Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.
Changing Churches Should Be Rare In our Facebook group we discussed the post “When Not to Change Churches.” Justin asked a pertinent question: “When should you change churches?” I knew part of the answer, but I needed to contemplate how far to take my response. Part of my hesitation stemmed from the reality that sometimes […]
We Get a Glimpse into the Spiritual Realm Through Scripture We live in a physical realm. In our physical world, we experience it with our senses. We see things, touch things, and hear, taste, and smell things. Through our senses, we experience our physical reality. However, there’s also a spiritual aspect of our existence, which […]
I don’t like the label “Christian,” even though I am one. The Christian label is a loaded term. It means many things to different people. To some, Christian implies narrow-minded. To others, Christian means hateful. Still others think Christian refers to a political party or secular movement. And what about mean, militant, murdering, manipulative, and […]
God Calls Us to a Faith That Produces Fruit Two reoccurring themes in the Bible are the ideas of being faithful and being fruitful. We are to be faithful and fruitful. The word faithful occurs over two hundred times in the Bible and shows up in most of its books (41). The word fruitful occurs […]
How to Inherit Eternal Life There are many things Jesus didn’t tell us to do to inherit eternal life or become saved. He didn’t say: He didn’t give Four Spiritual Laws, share The Roman’s Road, or recite the ABC’s of Salvation. His answer was easy. His most basic instruction was “follow me.” Then he wants […]
Ecumenical Is a Word Some May Be Unfamiliar With One definition of ecumenical means “relating to the worldwide Christian church.” A broader understanding is “establishing and promoting unity among religions.” More generically, ecumenical simply means “worldwide; universal.” In simple terms, I understand ecumenical to mean unifying. So that means ecumenical guidelines are advice to unify us. […]
From my research for 52 Churches I learned a great deal about the larger faith community I’m part of. This includes having charismatic experiences at some of the churches. Perhaps the most significant so far is courtesy of the United Methodist Church and their document “Guidelines: The United Methodist Church and the Charismatic Movement.” It’s […]
A Vibrant Spiritual Faith Looks Inward and Shares Outward I have a Sunday morning routine. This gives me structure to how I start my day, and it provides me with the best opportunity to make it be a great one. Aside from attending to the normal needs of life, there are two parts to my […]
De We Pray in Jesus’s Name or the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? This isn’t a trick question or a pluralistic way to approach the god of your choice. This is a simple question. When you pray to the God who is revealed in the Bible, whose name do invoke at the end? When you […]
Don’t Go to Church with a Passive Perspective: Be Engaged on Sunday Morning As a teenager, I often complained to my parents, “but I don’t get anything out of church.” Though they tried to reason with me, and they may have secretly agreed, their attempts to change my perspective didn’t help. What I wish I […]