Flannelgraph Theology

I grew up going to Sunday school pretty much every week of my young life. Our teachers told us amazing stories from the Bible, nicely illustrated with flannel characters, all of them ending with a nice moral such as, “If you have faith like David had, you can slay any giant in your own life too!” Or, “So, kids, if you’re obedient like Noah, God will protect you from all the bad stuff in your life.”

Not only did those teachers miss the point of the stories (God is always the hero!), but they never taught us that the Bible is one big story.

In fact, it is the Story of God. It’s not a collection of unrelated moralistic tales, nor is it a history lesson. The Bible tells a living and active story that is still unfolding—and we are characters in this story!

Imagine you are trying to put together a large, 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

A lot of time and work would go into getting to the point where you could actually see the picture that the artist intended. But think about how difficult your task would be if you did not have the lid to the box that the puzzle came in. You would have no way to tell what exactly you were trying to piece together.

“Is this a part of the sky or a reflection of the lake? Is this animal fur or a piece of a tree?”

For many of us, this is how we have learned the Bible. It mirrors the process we’ve engaged in to grow in our faith and understanding of who God is and what he is doing. We have heard sermon after sermon, and done one book study after another without really knowing what the big picture of this whole “Christianity thing” really is. Every once in a while, we’ll fit a couple of pieces together and rejoice. And some of us have been around church and the Bible long enough to sort of have all of the “edge pieces” put together, the basic framework of the Bible, but we still do not really know the Bible as one big story. We are not super clear on who exactly God is, what he has done, who we are in light of this, and how we should live.

We do not know the Story of God.

I want to encourage you to move beyond a chapter and verse, flannel graph theology and grab some friends and start going through the Story of God as a community…remember, our goal is not biblical literacy, its gospel fluency, and the next best time to dive deeper is now.

Are Your Church Elders Really Deacons? (And Vice Versa)

A lot of men called ‘elders’ in the Church today are not functioning as biblical elders. Maybe what they are actually doing is a lot closer to the work of the deacons?

Many cling to their titles when in fact they’re not leading God’s people by example on the only mission Jesus gave his church: make disciples.

In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, Caesar goes deep into the examples and commands in the Bible concerning the role, tone, and function of early church elders and deacons. We need a lot more of this today!

Church Elder Deacons

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Gospel Fluency: A Relational Game-changer!

There’s this crazy thing that most of us Christians live with (I know I did…) where we have a hard time sharing our faith or even speaking to other Christians about their sin without feeling like a jerk or fearing their rejection.

A relational killer!

Have you ever wished you could share your Christian faith with others… in a more natural way, without feeling awkward or preachy? (more…)

Our Need For Innovation in the Church Today

There was a time when Christians and the Church pioneered much of the future, shaping culture in profound ways, from business to art to justice reform. But along the way, that redemptive, adaptive movement began to institutionalize, leaving us change-averse and frozen in time.

In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, Caesar welcomes innovation strategist and author, Doug Paul, who uses surprising stories and cultural analysis to help explain five phases of Kingdom innovation and how leaders in the Church today can start leading change and innovation.

need for innovation in church

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How to Effectively Identify Your Next Leaders

Whether it’s in your church, non-profit, or missional community, if you are looking to grow, you’ll need to develop your next generation of leaders. How will you know who they are? There are certain qualities people exhibit that you can be looking for to identify the best and potentially most competent leaders.

This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we talk about how to effectively identify your next leaders. We’ll show you what to look for and how to spot faithful, servant leaders that are right in your midst already.

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Pastors: Stop Doing 80% of What You’re Doing!

If you’re a pastor, a lot of the things you’re spending time on each week may not be producing as much fruit (making disciples) as you think. But all of us get caught on a hamster wheel of things we’ve added to our list of responsibilities, or someone else has, that over time become a huge waste of our energy and resources.

This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we talk about why most leaders should STOP doing 80% of what they’re currently doing. You are facing what may be the biggest opportunity you’ll ever have to reset your schedule as things get restarted.

pastors stop doing what you do

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