Revolution of Ordinaries

Turns out I have had pneumonia! No wonder this was so rough!

3 days ago | [YT] | 6

Revolution of Ordinaries

Big announcement!

A labor of love has just been completed and I want you to know about it in case it would be helpful to you or your church.

A big missing piece in many churches has been the training of skills. We have all kinds of Bible classes and small groups but they are often more about the exchange of information than training actionable skills and disciplines.

And even if you want to train skills, where do you start? Who develops it? How long will that take? And how will you explain this to your people/church?

This is why I developed Mobilize. The full training (you can do less) is nearly a year long and teaches actionable ministry skills and spiritual disciplines that every Christian should know and practice. This is everything from how to make disciples to how to share the gospel to how to fast and pray and so much more!

And I have put together a launch kit so that churches have an easier time rolling this out because you don't have to figure out how to explain it to everyone!

There is a Leader Guide and a Student Guide.

All the resources can be found here...and I want this to get to as many churches as possible...so feel free to pass it on to anyone who might benefit from it!

And did I mention...this is 100% free because we want it to get used!

Here is the link - mattdabbs.com/moblize-training/

3 days ago | [YT] | 4

Revolution of Ordinaries

Strip away the amazing worship team

Hold off on the dynamic and gifted preacher

Remove the dramatic lighting

Take away the crowd

Find yourself for a moment alone in the presence of God and ask yourself whether these words are enough for your faith without all the supporting cast and crew...

"When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power." - The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 2 verses 2-5

3 days ago | [YT] | 13

Revolution of Ordinaries

Church is about commitment over comfort

The comfortable church is one where you can be anonymous. Come and go without anyone noticing. Live a life of sin and rebellion and no one would know. Get the programs you like, the kind of singing you like, and have other people do it all for you.

The committed church is a church grounded in relationships. You are known and know others. You meet each other's needs. It is more about people than programs. People are using their gifts to serve others. People show up for you in your time of need because they know you well enough to know you are in a time of need.

One of these is in the Bible and the other is not.

"But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." - 1 Cor 12:24-27

or this

"“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” - Hebrews 10:24-25

If you have been complacent and comfortable I can guarantee you aren't maturing in your faith. It is time we commit to each other. It is time we seek to know and be known. Find those people on the margins and get to know them. Have people in your home. Don't rely on the church calendar...initiate something real!

No one can do this for you. You cannot pay anyone to do this for you. God has told us what to do and we need to listen and follow God's lead.

The real barrier to this is our busyness. Busyness is a symptom of an unprioritized life. Prioritize God. Prioritize His people. That means you will need to give up a few things to make this happen. And that is hard but it is necessary.

4 days ago | [YT] | 24

Revolution of Ordinaries

Let's talk about Jesus as the temple! (Deep dive time)

We all know the quote in John 2:19,21 "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days...But the temple he had spoken of was his body."

But did you know that just 20 verses before this, Jesus said the same thing?

John 1:51, "Very truly I tell you, you will see haven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

That is a reference to "Jacob's ladder" in Genesis where Jacob had wrestled an angel and then slept and had a vision of a ladder to heaven (probably more like a ziggurat - a tiered pyramid type structure) that angels were ascending and descending on.

The only way to really get the point is to read the whole thing, so bear with me please...

Gen 28:12-19,

"He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel"

The parallels with John 1-2 are astounding.
Genesis - angels ascending and descending at Bethel
John - angels ascending and descending on Jesus
Genesis - The Lord is in this place
John - Jesus is in this place
Genesis - This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven
John - Jesus is the house of God and the gate of heaven
Genesis - he called that place Bethel (which means house of God: Bet/Beth = house and el = God just like Beth-lehem means house of bread)
John - Jesus is the house of God, the temple in his person

The temple was considered the holy connection point where heaven and earth intersected. If you read the building of the temple, you will see that the walls inside were not blank stone. They were covered in cedar carved with garden imagery (palms and flowers and gourds)...it was Eden recreated because Eden was the very first temple...the place heaven and earth were perfectly connected. Eden was the place God dwelt with His people, just as earlier in John 1 (verse 14) we see Jesus came to dwell with us!

So we have the list of temples (some more formal than others):
Eden
Bethel
Tabernacle (which moved to various locations)
Solomon's temple
Second Temple
Jesus
But there is one more...

And here is where it gets even better. The temple has moved again! Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6 that this makes us the temple of God because God dwells IN us, making us holy! You cannot be holy with the Spirit.

Praise God for the wealth of riches that we find in the scriptures. Praise God that these truths inspire and convict us and humble us into deeper reverence for the one who saw the end from the beginning and choose to include us in his grand story! We are truly a blessed people!

I hope this blessed you today because this directly impacts your life every moment of every day! God bless you!

1 week ago | [YT] | 6

Revolution of Ordinaries

I am nearly over my 13 days of being sick...still don't have my voice back!!!!!! I have so much I want to share with you...will be back posting Videos ASAP!!!!

Thank you for your patience...the last 13 days have been miserable.

1 week ago | [YT] | 10

Revolution of Ordinaries

I told you we’d be looking at some scriptures together...here’s the first one, and it’s eye opening. It’s a great example of intertextuality – the way Scripture keeps talking to itself across both Testaments.

Start with Jesus’ early roadmap:

Born in the land promised to Abraham
Taken down to Egypt as a baby (Matthew even quotes Hosea 11:1 – “Out of Egypt I called my son,” a verse originally about Israel)
Through the water at his baptism
Into the wilderness to be tested for 40 days

Now Israel:

Abraham in the promised land
Down to Egypt
Through the water
Into the wilderness for 40 years

Same path.

There’s more...

Satan tempts Jesus three times:

Turn these stones into bread
Throw yourself down from the temple
Bow down and worship me, and the kingdoms of the world are yours

Each time Jesus answers with Scripture. But not just any Scripture.

Deuteronomy.

All three come from Deuteronomy 6–8. And where was Israel in Deuteronomy?

The wilderness...just like Jesus.

1. Stones to bread → Deut 8:3
Deut 8 tells Israel why God led them into the wilderness. It’s the same reason Jesus was led there (Matt 4:1) – to be tested.

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you... He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna... to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut 8:2–3)

Israel grumbled for food (Exodus 16). Jesus was hungry and still trusted his Father.

2. Throw yourself down → Deut 6:16
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.”

What happened at Massah? Israel ran out of water, and instead of trusting God they quarreled and asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:1–7). Satan wanted Jesus to do the same thing – jump and make God prove he’s with you.

3. Worship me → Deut 6:13
“Fear the Lord your God, serve him only...” And the very next verse: “Do not follow other gods.”

Israel made the golden calf (Exodus 32) and later worshiped Baal of Peor (Numbers 25). Jesus refuses to bow to anyone but God.

One more detail I love – the temptations come in the same order as Israel’s failures in Exodus: food (ch 16), Massah (ch 17), the golden calf (ch 32).

So what’s the point?

Jesus is reliving Israel’s story. John hints at this too in John 1. Jesus calls Nathanael a true Israelite with no deceit (Jacob was the deceiver), then says they’ll see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man – Jacob’s ladder. Two Jacob/Israel references back to back, with Jesus at the center.

Israel failed the test in the wilderness (but by the grace of God they made it to the land). Jesus passed the test...for us all!

And that is GOOD NEWS for us!

What connections like this have you noticed?

1 week ago | [YT] | 7

Revolution of Ordinaries

Sorry for no videos in the last 10+ days...I have had a bad cold and am just now starting to think clearly enough to trust myself!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 10

Revolution of Ordinaries

Live Home Church Training Webinars are Back!

These are totally free...run live with a chat...then post to YouTube (‪@HomeChurchResources‬) in case you miss it!


Join us tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 7pm central for a How to Lead a Home Church Training.

RSVP and Join at this link - home-church-resources.circle.so/c/live-training-we…

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 9

Revolution of Ordinaries

Church Birth rates

One of the signs of a society in decline is a declining birthrate.

Ever thought about the church birthrate? This is the rate at which churches are starting churches.

One sign Christianity in the West is in decline is that churches aren't being planted in line with population growth.

If churches don't start, existing churches eventually age out and die. Then what?

Congregations have something very similar to a human life span. Most don't make 100 years (99%).

The amount of skill and expertise it takes to start a grow a traditional church is quite high and that means the pool of people who can do it is low.

So churches have to be started and that means people have to start them. And starting traditional churches is a high bar (building, staff, expertise, etc). So we have to look to alternatives to the prevailing model to have a healthy birth rate that can continue to reach people, mature disciples, etc looking ahead.

We cannot build traditional churches fast enough to meet the need. I am not saying don't start them or they are bad to start, just that they are insufficient on their own.

But we all have a living room. We all have gifts from God to use in service to others. Starting a church doesn't have to be crazy.

1 month ago | [YT] | 13