Tag: discipleship

Digital Lenten Spiritual Discipline

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These days, one of the most popular ways to connect with others via social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) is by sharing meaningful photos. The Church has caught onto this trend with themed photo challenges. One of the most widely-known challenges is from the United Methodist Church’s rethinkchurch.org. With the rise in photo-sharing popularity, other organizations, denominations, and even individual congregations have created their own “photo challenges” for Lent and Advent. Each challenge usually assigns a word and Scripture passage to a day in the season, and tasks the participant with seeking out an image that fits the word. When shared, participants are encouraged to use the hashtags provided by the facilitating organization. When a participant clicks the hashtag (e.g. #pictureLent, #Lent2015), all hash-tagged posts appear together. Continue reading →

From Volunteer to Disciple: Reframing Ministry

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We struggle to find volunteers to teach Sunday school. Excuses are fired in rapid succession: “My children play soccer,” “I grocery shop on Sunday mornings,” “Sometimes we go away on weekends,” “Sunday’s are my day to sleep in,” “I don’t know enough about the Bible.”   Yes, we are busy, but our excuses reflect the low priority of teaching Sunday school. After all, often we say, “We just need a volunteer.”

We need to reframe our teaching ministry. We need to move our volunteers to disciples, where volunteers see themselves as disciples of Jesus. When we make this shift, our goals change, we add clarity to our motivation, and we more accurately define our purpose. We revitalize our teaching ministry with movement and make a transformative impact on those we teach. Continue reading →