Last week we started a new series called, “The Night that Changed Everything.”  We’re looking at the significance of Christmas, a night that changed much more than most of us imagine.  We’ll see its impact on five segments of society:

  1. The Night That Changed the Religious
  2. The Night That Changed the Powerful
  3. The Night That Changed the Poor
  4. The Night That Changed You
  5. The Night That Changed the Wise

This week we’re looking at how it changed the poor.  Often the poor are excluded from important events – there were reports of homeless people being temporarily removed from the streets before the Atlanta Olympics, for example.  When the world was watching, Atlanta didn’t want them seeing poverty.

But strangely, the Christmas story puts poor people front and centre.  Mary and Joseph themselves are travellers with apparently modest means.  The first visitors to see the baby are shepherds.

We’ll explore this week why it’s significant that the poor are so prominent in this important event.

Question: What role do the poor play in our world?

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - October 31, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Growth - in Discipleship

This week we’re exploring how to become a church community united by common learning goals, even when we are busy! We’ve seen that the church is made up of many different complementary gifts and passions, but all put to use pursuing the same goal. The Bible described this as “maturity, the full stature of Christ”. The learning goal is learning and emulating Jesus’ character in everything life throws our way. How? Well, most topics are learned through a mixture of learning styles, like a textbook, lectures, discussion and homework, and experience. These are many different learning styles, but the same content is meant to be communicated through them all. Textbook: We’re going to start to read Bible together. We study it in in our challenges, but only a little snippet at a time. Now we’re going to start reading longer portions in sync together. Lectures: These challenges are obviously one form of teaching, and our live Christianity 101 course that just concluded in Whitby. Take advantage of whatever future learning opportunities you can! Discussion: This is critical, so I encourage you almost every day to start a discussion group based on our challenges. Have you? This means you’ll be getting encouraged and challenged by those you know, and can see and learn from others trying to follow Jesus. Make sure to contact Ryan with the good news, and to enjoy some leadership coaching and encouragement. Lab Experience: Every Thursday we give a challenge, and although they are easy to ignore, this learning process depends on you actually trying to live out Jesus’ teachings in your life, where they will transform you! In our case, Jesus’ character, lifestyle, spiritual maturity that comes from God alone, is learned through many forms. Challenge: Start with the textbook learning. We are going to start to read the Bible in sync as a community every day. We will add a Bible reading plan to our web site and app, where you’ll find a daily Bible reading starting next Monday!

Related Topics: Discipleship, Growth, Learning | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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