Archive for the ‘church’ Category
A big religion headline last week involved the Crystal Cathedral declaring bankruptcy. This was, at one time, the mother of all mega-churches and was probably more well known, in it’s day, than Lakewood Church, Willow Creek, and Saddleback are today. The pastor and his church built an empire. If you visit […]
Read More...Quick, anyone know where the title of this blog post comes from? The Sheriff of Nottingham says it to Friar Tuck in the classic animated film, Robin Hood. “Save your sermon, preacher, it ain’t Sunday you know!” Recently when my kids were watching the movie, I heard that line and […]
Read More...I’m sitting here with rapt attention watching the Chilean miners finally get rescued. This is an excruciatingly slow process. One by one, the capsule is lowered and then a single man is brought up who has been trapped for nearly 70 days. When the first guy was brought up, there […]
Read More...For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the […]
Read More...For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the […]
Read More...For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the […]
Read More...There is a story in Luke 10 that constantly seems to speak to me in new ways: A woman named Martha opened up her home to Jesus. Mary, her sister, sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had […]
Read More...If you came to our church for very long, you would know we often say goodbye to people. One of the reasons we exist is to equip leaders for the Kingdom and then help them find places of service that are quite often not in our little family. And that […]
Read More...I led worship this week on Sunday morning for the first time in years. Though my technical skills are a little rusty, I really enjoyed it. Worshipping (and leading worship) is one of the things that tap into my passion. While I was leading (and destroying) some of the songs, […]
Read More...Many of us church leaders want to know why people have such a hard time keeping a long-term commitment to serving. However, I don’t think the problem is as much about what we are asking people to do, but about who we are asking them to be. Let me clarify: An […]
Read More...Multi-campus churches seem to be the hot thing right now among exploding churches, and among churches that want to be exploding. I have no criticism about the strategic value of this practice—I’m sure it makes sense for some, and out of necessity we even embraced a second location during the […]
Read More...Are you intentionally looking for people who will speak challenging truth into your life? This is one of the most effective ways to grow: Cultivate real relationships with people you trust who will tell it to you the way it is. We need those who will say, “you really blew […]
Read More...Most churches I know have a great volunteer challenge. It takes a high percentage of volunteer workers in order for everyone to be served well within a given structure. But, season-by-season, those workers are hard to come by, and sometimes even harder to keep. Most mature believers will step up […]
Read More...I was just asked an important question from a bright young pastor: “Why is Easter a week when we would expect that un-churched people would want to come to church?” It is, in fact, a very good question with an answer that is not as easy as you might think. […]
Read More...This week I was reading my Bible alone in a Starbucks and I kept being distracted by an exchange that was taking place at the next table. There was a new Starbucks partner (employee) being trained by a more seasoned worker. Binders were out and conversation was flowing. They were […]
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