Charlie Welke

love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Also, love your neighbor as yourself.

[Timothy Keller (1950-2023) @timkellernyc]

The single best way to reach non-Christians is to start new churches. The transitional new community creates space for outsiders to plug in.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

The Remarkable Spread of Christianity in the First Hundred Years

One of the most remarkable facts about Christianity is the speed by which it spread over the Roman world. Think about it: in about AD 25, all we see is an oddball preacher in the Judean desert and his slightly younger relative in a backwater Jewish village named Nazareth. That's it.

Fast-forward a hundred years, to AD 125, and we find this:
1. There are churches scattered through Judea, Syria, Asia Minor, Rome, and most likely elsewhere in the empire, such as Egypt.

2. A Roman governor in Bithynia (northern Asia Minor) named Pliny has written to Emperor Trajan to complain about Christians. He has arrested, interrogated, and tortured some of them. And he says they comprise every age and class, men and women. Moreover, whole villages and rural districts are being (in his words) "infected through contact with this wretched cult."

3. Ignatius, the bishop of the church in Antioch (the most important city in the Roman province of Syria), writes letters to seven different churches, across the Roman empire, while he is on his way to be martyred in Rome.

4. Emperor Domitian, who reigned over Rome from AD 81-96, has interrogated blood relatives of Jesus on the suspicion that they are members of another, rival royal house that might subvert his power.

5. In AD 64, there are enough Christians in Rome that Emperor Nero rounded them up as scapegoats and had them torn to pieces by dogs, crucified, and burned alive. Writing about this, Tacitus says of Christianity, "This deadly superstition," which began in Judea, worked its way "even to Rome."

6. Finally, the Christian apologist Aristides has written to the Emperor Hadrian to defend the faith, and to proclaim that there are now four races in the world: Greeks, Barbarians, Jews, and Christians.

All of this, and much more, happened in the first 100 years. Followers of Jesus, far from remaining in little ghettos, keeping to themselves, were boldly bearing witness across the empire that another king was truly reigning over the entire world: the crucified and resurrected King Jesus.

[🎳Dan Kimball @dankimball]

This cartoon has been around a while but I am using it tonight in a theology forum discussing doctrines that unite and divide. We aren’t in a time of luxury to be having inner battles on non-essential doctrines. I’ll be defining essentials vs non-essentials for our church tonight so there is clarity.

[Orchard Group @OrchardGroup]

Since the early 90’s Orchard Group has seen significant growth in the number of church plants we support (while improving the quality and level of financial support). Our goal is to see that growth continue into the future.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

Is Job the most explicit OT book on resurrection? I kinda thought it was Isaiah, but that’s more messianic than directly resurrection.

If it’s Job, it would seem to imply that the people who suffer most are the people who hunger most for the life to come.

[Jeremy Treat @JeremyTreat5]

Christianity is not a Western religion. It’s centered on a Middle-Eastern Jew who sent his disciples to reach the nations. And that’s exactly what is happening.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

The best part about the NBA season is that it’s Trinitarian (3-seasons-in-1).

Start//post-trade deadline//play-offs

And then there’s the off season!

[Rich Villodas @richvillodas]

A man from our church came up to me with a confession. He has not received holy communion in 3 months because of a struggle with sin.

I had to remind him that the Lord’s Table is not a reward for the perfect, but a gift for the broken.

You should’ve seen his eyes light up.🙏🏽

[Abraham Cho @abrahamcho]

"If you want to be a bridge builder, be ready to get walked on from both sides."

— @JohnMPerkins

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

Quiet and gentle snowfall this morning…

Makes me think of how Jesus entered the world…

And how He’s entering hearts here in Fairfield County…

[Timothy Keller (1950-2023) @timkellernyc]

If you love anything in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations.

[John Ortberg @johnortberg]

Habits were created by God as a way for us to outsource our values into our bodies and take root in our daily lives.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

I am reading Harry Potter (out loud) w our kids every night and it is amazing. We had an extra 30 minutes of bedtime discussion tonight. It’s like our own little book club.

Also, we are starting bedtime earlier to accommodate said discussion 😉

[Tansu Yegen @TansuYegen]

Perspective🧐

[Orchard Group @OrchardGroup]

What an incredible week in Miami with some incredible Kingdom builders! Our annual couples retreat has been such a sweet sweet grace.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

Last night a group of people gave Leslie the best present - unprompted words of affirmation.

She was sitting in a circle of ppl who wouldn’t have been a circle had she not connected them. It was a special moment.

Establishing a community is hard, but worth it.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

A friend, who is single, hosted our entire family for dinner tonight. He made burgers and mac-n-cheese, answered ALL of our kids’ questions, and prayed over our meal.

We were blessed.

And we thank God for Mr. Tim.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

Left my debit card at the restaurant tonight.

And that abt says it all for where my brain capacity is at on Sunday nights.

[Charlie Welke @CharlieWelke]

“The dead do not praise…”
-Psalm 117.15

Lack of worship indicates lack of life.

[Sharon Hodde Miller @SHoddeMiller]

Pregnancy looms large in Luke 1, which contains not one but two birth narratives in it.

Why?

Because at Advent, God invites us to consider whether the darkness that feels so much like a tomb, might actually be a womb.