Glenn Townend asks a good follow up question to my post on the link between church planting movements, suffering and persecution: HI Steve Thought provoking! So we need suffering to see a movement happen in Western Australia? What kind do you think we should expect? Glenn Here’s my response: Hi Glenn I think the best [...]
Tag Archives: Early Church
The trouble with missionary movements
23 April, 2010 – 8:23 AM
I had sought out someone with a lot of experience in church planting movements who could help me make sense of what I was learning. There’s one line I will never forget—”We’ve never seen a church planting movement without persecution.”
An interview with Eckhard Schnabel
11 June, 2007 – 10:42 PM
Trinity Magazine interviewed Eckhard Schnabel and asked him, What do we know about the disciples as missionaries? Here’s a few edited highlights. On the novelty of the Christian movement. . . The novelty of the universal dimension of the early Christian mission cannot be overestimated. The early Christian mission was without precedent in the ancient [...]
Friend of sinners
29 May, 2007 – 6:59 PM
Jesus made himself the friend of “tax collectors and sinners”. Ever wondered who those “sinners” were? Eckhard Schnabel has done the research and come up with a list of Jewish tradition occupations and people designated as “sinners” because they could not fully keep the Law: donkey drivers camel drivers coachmen bargees shepherds shopkeepers doctors butchers [...]
Why bother with crowds?
21 May, 2007 – 9:49 PM
Rembrandt: The Little Children Being Brought to Jesus What’s your view on crowds? One stream of missional thinking writes them off. The other adores them. One stream rejects “attractional†ministry as a denial of discipleship. The other measures success by growing numbers—people and offerings. The funny thing is both streams look to Jesus to validate [...]
Schnabel on Paul (con’t)
3 May, 2007 – 9:05 PM
The next installment on Schnabel’s study of Paul’s self-understanding as a pioneer missionary. 6. Paul knows himself to be called by God to work as a pioneer missionary who “plants” who lays the foundation as an “expert master builder”–that is, one who establishes new communities of believers (1 Cor 3:6, 10; 9:10). The metaphors of [...]
Schnabel on Paul
2 May, 2007 – 5:32 PM
I continue to work my way through Schnabel’s excellent two volumes on Early Christian Mission. In the second volume he examines Paul’s writings for his self-understanding as a missionary-church planter. Here are Schnabel’s conclusions from just 1 Cor 3:5-9. Here are Schnabel’s conclusions from a wide range of passages on Paul’s understanding of his call. [...]
How Paul understood his call (con’t)
26 April, 2007 – 12:55 AM
Parthenon The second installment on Paul’s understanding of his calling as a pioneer church planter. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than [...]
How Paul understood his call
24 April, 2007 – 7:51 PM
Apostle Paul – Rembrandt I’ve grown weary of relying too heavily on business literature, the social sciences or even contemporary missional theology for my understanding of church planting movements. It’s back to the Book for me. I’ve been working through Schnabel’s Early Christian Mission: Paul and the Early Church. Detailed but valuable insights into the [...]
Paul and the spread of the Christian movement
4 January, 2007 – 9:28 PM
How important was Paul in the early spread of the Christian movement? He made a major contribution to the New Testament as both a writer and the subject of half of the book of Acts. Yet his direct impact on the spread of early Christianity may have been overstated according to Rodney Stark’s latest book. [...]
