your God is too big...Richard Beck

http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2011/10/your-god-is-too-big.html

King Jesus Gospel

Interesting read and great explanation of what it means to follow Jesus:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/08/14/the-kingdom-and-aa-12-steps-by-t/

Being human

You are not big enough to accuse the whole age effectively, but let us say you are in dissent. You are in no position to issue commands, but you can speak words of hope. Shall this be the substance of your message? Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God. --Thomas Merton

Quotes on the church...are you participating in the church or in a caricature?

Guder, Hays and Barth on the missionary nature of the local church

"The reason Christians are formed into communities is because of God's work to make a people to serve him as Christ's witnesses.  The congregation is either a missional community--as Newbigin defines it, 'the hermeneutic of the gospel' (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 222ff.)--or it is ultimately a caricature of the people of God that it is called to be."

Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 136.
"If we ask, 'What is God doing in the world in the interval between resurrection and parousia?' the answer must be given, for Paul, primarily in ecclesial terms: God is at work through the Spirit to create communities that prefigure and embody the reconciliation and healing of the world."

Richard B. Hays, "Ecclesiology and Ethics in 1 Corinthians,"  Ex Auditu 10 (1994): 32.  Cf. 31-43.
"As an apostolic Church the Church can never in any respect be an end in itself, but, following the existence of the apostles, it exists only as it exercises the ministry of a herald."
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics  4/1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956), 724.   

The church I want to belong to

Both these links, one by Josh Graves and the other referencing NT Wright capture the beauty of fellowship and the power of sacrament...they portray the kind of church I want to belong to...

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/02/17/the-church-as-sacrament-another-young-pastor-responds/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2009/11/17/the-age-of-the-spirit-sacrament-and-mission-rjs/

Partnership in the gospel: understanding the big picture...man in the image of God

This is an amazing and comprehensive post on God's purpose for humanity. It has tremendous implications for how we understand and present the gospel.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/08/05/richard-middleton-after-the-liberating-image-rjs/

I have come to see that temple theology (and humanity as God’s image in the cosmic temple) is an important way of developing a biblical theology that unifies both Old and New Testaments. Richard Middleton

There's got to be something more!

      Often, I find myself hungering for more in my experience of following Jesus.  I'm secure in my salvation and walking in the light, yet I feel something missing.   I read and pray daily, often throughout the day, and feel close to God and excited about his presence in my life.  I know he is guiding my steps and teaching me new wonders about his splendor every day.  Yet, I find my fellowship with other disciples at times uninspiring, sporadic and not very dynamic.

          I think what I am missing is the deep sense of partnership with fellow disciples that comes from being united with Christ, united with others and engaged in the mission of the gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Over the next several months, I want to recommit my life to partnering with like-minded disciples to advance the kingdom. I will use this blog to reach out to others that want to join in the mission. I believe the depth of partnership Paul experienced with the Philippians comes only from being deeply connected to Christ and to one another and embarking on the greatest mission on the planet. The essential question is who are your partners in the gospel. 

The Greek word is koinania, It translates: fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse; 

        We have substituted the partnership question with questions like: where do you go to church, whose family group are you in, who do you hang out with. Through the writings I share on this blog, I hope to change the conversation and our legacy. I want to restore the depth of purpose and relationship that is a by product of giving myself fully to partnerships in the gospel.  All that is required is our faith, our love and our gifts and the realization that there's got to be something more.
                 
 Philippians 1:3-5,8          It is amazing how deeply Paul was connected to these brothers and sisters.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.