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Falling Skies: The Demise of a Comatose Church
Audra and I are watching the TV show “Falling Skies,” and it really hasn’t been too interesting to me until the most recent episode. SPOILER ALERT!!! If you don’t watch the show, it’s about an alien invasion on earth. The overlord aliens are trying to take control of our planet. They are doing this partly…
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Repentance and Faith vs. Creeds and Doctrines
In my last post, I looked at the danger of emphasizing works over faith/repentance. You could say this is the fallacy of emphasizing the changing of one’s hands or feet. In this post, I want to look at the danger of emphasizing creeds/doctrines over faith/repentance. You could say this is the fallacy of emphasizing the…
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Pastoral Self-Indulgence
I’ve heard it said that one of the gifts of marriage is that it makes you into a better person (iron sharpens iron, etc.). I think this is true of being a pastor as well. Part of the job of a pastor is to think of other people more than yourself, which is the call…
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All In
We are all into so many different things: sports, music, hobbies, money, career, family, video games, TV shows, education, politics, gadgets, celebrities, food–you name it! I’ve been wondering today why so few of us “church people” are all into Jesus. It seems to me that by definition, faith in a god is an all-or-nothing thing.…
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Why Do We Fear The Gifts Of The Spirit?
I think the short answer to that question is that we fear the supernatural. We fear having to confront the possibility that God actually does something. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a church prayer meeting where people pray for someone who is sick or in the hospital, etc. We all pray…
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Why Fear Speaking In Tongues?
When you start talking about the gifts of the Spirit, many people start to freak out. And if they’re honest, it’s mostly because they are afraid of the gift of tongues. But why fear the gift of tongues? I know the standard reasons given, but for fun, I want to offer five reasons why you…
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In Defense of Youth Ministry
Many “Christian” parents do very little to disciple their children in the faith. It is a tragedy. One group thinks that the church has done a disservice to parents by developing youth ministries. In their opinion, youth ministry (as well as any age-related ministry) allows parents to shirk their responsibility as the primary spiritual leader…
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When Idealism Gets In The Way Of Faith
Since I wrote my last blog post, the conclusion I came to in that post has stuck with me. I think I had a little epiphany when I wrote the last two paragraphs: I must strive to have enough faith in God to believe that He can work through all sorts of situations and people…
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The Gospel (according to ______?)
Over the past year, many of my posts in this blog have been devoted to the Gospel. The Gospel (as given to us by Scripture) is the foundation of our faith, according to Ephesians 2:20. The problem is, it is easy to trade the Gospel that is given to us by the apostles and prophets…
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The Plight of Wanderers
“You’re either a leader or you’re a follower.” I don’t think that’s a true statement. I think it’s possible to be neither: that makes you a wanderer. Part of the frustration of leading others is trying to lead them, but they refuse to follow along. As a leader, you are always aware that you could…