I recently watched this video linked through the Verge Network online.  There's a lot about this video that I appreciate and that is a very clear challenge to the church to live and act like Jesus intended.

Jeff Vanderstelt talks about the Soma community and makes some pretty strong and profound statements that I think all of us in our churches should be discussing with great intensity and sincerity.  I've placed some of those quotes after the video. Let me know your thoughts.

"You can actually have a Bible study without being faithful to scripture.  So often Bible studies stop.  They don't actually create the church or lead to a healthy effective church.  They often think the goal was the study of the Bible instead of becoming a healthy family on mission.  If you don't have mission that will be an unhealthy family actually because there would be no reproduction, no multiplication…. Healthy disciples raise up more disciples.  Healthy leaders raise up more leaders.  Healthy churches raise up more churches.

"A lot of churches have become orphanages. They know how to have babies and they have a couple dads and moms for all the babies, but not nearly enough to care for them well to set them off to raise families.  So it's a perpetual orphanage they've created.  I believe a church committed to multiplication will have great leaders ultimately because they'll have to train them up to raise their own families some day."

"I think one of the most powerful apologetics of the Gospel is when a group of people love one another and live in unity together in the midst of a broken, dark, depraved world.  And they don't think they have to remove themselves to be sanctified because they believe the Gospel is powerful enough to sanctify them in the middle of a broken world."

Thoughts?

'til next time,

akd