I’m in a blog series trying to make the case what a church ought to provide its people is: lots of gospel, lots of safety, and lots of time. Today I want to hone in on the necessity of the gospel being central in the life of a church. A lot of people think the gospel is the…
Read More
“Why do I do the things I do?” Answering that question is the key to unlocking our busyness problem. We have “heart motivations” that drive why our calendars and to-do lists fill up. We have to rethink our lives at a deep level to discover what those heart motivations are so we can address them….
Read More
In my previous post, I made the case that the church is meant to be a harbinger of the new heavens and the new earth. That is, when people experience the community of people called ‘the church’ they should be given a taste of the new heavens and the new earth. In order for that to…
Read More
Establishing a church culture of “gospel + safety + time” is critical to the church’s health and effectiveness. Why? Let’s make an assumption. The assumption is this: the more a church is like the way the Bible says a church should be, the healthier and more effective it will be. Or to put it in…
Read More
What does your church offer? When someone asks that question, they’re usually asking about what programs and ministries the church has to offer. Now churches should be able to tell people about the various ministries that occur each week, but it would be really cool to see a different first response to that question… “Well…we…
Read More
Before we can answer the question, we have to make sure something is clear: the gospel calls churches into existence. That is, the gospel creates churches. Think about it… The gospel is the good news that Jesus has come into our world, lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have…
Read More
I’m sure you’ve noticed our propensity to name drop. “I shook hands with the President!” “I sat next to Aaron Rogers on the plane.” “Channing Tatum smiled at me!” Having close encounters with famous people makes us look good; it makes us look like important insiders. But name dropping only works if you have a…
Read More
Words. They are everywhere. Life without them would be…well…confusing. Think about how pervasive language is. Just today, I used language in the preparation of a sermon. I used it to correspond with dozens of individuals. I used language to give an instruction to a fellow staff person in our church. Not only is language pervasive,…
Read More
When there is a conflict between external circumstances and internal desires, discontentment is often the result. The more of life I live and see, the more I’m convinced discontentment is close to the root of many of our problems. So how do we deal with it? 1. Show some humility If discontentment results from our…
Read More
