Categories: Church Culture, Culture Imagine the worst church experience you have ever had. Perhaps you can relate. I walked in wondering if anyone had ever visited this church. I do not believe we should have a critical attitude towards churches….
Why do we have all these church programs?
My colleagues hate it when I read, especially something that isn’t religious, theological or churchy! For instance, when I read Googled: The End of the World as We Know It I ended up in a conference in California, and we…
5 Things I’ve Learned in 5 Weeks Out of Church
Consider this official. I am issuing an apology to every member of every church that I have served over the last 20+ years. Two weeks ago, we set a personal record that I never thought I would reach. We hit…
Soar past tithing on your way to becoming wildly generous
Should we forget tithing? Is it passé? Does it set up an artificial target on which too few people actually agree? Tithing seems like an obvious principle–10 percent of your income–yet too often it becomes a negative point for confusion,…
This kind of denomination IS dead
Anyone who has followed my lifelong trek through the maze of denominational staff service, and consulting and coaching with denominational organizations, knows that I believe in denominations. I also believe they have a future that respects their past and present….
Does anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as 10 percent of…
Great Commission and Great Commandment without synergy?
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001? I do too. That is a morning very difficult to forget. I was sitting in the lobby restaurant of a hotel in…
Shallow congregations only take off their shoes and socks
Since they only plan to wade into the shallow end of the pool, or a few feet into the river, lake or ocean, the typical congregational participant only needs to remove their shoes and socks. And we are not talking…
Are Millennials different than Baby Boomers 40 years ago?
Back in the 1970s a lot of congregational prognosticators warned that the Church, in general, was in the process of losing a whole demographic generation known as Baby Boomers. Existing congregations, new congregations, and denominational approaches to ministry were losing…
Robin Williams and the church
As most everyone has heard, Robin Williams died on Tuesday from an apparent suicide. The reaction on Facebook and Twitter was one of shock. How could someone who brought so much joy and humor to the world be so troubled?…
That’s between me and God (and God ain’t talkin’)
What’s going on when you ask a Christian about a specific practice of discipleship in their life and they say, “That is between me and God”? Perhaps nothing unusual. Or, perhaps a whole bunch of evasive things. What do you…
Needed: Christian ministers who do the stuff
A dramatic story—perhaps an urban legend—about John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, relates to something that happened following his conversion to Christianity around 1963. It is said that he began attending a church nearby. After several…