Where I used to live, a fair number of people attended church. None of them went to the church I attended and, as far as I know, no one else attended the same church as their neighbors. Even more confounding is that there were two churches within a mile, but no one attended them either. […]
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Pursue Community Bible Study
Personal Bible Study is Essential; Group Bible Study is Even Better When I study the Bible, it’s usually by myself. Though I seek the Holy Spirit to guide me, I seldom have the input of other people. Though there’s value in personal Bible study—which everyone should pursue—greater value comes when we explore Scripture in community. […]
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Jesus Offers a Prayer for Unity
The last thing that Jesus did as a free man was to pray. The last thing in prayed for was that his future followers would get along. This strongly suggests that unity was important to Jesus. While unity among his followers was largely realized in the first century that has not been the case in […]
Arguing Over What is True Has Divided Jesus’s Church for Centuries I’m a huge advocate of Christian unity, that as Jesus’s followers we should all get along and live in harmony. Denominations and theological perspectives don’t matter; Jesus does. In the book of John Jesus prays that his future followers will play nice with each […]
If Church Doesn’t Provide Meaningful Connection, Then You Need to Fix It or Find a Different Church Despite being the most connected generation, Millennials are also reportedly the loneliest. It seems their massive number of online friends and followers offer them only superficial relationships that lack meaningful interaction. They crave connections with others that touches […]
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Experiencing Christian Community
My wife and I attended the an-out-of-town wedding. We know both the bride and the groom well, having walked with them towards this joyous day. They met while attending seminary. The overall ceremony was typical of most Christian weddings, but with enough subtle variations to give it added spiritual significance. Without singing a song or […]
The Myth of Self-Sufficiency The ideal in the United States is personal self-sufficiency. But this is a myth, an unattainable pursuit that will eventually leave us broken or alone—or both. John Donne understood this. He said “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” We need others; […]
Many years ago, when public access to the internet was in its infancy and dialup was the only means to connect, I pondered the idea of church online. The World Wide Web did not exist then, so I considered if Usenet (online discussion boards), file sharing, and email could cobble together a church experience. I […]
Consider the Importance of Church Attendance I often write about the importance of being in meaningful community with other followers of Jesus. I also lament that churches frequently fail to provide significant community. While many churches offer superficial community, few are able to provide a deep, nurturing, caring place. I long for this level of […]
As I consider biblical Christianity, I feel a strong pull to community, a place where significant spiritual connections occur. This should be our experience at church, the reality of church, but it seldom is. We need true Christian community. A friend read my updated home page on this website and asked, “Where do we find […]