Christians agree there is a disconnect between the instruction scripture offers and how God’s people are behaving. The tricky part is that when it comes to connecting word and deed everyone thinks they are doing it right. I recently witnessed someone bring a...
Those who you might consider mature Christians may actually be a hindrance to the mission of the church. Like the person who has been at the same church for decades and is gatekeeping its traditions. Or that group of friends who have been in a “closed” bible study for...
How do you get people in the church to be disciplemakers instead of Christian consumers? That’s a great question, and if you’re in pastoral ministry, you’ve probably been asking it in one way or another. You don’t want people in your congregation to be consumers of...
What are you going to preach on next? Out of ideas? You don’t want to just throw darts at the wall and hope to hit something. And you don’t just want to randomly pick out a topic or a book of the Bible for no particular reason. Instead, why not be intentional about...
You’ve heard the complaints about consumer congregations. The statistic has almost become cliche—20% doing 80% of the work. But there is another form of consumerism in the church that may even be worsening the problem, possibly even a root of it. Consumer...
Why is it so rare for a church to say, “We didn’t handle X well. We’re going to do it differently now.” It’s almost like we think our repentance discredits God in some way. On the contrary, it’s when churches won’t repent that the most damage is done. “God opposes...
