The Consumer Church Metaphor
Church members don’t generally want to have their church compared to a business, but sometimes they just can’t help themselves and they fall into the metaphor themselves. The board meeting had a motion on the floor to upgrade the brand of Sunday morning coffee to one that was more appealing to the younger generation that […]
Making Disciples in Our Culture
Have you heard? The world is ending September 23. Nibiru, or infamous Planet X, is coming. All humanity shall perish. Okay, Nibiru was also supposed to come in 1995, 2003, and 2012. But… I like to say that Jesus is coming tomorrow. One of these days I’m going to be right! We just experienced an […]
Has the Church Been Disassociated?
These verses, 6 and 15, frame a directive of what to do with those who are literally busybodies, people who have nothing better to do than make trouble. Apparently, the Thessalonian church had as high of a mercy gift as churches today. They were tolerating bad behaviors from their members and Paul says, “Stop it!” There […]
6 Essentials of Church Hospitality
My wife and I went on our first cruise. It was a well oiled machine. They were prepared for serving meals to 2800 people. “Free” ice cream almost 24/7! A staff member always in sight to make your experience great. A highlight was the towel art on our bed each evening which was in the […]
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 […]
Five Steps to Revitalization
For the life of me I don’t understand why anyone would try to revitalize a church. But I did and I’m glad I did. Still, when I consider that the vast majority of pastors who try either fail or lose their job, I have to wonder why they would try, or why I tried? I […]