Okay, before we get going in this session, I want to tell you a little bit about the speaker. Mosa Sono is the pastor of Grace Bible Church in Soweto, South Africa. In the late 70's Soweto was the site of mass uprisings that claimed the lives of more than a thousand people. Today, Grace Bible Church has about 7,000 members and 1,200 children. According to the Conference Notebook, "Grace Bible Church runs many outreach programs ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness, to computer classes and literary and entepreneurial development programs; all aimed at overcoming the trauma. In his introduction, Bill Hybels told us that Sono does 15-20 AIDS-related funerals per WEEK.
Basically, Mosa Sono is telling us about how they built their church within the context of extreme poverty (very similar to the Willow Creek story).
Here's a significant thought (at least to me): [this isn't an exact quotation, but it's close]
"God’s formula for miracles is that we have to teach people to do what they can do. For example, in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus didn’t expect the disciples to feed the 5,000. All he expected them to do was to collect what they could and then put it in his hands. When we put it in his hands, he is able to do much with it."
Another great one-liner: "Wholistic ministry may mean preaching less and doing more, because then, when the gospel is preached it has more credibility." [again, not exactly word for word, but close].
He's been good, but a little hard to take notes on.
Cool closing -- he's saying that whenever life has gotten hard in his church context they just sing more, so he's leading us in song in Venda, one of the national languages of South Africa.
PS....First session I was the lone "laptop guy" sitting in our atrium, this session there were 8 of us!
Okay, before we get going in this session, I want to tell you a little bit about the speaker. Mosa Sono is the pastor of Grace Bible Church in Soweto, South Africa. In the late 70's Soweto was the site of mass uprisings that claimed the lives of more than a thousand people. Today, Grace Bible Church has about 7,000 members and 1,200 children. According to the Conference Notebook, "Grace Bible Church runs many outreach programs ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness, to computer classes and literary and entepreneurial development programs; all aimed at overcoming the trauma. In his introduction, Bill Hybels told us that Sono does 15-20 AIDS-related funerals per WEEK.
Basically, Mosa Sono is telling us about how they built their church within the context of extreme poverty (very similar to the Willow Creek story).
Here's a significant thought (at least to me): [this isn't an exact quotation, but it's close] "God’s formula for miracles is that we have to teach people to do what they can do. For example, in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus didn’t expect the disciples to feed the 5,000. All he expected them to do was to collect what they could and then put it in his hands. When we put it in his hands, he is able to do much with it."
Another great one-liner: "Wholistic ministry may mean preaching less and doing more, because then, when the gospel is preached it has more credibility." [again, not exactly word for word, but close].
He's been good, but a little hard to take notes on.
Cool closing -- he's saying that whenever life has gotten hard in his church context they just sing more, so he's leading us in song in Venda, one of the national languages of South Africa.
PS....First session I was the lone "laptop guy" sitting in our atrium, this session there were 8 of us!
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