A Church and Its Congregation Shouldn’t Let a Corporate Mentality Infiltrate It’s Thinking In “Why Business Practices Hurt the Church” we discussed how business thinking has improperly affected the big-picture perspectives of church. Yet the business mindset goes deeper than that, negatively influencing church practices and attendee attitudes. Spiritual Outcomes Are Not Quantifiable The business […]
Leviticus Warns Against Everything Unclean, but Jesus Has a Different Response I’ve never met anyone who likes the book of Leviticus, and many admit to skimming it when it comes up in their Bible reading plan, yet a thoughtful read of this often-tedious book reveals startling insights. Today’s section talks about the unclean: unclean people, […]
Study Scripture and Then Use Other Resources as Needed My book Jesus’s Broken Church was about a decade in the making, perhaps longer—maybe even a lifetime. When I sensed something wasn’t right with how today’s church functioned, I begin praying and searching for answers. Over time, piece by piece, God’s Holy Spirit revealed the answers […]
With Sunday falling between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I have low expectations for their year end service. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #39: 1. Yet inside, friendly faces and hearty handshakes greet us. People acknowledge us as first-timers, without fawning over us. How can you better embrace newcomers without making them uncomfortable? […]
Why We Shouldn’t Join a Church A few decades ago American Express unveiled the tagline: “Membership has its privileges.” Their ads implied that great benefits awaited those who qualified to carry one of their exclusive cards. To start, there was a high annual fee and, as I understand, minimal annual levels of usage for their […]
Sunday Should Not Be a Day of Restriction but a Day of Freedom and Celebration In the book of Exodus, God and Moses have a face-to-face meeting. That is significant. How cool would it be to have a direct conversation with the Almighty? Certainly, we’d remember what he told us and be careful to follow […]
Consider the Fruit You Bear as a Follower of Jesus Paul tells the church in Galatia that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When we follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit resides in us, this should result in changed behavior, a better behavior […]
The church meets in a middle school’s all-purpose room. Large portable signs direct us to the entrance. We enjoy a refreshing church service. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #38: 1. People mill about: talking, sipping coffee, or munching snacks. They represent all age groups, with many kids. Younger people are the future of […]
The Church of Jesus Needs to Focus on Three Things and Master Them All In our normal usage, church is a building, a place we go to—often on Sunday mornings. I’ll be there later today. Other definitions for church include a religious service, organized religion, and professional clergy. Yet a more correct understanding is that […]
For Forty Years the Israelites Had Two Signs from God to Guide Them After spending four-hundred years in Egypt, the repressed children of God finally get a chance to leave. This comes under the leadership of Moses. We know of Moses’s meetings with Pharaoh to negotiate the Israelites’ release, of ten plagues, and the people’s […]