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Churches Who Duel
Some churches out there aren’t willing to engage or confront the world/culture. Others take up the challenge. Those who refuse to do so are becoming increasingly irrelevant. For those who take up the challenge, I offer a metaphor. Imagine going into a duel…would you want to have a weapon (sword, gun, whatever) that is superior…
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I find it hard to worship when…
1. Everything is so loud that you can’t hear yourself or any of the congregation singing, even if they are. Makes it feel like a concert, not a congregational worship time. We really aren’t adding anything. 2. The music is all clappy-happy. We often seem to gloss over the fact that we are singing to…
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Testimony Time!
At the beginning of youth, I always ask students to compete for the most amazing story of the week that happened to them. The winner receives an “Infuse” (Gatorade knockoff) drink, because our youth ministry is named “iNFUSE!” Tonight, one of the students shared that she became a Christian this week on Thursday night because…
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How does God do it?
I was talking to a friend earlier today about how I see many similarities in Catholics and Pentecostals. They both have a tendency to get mystical–and oftentimes, loony. The reason for my conversation was because I discovered a Catholic song/prayer that seemed very meaningful to me. My friend is Pentecostal. It’s amazing to me to…
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Voices
Jesus’ voice is quiet, but persistent. What are the screaming voices in my life? My TV. My sinful nature. Other Christians. My supposed busyness. These loud voices are tempting me to live a life other than what Jesus calls me to. He is quiet, but he is persistent. When I make the effort to remove…
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Remembering 9/11
Today is the 8th anniversary of 9/11. For about five years or so, I made it my practice to pray for the family and friends of victims of 9/11 every time I glanced at a clock and it read 9:11. You’d be surprised how often that happened. I think God was involved in all that.…
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How to do church
My church spends a lot of time trying to figure this out. We’ve tried this and that, and all of it sounds good. Yet, I am convinced that processes, formulas, whatever you want to call them really aren’t as near as important as the church being who it is supposed to be. We focus quite…
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Why I’m Online
I seem to always have quite a bit on my mind when it comes to how we as Christians (both individually and as a Church) should live out our faith. I have plenty of questions, and also quite a few opinions. It seems like blogging might be a good way to probe my mind, and…