Re-Presenting The Imago Dei

Gerald Coleman

I am a Husband, Father, Son, Brother, and Friend. I am one made in the Image of God, and it is my daily goal to grow in that likeness through communion with the Father, Son, and The Holy Spirit. It is my hope that by me reflecting the Image of God, that others will recognize ...

CLIPS IN CONTEXT: College Students Wrestling With Discipleship

A candid interview with Deven Bridges. Deven gets honest about his faith, ambitions and the struggles he faces on a college campus.

CLIPS IN CONTEXT: College Students Wrestling With Their Discipleship

Kami Mackin challenges the notion that “discipleship is playing it safe". She reminds us that God often meets us in the difficult places.


CLIPS IN CONTEXT: A Glimpse of Young Adults Living Out Their Faith

As apprentices unto Jesus we are called to live out our faith in the particular context in which we find ourselves. If we examine closely the life of St. Paul, we will see in him quite a remarkable example of one who was adept at navigating various contexts. While it is true that as disciples there are things that are normative for us whether we live in a urban, suburban, or a rural context, we must all acknowledge that that each of those contexts present different challenges to wrestle with. In the lives of many young adults one context that has it’s own set of unique difficulties to navigate is that of a college or university Campus.

In hopes to inspire, encourage and help young adults in college wrestle with their discipleship, I will be interviewing several students who are learning to live out their faith their particular context. I will post one interview each week. Please feel free to share them with anyone who you know might benefit.

Here is the first interview.

What Are You Failing At?

This is an interview with my brother T.K. Coleman that we recorded last week.


Climate Change: Balancing Invitation and Challenge for Effective Discipleship

Over the past few years, I have been made aware of how various climates have effected my growth as a disciple. I should probably make it clear that when I mention "climates", I'm speaking about much more than weather conditions. When I use the word "climate" I'm referring to the feel of the particular relationships we are connected to, whether they be churches, small groups, missional communities, or simply our everyday relationships.

In the book "Building A Discipleship Culture", Mike Breen talks about the kind of climate Jesus created for his disciples to thrive in. It was a climate that was made up of both invitation and challenge. When we speak of Invitation, we are referring to giving someone access to your life. Jesus extended the invitation for each of his disciples to "come follow me". This is important because Jesus didn't simply say to them listen to me, but rather listen to me and watch my life. Effective discipleship always involves inviting another to have access into your life. However, Jesus didn't just stop with the invitation. He balanced his invitation with challenge. He challenged them to grow and develop into the type of people who could display his character and do the things he did. In the matrix below, we can see the various climates that are created when we rightly balance Invitation and challenge versus emphasizing one over the other.

A climate that is all invitation with little challenge creates a cozy feeling. A cozy climate is all about hanging out. An environment without challenge or invitation creates a boring feeling. When one is in a High Challenge environment with little invitation, it creates a stressful climate. In a stressful climate one is often asked to "try harder" and "do more". This type of discipleship becomes oppressive and a huge burden. However Jesus created a climate that empowered his disciples to grow. Jesus offered those of his day this invitation and challenge: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:27–30 ESV)

Which climate have you experienced the most?

What kind of climate do you create?

By nature do you find yourself to be more invitation or more challenge?

Who are the people in your life that you have seen model this well?

Life After Youth Ministry…..

After 6 yrs of serving our congregation as a Pastor to High School students and their families, I am moving on. Well, I'm not leaving our church, but I am changing roles. I have been given the sacred charge to invest in the young adults of our community and city.

As a Youth Pastor I've always found graduation time bittersweet. On one hand you got to celebrate the journey of students who didn't think that they would ever survive High School. However, it was painful to see them no longer eligible for youth group and feeling like they no longer had a connecting point at our church. They would often ask "Where doI go?" "What am I going to do?". Now, it was't simply that they didn't connect with our Sunday gathering, but rather they were asking who's going to intentionally engage me as I enter into this new stage of life? After much prayer and conversation with my colleagues, friends and especially my wife, I decided my response should be, "here I am Lord, send me".

So this blog will chronicle my journey into young adult ministry. Now I must warn you, I am not after the latest flash bang, that has never been my style. What I am after, is what Jesus invited us into, disciple-making. I want to launch a movement, and I want to see the Kingdom of God expanded. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Postach.io!

Postach.io is the blogging platform that's powered by your Evernote documents.

Creating a Post

Postach.io creates blog posts and pages from your notes. To create a post, write a note and tag it as "published" in this notebook. Then click the "Sync" button. Bam! Your note is published on your site, just like that!

Creating a Page

Creating a page works the same, except you add an additional tag "page". This tells Postach.io to create your note as page instead of a post.

Editing a Post

Updating a note is just as easy. Try making a change to this note, and click the "Sync" button. Visit your site, and you'll see its been updated.

Deleting a Post

To remove a note from your site, simply remove the "published" tag and re-sync. You could also delete the note itself. Its that easy!

How do I change the profile photo on my site?

To upload a custom profile photo, create a note in your sites notebook and add the image you'd like to use. Tag the note with "avatar" and sync Evernote. Change the photo in that same note anytime you'd like to update your photo. Thats it! For those who use Gravatar, we support that by default too.

Creating Additional Sites?

To create a site, click the "Create New Site" button above. You'll be taken to Evernote to authenticate your account. You'll then be able to select an Evernote notebook, a unique subdomain along with other details such as author, twitter username and Google analytics code.

How can I format the style of my posts and pages?

There are several ways to format your notes. The easiest is to use the Evernote browser version. Although Evernote has a desktop and mobile version, their browser app has more formatting options for fonts, resizing and aligning images and inserting other elements. The second option is to use Markdown. This is basically a way of using regular text elements to format your notes. You can learn more about Markdown here. The last, and more advanced approach is to use HTML directly. Postach.io supports basic HTML elements and styles.

How can I add comments to my blog posts?

Postach.io uses Disqus for comments. Its a widely used and excellent tool for adding threaded comments to your site quickly. You'll need to create an account, which is free, to start using it.

I still have questions!

We'd be glad to help! Hit us up by clicking the "?" icon at the bottom right hand of your Postach.io screen. Alternatively we post lots of tutorials and tips on our blog and Facebook Group.

Example Postach.io Blogs

Postach.io can be used to create many variations of blogs and documentation sites! Here's some ideas to get you started.

  • A tumble blog of your life and adventures.
  • The internet needs more funny cat photos. Go!
  • As an educator you can use it for teaching.
  • Start a food blog of your favourite places to eat, with a short review.
  • Documentation for your product or app.
  • Create a link blog of interesting articles.
  • Share your notebook with friends to make a collaborative wiki.
Moving Forward

We're really excited about Postach.io and are happy you've decided to join us for the ride! If you have any suggestions, questions or feedback, we're all ears! We want to make this thing awesome! We can't do it without you.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter(@PostachioApp) or Facebook(facebook.com/PostachioApp)!