Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.
In Jesus We Are the Same Paul writes that when we follow Jesus there’s no real difference between being Jewish or Greek, slave or free, male or female, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, or uncivilized (Colossians 3:11). He’s advocating Christian unity. Stop to think about this, to really contemplate the ramifications. He tells us to break down […]
Be Open to How God Wants to Lead Us A minister once told me there are three ways to lead people. Some lead from above, others lead from the front, and still more lead from within. God can lead us in the same way. Consider these three leadership styles. Lead From Above Leaders who lead […]
Make Spending Time with the Almighty a Priority God deserves our best, not whatever’s left over at the end of the day—if anything. This may be why he told the Israelites to give to him their first fruits, the first of their harvest (Exodus 23:16). That’s why we should start each day with God, with […]
Do What You Can to Promote Peace In Jesus’s best-known sermon, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, he proclaims that “Blessed are the peacemakers.” They’ll be known as God’s children (Matthew 5:9). Though Jesus doesn’t explicitly command us to advocate for peace, he proclaims blessings on those who do. And the blessings are […]
We Can’t Witness for Jesus When We Sequester Ourselves on Sunday Mornings Just before Jesus leaves this world to return to heaven, he instructs his followers to go into the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). In an expanded version of this incident, Jesus tells his followers to wait for Holy Spirit power and then […]
The Number of First-Time Church Attendees Says Much about Your Congregation Consider the people who go to your church. They fall into three categories. The first group are those who came to your church from another church. The second constituency consists of people who’ve gone there their entire life. The final type are first-time church […]
Celebrating Holy Spirit Power In another post we talked about the four main Christian holidays. In succession, they celebrate that Jesus came to earth (Christmas), died so we could live (Good Friday), overcame death to prove his mastery of it (Easter), and having completed his mission, he gave us a gift (Pentecost). Pentecost is the […]
Make Sure Your Faith Community Focuses on the Right Thing We need to examine the purpose of church. Why do we meet each week? What are our goals when we come together? What should our focus be? Though people will give various answers, the responses fall into two broad categories: ourselves and others. Church Is […]
Seek Ways to Make Our Faith Communities Relevant to a Postmodern World In the early 2000s there was much talk about the emergent church. The idea was to address shrinking church attendance by taking steps to be more pertinent to a younger audience, many who dismissed the religious practices of prior generations. These people weren’t […]
If We Can Fully Understand God, Then He’s Not a Very Great God Some people are confused when they hear about Jesus or read the Bible. Because they don’t fully understand everything, they dismiss him, waiting until everything makes sense. It never will. At least not during our existence here on earth. This is the […]