By Nora O. Lozano Dear Mary, I am not sure if when you were on this earth, there was anything similar in your time and culture to Mother’s Day. Regardless of the day, I do hope that Jesus and your…
Missions: Almost an out-of-body experience
[This is the third (missions) of a nine-part series on empowering a faith community to impact the world. Already hospitality and evangelism have been explored.] You’ve been there before. It’s that place of connection and you realize God is surreptitiously…
Welcome to the church of the rationalization
Surely you have heard of congregations with names such as The Church of the Resurrection, The Church of the Redeemer, and The Church of the Reformation. But, have you heard of The Church of The Rationalization? You may not know…
Beyond the thumbnail image
By Corey Fields On social media, posts always get better engagement when there is a thumbnail image to go with it. Ours is a distracted and fast-paced society, and the speed at which we scroll through Facebook may be indicative…
Do churches allow space for us to interact with God?
There is no lack of information in a Christian land; something else is lacking, and this is something which the one man cannot directly communicate to the other. Soren Kierkegaard Our job as pastors is to create space for people…
Does the world need a savior? ‘Avengers: The Age of Ultron’ prompts the question
On the surface, this is nothing more than another comic book movie. But if you pull back that surface you will find something more. There is something deeper. Joss Whedon returns to write and direct this second movie based on…
Good guys and bad guys
We were sitting in the car killing time. It was the lull between dropping my oldest child off at kindergarten and preparing to take my youngest to preschool. The doors hadn’t opened yet. I pulled out my cell phone and…
Keeping the faith in interfaith
By Jason Coker After the world crumbled to the ground in Nepal, the swami from our local Hindu temple sent the rest of the clergy in town an email — a very simple, yet profound email. He asked all of…
Churches can rightsize staff, but they cannot blow up a building
As difficult as it is for congregations to RightSize staff, it is nothing compared to trying to blow up a building. I have helped congregations and other Christian ministry organizations RightSize their staff, or to deal with what happens after…
Becoming a green-light church, again
By Bill Wilson Over the years, I have made the case that ministers and churches must cultivate a spirit of and appreciation for entrepreneurship if they are to thrive in the 21st century. Living in a post-church and post-Christian culture…
Jesus is not the same as Christ
A holistic, inclusive, compassionate, justice oriented Christian vision would be adopted by more Christians if more Christians more carefully understood and distinguished between the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Christ. The appearance stories in the Gospels (probably a late developing…
Sifting the conscience
By Bill Leonard “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves…