to be stoned to death. Kind of makes you nervous to practice this expression of Jesus in a cell. Think if you thought God was telling you something to share and your team said that is not right and took you in the backyard and started throwing bricks at you.  NOT the kind of prophecy the NT talks about. Those men were “thus saith the Lord” spokesmen from God. 

In the New Testament we read that He speaks to us through Jesus.

Hebrews 1:1 1Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last …

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Click here to listen to my recent sermon “Apostles”

In Ephesians we see the 3 expressions of the church.  Arguing about house churches or city churches are arguments out of ignorance of Scripture or how the body operates.  Only the church in America would put one part of the body of Christ against another part.  There is the cell, house, basic, simple, organic representation of the church which is where the body operates and hears from God through the use of spiritual gifts.  There is no way in a worship sevice with hundreds, let alone thousands – the entire body can operate.  It is possible and necessary in the basic unit.  The congregation – or city church – is the coalition of the cells, house churches, etc. that moves strategically to engage a city and spread the gospel and serve people – this is where polity comes into play.  Polity was never meant to be a structure that you put in place for the church to grow – instead it was what came around a movement in the making.  Finally – or third is the global church or the universal church.  If you are not connected at all 3 levels you are missing something.  Most church planting starts at the city church or congregational level.  I believe the healthiest place to start is the basic church, cell, house church, etc., and then from there it adds on the next piece without loosing the first.  Now it’s time to connect global, which is critical to define what church should be because it’s outside your own culture.  This allows the Gospel to go global.  When it becomes tribal or cultural it looses it’s power and is then shaped more by men than God. 

The expression of that movement in moving forward is the apostolic.  It’s the mission of the church – the forward motion.  The church was the first global corporate entity – what happened at the Jerusalem conference was everything the church went global.  IBM, GM, Walmart, UN, Twitter & Facebook, medicine & drugs, Boeing, music are all global but no divine mission!  How in God’s name did the local church become just a local church?  How can it even be a church and be only local – how can it not extend?  This is why our new churches are …

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To hear my recent sermon on this topic, click here:  How Jesus Operates in the Body

I give a lecture to our church planters on apostolic ministry.  I’m asked lots of questions about it by young church planters.  There is a huge amount of interest in this.  It makes sense, I see the emerging generation of church planters talking more about church multiplication out of their local church than any group so far.  My generation talked about church planters, the previous generation talked about denominations and church planting, the current about church planting networks – but the emerging generation talks about their church being a church planting center.  This is a huge shift in thinking and holds the seeds for a potential explosive movement of church planting in the West. 

1. You cannot talk about being apostolic and ignore the other four gifts.
All 5 gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are critical for movement to happen.  I don’t care for approaches that try to straight jacket people into a particular gift – there is no doubt we have leanings.  I’ve been told by countless people I’m “apostolic” for the past 20 years!  But some days I’m more evangelistic, some days more pastoral, some days more teacher, some days more prophetic . . . . It’s not primarily a leadership model as much as it is the natural operational model of the body of Christ.  All 5 need to be present and operating to make disciples and spark movements.  I’ll write more on this later – what is critical is that as Ephesians 2:20 says the church is “built on the foundation of Apostles & Prophets”.  In the West we’ve built it on teaching and pastoring – this is why we’ve not talked much about or needed the 5-fold.  But for a church to truly be missional and move forward it is impossible without apostolic leadership.  This is why we have huge churches with phenomenal preaching and small groups to assimilate people but no real forward motion of the church beyond the Sunday event. 

2. You cannot talk about apostolic leaders apart from apostolic churches. 
I am suspect of people who want the title for themselves.  The point is for the church to be apostolic.  God’s will is for his church.  The challenge for pastors in studying …

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I’ve been following this on the internet and think it’s critical to stay informed.  It’s as if the government in China tries to keep people and groups off balance - maybe that is their way of governing a billion people - either way, pray for your brothers in Christ. 

There are over 50 million Chinese who worship regularly in unregistered or “house” churches across China. This past weekend, Shouwang Church, a prominent 900‐member Protestant “house church” in Beijing, attempted to hold outdoor services, after it had been refused access to its own building (a building legally purchased by Shouwang for 4.1 million USD—the first time a house church has owned its own property). As a result, the church decided to worship outside on Sunday, 10 April. In response, the Chinese government arrested dozens in the street who attempted to worship outside and hundreds at home. As a result, 300+ global news outlets in multiple languages reported on the crisis including the New York Times and the Guardian (UK), as well as Fox News and Al Jazeera.
This memo has been developed by people across America who care desperately for China and seek a strong bilateral relationship between China and the United States. People like us recognize and respect that there are complex issues at play, and that we may not have all the information required. But we also understand that if China’s religious freedom progress should halt, it will have negative repercussions in the near‐ and long‐term for relations between our two countries.

Why should you care?
The players impacted by this situation include: 1.) the Chinese house church movement; 2.) the Chinese government; 3.) the U.S. government; 4.) the global church; and, 5.) the global public square (e.g., business, media, NGOs).
Chinese police officers question a foreign journalist near a building where leaders of Shouwang had told parishioners to gather. (AP/April 10)

Here’s the strategic significance of this crisis for each of these players:

1. Chinese church: For any individual believer, anywhere, it is a fundamental spiritual requirement for them to be in fellowship with other believers, especially on Sundays, the day of worship. If the house church movement doesn’t act with unity in response to this situation, it invites the opportunity for their Sunday meetings across China to be shut down too (and, potentially, be forced to worship in government‐approved religious organizations).

2. Chinese …

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In the past, if a person was a pastor, all they needed to do was shepherd the flock and preach the word.  That was deemed sufficient, though it really wasn’t.  Pastoring & leading in a global 21st century context requires so much more than that.  One of the things I’ll be writing on later is the 5-fold ministry - Apostle - Prophet - Evangelist - Pastor - Teacher.  Not as positional ministry but as functional.  For now you can listen to my sermons if you like at northwoodchurch.org under the media section.  I’m always amazed at how the Bible is always transnational in its approach and relevant to various centuries throughout history - ours included.  There are some key roles I believe are critical for pastors to obtain in this century.  I was just with a gathering of pastors in Dubai from expat churches from around the world.  It was amazing to me how so many cornered me and were excited and challenged because in the expat church, all their members are being “globalized” while the church still tends to act in a “western worship service” kind of approach - which leads to irrelevance and ineffectiveness.  Here are some things I’ve observed and try to do in my own life. 

First, Interpreter - Wayne Grudem - and more recently his son Elliot - have impacted my understanding of theology in a broad way.  In my estimation they give broad pictures and yet freedom in how they interpret theology to contextualize locally.  When I read theology - however, I don’t read it just in a historical or even systematic way, but in a current global stew pot where it’s all mixed up.  Having traveled the world and working with governments, leaders, businessmen, young people, universities - you see the world from a perspective that is beyond your own location and tribe.  The role of the pastor as interpreter of the “world”, as we know, is critical because the Gospel impacts every single area.  This is why following the news, reading books, meeting with local nomads from around the world in your area and traveling are absolutely critical to your understanding of the world and how it works.  If you can’t interpret your times - then you will miss massive opportunities and what things you do focus on run the risk of being a waste.  So many pastors I see contextualize …

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I’ve not blogged this week - sorry - just been a super wild week but very fruitful.  Last week I saw something that I’ve seen for a while now, but I saw it in extreme and it fascinated me.  Half my blogs are for young pastors (or old) that are starting churches and involved in innovative global ministry in the domains of society and all that implies.  The other half of my blogs are for global issues written for people in a global audience at the domains of society and acting sometimes as gatekeepers.  When I blog I’ll often tweet a new blog is posted.  My tweet name is bobrobertsjr - Once I do that - I will have it retweeted by several people - if it’s good!  If not - well . . . .  It was funny how all the pastors and planters were retweeting a blog on “My Frustration with Theology” - the next day I wrote one on “Freedom isn’t for Sale” sharing encounters I had with young revolutionaries from Libya - it was really retweeted - by all my non-Christian friends.  It was like I had two audiences - I do.  I live at the intersection of what people perceive is two worlds - but it really isn’t - it’s one world for me. 

As I was thinking about that, I thought I don’t expect global people to be passionate about my faith or young pastors.  But it made me sad, the more I thought about it, how pastors like the “pastor” stuff, but don’t always get the “global” stuff.  This is your world, young men and women.  You cannot afford not to know what is going on in the world.  You cannot afford not to think deeply about what is the role and response of the Gospel in multiple contexts. 

I was speaking at USC last week, and a sharp young scholar asked me, you live in different worlds with multiple levels of complexity - how do you keep straight where you are and what you say?  I told him that was the best question by far - that be that as it may - I really have only one message but sometimes have to speak in two languages. 

We’ve contemporized worship services - it’s time we contemporize our global communication.  The only problem - we can’t contemporize what we don’t …

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