Much Is At Stake
In “The Sacred Romance”, John Eldredge says this: One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like [...]
Onion Religion
The online satirical news site, “The Onion”, cracks me up. Here are some of my favorite religious-oriented headlines…. “Christ Announces Hiring Of Associate Christ” JERUSALEM—Overwhelmed by a constant deluge of prayers and appeals for salvation, Jesus Christ announced Monday the hiring of Tacoma, WA, customer-service supervisor Dean Smoler as Associate Christ. Jesus Christ, swamped by [...]
Don’t Waste Your Cancer
John Piper has always been one of my favorite scholar/pastors. All may not agree with his statements, but as my family walks through a difficult medical season with my father-in-law, John’s words on the eve of his own surgery for prostate cancer seem especially poignant and apropo: “I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle [...]
The Chicken Machine
I used to work for TBN. There, I’ve said it. Occasionally I wear it as a badge of honor; mostly I wear it as a badge of shame. While there were/are many, many fine people working there for the right reasons, there are many more who are doing more harm to the advancement of the [...]
Mark Driscoll & the Baptists
“Theologically conservative and culturally liberal,” words that pastor and author Mark Driscoll have used to describe himself. These days he is stirring up a lot of controversy in and out of evangelical circles both for being too conservative and too liberal. Most either love him or hate him, few fall in between. Personally, I respect [...]
The “New” Calvinism
If you really want to follow the development of conservative Christianity, track its musical hits. In the early 1900s you might have heard “The Old Rugged Cross,” a celebration of the atonement. By the 1980s you could have shared the Jesus-is-my-buddy intimacy of “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” And today, more and more top songs feature a [...]
Dangerous Pursuit of Growth
Three years ago, Jack Trout wrote an article for Forbes that discussed the danger of making growth your mission. That desire for growth is at the heart of what can go wrong for many companies. Growth is the by-product of doing things right. But in itself, it is not a worthy goal. In fact, growth [...]
Cathedrals Make A Comeback
Lifeway Research recently discovered what many of us in the church world already knew: the unchurched prefer cathedrals to contemporary church design. By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than what most think of as a more contemporary church building. The survey found [...]
Magazine Pulled from Shelves
RALEIGH, N.C. — What was supposed to be an honor — a cover story about a group of successful women pastors — has instead been tarnished for a Durham non-denominational church leader. Sheryl Brady, the 48-year-old pastor of The River Church, was featured among four other women pastors on the cover of Gospel Today, a [...]
How to Go to Hell
COLUMBUS, OH — Mixed feelings. That’s the best way to describe how people feel about a controversial church sign that was seen in Blacklick this past week. For 24 hours, the message board outside Havens Corners Church, 6696 Havens Corner Rd., read, “I kissed a girl and I liked it, then I went to Hell.” [...]
Dead at 15
I did not know him, or his family, yet I can’t get him out of my mind. Curtis Geesamen. A 15-year-old kid who, as many us once did during our summers, joined his church and others for a week-long youth camp focused on fun and spiritual renewal. During a simple game Curtis suffered blunt head [...]
Goodbye, Dottie Rambo
Christian Music lost one of its most prolific and loved songwriters on Mother’s Day. In fact, other than possibly Fanny Crosby, no other songwriter has done more for Christian music. You may not know Dottie, but if you’ve around long you’ve heard (and loved) her music. Writing over 2,500 songs in her lifetime, she was [...]
Gay.
Christian. Gay. Two words that most of us in the church community would never use in the same sentence… unless also using the word ‘hell’ and/or ‘abomination’. Recently, California’s Supreme Court declared gay couples in the nation’s biggest state can marry. most of the church-goers I know would see this as a terrible thing. But [...]
Department of Redundancy Department
Church signs have always been a bit humorous to me. And as technology progresses worldwide, I think they simply keep getting worse. I’m not sure who designs these things, but the sign companies need to invest in real graphic designers. News Flash: You’re giving the church a bad name… er, face. But until today, I’d [...]
2008 Website Redesign
Here at church, we are six months into a process that will result in a complete redesign of our website and a move to a new CMS system. While we are very excited about the end result of the process, a sweet website with tons of uber-cool features, the design process has been a bit [...]
Church Trailer Thief
Talk about not just doing church, but being the church…. One weekend in early March, Kinetic Church (a church plant in Charlotte, NC) had their church trailer stolen, it contained about 75% of the entire church’s belongings; leaving the church with virtually nothing. As a result, Kinetic Church created five billboards and multiple web banners [...]
I Wish We’d All Been Ready
Larry Norman, the Father of Christian Rock, passed away yesterday. Though most did not know him and many have never of him, those whom have lived in the Christian sub-culture during the 70′s-90′s have surely heard his music. “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music” and “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” were [...]