This week we’re exploring how to become a church community united by common learning goals, even when we are busy!

We’ve seen that the church is made up of many different complementary gifts and passions, but all put to use pursuing the same goal.  The Bible described this as “maturity, the full stature of Christ”.  The learning goal is learning and emulating Jesus’ character in everything life throws our way.

How?

Well, most topics are learned through a mixture of learning styles, like a textbook, lectures, discussion and homework, and experience.

These are many different learning styles, but the same content is meant to be communicated through them all.

Textbook: We’re going to start to read Bible together.  We study it in in our challenges, but only a little snippet at a time.  Now we’re going to start reading longer portions in sync together.

Lectures: These challenges are obviously one form of teaching, and our live Christianity 101 course that just concluded in Whitby.  Take advantage of whatever future learning opportunities you can!

Discussion: This is critical, so I encourage you almost every day to start a discussion group based on our challenges.  Have you?  This means you’ll be getting encouraged and challenged by those you know, and can see and learn from others trying to follow Jesus.  Make sure to contact Ryan with the good news, and to enjoy some leadership coaching and encouragement.

Lab Experience: Every Thursday we give a challenge, and although they are easy to ignore, this learning process depends on you actually trying to live out Jesus’ teachings in your life, where they will transform you!

In our case, Jesus’ character, lifestyle, spiritual maturity that comes from God alone, is learned through many forms.

Challenge: Start with the textbook learning.  We are going to start to read the Bible in sync as a community every day.  We will add a Bible reading plan to our web site and app, where you’ll find a daily Bible reading starting next Monday!

Ryan Sim - May 15, 2014

Thursday - Act On It - Pioneer Spirit

We’re exploring this week how Jesus sent his followers on a difficult, impossible mission to share his good news with the entire world. He gave them some real, tangible help, by sending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was evident through the sound of rushing wind, the appearance of flames over their heads, and the speaking of languages they had never spoken before. Each of these are “things” – wind, fire, languages and that makes it tempting to refer to the Holy Spirit as “it”. But Christians have long insisted the Holy Spirit is a someone – and refer to the Holy Spirit as “He”. Technically He is called a “person” of the Trinity, as in someone with a personality, someone we can know. The Trinity is the Christian belief that there is one God, who relates to us in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That means this was no mere magic trick. This was the arrival of a living and active presence in their lives. They had just been introduced to their guide for life on Jesus’ mission. At various times in my life I’ve come up with grand ideas about my future, but have always turned to the Holy Spirit for guidance first. I don’t want to be driven by ambition, or fear, or money or power or anything but the Holy Spirit of God. That means times of waiting, like the disciples did here. They could have plowed ahead with some great ideas on how to get their message to the people. But they waited for the Holy Spirit to guide him, and he did it in a far better way than they could have imagined. People saw what happened and were amazed, and of course a few were skeptical too. You can be introduced to the Holy Spirit as well, and he can do amazing things through you too. Talk to God the Father. Jesus made that possible. Ask him to come into your heart through his Holy Spirit, to be your life coach, to guide and direct every step of your life towards accomplishing the reason God put you on this earth – to know and love him, and help others do the same. Ask him to give you the gifts you need to accomplish this mission – for those disciples it was language, but what is it for you? Challenge: Take some time to pray that prayer – ask the Holy Spirit of God to enter your life and guide your next steps. Commit to do this every day for a few weeks – to wait on the Holy Spirit to give you the gifts and guidance you need to accomplish Jesus’ mission.

Related Topics: Ascension, Early Church, Jesus, Pioneer | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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