Missional Discussion When a church is small, house church size, (whether it intends to stay small or grow to a mega church size is immaterial to this discussion) the amount of time that a pastor/shepherd can spend on evangelism, evangelism training, evangelistic praying, prayer walking, building relationships with non-Christians, etc., is great. The larger a … More How Do Pastors Forget About Evangelism?
Two great movie reviews by my young friend Tyler Saul. Read his reviews of Toy Story 3 and The Invention of Lying.
Larry Osborne titled it The Barnabas Factor: Finding and Developing Leaders It was a Thursday morning seminar option at the Evangelical Free Church National Conference. [Aside: the SBC was having their national conference the same week. On Tuesday on the day before the SBC conference started they had a pre-conference. Find David Platt’s message to … More Equipping and Empowering Leaders
Had a number of conversations at the Evangelical Free Church National Conference which made me want to re-offer a previous post: Here’s the Title as a link; MacArthur and Osteen are Pastors of the Same Style Church and a companion link: Attractional Churches Create Barriers to Ministry
The title of today’s post is a paraphrase of what one non-Christian said to the church of the Netherlands some 200 years ago. I think the modern culture is saying something similar to us today. They are looking for some evidence that we are not “mere men.” They are looking for some evidence of a … More “You Christians Will Have to Sing Much Louder Before I Believe Your Religion”
The Benefits of Being a Sojourner One result of living like sojourners, bathed in the blood of the cross, and identified with the sacrifice of our Savior and desiring to emulate Him as closely as possible, will be a powerful stimulus to less homogeneity in our congregations and fewer “turf wars” over style. We will … More We are a Cross-bought People: Part 4
“Chance” Meetings on a Greyhound Bus”* In front of me, one seat up, I could touch his head without stretching my arm, sleeps a round and gentle Hispanic man with jet black hair and a blue and white stripped dress shirt. He is out. Serenely dreaming of what only God knows, the sounds erupting from … More Snoring Bus-Mates, and a Grandmother
The Settler’s Struggle with the Sojourner The settler doesn’t like the company of the sojourner. They threaten his security. Their past lives frighten him and make him uncomfortable. Their dysfunctional pasts are messy and unfamiliar. Some of them sport tattoos and piercings and hair color and clothing that frighten and confuse the settler. He has … More We are a Cross-bought People: Part 3
The Difference between a Sojourner and a Settler To be sure, a settler, like a sojourner, is a person who is on a journey. My image, as a white, middle-class 49 year old[3] —who grew up watching western cowboy movies—is of a covered wagon, with all the earthly belongings the settlers can fit inside, headed … More We are a Cross-bought People: Part 2
We Ought to be a Cross-shaped People What is the self-identity of the Christian? How is the believer to view himself in his horizontal relationships to the material world and in his vertical relationship to God? Who does he see him/herself to be? A better way to phrase the question would be, “How am I, … More We are a Cross-bought People: Part 1
