G.L.A.D. – A church near you? Blog dated March 25, 2013 · by Leighton Carr © · in Church of England, FAITH & CHURCH,leadership in church, sustainability · At a conference I attended recently one of the speakers – going ‘off piste’ from his subject of The Environment – started musing openly about various facets of church life, increasing in confusion until he finished with ‘…but what is church anyway?’ “For goodness sake, is it really that complicated?” I thought, as I do so often nowadays when people pontificate in confusion on this subject. Anyway, I have my own mnemonic for the simple definition of an effective church, which is G.L.A.D. – being G – gathered in worship, praise and prayer L – learning together from experience and scripture A – active in witness and service inside and outside the church D – distinctive as a community – living well in difficult times. So, how do you become an effective church leader? Keep it simple and focus on these few key essentials of an effective church (…and read the closely related blog ‘The “Big Four” of Discipleship’)
The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 1 Blog dated February 27, 2013 · by Leighton Carr © · in JUST LIVING, prayer, spiritual life · Ask yourself the question: how many disciples do you know who have the facility to teach you to be a better disciple? You know the sort of thing: o
when you’re stuck in prayer they can teach you where to go next;
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when you are struggling to understand the Bible they can connect passages and themes for you;
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when you stumble over your words at work when trying describe your experience of God they can help you clarify what you really think;
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when you struggle with lowering debt or raising children they can sit alongside you and help you formulate plans that are practical and sensible and yet faithful to the Bible.
I’ve been through my contact list (which is extensive). Leaving out clergy, I know only four people who are close. Leaving out licensed lay ministers, that leaves three. And two are women. Interestingly all have come through very hard times in which they have had their faith chiselled and beaten into shape. How close are you? How close am I? While we’re thinking about this we need a plan - mine is here - The “Big Four” of Disipleship – Part 2
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The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 2 Blog dated February 28, 2013 · by Leighton Carr © · in JUST LIVING, prayer, spiritual life · Edit If you read The “Big Four” – Part 1 you’ll know that the basic idea is that there is too much talking and too little understanding of Christian Discipleship which results in too few disciples actually ‘doing’ discipleship and far too few able to teach discipleship. Before outlining my simple plan of discipleship there are two things to remember: 1.
First, discipleship is inherently simple. If it was not simple then most of the Christian world would not be flourishing, and it is. And second, we have to DO it. It’s really worse than useless to keep talking about the same
2.
things that are the wrong things and not do the important things that are the right things. So my simple plan of discipleship includes four things, what I call the Big Four of Discipleship, and they are:
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Prayer – which includes learning to pray and to worship,
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Witness – connecting us with Scripture and with God’s world,
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Service – both inside and outside the church,
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Life – doing life well with increasing wisdom.
If I could do these four things well I believe I would be living as an effective disciple. And I also believe – without any doubt whatsoever – that a community of people who can do these things well together would be an effective church – with everyone ‘brought to maturity in Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13) So that’s my simple plan. And my simple aim in life is to help people and churches do these four things so well that they become mountain moving, culture challenging communities of love and faith.
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