Archive for the ‘church’ Category
You are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol… (Deuteronomy 4:22-23) In much of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the Israelites about their […]
Read More...My friend Charles Lee is starting a sermon series on the Book of Acts at the church he pastors. As a part of his presentation, he included the following video that briefly explains the Missional Church. I saw it tonight and I like it. Though I’m not certain whether it can […]
Read More...“…And so Moses finished the Work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:33-35) When […]
Read More...As a pastor I’ve always loved Exodus 18 and Acts 6 because of the wise and practical action that the leaders took to distribute the work of the ministry. I just think it makes good organizational and strategic sense to do this, and I’ve regularly revisited these passages to rethink […]
Read More...Groups of people (companies, organizations, churches, etc,) develop traditions that are based on strong values, but the tradition may continue long after the underlying value is forgotten. This can become a problem; when traditions start to conflict with values, then we have trouble my friend (“with a capital “T”). Eleven […]
Read More...Continued from part 2… If God is a creative God and humans were created to reflect that image, then all-God/all-man Jesus paints a picture of what a fully creative human being might look like. In the first chapters of Mark, we discover a few things about creative, out of the […]
Read More...Continued from Part 1 If the church is a reflection of an infinitely creative and original God, then how does a congregation manifest that creativity? How do we start to climb out of the boxes we’ve learned to live in? I think it starts with an understanding. We can choose […]
Read More...“In the beginning God created…” (Gen 1:1 NIV) The very first thing we learn about God in the Bible is that He is creative—and for the first 26 verses we see God at work masterfully creating an unfathomable cosmos, life-sustaining systems, invisible atoms and everything else imaginable (and unimaginable). Then, […]
Read More...“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also…” (Acts 17:6) Equilibrium (def.): A condition…resulting in a stable, balanced, unchanging system. It’s common for church leaders to work very hard to maintain constant equilibrium in their congregations. They try not to upset anyone, especially anyone with […]
Read More...In 2009, the church seems to be more and more concerned about being relevant. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. Like missionaries, we want to understand our culture and communicate the message of the cross in a language they can understand. But what does being relevant really […]
Read More...People define the local church in many ways. Even in the New Testament, though there are some ecclesiological imperatives, there also seems to be much room for unique structures and creative styles from city to city, and from church to church. Here are a few pictures that help express how […]
Read More...A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking in the pulpit of East Hill Church in Gresham, Oregon. This Church means a lot to me, as its last three leaders are men of God who I respect. Jerry Cook is, in my opinion, a rock star (though […]
Read More...I just read an article about the liquid church. The gist of it went like this: “We don’t need the church gathering anymore, because real church consists of interconnected people and Christ flowing through those relationships”. While there is some truth here, the idea throws out the proverbial baby with […]
Read More...It’s been almost 3 weeks since my last blog post (sounds a little like a confession). I’ve got a bunch of stuff rolling around in my head, but as I press towards the end of the College year, there just is not enough time in the day to get any […]
Read More...It’s been going on for years now…the night before Easter I can’t sleep at all. I want it to be the next morning so badly that you would think I was a kid on the night before a big trip to Disneyland or waiting for Christmas day to show up. […]
Read More...