Category: Church
-
Numbering the Sheep on the Ranch
Blogger Tim Challies is at the Together for the Gospel Conference, surrounded by other church leaders. No surprise then that he is hearing this common question all around him: “How many people go to your church?” And apparently Challies, whose primary vocation is writer not pastor, has some concerns about this question: I’d like to…
-
Is Church Membership Really Required?
by Ricky Jones This month we will be inducting new members into the most honored body the world has ever known: the church of Jesus Christ. The initiation fee for this club is so high that no human could have ever paid it; God himself had to pick up the tab. The benefits of the…
-
Happier Elsewhere: Singing ‘Happy Trails’ to … Some
I appreciate the practical wisdom Ed Stetzer provides in a post titled: Why I Have No Difficulty Helping “Issue Christians” to Move On. Few seem to think this way in our consumerist church culture, where numbers are the only measuring stick of success, and faithfulness is but a tool to… well, numerical success – so…
-
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…
-
Ministering to Missing Millennials
Why are Millennials walking away from our churches? Why are a number of our own kids walking out the doors? Why does the church seem impotent to change the direction of this rising tide? While my wife and I are blessed to have all of our kids active in church, including our two college aged…
-
Gospel-centered Church
At Grace Covenant we talk a lot about being gospel-centered as a church, and we encourage gospel-centered living among our people. From time to time we get asked by our newcomers, “What exactly does that mean? What does it look like?” Here is a brief explanation. The Gospel Before we jump into gospel-centeredness we need to…
-
Getting Through Challenges to Missional Community
As we have been encouraging the small groups in our church to add a more intentional outward face, I thought I would post this piece by Jonathan Dodson that provides a solid three-legged-base counsel concerning missional communities – which is what small groups embracing an outward face are in transition toward becomming. *** The popularity of missional community is…
-
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…
-
Qualities of Christian Community
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic book, Life Together, makes this observation that should be pondered by many in the church, especially those discontented with the relational dynamic in their particular congregation: “The people most in love with community are in danger of destroying community.” In other words, there are people who have made such an…
-
He-Man Woman Haters Club
There was a time when I wondered if at least some in my denomination ought to start wearing t-shirs with a picture bearing the image of Alfafa from the old Our Gang/Little Rascals’ shorts from the ’30’s & ’40’s. Alfalfa was a founder and president of the He-Man Woman Haters Club. Now, I know that…
-
Here AND There
We don’t just go to church, we ARE the church …sent out by the power of the Spirit to BE the church. This illustration above represents two aspects of being a faithful church: Attractional – those elements of a particular congregation that draw people into the church community. Among these would be the quality of…
-
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…
-
Center Church
I picked up Tim Keller‘s newest book, Center Church. It hit the bookstore shelves this morning. I have as yet read only a few chapters. But as expected it is an excellent expression of holistic gospel-centered ministry. In short it is a book about forming a Theological Vision for ministry, and living out that vision…
