From the category archives:
I saw this post about bureaucracy being the real problem over at Mike Baker’s blog. Mike writes: The greatest allies of a failing bureaucracy are not the bureaucrats; they are the common people who believe that the bureaucracy could be used for good if only it was steered in the right direction. Bureaucracy isn’t a big [...]
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First watch this short, humorous video: As a former attendee of a Pentecostal church, I couldn’t help but laugh. Many of these apply to most traditions these days. I’d really like to focus on one word, however: authentic. I’ve given examples of inauthentic / fake worship before, but what does authentic worship look like? The core [...]
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Recently I visited the smallest church in America. Yes, I’m being serious. Here’s a few more shots I took: And here’s inside the building: It’s actually even smaller than it looks in the photos. I was driving down a backwoods highway in Georgia and saw the sign and had to stop. I was really surprised [...]
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I’m getting sick of always hearing about what the Church is doing wrong from people who offer no solutions other than to give up on it. The bottom line is, the Body of Christ isn’t going away – it is Christ’s Bride whom He loves and for whom He died. Whether She meets in houses, [...]
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I’ve heard a lot about this lately. A church in St. Louis, MO recently canceled services in order to do community projects. Several people whose opinions I respect have mentioned the prospect of doing this lately, and several others whom I also respect have voiced strong opposition to this. Here’s a short video about this [...]
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: To all those who claim that traditional worship is “dead” and “quenching the Spirit” because it follows a set pattern, I’d challenge you to analyze the practices of most “contemporary,” “postmodern,” and “relevant” worship services today. They all have their own “dead” traditions and patterns they [...]
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This is a short soundbite from a talk by Bryan Wolfmueller entitled “Decisional Theology.” You can listen to the full talk at Issues, Etc. by clicking here. Soundbite on Decisional Theology from Dan O'Day on Vimeo. This is a short soundbite from a talk by Bryan Wolfmueller entitled “Decisional Theology.” You can listen to the [...]
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Yesterday I posted about how Those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. I just wanted to point out another thought I had on that. In many respects, the Church today still follows the example of Paul. In areas where the gospel has been established and a large body of believers [...]
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I know that’s a bold statement, but I didn’t say it. The apostle Paul did. That is a direct quote from 1 Corinthians 9:14, and it is preceded by saying that this is the Lord’s command (not Paul’s). Here’s the whole passage, in context: This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on [...]
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I was listening to a podcast on Issues Etc. earlier this week and I was struck by a profound thought. The title of the podcast was “The Vocation of Minister.” I’d normally link directly to it but the site appears to be down as I’m writing this, nothing will load. The guest speaker was talking [...]
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Today is the first day of Lent, a 40 day season of the historical church year leading up to Easter, also metaphorically corresponding to the 40 days Jesus was tempted while fasting in the desert. Originally, Lent was a period of intense fasting and prayer that believers went through prior to being baptized at the [...]
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Dick Rockenbach contacted me via email about this, then he posted it on Facebook: This made me start wondering about codependency and the church’s relationship with clergy members. Here’s the definition of codependency from Way 2 Hope, an organization that helps those in codependent relationships: Codependency is a condition that results in a dysfunctional relationship [...]
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I’m currently reading a book entitled The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. It’s been a very enlightening book that talks about what constitutes genuine spirituality. I was struck by this quote: By “spirituality,” I do not mean any kind of content-free, theologically-vacuous quest for transcendent [...]
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I remember listening to Kurt Cobain singing “come as you are” in the 90′s. I also remember hearing dozens of churches latch on to this statement. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think people need to be all polished up before coming to Jesus, nor do I think folks need to dress up on [...]
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“Church leadership acting as CEO’s of nonprofit organizations complete with ‘hiring and firing’ abilities, is a relatively novel development in the history of Christianity and is way outside of the Biblical framework.” Last I checked, no one likes the people who do what God tells them to do. Jesus Himself was abandoned, brutally tortured and [...]
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I read a great post the other day on Samantha Krieger’s blog entitled “Marriage: Built to Last.” I wrote a comment that essentially became a post, so I wanted to share it. “Marriage is hard work.” Wow, is it. Tiffany and I just celebrated three years of marriage and while it is rewarding, it has [...]
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I recently read that on average it costs $100,000 to plant a church, and 80% of new church plants will fail. It really makes you wonder about how well these new institutional church plants are doing at being good stewards of God’s money. That’s right, I said “God’s money.” It doesn’t matter who is financially [...]
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Look no further. Up until now, I’ve been recommending vCHURCHES as an inexpensive and effective utility for church website creation. But I ran across something better recently: Clover. Here’s a 60-second video showing you its capabilities: Clover 60 Second Video from Clover on Vimeo. If you’re in the market, you’ll definitely want to check this [...]
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iMonk posted a quote from Deyoung & Kluck’s recent book, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. While I haven’t stood on the opposite side of the fence on all of these statements, the overall truth of this quote hit me: Consistency is not a postmodern virtue. And nowhere is [...]
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Chris Brogan, a social media blogger, recently posted on the difference between an audience and a community. He writes: The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. When we say community and we mean our selling demographic, that’s not the [...]
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