Category: Missional
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The Value of Ministries of Mercy
It seems that Micah 6.8 is quite clear and straight-forward in its summary of living as God’s People in this world: He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?To do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Yet, for some reason, many Christians, and too many churches,…
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The Responsibility of the Church
Lesslie Newbigin, in his book The Reunion of the Church, challenged the Church to be on mission: “The responsibility of the church is to declare to each generation what is the faith… This is always a fresh task in every generation… No verbal statement can be produced which relieves the Church of the responsibility continually…
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What’s the Problem?
Writing in 1974, Francis Schaeffer suggested: “The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The…
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Christianity in Our Current Cultural Context
In March 2019, noted church leader Tim Keller delivered this keynote address at The Hendricks Center Gala. In this address Keller identifies some of the ways that ministering in our present cultural context may be different from ministering in the past. Whether one agrees with Keller’s assessments or not, all would be wise to at…
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The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times
Dr. Os Guinness speaks to Acton Institute, a message titled: The Power of the Gospel No Matter How Dark the Times. This message, though long, is powerful, and is related to a post I published earlier this week titled: Culture Shaping Power of the Church.
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Is This Why We Don’t Engage Our Neighbors?
Here is a challenging perspective and good instruction from Leon Brown, church planter and pastor at Crown & Joy Presbyterian Church in South Richmond, Virginia: “I fear that one of the reasons we don’t know how to engage non-Christians to talk about Jesus is because we’ve forgotten how to have regular conversations. If the conversation…
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Advent Conspiracy
For many Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – marks opening day for an exciting month long contact sport – shopping! For many others it is just one more cause for anxiety. In the midst of the seasonal hubbub, take a moment to watch this short video from the Advent Conspiracy. Share the joy…
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Christian’s Cultural Assessment Toolbox
Here’s an astute observation from Os Guinness: “Christians simply haven’t developed Christian tools of analysis to examine culture properly. Or rather, the tools the church once had have grown rusty or been mislaid. What often happens is that Christians wake up to some incident or issue and suddenly realize they need to analyze what’s going…
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Turning Consumers Into Missionaries
In this video, Hugh Halter offers some helpful suggestions about turning church consumers into people who live on mission for and with Christ. While this is a long video, in the current climate of American church culture, I found it worth taking the time to consider. I broke it up into viewing sections – watching…
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Downward Slide
Ed Stetzer offers thoughts on the paradox he sees growing in Evangelical circles: Church planting and other ministry initiatives are on the rise, while evangelism is suffering a downward slide. Stetzer: Downward Slide
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Evangelistic Worship
by Tim Keller THE WORSHIP WARS One of the basic features of church life in the U.S. today is the proliferation of worship and music forms. This in turn has caused many severe conflicts both within individual congregations and whole denominations. Most books and articles about recent worship trends tend to fall into one of…
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Western Theology
There are two visions of life, two kinds of people. The first see life as a possession to be carefully guarded. They are called settlers. The second see life as a wild, fantastic, explosive gift. They are called pioneers. These two types give rise to two kinds of theology: Settler Theology and Pioneer Theology. According…
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The Missional Puritan: On Mission With God
Hey, this Missional thing is nothing new! Listen to what the old English Puritan, John Owen, wrote in the 17th Century: God has work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we…
