Clinton E. Arnold On Community

From 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare:

"Much spiritual vulnerability comes from being detached from the body of Christ."
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"The message and the community go hand in hand. When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit not only unites the person to Christ, but also to other Christian. Believers need each other as they grow to maturity.
     There are not many themes in the New Testament about which more is said than community. Yet it appears that there is less community now in the church than at any other time in history."
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Try, Try, Try Again

I once read a No Fear poster that said "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Trouble is, most of us don't set ourselves a goal. We don't know where we're running and we've got nothing to shoot at. It can feel a little unproductive.

A goal has to be clearly defined. You've got to mark it out exactly and play towards it. It pretty much applies to everything in your life that your life that you want to be fruitful in: generous giving, bible reading, daily prayer, dating your wife, health and fitness, leading a life group, earning a living... on and on. You've got to mark out your goal and track your progress.

If you take the picture further, most of the excitement games like football isn't found in the goals themselves. There might only be two or three in 90 minutes. It's in all the action leading up to them: the passing, the tackling, the shots from 40 yards that ricochet off the post. It can all be really exciting. And I guess it's the same in life. You don't always succeed on your first attempt. But it's exciting seeing how close you came. You try, try, try again until that ball is in the back of the net.

Correct Approach

With regard to preparing life group bible studies (or any sort of preaching or teaching), there is nothing worse than a indolent, slothful approach. The word of God is "sharper than any double-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). It's not the sort of thing you just pick up and chuck at your friends.

It's the thing you work at and sweat over. You rehearse your swing over and over until you get it perfect. You constantly push yourself to become more skillful and accurate.

I've come to the conclusion that if you can't do your absolute best on a given topic, on a given week, for whatever reason, it's good to just leave it. As my dad always use to say, "if you're going to do the job, do it properly".