Ancient Role Models – Learning from Those Who Didn’t Get It Right… At First
Acts 1:8. You probably know the passage by heart: “You will be my witnesses from Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Those words were spoken to the apostles just before Jesus left them in charge. And of course, we know the rest of the story, don’t we? […]
The Most Misunderstood Man in Christianity
To some, Donald A. McGavran was one of the greatest missiologists in Christian history. To others, his name is almost synonymous with the devil. Those who malign McGavran have simply misunderstood him. They say all he was about was numbers. They say he was responsible for pastors building large churches around the homogeneous model. They […]
The Missional Hoax?
I began reading seriously about the Missional Church in the 90s with books like God’s Missionary People by Charles Van Engen, and The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrell Guder. I resonated deeply with their writings and saw many of the things they wrote about being lived out in my ministry while a pastor […]
The Horrible Irony – Freedom Equals Complacency
I sat watching my recorded session of “Meet The Press”. I had a tear in my eye. 20 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and freedom was returned to East Germany. It was a great sight to watch again how the people from both sides of the Wall celebrated its destruction. Hammers, picks, screwdrivers, […]
Defusing the Conflict Time-Bombs
One of the little-known facts about me is that once upon a time in the Air Force I was in munitions’ maintenance and transportation – in other words, I played with bombs. I was trained to work with conventional and non-conventional munitions (bombs, bullets, rockets, and missiles) and I had a pretty good understanding of […]
The ABC Holiday Checklist
Christmas has begun. Oh, Advent is still a month away, but every big box store has rolled out the holiday decorations and even mom and pop stores are getting into the act little by little. We don’t have to like it, but as the church we’d better stop digging our heels in against it. For […]