I Have a Problem

The following video was sent to me by a friend. It’s an attempt to explain the missional church in two minutes and it does a good job explaining the church, missional or not.
http://jrwoodward.net/2010/03/the-missional-church-simple/
However, I have a problem with all the words being battered around today to describe the church – organic, emergent, missional, incarnational – […]

We’re Living in Strange Times

If you’ve lived through 9/11 and 2008 you know what I mean about strange times. If you don’t know, no need to read any further. You’ve got too much sand in your ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.

We’re living in a time of exaggerated contradictions.

At the very time many of […]

Thanks for the Prayers

Many of you know my wife has been in the hospital for more than 30 of the last 55 days. Three times she has had to spend a week or more in the hospital, and they still haven’t found the reason she bleeds when they put her on Plavix.

She is home now and although her struggle […]

The Key to Everything

Every study shows that the most effective outreach/evangelism/advertising is friends inviting friends and networks. In fact, 85% of people who come to church do so because a friend asked them. Getting your people to invite their networks is the key to everything. The primary reason new church plants grow is because the pastor and […]

They Come to See Me Burn

I’m preparing to speak to the Presbyterian Church of Canada in a couple of months.  They chose as the subject “The Emmaus Project.”  It consists of selected churches from all over Canada.

As I was preparing, I got stuck on the tiny phrase the two pilgrims who walked with Jesus said once he had left […]

The Importance of Coaching

Over the years I’ve watched pastors do all kinds of work trying to grow their church.  Many of them have brought in a consultant, myself included, had a thorough examination of their church, and received a clear directive for the future, only to flounder after the consultant left.

It has become clear to me that […]

MLK Day

I just heard some reports that attendance at most of this year’s MLK rallies and marches was way down. While in the restroom at the hospital this week I heard a man say to another man, “I don’t understand what this Martin Luther King Day is all about. Why do we have it?”

King started […]

Catching Up: The Good and the Ugly

Sorry for not posting in  a while but my wife has been in the hospital going through two surgeries. However, she is doing wonderful tonight and may go home soon. So I’ve been a bit distracted. But God is good and all is well with my wife. That is the good part of this […]

Playing Fair When Dancing with Dinosaurs

Before you read this post, please burn into your brain that I was one of the first authors to shoot a warning shot across the bow of the institutional church by questioning its effectiveness and validity. In 1993, I wrote the book Dancing with Dinosaurs, in which I said the present form of institutional […]