manna?

Blue Letter Bible - About the BLB

Posted by Mike Boyink

Our mission is to facilitate in-depth study of God’s Word through an on-line interactive reference library continuously updated from the teachings and commentaries of selected pastors and teachers who hold to the conservative, historical Christian faith.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/mission.html

I came across this looking for commentary on the Acts verse below.  It’s a pretty amazing site (and I’m not easily impressed..;).

Once you choose a verse, the site presents you with a list of commentary or audio/video of messages or teachings involving that verse.  In the case of the Acts verse below, there was at least a couple dozen options.

Manna Book Club

Posted by Greg

Who wants to start a book club?

For months I’ve talked about starting a book club and I’ve made a lot of lame excuses about it being summer, etc.  So now a few friends have called my bluff, and now I need to follow through and start it.

So, the idea is that we get together… somewhere IN PUBLIC in keeping with Manna’s values… and we talk about some book that we’re reading.  It’s about as complicated as that.  Now, I have three basic requirements:

1. We should meet somewhere cool, because I am basically a shallow person and don’t want to do this if we aren’t going to meet somewhere cool.  Coffee shop downtown?  Book store coffee shop like Barne’s and Noble?  Pub like New Holland or Curragh?  I think it should be somewhere that’s fun to be and makes us want to talk and laugh and makes us feel creative and happy.  Life’s too short otherwise.

2. We should read stuff that’s fun and interesting.  Maybe some fiction, maybe some non-fiction.  But the goal here is not to lay some heavy study group thing down, but to encourage each other to read and think and get new insights from each other and build some community together.  So we need to mix up the reading ideas.

3. It needs to be self-sustaining.  I travel for my work, and may be gone 1 or 2 meetings per month, so everyone needs to be in it together and want to do it.  If it’s like a leader-sheep deal that’ll get old real fast.  I want to help organize and facilitate and even “lead” with whatever insight my pastoral training and experience might give (not much, necessarily), but the group will need to keep itself going.

So, here’s the deal: reply to this thread if you’re interested and answer three questions: 1) what night of the week can you meet (and time)? 2) idea for where to meet? 3) any ideas on what to start reading?

Let’s get a thread going here and come to a consensus....

Greg

Bible Blog: ACTS 5:12-16

Posted by Mike Boyink

Acts 5: 12-16

Initially this seems like a “move along, not much to see here” kind of passage.  But why were they meeting on the porch rather than inside the temple?

Riley Armstrong Concert

Posted by Ed and Lois

Canadian indie recording artist to perform in Holland at the Park Theatre Oct. 7,2004

Recording artist Riley Armstrong will be performing with band Thursday, October 7 at 7:30 at the Park Theatre in downtown Holland. Tickets for this event are $5.00 for students and $6.00 for adults and will be available at the door only. The Park Theatre is located at 248 North River Avenue in Holland, Mi. (Near Hope College) Riley is being brought to Holland by Bystrom Productions. (Thanks Tomi and Joe and family) Should be a great night of music and fun. 

THIN~SPACES: Making the suburban frenzy more bearable.

Posted by Mike Boyink

My point is this. Think of what you like to do and invite others to join you. It is a relational grouping that you either initiate or become a part of. They can be formalized or informal. You can meet bi-monthly, weekly, monthly or whatever. That is unimportant. The important thing is to make relationships with people outside of your standard social network. Include people in your world and you will expose them to the Gospel as you live it out.
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Some great thoughts on church “small groups” vs. being more focused on group situations where we might be more missional.