Sometimes Christians don't get along. This is more than just unfortunate. It is bad for our witness. Our job as gospel-proclaimers is to urge people to reconcile. We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, 'Be reconciled to God.' 2 Corinthians 5:20 The essence of the gospel is that is resolves a conflict between us and …
Stay the Course
Hang in there, church leader! I found this today in some old notes about our church: "It feels like a good first step is to figure out how to be a church that actually reaches people, but I can't seem to figure out how to facilitate that happening... bogged down in.... something, not sure what. We're just maintaining and slowing improving what we have but no major headway (it feels …
Unpopular View: Disagreement is Good for the Church
"Why can't we all just get along?" Most people want everyone to agree. Especially in church. Disagreements are seen as a bad thing. People think that if we disagree, we won't get along. They say that to have unity in the church we must have agreement. Well, I disagree. (👈 See what I did there?) Disagreement in the church gives us a chance to practice how to truly love our church …
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Church Intensive Training
It's easy to keep doing the same things by default. If you want to rethink church and think deeply about what makes the church the church, take a look at this training! Last year, my wife and I went through a Church Intensive Labs Training, put on by Francis Chan's organization called Crazy Love. It all started with Chan's book Letters to the Church. I found the book resonated with me …
Pharisectomy Book Review
Book review of Pharisectomy by Peter Haas — How to joyfully remove your inner Pharisee and other religiously transmitted diseases. Things I like The main thing that I like about Peter Haas' ministry is that they're actually reaching unchurched people. This seems like such a rarity in so many of our churches. It makes me want to learn from him. God has clearly gifted Peter with insight …
Christianity Explained Evangelism Course Review
This is an excellent resource for sharing the gospel. Here's why I like it, and how I think it could be used effectively. A friend pointed me to this high-quality evangelism course called Christianity Explained. It is based around the Gospel of Mark. A training manual I was thrown off a little bit by them calling it a "course." It's not a course in the normal sense, where you order …
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Things I Really Like About Our Church
Being in leadership of a church can sometimes feel frustrating and tiring. I think it can be a great exercise to list out the things that we are happy about. Here are some things that encourage me about our church! Things that I think are strengths for us: Leadership is very open to trying new thingsThe whole group is really open to trying new things (!!)Leadership are people of deep …
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Counting Seeds
How can we encourage a culture of evangelism in our church? We launched a very simple idea recently that I'm excited about! A couple of years ago I heard a speaker at the Amplify evangelism conference. He told us about something they did at their young church and I thought it was a brilliant idea. A brilliant idea The pastors wanted to encourage the church to share their faith. So they …
To Democrats I Became As a Democrat, to Republicans I Became As a Republican
In order to fulfill the Great Commission, we have to be willing to give up some of our preferences. How far are we willing to go? Is politics on the chopping block? Paul says that for the sake of the gospel, he became all things to all people, that by all means he might save some. What does this mean for a church body? It means some of our personal preferences have to die, for the greater …
A New Testament Style Worship Service
One thing I really like about our church is that we have an informal style in our worship service, and we encourage participation from every member of the church body. There are very few places where the Bible gives explicit instructions about how to hold a church gathering. And of course there was variety in how the early church met together. But in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives …
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Book Review: How to Reach the West Again by Timothy Keller
I recently read How to Reach the West Again by Timothy Keller. I learned a lot from this short book. Tim is a deep thinker and unfolds these ideas like very few people can. The book is not a list of practical steps. It is an exploration of how to adapt our approach to outreach in 2020 and beyond. Here are some main takeaways for me: 1. Instead of lamenting Christianity's …
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I’m Now a Lead Pastor
Last month, I accepted the role of Lead Pastor of our church in Muscatine, Iowa. I'm excited, humbled, and a little nervous, too ? Accepting this role was something I wrestled with for a long time. But when it came time to move forward with it, it was easy. I finally felt like I had clarity about it. And the church was ready. The pastor I who's shoes I would step into (my father!) was ready. …