Marks of a Unified Church
Walter Brueggemann suggests how we might avoid getting tangled up on secondary issues: (HT: Allan R. Bevere)
Repelling Young People
“So, in a spirit of Christian solidarity, I decided to help these churches expel young people once and for all.” This is too good! Read the rest.
Of Evangelism, Missions and Other Bad Words
The tragedy of the American church is that we have the greatest resources ever in the history of Christianity and for the most part we’re sitting on them, doing nothing. When we are doing something, most of what we do is for ourselves. The question, I’m told, is what we should be doing and how…
Beware the Cult of the Speaker
Dave Black warns us today against the cult of the speaker. (With permission I’ve extracted the relevant portion as a post at JesusParadigm.com since Dave’s blog doesn’t allow linking to a specific post.) Considering what we’ve heard recently about megachurches creating satellite campuses that receive the message from the senior pastor on the main campus…
Rachel Held Evans on Evangelical Celebrity
I think she has two excellent points, the first about the danger of thinking of oneself as a celebrity (evangelical or not!), and the second about the value of structured prayer. I’d add a note on the value of structured Bible study, which also forces one to leave one’s comfort zone and one’s own desires…
Is the American Church in Prison?
Christians in many countries face imprisonment, but is it possible the American is imprisoned metaphorically by our way of thinking? Eric Carpenter thinks we are, and suggests some things to rethink.
The Problem with My Church’s Children’s Ministry
My church has a good children’s ministry. I’m impressed every time I hear our children’s minister present a children’s moment during the church service, and every time I’ve encountered the children’s programs myself, including the couple of times I’ve been invited to speak. The children are learning a great deal about Christianity, their church, the…
Through Difficulties to Ministry
Shauna Hyde is one of the authors at Energion Publications, so I admit to bias, but I really did like this write-up in the Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail. Her book, Victim No More! is mentioned in the article. I’m often critical of newspaper articles, not so much for being negative, but for being shallow. I think…
Scot McKnight on Women in Ministry
I’ll be eagerly awaiting the inexpensive ebook of his lecture at Fuller. The summary is interesting.
Connectionalism and Dysfunctional Churches
I have made a few negative comments about conference dashboards keeping statistics on membership, apportionments, and other activities available to anyone who wants to read. I continue to question whether these numbers really tell the story of the health of the churches. There are, I believe, some very large and growing churches that have little…