theory

Steve Swain began this Gathering with a short talk on giving.

He saw a motivational speaker once, who gave his three rules for financial independence. 1. Save 10%. 2. Give 10%. 3. Live on 80%. This came from a hard-nosed businessman, who didn’t know why it worked, just knew that it did.

In the Bible, the tithe is equivalent to 10%. Tithing is an old Testament principal and was about keeping the priesthood, whose lives were dedicated to serving God and whose direct work generated no income.

Steve Swain shared again at our August Gathering - here’s my notes from the morning.

What have your learned/discovered in the past month? Some of the responses Steve got back were:

• Hold on and you’ll get through

• Stronger than you think

• Don’t have all the answers

Christianity is NOT a theory!

People say just believe, makes it sound like a theory. God doesn’t say that, he gave us a brain, like him to be able to think.

Christianity is a practice!

Christianity is not just church. Church is not the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom is infinite.

Steve Swain continued on with some of the thoughts from the April Gathering.

At one extreme are the Traditional Answers and the other are Emerging Questions. Crossing them on the other plane are Practice and Theory. The sorts of questions being asked are:

• What is church?

• What is mission?

• What does faith look like in the 21st century?

• What is leadership?

• What is ministry?

• What is the difference between ministry and mission?

Traditional is the living faith of the dead.