Category: Church
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Faith in America: Not What it Used to Be?
I appreciate the perspective of this editorial from the March 12, 2009 Kingsport Times-News. The editor integrates both history and contemporary polling data. It eschews any alarmist inclinations and refutes any distorted notions that America was a distinctively Christian country upon it’s founding. I think this perspective is helpful. I am especially hopeful that it will help in preventing Christians from mistaking…
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Seek God for the City 2009
Beginning today and continuing through Palm Sunday members of our church, individually and corporately, will join thousands of others in churches throughout the world to Seek God for the City. Seek God for the City is an anual season of prayer initiated by Waymakers. Using a prayer guide designed by Waymakers individuals and groups will pray…
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Faucet or Sink?
Trevin Wax suggests that there are two kinds of Christians: Sinks and Faucets. Does that seem a little odd? Well check out Genesis 12.1-3, then see how Trevin describes his view on his blog, Kingdom People. See if you agree, then see which you are…
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Gosepl & Culture Project
Long has the debate endured about how we as Christians ought to relate to the surrounding culture. Many Fundamentalists have, for nearly a century now, advocated abandoning the culture, just let it go to Hell, and create an alternative sub-culture. Progressives & Liberals have advocated embracing the culture, and have even been shaped by it…
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Radical Reformission
Long ago I shamelessly pilferred the word “Reformissional” from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Acts 29 Network. The word seemed to encapsulate what I was about. The word is a hybrid of both Reformed and Missional, two parallel tracks that both decribe and shape my philosophy of ministry – and even, to a large degree, my…
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Mountaintop Spirituality
The mountain journey is about becoming more aligned with God’s presence and purposes in our lives. …The goal is not the glamour of iridescent light, but Christ-shaped encounters with others. The journey is not about getting out of this world or out of ourselves into some more glamorous place – but about getting as deeply…
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The Times They Are A-Changin’
With proper dues to Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’”. I found that glaringly evident when, earlier this week, someone sent me the following video that was oringianlly presented to a gathering of SONY executives. When I watch this video I find myself wondering about the implications for the church, especially as it relates to our mission…
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Frontline Prayer
Jack Miller, in his book Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, makes a distinction between two types of prayer meetings: Maintenance and Frontline. Miller confesses to having led both kinds in churches he pastored. Here is how Miller describes each: The Maintenance meeting was largely designed to maintain the the existing life and ministry of our congregation. Believers…
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Pastors & REAL People
My friend Nathan Lewis has written a profoundly heartfelt, insightful post titled: Why So Many Pastors Don’t Get Close to Church Members. Nathan is an excellent writer, and has a broad spectrum of interests, so that he has written a good post is no surprise. But the theme he dares to address treads into sensitive territory: the…
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Mapping Out Missions in Your Church
It was theirs for the taking. So Moses, at God’s prompting, sent a dozen spies into the Canaan to explore the land God promised to give to Israel. But God never promised Moses that taking the land would be easy. Canaan was filled with powerful people and fortified cities. Ten of the spies weighed the risk and…
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The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Worship
by John Piper Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no…
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Odyssey of Church Outreach
Outreach and evangelism are among the most important responsibilites the Christian has to his/her community. They are also perhaps the most intimidating. A friend of mine, who is not a pastor, took over the the outreach ministry of his church. He was aware at the outset that this ministry was in need of an ovehaul. During the ‘heydays’ in this congregation most…
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Sad Day in the PCUSA
We’ve seen it coming. It has become more iminent with each turn of the calendar page. But somehow, perhaps naively, I had hoped it would never arrive. But at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (not to be confused with the PCA) commissioners voted to strike the language from their constitution that reflects…
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A Team Approach to Effective Church Ministry
As a Presbyterian minister I am keenly familiar with committees. While committees are a familiar staple in churches of almost any flavor, we Presbyterians especially like to have everything done ‘decently and in order’. This makes the committee structure seem almost inherently appealing to our ecclesiastical DNA. But to be honest, from time to time I find myself…
