Apostle David Johndrow - Fire And Grace

-7 Missed Opportunities and Overlooked Treasures - I find it interesting that the church often says one thing, and does another. Quite a few years ago John Wimber discovered that evangelical churches claimed that bringing folks to salvation in Jesus was there main mission. He then asked the question, how's business? The truth was that most churches claiming to be evangelical were in fact, not seeing regular salvations! When John looked closely at what churches were spending time and money doing, salvation was often near the bottom of the list. For a church to be effective, it needs godly vision, solid priorities and dedicated leaders. Too often the church can get so filled up with programs that it can easily miss what God wants to do. Every church needs to be part of the local community. Churches are not meant to cloister the saints in some sort of secret society. Every community has needs. Within those needs are opportunities for the church to make an impact for the Kingd...

-6 Fighting Among Ourselves - A few years ago, there was a division within a local church; it made the headlines. One group of founders had purchased the land that the church was now built on. A second group of believers had donated money for the church building. The pastors from both groups had originally agreed to work together for the good of the region. A few years into the endeavor the pastors had a disagreement over theology and the church split. That's nothing new - however, the respective founding groups ended up in court to decide who should get the building and land valued at about about $1 million dollars. The battle went on for over a year, and each court proceeding was made public in the left-leaning, anti-religion newspaper. There were scathing editorials by staffers as well as malicious comments from the church folks on the web articles. What was going on in the church was even worse. The Bible is very specific on how we should resolve conflicts in the church. ...

-5 Church Hopping - Why is it that Catholics seem to go to the same church for a lifetime, and most evangelicals go to a church on the average, for just a few years. Is God confused about where He wants us? Choosing a church should be like choosing a spouse, not dating! I confess, I have been one of these people. But I still don't think that it is normal to hop around. It seems that all that is required to start a new church these days is a resentment and a coffee pot. If you've been following along in this series, there is more of a problem when churches focus on church, and not on Jesus and people. Churches that focus on Jesus, while providing significance to their members do much better at retaining those members. That in a nutshell is the role of leadership. Our part is to be passionate about Jesus, and to dialog with Him about ways in which we can grow. If we are mature Christians, our priorities are in order, we are praying, studying, and giving, then Sundays sho...

-4 Talking Like Experts About Things We Have Not Studied - Don't you just hate know-it-alls? We do not expect a 9-year-old to drive a car; we also do not expect them to teach someone else to drive. Why is it that we feel the need to answer every theological question? Although I find it interesting that many Christians have not really read the Bible, that is not the entire problem. Often times those that have taught us, tend to round the corners of verses to fit a particular point, or topical teaching. I do that here. It is always a good idea to take a look for yourself! The Bible is an amazing book, and no one will know everything about it. Christians seem to find it important to defend God and the Bible. Well, God doesn't need defending. Nor is He threatened by popular culture running off in the ditch. In life, we will often meet folks that are better educated than we are. It happens all the time. But we don't start telling a doctor how to do a medical test or pr...

Today is a bonus post for my regular readers. Last night my life-long favorite hockey team won the national championship, better known as the Stanley Cup . Congratulations to the Boston Bruins ! Before you dash off to read something more interesting than a blog about sports, consider this. Each one of us has a God given destiny. For the some of the Boston Bruins, last night was part of who they are in Christ - whether they know it or not. I suppose there are some that have chosen this path, and on it they will miss God. For others, this may in fact be the path that leads them to Jesus. Enough spiritualization, here are 5 1/2 reasons why you should at least checkout the video highlights of the winning game HERE . Or you may read about it  HERE . -1 Because the Action Doesn't Stop: Hockey, unlike football and baseball (snore) plays until there is a reason to stop the play. (like basketball and soccer) There is no stopping for a huddle to make plays, no waiting ...

-3 Not Living Up to the Level of Our Beliefs - Healing, creative miracles, salvation, power over demons and other supernatural abilities are ours - well if we believe. I know it sounds a bit like Peter Pan. Why is it that we know what God can do, yet we do not pursue the type of relationship with Him that produces Kingdom results? The fruit of the kingdom of God is power. I am not talking about the fruit of the spirit outlined so eloquently by Paul in Galatians 5:22. The substance of God's kingdom is power manifest in you and in me. The Gospel message is about becoming a disciple of Jesus, not merely a follower. Those that are disciples do what Jesus did, that includes the miraculous. They are not robots waiting for their ticket to the heavenlies when the rapture comes. The violent take the Kingdom by force. (Matthew 11:12) The Bible says that signs and wonders will follow them that believe. Are they following you? If not, why not? If you are truly born again and full of the...

-2 Winning People to the Church, Not Christ - You may be all about your denomination, you may have a great church, a pastor that is amazing; you participate in small groups, you have Bible verses all over your MySpace, your Facebook and your refrigerator - even a Honk if You Love Jesus bumper-sticker - you are a soul winner to boot. You are, after all, out to get folks saved, isn't that the purpose of the church? Each one of us comes from some sort of Christian upbringing, background or heritage. Our religious experiences and influences tend to shape our view of what church is, as well as who Jesus is. To some, God is a legalistic, rod bearing tyrant, that will have His way, or send you down the chute to Hell. For another, God is so full of grace, He wouldn't want you to be unhappy, so those rules, well, He'll just forgive you if you if you break them. Others think that if they are devout enough, never miss church, try to be good, and help with the poor; they are in goo...

After 30+ years hanging around the church I have noticed some odd behaviors. I wrote them down and then discovered a book that I have not read, nor do I intend to, entitled: The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do . After a quick look at the Table of Contents I noticed that Mr. Atterberry and I matched 7 out of 10! I felt like I was a contestant on Concentration waiting for Hugh to let me solve the puzzle. -1 Shooting Our Wounded - Isn't it bad enough that church people get caught with their pants down; their failures televised on broadcast news? Look, we all sin. It doesn't matter more to God that someone is a televangelist or mega-church leader when they sin. Sin is sin. What matters is how we act towards those individuals who do sin. Newscasters make money by reporting the news. From the Baker' of PTL fame, to the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandals in Massachusetts and Ireland, church folks fail - that hurts the church. I am not saying that we should side-step the truth, or ...

Today I am taking a few minutes off from working; that's right, I am back to to work. It has been a tough two days. I was accustom to taking an afternoon nap, or at least a rest. Instead of plying myself with caffeine, I am going cold turkey. The good news is that I am working from home and get to skip 2 hours of insanity on the Massachusetts Turnpike each day. But I am tired, really tired at the end of the day. Within 2 hours of starting work, I seem to have used up a lot of my creative energy - then I fake it 'til I make the rest of the time. It's not a very spiritual message, but I must say that I have discovered my limitations quickly. I am still not back to where I once was, and truthfully I wonder if I ever will be. I will say that I have been pushing the exercise, running three times a week about two and half miles. That is where I feel the most normal. In spite of all that, the cardiologist says that my heart is back to 100%. That's a miracle seeing as 1/...

We all face problems in life, that is nothing new. There is sorrow, betrayal, sickness, accidents, extreme weather, financial woes, car troubles, kid troubles, and death, just to name a few. No one is immune, and for those of faith, we know that God is not on vacation. Because I am facing some adversity of my own, I decided to give myself a pep talk. Here are things that I know I need to do. Stay Focused on Today: it is so easy to think about what will happen a week, or a month from today. The truth is that two days before my heart attack, I was blasting along on the treadmill at 6 mph training for a 5K road race. Think about what was happening a just a few days before you lost a job, heard about a serious sickness, met your spouse, or won the lottery. (Strangely, I feel like there are no lottery winners reading this blog.) Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will ...

Across the northern hemisphere, school is drawing to an end for another year (well not so much in Europe - but hey, be jealous!). It's no secret that kids don't really know what they need in life, that is why they have parents. Education is supposed to give them knowledge of useful subjects, but does it? Most of what I learned in school did not make me a better person, a more mature adult, and sadly, except for one class, it didn't help me get a job; and worse, I didn't even get into a good college. Honestly, if you add bad parenting to poor education, you get a guy like me. It's not pretty. I have a few things I wish that my parents and educators would have taught me, but instead I mastered the art of memorization: -1 Credit is Bad: In my senior Health Class I did very well on the budget project. The problem, I included a lot of borrowed money and no one said a word. The simple economic principal of "never borrow money unless you can make money with it...

I often talk about being led by the Spirit. A lot of people think that if they read a Bible verse and it fits what they want to do next, it is God. There are so many doctrines and versus that you can debate in the Bible. I have heard both sides of lots of issues. Isn't that what denominations are, people that disagree on certain versus in the Bible, or place more importance or certain versus? There are those that debate if there could be an apostle in this day and age, if you can really speak in tongues, are there idiots in the church, can believers be possessed by demons... if you ask me, that answer is yes to all of them... but certainly they are debatable. I guess, I was thinking about times when I was sure that I heard God. A few years ago my kids wanted to go to a conference about 120 miles from the house. The registration fee for the three of us was nearly $100; plus the price of food and gas. I had heard so many good things about Acquire the Fire , that I wanted them to go...