Category: Ministry
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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…
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Growing People for Service
by Daniel Radmacher Have you ever wondered why we are not born as adults? Probably not, I would wager. Seriously, though, have you ever considered the fact that God could very easily birth us as grown-ups? We could come out of the womb fully formed intellectually and spiritually, with only our physical dimensions to catch…
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6 Tips for God’s People in Response to a Culture Changed by Court Decree
While I do not want to become one of those guys who perpetually toots out only one tune, and I certainly do not want to make gay marriage or homosexuality the priamary notes of that tune, I do want to follow up yesterdays post with another reflecting on appropriate responses to the Supreme Court rulings yesterday. …
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24 Tips for Preachers
My friend and once-upon-a-time informal mentor, Randy Nabors, has posted a score of tips for preachers on his blog, Randy’s Rag. I learned a lot from Randy just by hanging out and watching when I was a young pastor living and serving in the Chattanooga area. I post Randy’s Tips here because they are worthy…
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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…
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What If We Omitted Gospel, Community, or Mission?
The refrain from an old song says: “Two out of three ain’t bad.” But would this be true for a church, or a Christian, who incorporates 2 out of 3 of the core values: Gospel, Community, Mission? Consider these thoughts, framed as a mathematical equation: Gospel + Community – Mission If we have a Gospel…
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10 Contemporary Sacred Cows That Need Tipping
My grammar school days were lived out in a plush Philadelphia suburb. My first taste of culture shock came just before I entered high school, when my family made a cross country move and settled into a cul-de-sac home in a nice new development in a then-more-rural area outside Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. It was in…
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4 Possible Paradigm Shifts for the 21st Century Church
I am not sure in what context or venue he said this, but billionaire financier Warren Buffett is credited with having noted: “In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” Whatever the initial context, there is much wisdom in this insight that can be…
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Christian Leaders Learn to Think Theologically
Here is an important thought for my fellow pastors, and other ministry leaders. It is also important for shaping what church members should value in and expect of their pastors and Elders: Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology…
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10 Warning Signs of an Inwardly Obsessed Church
Researcher Thom Rainer warns of signs of a church that is so inwardly focused that it has ceased to be the church of Jesus Christ and has become, at best, a museum to (assumed) past glories, in which the membership makes up the board of directors. Rainer writes: Any healthy church must have some level…
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Lost Art of Discipleship
Sometimes we need to face up to difficult questions. Michael Horton, in his book The Gospel Commission, asks some really tough ones that every church, every church leader, every church member needs to ask themselves: Instead of reaching the lost, are we losing the reached? Or are those reared in our own churches being truly…
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When Helping Hurts
With the re-emergence of ministries of mercy by Evangelicals have also come definite challenges. I am delighted that this trend of compassion continues on the upswing. But I am also aware of both the theological and practical dilemmas that inevitably face anyone who is engaged in such outreach. The video above in an interview with…
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Gauging Your Church’s Temperature
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, talks about looking at our churches through critical lenses: If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep…
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Can Mission Become an Idol?
“There is a first-rate commitment to a second-rate mission.” That is what Roger, a leader in global church planting, said as he looked at the rock climbers ascending a cliff in the Alps. Many of us called into ministry feel the same way. Rather than giving our lives to climbing a rock, building a business,…
