'church' Tagged Posts
5 Reasons Not to Copy the Successful Church down the Street
I have four boys living in my house and nothing is more tedious and annoying to listen to than when they start to copy each other. I know it’s part of regular development and that younger ones learn from older ones, but man can it grate the nerves to listen to and witness. I so desperately want them to discover who they are, to take pleasure in their own voices, and uniqueness. I pray they unfold like butterflies with a…
4 Keys to a Vital Congregation
People seem to dig the list when it comes to blogs and ministers and lay folks alike seem concerned about the decline of the church and wary of the future. More important all of us are trying to figure out how not only to lead the church but also how to be the church. Many people have pointed out that these days feel a lot more like the church of the Book of Acts than like the church of the…
We Labor Not in Vain
In my currently preferred sport, running, one of the really nice things is the culture of acceptance. If you go to a running event the absolute elites can be there, and you and I can be there too. A recent running magazine issue was dedicated entirely to what it takes to finish last…but to finish. To be in the running community is to receive grace and acceptance, regardless of ability. In other words, to be a runner is often a gift.…
A Word of Encouragement (Or the Church as a Trapeze)
I used to teach snowboarding at a high level. I would take snowboard instructors to the biggest steepest run at our resort and ask them to ride it fakie (with the wrong foot in front). I enjoyed hundreds, if not thousands, of hours snowboarding. In order to improve and in order to help others improve I had to push both them and myself beyond the ordinary comfort zones. As we progressed some people took notice of us and recognized the…
Walking Through the Motto in Lent
It’s Ash Wednesday and the internet is a flutter with what people are giving up (cheese, chocolate, booze, saying no, television, Facebook), and what people are picking up (saying yes more, saying I love you more, praying, meditating, running, scripture reading, small groups). What the Pope says we should do (love others better), and various other takes. Common among them is the notion that Lent is a time of preparation, preparation for Easter and for the life of faith. I…
The Life of Faith Involves the Community of Faith
I have been meeting more and more people, both in person and online through social media sites like Facebook, who aren’t sure they need to go to church to be Christian. They make various arguments, at times they are sincere, but rarely are they based on the bible. I suppose, perhaps, you could be a Christian who doesn’t hold God’s word to be particularly important, but I wonder what sort of Christian that would be. Taking a time away from…
A Funny Looking Church
I’m gonna come out and say it: I love camping and I think church camps are especially good experiences. Church camp is fun and always a formative experience for the kids involved. The endless night of games and running around, the feeling of being part of a pack of kids, the excitement of discovering a playground in the woods, building you own super sketchy rope swing as a bunch of 5 year olds…all that good stuff sinks in deep. During…
Malcolm Gladwell. David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath seeks to look with fresh eyes at how we consider advantages and disadvantages both for individuals and for groups. He considers everything from the battle between, well, David and Goliath, but also battles between Germans and Brits, Americans and Vietnamese, disabled people and their disabilities, children and the tragedies they need to overcome, and other such battles. His conclusion is that we often look at these things through the wrong lens, seeing the weak…
It’s Simple Really
This past week I stumbled upon a blog post about living more simply. It stated that the average North American house has something like 300 000 objects in it and that there is a movement of people trying to get their number down to under 1000. They suggest the things we own in reality own us; and they propose a bunch of ways to lower our number. One way, if you are interested, is to spend a month progressively getting…
People of the Resurrection
I suspect every preacher I know, and many many Christians I know, will be able to add the tune to the words from the old hymn that goes, “My hope is built on nothing less; than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Having spent a week attending two conferences and a variety of workshops I can’t help but wonder how good any of us are at actually living this out. It’s a lot like saying the lilies and the sparrows don’t need…
The Gospel Distribution Network
In the current Presbyterian Record there is an engaging article by John Longhurst asking important questions about the long-term vision of the Record and its role in our church. I don’t want to comment much on the article so much as say that it makes me feel very uncreative. For a pastor who blogs most weeks, preaches weekly, prays publicly with many people, leads conversations, and is generally expected to have ideas, visions, and new dreams, I sometimes feel less…
Thoughts of a Paper Shredding Pastor
Every now and then I look for some paperwork or other and realize how cluttered my files are. I then get the urge to purge, purge, purge and this leaves me cutting endless mounds of paper while I watch television. Now that I am starting to grow up and have what many people would consider a real job I have access to grown up luxuries, like a paper shredder at work. This is supposed to save me lots of time,…
I’m Sorry About Mars Hill
Like many people involved in the church I have found myself watching the happenings over at Mars Hill Church the same way I slow down and gawk at a car accident, not because I really want to, and not because I think I will learn about how to drive better, but because I cannot help myself. I know many people disparage the work of Mark Driscoll and other mega-church pastors. I know some of that comes from jealousy and some…
When All Else Fails
In my office the last week or so there have been a small parade of people bringing tidings of woe. They come in, sit down, and then struggle not knowing where to start their story. Then they find somewhere and off they go, the words either tumbling out of their mouths because they have so longed to tell someone what’s going on, or for some the words come more slowly, carefully, to get it right, to not cry to much.…