Churches Close for Tangible Problems, But Maybe Some Should Close for Spiritual Reasons In the book of Malachi, God laments about his people. Specifically he’s down on the priests because they show contempt for him. Their worship is so off-track that God wishes one of the priests would just shut the temple doors. This would […]
When It Comes Time to Change Churches, Attitude Is Everything Last week we talked about when not to change churches, instead of looking to find a new church. Too often people treat their church as a commodity and behave as a consumer, switching their loyalty over trivial things. Most of the time, however, the best […]
When We Go Church Shopping We Behave as Consumers and Don’t Honor God In today’s practice of retail religion, we pursue faith has a consumer and miss the purpose of church. We’re quick to change churches over the smallest of issues. Yet, usually the best action to take is no action: Don’t change churches. Often […]
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 […]
The Bible Offers Little Support for a Minister to Preach a Sermon to Us at Church Many changes occurred in church practices because of the Protestant Reformation some 500 years ago. One of those changes adjusted the emphasis of the Sunday service. The reformers had concern over the focus of Sunday gatherings being on the […]
Worship Means Different Things, but What’s Important is That We Do It Some churches call their Sunday meeting a worship service. This has always troubled me. Yes, I knew that singing to God was a form of worship, or at least it should be. I understood the part about “worshiping God with our tithes and […]
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 […]
Having a Regular Sabbath Provides an Opportunity to Rest and Recharge The dictionary defines recreation as a time of refreshment for our mind or body through the use of an activity that amuses or stimulates; an activity that provides refreshment. More simply, recreation is to play. After working hard for the workweek, people seek recreation […]
Can You Have a Church Service Without Hearing a Preacher Speak? My wife and I recently visited a church. Though we didn’t know it before we walked in, their service would be different that week. There was no sermon. The church used the normal sermon time to talk about the missionaries their church supported. They […]
Stop Thinking of Church as a Place You Attend but as Actions to Pursue Yes, I know that linguistically church is not a verb. A verb indicates action; it shows movement. Church falls in the noun category, specifically a place. Places don’t move. They have no action. They don’t do anything. Most places, in and […]