Being Braver, More Faithful with Communion

by | Jun 8, 2015 | Opinion

Debates about communion usually focus on two important areas: the nature of the event and the question of who can participate. The nature of the event will involve considerations such as what we believe about the bread and wine. At one end of the spectrum, the Roman...

Will Your Church Turn the World Upside Down?

by | Jun 5, 2015 | Opinion

If asked to identify a favorite New Testament character, most of us go with the predictable and obvious: Barnabas, Mary, Nathaniel, Peter, Lydia, Timothy or Phoebe. Let me remind you of an obscure character who can remind us of an important truth about church health....

Why Few Christians Know What It Means to be One

by | Jun 4, 2015 | Opinion

I carried a briefcase with files, books and documents whenever I traveled to meetings away from home before my files resided in the digital cloud. Prominently paper-clipped inside my briefcase on a small piece of paper was a word: Soar. The word represented a goal, a...

Is Your Church Doing Mission or Marketing?

by | Jun 4, 2015 | Opinion

I believe there is nothing more significant that a Christian can do than introduce a fellow human being to the message and person of Jesus. There is no more important task for a local church than to help people discover and become faithful followers of Jesus. This is...

Hide-and-Seekers: How Transparent is Your Church?

by | Jun 4, 2015 | Opinion

I was chatting recently with a Christian magazine editor and the subject of the “nones” came up. The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is how to attract “nones” back to church, or at least how to keep millennials (many of whom are...