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  1. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything

    Thousands of years ago there was a void, but there also was the Eternal Being that ever was and always shall be, having had no birth and never having an end or not able to die. That divine Eternal Being “That is” or “I Am“, the “I Am Who Am” or the “I Am Who Is” has a Voice and that Voice spoke in the darkness and when it spoke that what it expressed came into being. In this way That Spiritual Being “The I Am that I Am” took care that things came into being. Every time This I am that I am Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh אהיה אשר אהיה saw it was alright and when it was good The Cause of Being brought an other thing into existence. Every time The Being “That Is” spoke Its Word became a reality. The incorruptible Word spoken brought into existence.

    It was God’s Power (the Holy Spirit) that brought things to life. It was God His Word which was spoken, brought into reality and was there to stay for ever in truth, never telling lies. As such later in history the carnal beings created by that Most High Eternal Being received in their hands the greatest source of the greatest ideas known to man. First the Word went from one being to an other vocally, but later it became recorded on stone plates, than on papyrus and parchment roles. First those words of the Most High were notated in Hebrew, than Aramaic words and Greek words supplemented the documents written down in the name of God by set apart (holy) men.  This way man got the Scriptures, and for this series on the new or 2nd Adam we shall also look into the wisdom of the theological minds who brought forth the 1599 Geneva Bible Patriot’s Edition, which will enable you to think God’s thoughts after Him because the Bible is His special revelation. Herewith is a resource that you are sure to find indispensable for the study and interpretation of creation as God would have you see it.

    A 1581 edition of the Geneva Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    The Geneva Bible once changed the world. With that Bible man can hold in their hands something that is about to change the world — again. For those who find that bible we ask them to use this Bible with care. Use it faithfully with faith. Then watch God once more do above and beyond all that we can ask or imagine.

    {For this series we use the revised 2010 Tolle Lege Press (United States of America) edition of the 1599 Geneva Bible Restoration Project}

    To come to know why Jesus is so important for us and to come to see who he is and what purpose he served, we have to go back to the beginning of everything. We have to listen to the Word which sounded in the void.

    In Genesis chapter one we are told how everything started and that first of all, and before that any creature was, God made heaven and earth of nothing.

    Genesis 1

    1 God created the heaven and the earth. 3 The light
    and the darkness, 8 The firmament, 9 He separateth
    the water from the earth. 16 He createth the sun, the moon,
    and the stars. 21 He createth the fish, birds, beasts, 26 He
    createth man, and giveth him rule over all creatures, 29 And
    provideth nurture for man and beast.

    1 In the 1beginning aGod created the heaven and the earth.
    2 And the earth was 1,2without form and void, and 3darkness was upon the 4deep, and the Spirit of God 5moved upon the 6waters.
    3 Then God said, bLet there be light: And there was 1light.
    4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated 1the light from the darkness.
    5 And God called the Light, Day, and the darkness he called Night. 1So the evening and the morning
    were the first day.

    The Creation – James Tissot (1836–1902)

    Next we come to hear that it is the only power of God’s Word, His speaking, that makes the earth fruitful, which else naturally is barren. In Scriptures also more than once shall it be repeated that God made all His creatures to serve to His glory and God wanting to see that all is good, but that in the world there is seed, the matter that brings forth new matter, good or bad, depending on how the seed is and where the seed lands, in what sort of soil.

    9  God said again, eLet the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
    10 And God called the dry land, Earth, and he called the gathering together of the waters, Seas: and God saw that it was good.
    11 Then God said, 1Let the earth bud forth the bud of the herb, that seedeth seed, the fruitful tree, which beareth fruit according to his kind, which hath his seed in itself upon the earth: and it was so.
    12 And the earth brought forth the bud of the herb, that seedeth seed according to his kind, also the tree that beareth fruit, which hath his seed in itself according to his kind: and God 1saw that it was good.

    Too many christians do forget that the Bible also tells us clearly that there were animals and plants before man.

    20 Afterward God said, Let the waters bring forth in abundance every 1creeping thing that hath 2life: and let the fowl fly upon the earth in the 3open firmament of the heaven.
    21 Then God created the great whales, and everything living and moving, which the 1waters brought forth in abundance according to their kind, and every feathered fowl according to his kind: and God saw that it was good.
    22 Then God 1blessed them, saying, Bring forth fruit and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth.
    23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

    Only after all the planets, waters and earth, creeping beings it became time for an other creeping being of flesh and blood, in a system where there would be light and darkness as instruments appointed to serve to man’s use.

    Every time God spoke, the “soul of life” came into the beings (Hebrew for the “living thing” verse 24).

    24  Moreover God said, Let the earth bring forth the 1living thing according to his kind, cattle, and that which creepeth, and the beast of the earth according to his kind, and it was so.
    25 And God made the beast of the earth according to his kind, and the cattle according to his kind, and every creeping thing of the earth according to his kind: and God saw that it was good.

    It was only after God had commanded the water and the earth to bring forth other creatures, that He said of man “Let us make”, signifying, that He the Most Highest, Who speaks with the ‘Royal We’ (Royal plural or Pluralis majestatis), God

    “taketh counsel with his wisdom and virtue, purposing to make an excellent work above all the rest of his creation.” (1599 Geneva Patriot’s Edition)

    26 Furthermore God said, h,1Let us make man in our 2image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creepeth and moveth on the earth.
    27 Thus God created the man in his image: in the image of God created he him: he created them imale and female.
    28 And God 1blessed them, and God said to them, jBring forth fruit, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over every beast that moveth upon the earth.
    29 And God said, Behold, I have given unto you 1every herb bearing seed, which is upon all the earth, and every tree, wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed: kthat shall be to you for meat.
    30 Likewise to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heaven, and to everything that moveth
    upon the earth, which hath life in itself, every green herb shall be for meat, and it was so.
    31 lAnd God saw all that he had made, and lo, it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

    The Earthly Paradise – Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625)

    +

    Preceding introductory article: Geneva Bible, Source text for our series on the beginning of Jesus

    Next: The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind

    ++

    Additional reading

    1. I am that I am Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyehאהיה אשר אהיה
    2. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
    3. Why think there’s a God? (1): Something from Nothing
    4. Where did God come from?
    5. Does He exists?
    6. Attributes to God
    7. El-Shaddai God Almighty Who no-one may see and live
    8. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
    9. Bible, sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man
    10. Written down in God’s Name for righteousness
    11. Glory of only One God Who gives His Word
    12. Written and translated by different men over thousands of years
    13. Focussing on oneness with Jesus like Jesus is one with God
    14. See God’s wonderworks and hear His Voice
    15. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
    16. The Word being a quality or aspect of God Himself
    17. Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and mouvement
    18. The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods
    19. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
    20. Creation Creator and Creation
    21. Means of creations
    22. From waste and void coming into being by God’s Word
    23. Creation of the earth out of something
    24. Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
    25. Scripture about Creation and Creator Deity
    26. Genesis 1 story does not take away an evolution
    27. Genesis – Story of creation 1 Genesis 1:1-25 Creation of things
    28. God’s Word Framing universe
    29. The World framed by the Word of God
    30. Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
    31. Creation purpose and warranty
    32. Different principle about the origin and beginning of everything
    33. Cosmos creator and human destiny
    34. Blackness, nothingness, something, void
    35. Nothingness
    36. Something from nothing
    37. Accommodation of the Void
    38. From waste and void coming into being by God’s Word
    39. “Before” and “after” the Big Bang
    40. Creation of the earth and man #1 Planet for living beings in a pre-Adamic world
    41. God’s Word is like the rain
    42. Other stories about the beginning of times
    43. Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
    44. Is it “Wrong” to Believe that the Earth is a Sphere?

    +++

    Further readings of interest:

    1. Essential Doctrines (Part 1): The Doctrine of God’s Existence
    2. What About Those Who Do Not Know The Name of God?
    3. To Know God in Six Days
    4. The Great Architect
    5. Please!!! Don’t tell me that you honestly think the universe is 6000 years old!!!!
    6. The universe is not 6000 years old
    7. Proof that the Bible cannot be taken literally
    8. Life & Light
    9. Isaiah 41:10
    10. The #Genesis Theory – (Part 1) – YouTube
    11. Creation: In the Beginning
    12. Entry No.1 – A Creation Myth
    13. What happened on each of the days of Creation?
    14. The Divine Presence
    15. God’s Attention Is On You!
    16. Big Bang Theory & Life
    17. In His image…
    18. Be fruitful and multiply…
    19. God-Authenticated Togetherness
    20. Live your life in tandem with God
    21. Law versus Law
    22. “In Christ” #897
    23. What do you have your eyes on?
    24. Science vs Bible
    25. God Turns Darkness Into Light

    +++

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  2. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

    As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that Christians are a Moral Majority. For the Christadelphian community it was already very clear that Christendom had gone astray and that not many people knew the essence of the Divine Creator and His Plan.

    Guestspeaker’s 1° article 2014 March 26 on “From Guestwriters”

    In certain parts of the world we may find mega churches, like in the United states of America. But what we also see in those countries is that there is a very strange discrepancy between the way of life and the way presented in the Holy Scriptures. In the talks about pro-life issues and arguments at our website From Guestwriters this is made clear in the different reactions where some readers point out at the huge amount of abortions been done every day. Such points of discussion as the abortion debate show how values and attitudes have changed over the years.

    Those people who call themselves Christian either are not so much interested in having an active faith or going to worship services or when they want to go to worship services they expect them to be relaxing and entertaining. For many the entertaining factor receives priority. This makes it understandable why certain churches in the States get full house whilst the churches really interested in and giving eye and ear for the Word of God do not have so many people coming to their service.

    In general people are very much influenced by the media and television and show business are not the instruments who, today,  bring the people to God. the television church services are full of show elements and short quoting form a few words taken from Scripture but also taken out of context. No time is given to sincerely listen and to sincerely study a full paragraph of a Bible chapter.

    Our very fast changing world can do with a sort of new reformation. What’s needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.

    We should seek the kingdom of God, before everything else and we should love to bring others to the entrance gate of that Kingdom. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonise opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let’s do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.

    Today more than ever those who feel the connection with the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua should connect with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and show their love for each other. Not staying in their small local cocoon, but also connecting to other brethren and sisters from all over. They should be welcoming any visiting brother or sister and when they receive mail from some brother or sister form somewhere in the world they should take time to answer that mail and to show their love to that correspondent by not ignoring him or her but letting those writers be feeling recognised as brothers and sisters of the body of Christ.

    Though that Body of Christ may be composed of different nationalities, different cultured races, they should all show that they have union in that body of Christ by the unity of spirit in Christ. Unity should be shown by their willingness to communicate with each other and to be respectful for the different characters and different opinions. Unity does not have to mean that all have to say exactly the same or have to use the same bible translation, read the same books, may not have different ways of civilian life, may not have different tastes. Those differences make the world coloured and not boring. We should be happy with such diversity and the differences between ecclesiae may provide different pastures for bible believers to find themselves at ease in one or the other ecclesia.

    Jubilant Joel Osteen Juice Megachurch

    In Jesus time the apostles were also of different character and different opinion or used not always the same words. We should neither. In our way of reaching people we should recognise that they should not know Christadelphianisms and may have a religious vocabulary closer to the denomination to which they belonged originally or still belong. By preaching to them we do have to be able to use different words and different Bible translations so that they can come to understand what the Word of God is saying. We are just some intermediaries who want to show them that Jesus is our mediator and the Way to God.

    The Lord’s Hall a Christian megachurch in the Philippines that is managed by the Day by Day Christian Ministries DBD since 2005 situated and leased from the CCP, due to numerous concerns at the time though the church is known as DBD’s flagship church, and is known for being a venue for massive Christian gatherings by Rev Gamaliel Alba and Sun Cruises, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd.

    Those we want to attract to the Word of God we have to convince that it are not the megachurches or the churches with the most members that are really following the Word of God and would not have false teachings or wrong doctrines. Lots of people may also put their hope in such megachurches because they expect megachurch pastors to have all the answers and that those churches could grow so much because those pastors are personally successful as well as leaders of successful churches because they can offer the best for man.

    At conferences such preachers also may attract a lot of attention because many think they have the solution for today’s problem, a diminishing church.

    and so we come to see what crumbs of wisdom they might cast our way that will help us and our small churches be”successful” like they are.

    writes pastor Jim in his article “Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?“. Like many of us in the Christadelphian community is has seen Abraham and should have gathered enough experience to have some sound opinion. He believes that such leaders of mega churches may deliver good sermons. For sure they probably are good administrators, very good players with words or good speakers having a good deal of charisma. He correctly points out

    Their churches offer tons of programs for children and adults—from support groups for people with various problems to children’s ministry and everything in between. But are a variety of programs offered to attract large numbers of people to their church a measure of success as  Jesus defined success?  I’m not so sure of this… {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    He is leading a Home Fellowship Group in a Bible Study of the Gospel of Mark.  At their last session they discussed this question of “supersize” as Jesus seemed to see it.

    He accepted the large crowds he attracted—some so large along the Sea of Galilee that he acquired a boat to get in so he would not be crushed by the crowds seeking to touch him and be healed. But Jesus tends to see those crowds as no reason for gratification. He feels that many of them are there for the wrong reason, to be healed of their infirmities and to see the miraculous. Jesus heals them and has compassion for them, but proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God is his main mission. That proclamation is his main mission because it  has the power to transform people’s lives, and sometimes people who are only seeking physical healing and entertainment can get in the way of that proclamation. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    In those days Jesus also had to get listening ears. In that age people were much more willing to listen and to go into discussion about religious and spiritual matters. There was much more interest in God than today. But Jesus knew that from the many that came around to hear him speak, there were also many who came out of curiosity or wanted to see miracles or hear controversial talks.

    Jesus saw the crowds to whom he sought to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God in the same way as a sower.

    Only a small portion of the crowd would actually be transformed by the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The rest would let other things choke it out of their lives and die unchanged. Thus I feel Jesus was not impressed with numbers but with changes in the lives of people who heard him. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?} {Please do read also Mark 4: 1-9}

    Too often people think it our the numbers that make it to be good. Perhaps the numbers show the popularity, but for sure they do not always show the integrity or the good value of a product or group.

    The pastor thinks the answer to his and our question “Is Bigger Better?” as it pertains to churches is this:

    it is not size alone that leads to success of any church, large or small, but it is  its ability to follow Jesus and in doing so  transform the lives of those who are a part of that church and those who that church reaches out to.   The measure of a church’s success is the number of lives that have been changed and transformed due to its proclamation both in word and in deed of the Kingdom of God.   The successful church  is the “good soil” in the Parable of the Sower” that brings forth transformation  of people’s lives and nurtures their growth in relationship to God and God’s Kingdom.

    A successful church, regardless of the names on the roster, changes people into devoted followers of Jesus and his teachings as they live their lives each day.   Small churches can be just as successful as large churches in changing people’s lives as they live the great commandment to love God and neighbor as yourself.”   Sometimes because small churches are more personal, they are able to live this better than those with thousands on their membership roster. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    The Christadelphians are a very tiny community. We only can hope that all people in this small community bear their hearts on the right place. God knows the heart and it is for him that we should work and go out in the world getting people to know the Master works of God.

    We may not forget that by being such a small community we have the advantage that we can get together in small cosy groups and feel much more the unity of the small group than in such mega churches were everybody can sit next to each other without knowing the other. When sitting in a stadium, arena or in such a huge church were there are hundreds or thousands of people it can well be that the individual may be drowning in the numbers.

    We should be ready to throw out the lifeline and to pull those people who are looking for the Truth, to get to our meetings and let them feel that we are real followers of Jesus, keeping to his teachings and not adoring human doctrines, but keeping to Biblical doctrines, studying the infallible Word of God daily.

    +

    Preceding:

    Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

    The Big Conversation

    The Big Conversation follow up

    Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

    The Right One to follow and to worship

    Wanting to live in Christ’s city

    A participation in the body of Christ

    Positive Preaching Day 2015

    Doubting and going astray

    Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

    ++

    Additional reading:

    1. Who are the Christadelphians
    2. What are Brothers in Christ
    3. Christadelphian people
    4. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
    5. Strange Fire conference 2013
    6. Bloggers for Christ and Bloggers for Peace
    7. Being Missional
    8. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
    9. Atonement And Fellowship 5/8
    10. Good or bad preacher
    11. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
    12. Reflection for today: hating your brother

    +++

    Further reading:

    1. Lessons Learned at Strange Fire
    2. A Vision of Holiness
    3. Praying in Circles
    4. In this Moment
    5. Wanting to be Heard
    6. truth nugget #66
    7. Unite against their corruption, not our church’s
    8. Prosperity Gospel – The Bane of The True Gospel
    9. The Conference Every Mega-Church Pastor Should Attend
    10. Millennials And Christianity!
    11. In Delight of the Deca-Church
    12. [TL;DR] In Defense of the Mega-Church
    13. Agree to Disagree
    14. Kingdom Building: The Large Church and the Small Church Working Together
    15. Mega Churches: What’s the big deal?
    16. 3 Reasons Why You Should Go To A Small Church
    17. Missed Opportunities
    18. Pastoral Environment and the Fight for Holiness
    19. Welcome to the Club
    20. 365 Day Photo Challenge 167/365 “Church on the Hill”
    21. Extravaganza City
    22. Instructed In God’s Ways
    23. Why Black Mega Church Pastors Catch Such Heat
    24. Book Review: The Blessed Church
    25. My Two Cents… conderning a famous mega-church preacher
    26. I don’t believe in mega churches
    27. American Christian Idol

    +++

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  3. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

    As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that Christians are a Moral Majority. For the Christadelphian community it was already very clear that Christendom had gone astray and that not many people knew the essence of the Divine Creator and His Plan.

    Guestspeaker’s 1° article 2014 March 26 on “From Guestwriters”

    In certain parts of the world we may find mega churches, like in the United states of America. But what we also see in those countries is that there is a very strange discrepancy between the way of life and the way presented in the Holy Scriptures. In the talks about pro-life issues and arguments at our website From Guestwriters this is made clear in the different reactions where some readers point out at the huge amount of abortions been done every day. Such points of discussion as the abortion debate show how values and attitudes have changed over the years.

    Those people who call themselves Christian either are not so much interested in having an active faith or going to worship services or when they want to go to worship services they expect them to be relaxing and entertaining. For many the entertaining factor receives priority. This makes it understandable why certain churches in the States get full house whilst the churches really interested in and giving eye and ear for the Word of God do not have so many people coming to their service.

    In general people are very much influenced by the media and television and show business are not the instruments who, today,  bring the people to God. the television church services are full of show elements and short quoting form a few words taken from Scripture but also taken out of context. No time is given to sincerely listen and to sincerely study a full paragraph of a Bible chapter.

    Our very fast changing world can do with a sort of new reformation. What’s needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.

    We should seek the kingdom of God, before everything else and we should love to bring others to the entrance gate of that Kingdom. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonise opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let’s do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.

    Today more than ever those who feel the connection with the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua should connect with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and show their love for each other. Not staying in their small local cocoon, but also connecting to other brethren and sisters from all over. They should be welcoming any visiting brother or sister and when they receive mail from some brother or sister form somewhere in the world they should take time to answer that mail and to show their love to that correspondent by not ignoring him or her but letting those writers be feeling recognised as brothers and sisters of the body of Christ.

    Though that Body of Christ may be composed of different nationalities, different cultured races, they should all show that they have union in that body of Christ by the unity of spirit in Christ. Unity should be shown by their willingness to communicate with each other and to be respectful for the different characters and different opinions. Unity does not have to mean that all have to say exactly the same or have to use the same bible translation, read the same books, may not have different ways of civilian life, may not have different tastes. Those differences make the world coloured and not boring. We should be happy with such diversity and the differences between ecclesiae may provide different pastures for bible believers to find themselves at ease in one or the other ecclesia.

    Jubilant Joel Osteen Juice Megachurch

    In Jesus time the apostles were also of different character and different opinion or used not always the same words. We should neither. In our way of reaching people we should recognise that they should not know Christadelphianisms and may have a religious vocabulary closer to the denomination to which they belonged originally or still belong. By preaching to them we do have to be able to use different words and different Bible translations so that they can come to understand what the Word of God is saying. We are just some intermediaries who want to show them that Jesus is our mediator and the Way to God.

    The Lord’s Hall a Christian megachurch in the Philippines that is managed by the Day by Day Christian Ministries DBD since 2005 situated and leased from the CCP, due to numerous concerns at the time though the church is known as DBD’s flagship church, and is known for being a venue for massive Christian gatherings by Rev Gamaliel Alba and Sun Cruises, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd.

    Those we want to attract to the Word of God we have to convince that it are not the megachurches or the churches with the most members that are really following the Word of God and would not have false teachings or wrong doctrines. Lots of people may also put their hope in such megachurches because they expect megachurch pastors to have all the answers and that those churches could grow so much because those pastors are personally successful as well as leaders of successful churches because they can offer the best for man.

    At conferences such preachers also may attract a lot of attention because many think they have the solution for today’s problem, a diminishing church.

    and so we come to see what crumbs of wisdom they might cast our way that will help us and our small churches be”successful” like they are.

    writes pastor Jim in his article “Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?“. Like many of us in the Christadelphian community is has seen Abraham and should have gathered enough experience to have some sound opinion. He believes that such leaders of mega churches may deliver good sermons. For sure they probably are good administrators, very good players with words or good speakers having a good deal of charisma. He correctly points out

    Their churches offer tons of programs for children and adults—from support groups for people with various problems to children’s ministry and everything in between. But are a variety of programs offered to attract large numbers of people to their church a measure of success as  Jesus defined success?  I’m not so sure of this… {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    He is leading a Home Fellowship Group in a Bible Study of the Gospel of Mark.  At their last session they discussed this question of “supersize” as Jesus seemed to see it.

    He accepted the large crowds he attracted—some so large along the Sea of Galilee that he acquired a boat to get in so he would not be crushed by the crowds seeking to touch him and be healed. But Jesus tends to see those crowds as no reason for gratification. He feels that many of them are there for the wrong reason, to be healed of their infirmities and to see the miraculous. Jesus heals them and has compassion for them, but proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God is his main mission. That proclamation is his main mission because it  has the power to transform people’s lives, and sometimes people who are only seeking physical healing and entertainment can get in the way of that proclamation. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    In those days Jesus also had to get listening ears. In that age people were much more willing to listen and to go into discussion about religious and spiritual matters. There was much more interest in God than today. But Jesus knew that from the many that came around to hear him speak, there were also many who came out of curiosity or wanted to see miracles or hear controversial talks.

    Jesus saw the crowds to whom he sought to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God in the same way as a sower.

    Only a small portion of the crowd would actually be transformed by the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The rest would let other things choke it out of their lives and die unchanged. Thus I feel Jesus was not impressed with numbers but with changes in the lives of people who heard him. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?} {Please do read also Mark 4: 1-9}

    Too often people think it our the numbers that make it to be good. Perhaps the numbers show the popularity, but for sure they do not always show the integrity or the good value of a product or group.

    The pastor thinks the answer to his and our question “Is Bigger Better?” as it pertains to churches is this:

    it is not size alone that leads to success of any church, large or small, but it is  its ability to follow Jesus and in doing so  transform the lives of those who are a part of that church and those who that church reaches out to.   The measure of a church’s success is the number of lives that have been changed and transformed due to its proclamation both in word and in deed of the Kingdom of God.   The successful church  is the “good soil” in the Parable of the Sower” that brings forth transformation  of people’s lives and nurtures their growth in relationship to God and God’s Kingdom.

    A successful church, regardless of the names on the roster, changes people into devoted followers of Jesus and his teachings as they live their lives each day.   Small churches can be just as successful as large churches in changing people’s lives as they live the great commandment to love God and neighbor as yourself.”   Sometimes because small churches are more personal, they are able to live this better than those with thousands on their membership roster. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    The Christadelphians are a very tiny community. We only can hope that all people in this small community bear their hearts on the right place. God knows the heart and it is for him that we should work and go out in the world getting people to know the Master works of God.

    We may not forget that by being such a small community we have the advantage that we can get together in small cosy groups and feel much more the unity of the small group than in such mega churches were everybody can sit next to each other without knowing the other. When sitting in a stadium, arena or in such a huge church were there are hundreds or thousands of people it can well be that the individual may be drowning in the numbers.

    We should be ready to throw out the lifeline and to pull those people who are looking for the Truth, to get to our meetings and let them feel that we are real followers of Jesus, keeping to his teachings and not adoring human doctrines, but keeping to Biblical doctrines, studying the infallible Word of God daily.

    +

    Preceding:

    Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

    The Big Conversation

    The Big Conversation follow up

    Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

    The Right One to follow and to worship

    Wanting to live in Christ’s city

    A participation in the body of Christ

    Positive Preaching Day 2015

    Doubting and going astray

    Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

    ++

    Additional reading:

    1. Who are the Christadelphians
    2. What are Brothers in Christ
    3. Christadelphian people
    4. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
    5. Strange Fire conference 2013
    6. Bloggers for Christ and Bloggers for Peace
    7. Being Missional
    8. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
    9. Atonement And Fellowship 5/8
    10. Good or bad preacher
    11. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
    12. Reflection for today: hating your brother

    +++

    Further reading:

    1. Lessons Learned at Strange Fire
    2. A Vision of Holiness
    3. Praying in Circles
    4. In this Moment
    5. Wanting to be Heard
    6. truth nugget #66
    7. Unite against their corruption, not our church’s
    8. Prosperity Gospel – The Bane of The True Gospel
    9. The Conference Every Mega-Church Pastor Should Attend
    10. Millennials And Christianity!
    11. In Delight of the Deca-Church
    12. [TL;DR] In Defense of the Mega-Church
    13. Agree to Disagree
    14. Kingdom Building: The Large Church and the Small Church Working Together
    15. Mega Churches: What’s the big deal?
    16. 3 Reasons Why You Should Go To A Small Church
    17. Missed Opportunities
    18. Pastoral Environment and the Fight for Holiness
    19. Welcome to the Club
    20. 365 Day Photo Challenge 167/365 “Church on the Hill”
    21. Extravaganza City
    22. Instructed In God’s Ways
    23. Why Black Mega Church Pastors Catch Such Heat
    24. Book Review: The Blessed Church
    25. My Two Cents… conderning a famous mega-church preacher
    26. I don’t believe in mega churches
    27. American Christian Idol

    +++

    Related articles

    Rate this:

    #BeingInUnion #BodyOfChrist #BrotherInChrist #Brotherhood #BrothersAndSistersInChrist #BrothersInChrist #Charisma #ChristadelphianCommunity #Christadelphianisms #Christian #ChristianChurch #ChurchService #Communication #Denomination #Disunion #Diversity #EntertainmentInChurch #GoodSoil #HomeFellowship #HumanDoctrines #Ignoring #IgnoringOthers #Lifeline #Media #MegaChurch #Mission #MoralMajority #NeglectingOthers #NewReformation #NoticingOthers #NumbersAmount_ #Opinion #Orator #ParticipationInBodyOfChrist #Pastor #Preaching #PreachingWork #Proclaiming #Proclamation #Quantity #ReligiousCommunity #ReligiousDiversity #ReligiousFreedom #ReligiousVocabulary #SisterInChrist #SistersInChrist #SmallGroup #SpiritInChrist #Successfulness #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityInDiversity #WorshipService

  4. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

    As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that Christians are a Moral Majority. For the Christadelphian community it was already very clear that Christendom had gone astray and that not many people knew the essence of the Divine Creator and His Plan.

    Guestspeaker’s 1° article 2014 March 26 on “From Guestwriters”

    In certain parts of the world we may find mega churches, like in the United states of America. But what we also see in those countries is that there is a very strange discrepancy between the way of life and the way presented in the Holy Scriptures. In the talks about pro-life issues and arguments at our website From Guestwriters this is made clear in the different reactions where some readers point out at the huge amount of abortions been done every day. Such points of discussion as the abortion debate show how values and attitudes have changed over the years.

    Those people who call themselves Christian either are not so much interested in having an active faith or going to worship services or when they want to go to worship services they expect them to be relaxing and entertaining. For many the entertaining factor receives priority. This makes it understandable why certain churches in the States get full house whilst the churches really interested in and giving eye and ear for the Word of God do not have so many people coming to their service.

    In general people are very much influenced by the media and television and show business are not the instruments who, today,  bring the people to God. the television church services are full of show elements and short quoting form a few words taken from Scripture but also taken out of context. No time is given to sincerely listen and to sincerely study a full paragraph of a Bible chapter.

    Our very fast changing world can do with a sort of new reformation. What’s needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.

    We should seek the kingdom of God, before everything else and we should love to bring others to the entrance gate of that Kingdom. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonise opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let’s do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.

    Today more than ever those who feel the connection with the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua should connect with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and show their love for each other. Not staying in their small local cocoon, but also connecting to other brethren and sisters from all over. They should be welcoming any visiting brother or sister and when they receive mail from some brother or sister form somewhere in the world they should take time to answer that mail and to show their love to that correspondent by not ignoring him or her but letting those writers be feeling recognised as brothers and sisters of the body of Christ.

    Though that Body of Christ may be composed of different nationalities, different cultured races, they should all show that they have union in that body of Christ by the unity of spirit in Christ. Unity should be shown by their willingness to communicate with each other and to be respectful for the different characters and different opinions. Unity does not have to mean that all have to say exactly the same or have to use the same bible translation, read the same books, may not have different ways of civilian life, may not have different tastes. Those differences make the world coloured and not boring. We should be happy with such diversity and the differences between ecclesiae may provide different pastures for bible believers to find themselves at ease in one or the other ecclesia.

    Jubilant Joel Osteen Juice Megachurch

    In Jesus time the apostles were also of different character and different opinion or used not always the same words. We should neither. In our way of reaching people we should recognise that they should not know Christadelphianisms and may have a religious vocabulary closer to the denomination to which they belonged originally or still belong. By preaching to them we do have to be able to use different words and different Bible translations so that they can come to understand what the Word of God is saying. We are just some intermediaries who want to show them that Jesus is our mediator and the Way to God.

    The Lord’s Hall a Christian megachurch in the Philippines that is managed by the Day by Day Christian Ministries DBD since 2005 situated and leased from the CCP, due to numerous concerns at the time though the church is known as DBD’s flagship church, and is known for being a venue for massive Christian gatherings by Rev Gamaliel Alba and Sun Cruises, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd.

    Those we want to attract to the Word of God we have to convince that it are not the megachurches or the churches with the most members that are really following the Word of God and would not have false teachings or wrong doctrines. Lots of people may also put their hope in such megachurches because they expect megachurch pastors to have all the answers and that those churches could grow so much because those pastors are personally successful as well as leaders of successful churches because they can offer the best for man.

    At conferences such preachers also may attract a lot of attention because many think they have the solution for today’s problem, a diminishing church.

    and so we come to see what crumbs of wisdom they might cast our way that will help us and our small churches be”successful” like they are.

    writes pastor Jim in his article “Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?“. Like many of us in the Christadelphian community is has seen Abraham and should have gathered enough experience to have some sound opinion. He believes that such leaders of mega churches may deliver good sermons. For sure they probably are good administrators, very good players with words or good speakers having a good deal of charisma. He correctly points out

    Their churches offer tons of programs for children and adults—from support groups for people with various problems to children’s ministry and everything in between. But are a variety of programs offered to attract large numbers of people to their church a measure of success as  Jesus defined success?  I’m not so sure of this… {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    He is leading a Home Fellowship Group in a Bible Study of the Gospel of Mark.  At their last session they discussed this question of “supersize” as Jesus seemed to see it.

    He accepted the large crowds he attracted—some so large along the Sea of Galilee that he acquired a boat to get in so he would not be crushed by the crowds seeking to touch him and be healed. But Jesus tends to see those crowds as no reason for gratification. He feels that many of them are there for the wrong reason, to be healed of their infirmities and to see the miraculous. Jesus heals them and has compassion for them, but proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God is his main mission. That proclamation is his main mission because it  has the power to transform people’s lives, and sometimes people who are only seeking physical healing and entertainment can get in the way of that proclamation. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    In those days Jesus also had to get listening ears. In that age people were much more willing to listen and to go into discussion about religious and spiritual matters. There was much more interest in God than today. But Jesus knew that from the many that came around to hear him speak, there were also many who came out of curiosity or wanted to see miracles or hear controversial talks.

    Jesus saw the crowds to whom he sought to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God in the same way as a sower.

    Only a small portion of the crowd would actually be transformed by the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The rest would let other things choke it out of their lives and die unchanged. Thus I feel Jesus was not impressed with numbers but with changes in the lives of people who heard him. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?} {Please do read also Mark 4: 1-9}

    Too often people think it our the numbers that make it to be good. Perhaps the numbers show the popularity, but for sure they do not always show the integrity or the good value of a product or group.

    The pastor thinks the answer to his and our question “Is Bigger Better?” as it pertains to churches is this:

    it is not size alone that leads to success of any church, large or small, but it is  its ability to follow Jesus and in doing so  transform the lives of those who are a part of that church and those who that church reaches out to.   The measure of a church’s success is the number of lives that have been changed and transformed due to its proclamation both in word and in deed of the Kingdom of God.   The successful church  is the “good soil” in the Parable of the Sower” that brings forth transformation  of people’s lives and nurtures their growth in relationship to God and God’s Kingdom.

    A successful church, regardless of the names on the roster, changes people into devoted followers of Jesus and his teachings as they live their lives each day.   Small churches can be just as successful as large churches in changing people’s lives as they live the great commandment to love God and neighbor as yourself.”   Sometimes because small churches are more personal, they are able to live this better than those with thousands on their membership roster. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    The Christadelphians are a very tiny community. We only can hope that all people in this small community bear their hearts on the right place. God knows the heart and it is for him that we should work and go out in the world getting people to know the Master works of God.

    We may not forget that by being such a small community we have the advantage that we can get together in small cosy groups and feel much more the unity of the small group than in such mega churches were everybody can sit next to each other without knowing the other. When sitting in a stadium, arena or in such a huge church were there are hundreds or thousands of people it can well be that the individual may be drowning in the numbers.

    We should be ready to throw out the lifeline and to pull those people who are looking for the Truth, to get to our meetings and let them feel that we are real followers of Jesus, keeping to his teachings and not adoring human doctrines, but keeping to Biblical doctrines, studying the infallible Word of God daily.

    +

    Preceding:

    Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

    The Big Conversation

    The Big Conversation follow up

    Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

    The Right One to follow and to worship

    Wanting to live in Christ’s city

    A participation in the body of Christ

    Positive Preaching Day 2015

    Doubting and going astray

    Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

    ++

    Additional reading:

    1. Who are the Christadelphians
    2. What are Brothers in Christ
    3. Christadelphian people
    4. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
    5. Strange Fire conference 2013
    6. Bloggers for Christ and Bloggers for Peace
    7. Being Missional
    8. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
    9. Atonement And Fellowship 5/8
    10. Good or bad preacher
    11. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
    12. Reflection for today: hating your brother

    +++

    Further reading:

    1. Lessons Learned at Strange Fire
    2. A Vision of Holiness
    3. Praying in Circles
    4. In this Moment
    5. Wanting to be Heard
    6. truth nugget #66
    7. Unite against their corruption, not our church’s
    8. Prosperity Gospel – The Bane of The True Gospel
    9. The Conference Every Mega-Church Pastor Should Attend
    10. Millennials And Christianity!
    11. In Delight of the Deca-Church
    12. [TL;DR] In Defense of the Mega-Church
    13. Agree to Disagree
    14. Kingdom Building: The Large Church and the Small Church Working Together
    15. Mega Churches: What’s the big deal?
    16. 3 Reasons Why You Should Go To A Small Church
    17. Missed Opportunities
    18. Pastoral Environment and the Fight for Holiness
    19. Welcome to the Club
    20. 365 Day Photo Challenge 167/365 “Church on the Hill”
    21. Extravaganza City
    22. Instructed In God’s Ways
    23. Why Black Mega Church Pastors Catch Such Heat
    24. Book Review: The Blessed Church
    25. My Two Cents… conderning a famous mega-church preacher
    26. I don’t believe in mega churches
    27. American Christian Idol

    +++

    Related articles

    Rate this:

    #BeingInUnion #BodyOfChrist #BrotherInChrist #Brotherhood #BrothersAndSistersInChrist #BrothersInChrist #Charisma #ChristadelphianCommunity #Christadelphianisms #Christian #ChristianChurch #ChurchService #Communication #Denomination #Disunion #Diversity #EntertainmentInChurch #GoodSoil #HomeFellowship #HumanDoctrines #Ignoring #IgnoringOthers #Lifeline #Media #MegaChurch #Mission #MoralMajority #NeglectingOthers #NewReformation #NoticingOthers #NumbersAmount_ #Opinion #Orator #ParticipationInBodyOfChrist #Pastor #Preaching #PreachingWork #Proclaiming #Proclamation #Quantity #ReligiousCommunity #ReligiousDiversity #ReligiousFreedom #ReligiousVocabulary #SisterInChrist #SistersInChrist #SmallGroup #SpiritInChrist #Successfulness #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityInDiversity #WorshipService

  5. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

    As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that Christians are a Moral Majority. For the Christadelphian community it was already very clear that Christendom had gone astray and that not many people knew the essence of the Divine Creator and His Plan.

    Guestspeaker’s 1° article 2014 March 26 on “From Guestwriters”

    In certain parts of the world we may find mega churches, like in the United states of America. But what we also see in those countries is that there is a very strange discrepancy between the way of life and the way presented in the Holy Scriptures. In the talks about pro-life issues and arguments at our website From Guestwriters this is made clear in the different reactions where some readers point out at the huge amount of abortions been done every day. Such points of discussion as the abortion debate show how values and attitudes have changed over the years.

    Those people who call themselves Christian either are not so much interested in having an active faith or going to worship services or when they want to go to worship services they expect them to be relaxing and entertaining. For many the entertaining factor receives priority. This makes it understandable why certain churches in the States get full house whilst the churches really interested in and giving eye and ear for the Word of God do not have so many people coming to their service.

    In general people are very much influenced by the media and television and show business are not the instruments who, today,  bring the people to God. the television church services are full of show elements and short quoting form a few words taken from Scripture but also taken out of context. No time is given to sincerely listen and to sincerely study a full paragraph of a Bible chapter.

    Our very fast changing world can do with a sort of new reformation. What’s needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.

    We should seek the kingdom of God, before everything else and we should love to bring others to the entrance gate of that Kingdom. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonise opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let’s do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.

    Today more than ever those who feel the connection with the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua should connect with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and show their love for each other. Not staying in their small local cocoon, but also connecting to other brethren and sisters from all over. They should be welcoming any visiting brother or sister and when they receive mail from some brother or sister form somewhere in the world they should take time to answer that mail and to show their love to that correspondent by not ignoring him or her but letting those writers be feeling recognised as brothers and sisters of the body of Christ.

    Though that Body of Christ may be composed of different nationalities, different cultured races, they should all show that they have union in that body of Christ by the unity of spirit in Christ. Unity should be shown by their willingness to communicate with each other and to be respectful for the different characters and different opinions. Unity does not have to mean that all have to say exactly the same or have to use the same bible translation, read the same books, may not have different ways of civilian life, may not have different tastes. Those differences make the world coloured and not boring. We should be happy with such diversity and the differences between ecclesiae may provide different pastures for bible believers to find themselves at ease in one or the other ecclesia.

    Jubilant Joel Osteen Juice Megachurch

    In Jesus time the apostles were also of different character and different opinion or used not always the same words. We should neither. In our way of reaching people we should recognise that they should not know Christadelphianisms and may have a religious vocabulary closer to the denomination to which they belonged originally or still belong. By preaching to them we do have to be able to use different words and different Bible translations so that they can come to understand what the Word of God is saying. We are just some intermediaries who want to show them that Jesus is our mediator and the Way to God.

    The Lord’s Hall a Christian megachurch in the Philippines that is managed by the Day by Day Christian Ministries DBD since 2005 situated and leased from the CCP, due to numerous concerns at the time though the church is known as DBD’s flagship church, and is known for being a venue for massive Christian gatherings by Rev Gamaliel Alba and Sun Cruises, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd.

    Those we want to attract to the Word of God we have to convince that it are not the megachurches or the churches with the most members that are really following the Word of God and would not have false teachings or wrong doctrines. Lots of people may also put their hope in such megachurches because they expect megachurch pastors to have all the answers and that those churches could grow so much because those pastors are personally successful as well as leaders of successful churches because they can offer the best for man.

    At conferences such preachers also may attract a lot of attention because many think they have the solution for today’s problem, a diminishing church.

    and so we come to see what crumbs of wisdom they might cast our way that will help us and our small churches be”successful” like they are.

    writes pastor Jim in his article “Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?“. Like many of us in the Christadelphian community is has seen Abraham and should have gathered enough experience to have some sound opinion. He believes that such leaders of mega churches may deliver good sermons. For sure they probably are good administrators, very good players with words or good speakers having a good deal of charisma. He correctly points out

    Their churches offer tons of programs for children and adults—from support groups for people with various problems to children’s ministry and everything in between. But are a variety of programs offered to attract large numbers of people to their church a measure of success as  Jesus defined success?  I’m not so sure of this… {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    He is leading a Home Fellowship Group in a Bible Study of the Gospel of Mark.  At their last session they discussed this question of “supersize” as Jesus seemed to see it.

    He accepted the large crowds he attracted—some so large along the Sea of Galilee that he acquired a boat to get in so he would not be crushed by the crowds seeking to touch him and be healed. But Jesus tends to see those crowds as no reason for gratification. He feels that many of them are there for the wrong reason, to be healed of their infirmities and to see the miraculous. Jesus heals them and has compassion for them, but proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God is his main mission. That proclamation is his main mission because it  has the power to transform people’s lives, and sometimes people who are only seeking physical healing and entertainment can get in the way of that proclamation. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    In those days Jesus also had to get listening ears. In that age people were much more willing to listen and to go into discussion about religious and spiritual matters. There was much more interest in God than today. But Jesus knew that from the many that came around to hear him speak, there were also many who came out of curiosity or wanted to see miracles or hear controversial talks.

    Jesus saw the crowds to whom he sought to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God in the same way as a sower.

    Only a small portion of the crowd would actually be transformed by the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The rest would let other things choke it out of their lives and die unchanged. Thus I feel Jesus was not impressed with numbers but with changes in the lives of people who heard him. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?} {Please do read also Mark 4: 1-9}

    Too often people think it our the numbers that make it to be good. Perhaps the numbers show the popularity, but for sure they do not always show the integrity or the good value of a product or group.

    The pastor thinks the answer to his and our question “Is Bigger Better?” as it pertains to churches is this:

    it is not size alone that leads to success of any church, large or small, but it is  its ability to follow Jesus and in doing so  transform the lives of those who are a part of that church and those who that church reaches out to.   The measure of a church’s success is the number of lives that have been changed and transformed due to its proclamation both in word and in deed of the Kingdom of God.   The successful church  is the “good soil” in the Parable of the Sower” that brings forth transformation  of people’s lives and nurtures their growth in relationship to God and God’s Kingdom.

    A successful church, regardless of the names on the roster, changes people into devoted followers of Jesus and his teachings as they live their lives each day.   Small churches can be just as successful as large churches in changing people’s lives as they live the great commandment to love God and neighbor as yourself.”   Sometimes because small churches are more personal, they are able to live this better than those with thousands on their membership roster. {Is “Bigger Better” in Churches?}

    The Christadelphians are a very tiny community. We only can hope that all people in this small community bear their hearts on the right place. God knows the heart and it is for him that we should work and go out in the world getting people to know the Master works of God.

    We may not forget that by being such a small community we have the advantage that we can get together in small cosy groups and feel much more the unity of the small group than in such mega churches were everybody can sit next to each other without knowing the other. When sitting in a stadium, arena or in such a huge church were there are hundreds or thousands of people it can well be that the individual may be drowning in the numbers.

    We should be ready to throw out the lifeline and to pull those people who are looking for the Truth, to get to our meetings and let them feel that we are real followers of Jesus, keeping to his teachings and not adoring human doctrines, but keeping to Biblical doctrines, studying the infallible Word of God daily.

    +

    Preceding:

    Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

    The Big Conversation

    The Big Conversation follow up

    Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

    The Right One to follow and to worship

    Wanting to live in Christ’s city

    A participation in the body of Christ

    Positive Preaching Day 2015

    Doubting and going astray

    Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

    ++

    Additional reading:

    1. Who are the Christadelphians
    2. What are Brothers in Christ
    3. Christadelphian people
    4. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
    5. Strange Fire conference 2013
    6. Bloggers for Christ and Bloggers for Peace
    7. Being Missional
    8. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
    9. Atonement And Fellowship 5/8
    10. Good or bad preacher
    11. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
    12. Reflection for today: hating your brother

    +++

    Further reading:

    1. Lessons Learned at Strange Fire
    2. A Vision of Holiness
    3. Praying in Circles
    4. In this Moment
    5. Wanting to be Heard
    6. truth nugget #66
    7. Unite against their corruption, not our church’s
    8. Prosperity Gospel – The Bane of The True Gospel
    9. The Conference Every Mega-Church Pastor Should Attend
    10. Millennials And Christianity!
    11. In Delight of the Deca-Church
    12. [TL;DR] In Defense of the Mega-Church
    13. Agree to Disagree
    14. Kingdom Building: The Large Church and the Small Church Working Together
    15. Mega Churches: What’s the big deal?
    16. 3 Reasons Why You Should Go To A Small Church
    17. Missed Opportunities
    18. Pastoral Environment and the Fight for Holiness
    19. Welcome to the Club
    20. 365 Day Photo Challenge 167/365 “Church on the Hill”
    21. Extravaganza City
    22. Instructed In God’s Ways
    23. Why Black Mega Church Pastors Catch Such Heat
    24. Book Review: The Blessed Church
    25. My Two Cents… conderning a famous mega-church preacher
    26. I don’t believe in mega churches
    27. American Christian Idol

    +++

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