Terry Pruitt's Blog

When we talk about being missional as a church we talk about reaching those who do not know the gospel. While that is true, a part of being missional is contextualization. Three things that being contextual is not about: 1. It is not about hanging out with folks just like I am. 2. It is not about finding out who likes me and then appealing to them. 3. It is not about figuring out where the rich people live. If we can't reach the poor with the gospel, what makes us think we can reach the rich. After Jesus' discussion with the rich man, when he said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," Mk 10:25, he implies that the poor don't have the same stumbling block to accept the gospel. I think some church planting efforts I have heard focus on the areas that most economically developed. While I see the business sense of such a move, I wonder the gospel sense. Zeal for Truth has this quote i...

I have been in class the past few months with Will Pavone, but now I'm spending time on my i-pod with Will. He is a pastor and music leader of his church in northern Virginia. I would encourage you to sample and check out his music at his website.

A friend of mine wrote the following response to the poll on Church Planting. I define a church plant as the starting of a new church (perhaps as a "child" of a nearby mother church), but I exclude any well-established church that merely relocates to a more advantageous site or building. When I hear of a church plant, I say "Praise God for the committed people that have the vision and energy - and courage - to undertake such a challenge. Even if the circumstances are not optimum, I have no negative notions whatsoever like "That is ill-advised" or "They probably will fail." Rather my view simply is to optimistically wait to be a witness to a God's hand at work as He moves to increase His Kingdom. (Differing from your response list, I rarely feel inclined to want to be part of the early days of a church plant, but I never rule that out a priori. I always try to respond as I feel God is leading me and so far that has not been in an originating ...

A recent discussion brought up some different views of starting new churches, also known as church planting. Church planting has been an interest of mine for quite some time. As a part of that interest I would like to learn about some other points of view so I decided to make a poll. If you are interested in church planting, perhaps you could point to this poll from your website or blog. If you have not spotted it, the poll is off to the side.

A friend of mine looked at my desk and saw some NT Greek vocabulary cards and the word on top was the word for ''lust, passion, desire', επιθυμια. He was wondering why the New Testament used this word. So this study is a response to his question. This is a study is a quick look at what the New Testament teaches when using the word επιθυμια. It does not intend to address syntactical issues or various uses of the word. The word does not always mean something negative, sometimes it expresses a positive desire such as accompanies friendships. Mark 4:19: 19but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Explanation of how επιθυμια is being used in the teaching: Desire chokes out the Word of God when it is heard. Luke 22:15: 15And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Explanation of how επιθυμια is being used in the teaching...

" Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." --Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) When it comes to trying to obey the great commission, there certain actions that we must take as essential in fulfilling it. For instance the main verb that is in the imperative is "make disciples", however there word "go" is a participle which derives its sense of meaning in relation to the main verb. We can not make disciples of "all nations" without going. The two things we need to do to make disciples is to baptize them and teach them to obey. As we look at ways to fulfill the great commission, we have different ways to attempt to carry this out, all of them must involv...

Mysteries and urban legends are fun and cool. I have to say, I have been fooled by not just a couple of urban legends. The bogus quote from Petronius Arbiters had me fooled for quite some time. (Who knew that the word "reorganize" was not really used in ancient times.) Two urban legends I have heard recently made me want to hunt these down. The first was told to me over the supper table: Mr. Rogers wore sweaters to cover up his tattoos. I found an answer at a tattoo enthusiast blog: Bella OnLine says the following: I was at a social event recently when a friend pulled me aside. She said she had taken a look at my Bella site and really liked the tattoo articles I was writing. I asked if there was anything she’d like me to write about. She asked if I could find out more about Mister Rogers’ tattoos, and said she had heard that was why he always wore long-sleeve sweaters. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Tattoo Urban Legend #2, the Mister Rogers tattoo story. Sometimes the...