All tagged church culture
I came to deeply admire and respect the faith of my brothers and sisters in Christ in Argentina. We didn’t always agree on theological points of view or ministerial practice but I loved and admired their profound faith and faithfulness to the way of Jesus.
Only God could plant a church like this. And if He could do it then, He can certainly do it now. Listen to God. Talk about Jesus to everyone. Baptize all of them. Plant a church full of people that have only one thing in common: Jesus.
A family does not need a long history in ministry or missions to raise children who love ministry. Parents can choose to create an environment that encourages their children to become involved in church in a deeper and more active way.
We often think that we have to do something big for Christ. In fact, we sometimes even downplay or refer to our service as insignificant. We’ve got to realize that this type of thinking is not coming from the Bible but from the culture around us. We may not even realize how much of our culture has seeped into us.
Ministry rarely offers a choice between one building project or the other. Instead, it requires constant movement between both approaches. Leaders spend time honoring and remodeling inherited structures while also investing energy imagining and innovating new possibilities.
I don’t think there’s one “silver bullet,” as they say, but I think that we can be bolder about some of our worship practices. If we are willing to “go big” on some central practices, they can help us have both a strong center and an open door.
Story after story unfolds and it becomes so abundantly clear that what makes for health and vitality is that in every new moment there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it!
For churches to flourish, the answer will lie in healthy congregational life and robust Christian formation.
In short, decide what matters to your church. Then do what it takes to further that approach.
Simply put, we need new ways of thinking about church and outreach. We need a new imagination for what it means to be God’s people.
Faith is the key, not how good we are. Rahab was not delivered because she was good, but because of her faith.
Inclusion means that the congregation embraces the inherent value in all voices and seeks to make them an active part of the whole.
Twelve-step groups are not the church. And this is a great reason why the church should support them.
Rather than holding to a set of convictions that properly constitute a faithful Christian, Christianity is more about an orientation toward following Jesus Christ.
We need to be very honest with ourselves. There are so many people who consider coming through the doors of our churches but choose to keep on walking.
I love TED Talks. These short, informative and often witty lectures allow me to peek into the professional world of some highly influential and inspiring thinkers of our day.
Christmas on Sunday puts church leaders in a Solomon-type predicament where we fear our only option is to make people decide between Christmas at home or keeping their commitment to church worship.
With perspective we gain the insight that what is old was once new; what is new will one day be old. However, Christ is still Christ; he always has been and always will be.
I have noticed a trend toward equating "prophetic preaching" with a confrontational, rough and tough style of delivery.
