A prayer for 2009

A good friend sent an e-mail to us with this prayer by George Whitefield. We invite you to pray together with us:

““Yea…that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more . . . raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.”

Jesus it not a brand

In ChristianityToday, Tyler Wigg-Stevenson writes:

"For months after I first moved to Nashville, a billboard by the westbound I-40 advertised an alcohol addiction recovery program. But what caught my eye was the billboard's photograph: the coldest, frothiest, most delicious-looking pint of beer that has ever been poured. I never wanted a beer more than I did when I drove past that billboard. And I am not an alcoholic. I wonder how many of the hundreds of people suffering from addiction passed that spot every day and were perversely tempted—not to enter rehab, but to pull off at the next exit for a tall, cold one.
Marketing has problems if it makes the consumer pant for the dead opposite of what you are trying to sell. "

Read the article>>

Total Commitment (Leadership Journal)

From Leadership Journal

Preaching for Total Commitment
What does it take to convince people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ?
Bill Hybels

"Church history has taught us that a leader can do more through a handful of totally devoted believers than through a church full of halfhearted ones. So we're left with a tension: How can we teach in such a way that we produce fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, when we know that most people don't want to hear about radical discipleship?Let me suggest five principles that guide me when I preach for 100 percent commitment."

Read the article>>

At the turn of the year

Another year has passed and a new year has just begun. We have many reasons to thank the Lord for His blessings, protection and guidance.

Looking back
Among numerous things during 2008 we would like to focus on two main decisions we made during the year.

Our new web-site
In the beginning of the year we understood more and more that the values of today were created on internet and not in the churches. We saw, even in Christian blog-sites and communities, a lot of confusion about Christian moral, ethics, values and beliefs.

We felt a call from the Lord to be present on the arenas were today´s values were formed. So we started our Christian web-site http://www.rupeba.se/ to be a voice among many other voices and to present and defend Christian values in a postmodern world.

Our web-site has had many thousands of visitors since we started the 1st of April 2008. On the web-site we have also published a daily devotion: DAYS - tiny thoughts for great days, written by Ruth. Just before Christmas we gathered all devotions for one year and published them in a book. We have also published two e-books during the year.

From January 2009 we will also include an English version on our web-site. Welcome to visit us there.

Latvia next
The second main event during 2008 was when the Salvation Army leadership in Sweden asked if we would be willing to take responsibility as Regional Commanders for the Salvation Army operations in Latvia. We felt guided by the Lord to accept the challenge and as a consequence of that we will be appointed Salvation Army Officers before we move to Riga the 1st of July 2009. For the moment we are studying Latvian language and history. You can expect news from Latvia regularly on our web-site.

Looking forward
A main event in 2009 will of course be our move to Riga and starting our work in Latvia.

But before that we have a of lot of speaking engagements, courses and conferences, language studies waiting during the coming spring semester. So we really need your prayer support…..

We wish you all a blessed 2009
Ruth and Peter Baronowsky

Time Magazine presents the Top 10 Religion Stories of 2008.

Read in the Times>>
1. The Economy Trumps Religion
2. Never Count the Mormons Out
3. The Pope Wows the States
4. The Canterbury non-Tale
5. America's Unfaithful Faith
6. Tibet's Monks Rebel
7. The Birth of the New Evangelicalism
8. The Challenge of Recession
9. When Kosher Wasn't Kosher
10. Extraterrestrials May Already be Saved

The top 10 tasks of Christian leadership

From the blogger Henrik Korslind:
"I’ve already written a post on my impressions from my visit to the New Wine summer conference “Kingdom come” (can be found here). As I went through my notes I found some from a seminary called “The top 10 tasks of Christian leadership”. Sometimes I get a bit suspicious about top-lists (even though I like to use them occasionally), however I found this seminar both helpful and interesting.

I belong to the group of people who strongly believe that there truly is a difference between Christian and other types of leadership. This is something that becomes visible in the first (and most important) point in this list, presented by Will Donaldson, director of Christian leadership at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford, who shared from his extensive experience.

"The top 10 tasks of Christian leadership, you can read more about them here>>
1. To grow in love for God
2. Developing and implementing vision
3. Appoint and support staff
4. Mobilize the church into ministry
5. Identifying and mentoring future leaders
6. Preaching and teaching the Bible
7. Organizing and leading worship
8. Enabling prayer
9. Providing pastoral care
10. Lead missions and evangelism