In what specific ways is the senior leader of your church a spiritual example to you? Let the leader know your thoughts in writing to encourage them.
The purpose of this series is to offer some basic “entry points” for beginning to explore your Minimum Factor graph.
This post is for those whose Minimum Factor is Passionate Spirituality.
Two initial points need to be made.
If you have a gifted evangelist in your church, ask them to explain why and how they share the Gospel with others.
Write down the names of three friends or relatives, then write down three needs for each. Make time to offer a short prayer for each person every day based on those needs.
Find a way to get a modern translation of the Bible into the pews of your church.
Analyze how much of what you sing in church actually focuses your attention on God, teaching or reminding you about His nature and purposes.
Next time you hear a biblical principle in the sermon which you can readily take and apply in your life, let the preacher know what principle you learnt and how you intend to apply it.
Consider what "messages" your church leaders send about their belief in your church's future and speak to them about your observations in an encouraging way.
Use Romans 12:1 to consider what you bring personally to the worship service.
Acquire a high quality illustrated story Bible and begin reading it on your own (and with family or friends) purely for the simple enjoyment of the stories of God's journey with his people.
Take time before meetings this week (e.g. at meals with your family, a leadership or team meeting, a mentoring appointment, etc.) to think about a celebration point that relates to that individual or group as a whole and then share that point in the meeting.
Make a list of ten reasons for celebration from your life this week (eg. from your work, church, ministry, family and friendships, the Bible, etc.) and share some of those points with at least three people from your church.
Ask yourself and someone within your sphere of influence (who seems to be travelling smoothly on their Christian journey), what kind of challenge you should be taking on if it were to cause you to ask God for help whenever attempting it.
Can't help but relate the doctrinal style (my opposite style) with the typology of thinking/feeling aspects of one's personality. As I understand this part of one's personality, it represents the ways in which a person typically makes a decision - either on facts/logic or on feelings. It appears that "thinking, embracing systems, content over experience, objectivity" take precedence in one's connection with God, and may have a correlation with that part of one's personality.
The name 'passionate spirituality' may strike you as a bit abstract, but that is due to the principle-oriented approach. We had to find a term that would describe the most divergent styles of spirituality. As far as church growth is concerned, our research indicates that the important thing is not a church's style, but the degree to which faith is actually lived out with commitment, passion, and enthusiasm.
Empowering Leadership (EL) and Need-Oriented Evangelism (NOE) are the two Qaulity Characteristics (QCs) which I often lack to have enthusiasm for especially when it comes to me personally contributing something in these areas for the positive growth of my Church. I don't have leadership and evangelism in my "gift mix”, and together with a lack of NCD knowledge, it was little wonder that a while back I ended up concluding there was no point to even thinking about them. Thankfully, since then, God has shown me ways in which I can contribute to these QCs without "chea
Here are some 'Quality Characteristic Hand' photos I took that made up part of a thematic photo panel in the foyer of our church. At the bottom is a mock up of the photo panel itself.
You can click the photos to download the originals if you like.
Hope it is useful or prompts your own ideas.
