Category: The Church World

  • What’s Your End-Goal?

    This is something I’ve thought about quite a bit in regards to leading our church. What do we want our church to be like in 10 years? For the months of September and October, I met with our church leadership team and then our church body on a weekly basis to hammer through some of…

  • On Resting

    If you’re on staff at a church, you know that every day leading up to Sunday becomes just a little more stressful. It seems like Sundays come around all too quickly. While everyone else complains about how slow the week goes, and how long it takes for the weekend to arrive, I have the opposite…

  • What Do People Want?

    I read an article a few days ago questioning what young people long for in worship services. You can read it here. I have mixed feelings about such articles. I, too, long for the type of worship service he says young people are longing for. Yet, I wonder if young people at large really do…

  • What Exactly Am I Trying To Do?

    The past month, the leadership team at our church has been going through a time of praying and seeking God as to how He wants us to move forward as a church. It’s been exciting to see God working in all our lives. I see with eyes of faith what our church is capable of…

  • Sarah Joy Is Here!

    So, Sarah is here and everyone is doing well! Naomi is very motherly, and loves to spend every waking moment with Sarah. Rachel, on the other hand, is content to play by herself when Naomi is “taking care” of Sarah. Rachel always said that when baby Sarah comes, she wanted to name her “Sweetheart.” Too…

  • Is God Really All That Powerful?

    One thing I’ve heard quite a bit is that statistics show that 3 out of 4 new church start-ups in America fail. How can this be? Where did the power of God go? This statistic sounds totally pathetic to me. I’m sure there are several reasons for such a statistic. However, I fear many of…

  • On The Road Again

    In case you haven’t heard yet, we are moving to Colorado! I have accepted the opportunity to become the pastor of two small rural churches 15 miles east of Fort Collins. Whenever you announce something like this, everyone wants to hear the details. After all, you don’t do something crazy like leave your home and…

  • Per Audra’s Request

    Audra thinks I’m being too mean to Andy Stanley. She’s probably right. Actually, I don’t so much have a problem with Andy Stanley, as I do with the general state of the modern church that thinks that we must all strive to be a “success” as we see his church. It bothers me greatly that…

  • Arminians Gone Wild

    That’s kinda the imagery I think of when I consider seeker-driven churches. It’s this mindset that we have to do and spend all we can to convince/attract/appeal to the unchurched to come to church/God. It’s like our theology of free will propels us to do all we can to get people to choose to come…

  • Andy Stanley Is Mistaken, Part 2

    So now that I laid the groundwork for my disagreements in the last post, I’ll get into the disagreements themselves. In summary, I believe the best way to fulfill the Great Commission isn’t by doing all you can to get the unchurched to show up at church, but rather to get the churched to go…