5 Reasons Your Church Should Be Smaller
Here are five reasons your church might be better off focusing on faithfulness instead of success… even if it that means it will shrink.
When Jim Collins wrote his renowned leadership manual Good to Great, church leaders ate it up. His central thesis, “Good is the enemy of Great,” contends that leaders who become satisfied with a good organization will cease to press toward greatness. My thesis is a complete reversal of Collins’s. I say that Great is the enemy... Continue Reading
God The Savior Of All?
One of the biggest and most important questions we can ask is “Does God save everyone?”
If God saves such a great number of people, such a great diversity of people, with such a great salvation – from sin, guilt, death, and hell – but they must put their faith in Christ to experience this, that will get us out of bed in the morning, that will fuel evangelistic passion, and... Continue Reading
Ministers, not Masters
The truly loving shepherd of Christ’s sheep renounces all forms of despotism, domineering, and dictatorial power.
We who would claim to be ministers of the Gospel in the service of Christ’s flock need to be on guard against that domineering spirit in our own hearts. It is so easy for those who are naturally gifted as leaders to fall prey to this temptation. You give a prideful and insecure man a... Continue Reading
Children’s Ministry – A Litmus Test Of Biblical Faithfulness In The Church…
If you want to get an idea of how a church views Scripture, look at how they teach it to the little ones
Is your Children’s Ministry predominantly teaching the kids about Christian principles and values? What kind of lessons are being taught? Is it mostly about being more kind, honest or obedient? Do they teach the full counsel of God? Are they telling kids about who God is? Is Christ and His grace at the center of the teaching?... Continue Reading
Monday Morning Ministry Blues Should Fade Fast
This balance of work and prayer refreshes and refocuses us.
Monday has come again. I have worked hard last week, praying and preparing. I worked hard yesterday preaching God’s word. Now I wake up today and am reminded that it is God that gives the increase (1 Cor. 3.6-7). He DOES give the increase. He has grown his people and He will continue to grow... Continue Reading
Avoiding a Spirit of Lethargy
The author of Hebrews here lays out two paths, the path of belief and the path of unbelief, and neither are to be taken lightly.
Christ knew that there is a gravity to evangelism and we do well to take it to heart. We are not offering membership to a political party, or a social club, or a retreat center; we are offering life and death. Those who hear the gospel and reject it or receive it insincerely heap condemnation... Continue Reading
Constructive Criticism at Work
It seems that as a society, and even in the evangelical world, all questions, differing opinions, and critique are taken as personal attacks.
Does our work now reflect our grateful response? Do we labor with both humility in ourselves and confidence in the One who is transforming us into his own likeness? He’s the one who took it personal. And he is the one who will personally be the advocate for his people on that last day. For... Continue Reading
In the Name of Grace
Today grace is being enlisted not as an enablement to obedience but as a conspirator to concupiscence.
But the grace promoted today is a grace without backbone, an invertebrate, jellyfish-like grace. It is all warm and squishy, and sounds so Christian. It is touted as loving, embracing, affirming, tolerating. Such grace is accepting without being expecting. It makes no demands. It holds no expectations. It stamps sins “forgiven” and gives the green... Continue Reading
Worship According to the Word
Concern for the proper worship of God was central to the Reformation, even as it is central to our most important theological debates today
While all Christians affirm the necessity and reality of the experiential dimension of faith, the experience must be grounded in and accountable to the Word of God. This is of central importance to the question of worship, for, left to our own devices, we will be inclined to seek worship that meets our desire for... Continue Reading
Looking for a Good Fight
Some conflicts are well worth having, and some you cannot avoid.
As a pastor you are an under-shepherd of Jesus Christ, but you must actively shepherd. We have to fear God more than sheep; if you live in fear of sheep, you don’t know your mission or calling. Some sheep have more “fleece” than others, as in wealthy tithers and donors. Some people have influence and they know it, and God help... Continue Reading