Seminary and Ordination are Keeping U.S. Christianity from Thriving

Recently I’m running into a lot of writers who are asking the question “If we all serve the same God, why is Christianity growing all over the world except Europe and the U.S.?” I find that am important question. The problem is most of the answers I’m seeing deal with fringe issues and don’t […]

Dinosaurs to Rabbits: Turning Mainline Decline into a Multiplication Movement

Mainline Christianity has been in a free fall decline since the mid 1960s.  Some want to blame it on a changing culture; others say it’s the way all organizations go sooner or later; while others just throw up their hands and give up the ghost.

The truth is, we don’t believe any of these excuses […]

Something Wonderful Is Happening

Something wonderful has happened in the last decade, something we haven’t ever seen happen in the U.S. and I’m not talking about Mr. Wonderful. I’m talking about something so wonderful that is makes me wish I were twenty again so I could have more of a part in it – something that I have […]

From Horses to the Moon: Something to Think About

I want you to think about the title to this blog post and ask yourself, “What has this to do with religion?” Here are my thoughts.

In less than 100 years the U.S. has gone from riding on horses to putting a man on the moon.  That’s incredible progress; it’s also a demonstration of how […]

The Model Church

1 Thessalonians 1:6–8
You became imitators of us and of the Lord … And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you … your faith has become known everywhere.
The Thessalonian church had, at least ostensibly, become models of a functional church. They became […]

The Number One Problem with Western Christianity: McGavran and Disciple Making

We all know 85% of churches in the West are in decline, so I wont go into that other than to say I know the cause for this decline. The number one problem with Western Christianity rests on its misunderstanding of the Church Growth movement and the liberalization of the Western Church. Let me […]

Why I’m So Hopeful about Church Planting

I’ve never been more hopeful about church planting in the U.S. as I am today. I couldn’t say this a decade ago. What changed my attitude – the growing trend of small to medium sized churches that are planting multiple churches that are expected to plant multiple churches.

Some examples of my hope are:

City […]

A Prayer for Sanity

My denomination, The United Methodist Church, has just initiated a program called “Praying Our Way Forward.” This is a denomination wide program that begins with Phase One, which is encouraging all the Bishops to agree to spend 15 minutes a day between now and mid-November. So far 84 Bishops are signed up.

Now calling for […]

A Second Conversation with Ralph Moore

Not long ago I did a post on my conversation with Ralph Moore of Hope Chapel in Honolulu. In this conversation I asked Ralph if what I had heard was true – that at times he has given away a sizable portion of his existing congregation to plant churches and did some of them […]