Sunday Afternoon Musings Are We Selling a Product or Heralding a King? (part 1) A few years ago, I was having coffee with a church planter who was both exhausted and discouraged. His launch team had spent six months fine-tuning their branding, dialing in their sound system, and designing direct-mail flyers that looked like they … More the Difference Between a Salesman and a Herald
Actually, what we really need is a return to the model of Jesus, which will feel completely new. The church in America is not lacking for resources. We have conferences. We have curricula. We have podcasts, platforms, and personality-driven programs that can fill a calendar twelve months of the year. We have more tools for … More We Need a New Approach to Making Disciples
Take a moment and let these 10 ideas stimulate your own plan to make a difference in your neighborhood. Spring clean up: Find the oldest, neediest, or maybe the couple with the youngest children, and figure out a way to help with all the Spring things that need to get done. Go help them do it. … More Ten Ways to Make a Difference in Your Neighborhood This Spring
A pastor called with a question about what I have called on this blog, “INTENSELY LOCAL MINISTRY.” How do we reach the people around us? The neighbor next door and the one across the street–how do we tell them about the love of Christ in a culture where the discussion of personal faith is seen … More A Pastor Asked Me . . .
Tom Short, a campus evangelist with Campus America, has written a short but helpful book on the topic of what is happening in too many Christian homes, or rather, in the lives of children now in their 20’s and 30’s. One of the things that is most helpful is Tom’s ability to bring clarity to … More Reasons Millennials are Leaving the Church
Saturday Afternoon Musing This may not be new to you, but it was to me. I have been meditating on Mark 4:1-20 and Jesus’ parable of the four soils. Sometimes hearing is better than reading (silently). Over the last few days, I have gone outside (into the heat) and read it out loud two or … More New Insights to a Familiar Parable
Fishing pools, fishing trips, or fish catching or, mixing metaphors, fields, fruit, and harvest: are all different things. 18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will … More Fishing Pools and Fishing Trips in the New Year
Indisputable 21st Century Facts: Relationships in our neighborhoods with our neighbors are characterized by three things, They are not natural They are not normal They are not necessary The first two items are a product of the third. Because our relationships with our neighbors are not necessary to our lives or our neighbors, almost all … More Our Problem in Making a Difference for Christ
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”Matthew 4:19 Proposal: Encourage every SBC in America to commit one-eight-hour day a month by one of its pastors for the next 4 years to praying about, learning about, and planning for the planting of at least one church in the year 2028. Result: The … More A Church Planting Strategy for the SBC
The difference between outreach and evangelism is essentially this—outreach will almost universally get you pats on the back while evangelism will eventually get you persecuted. Outreach does not replace evangelism but it can be powerfully productive as a handmaid to evangelism OR an excuse for not doing evangelism. It can be the cowards way of … More “What is ‘Outreach'”?
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