Ever feel like you just don’t belong in this world? Ever feel like something is missing? Ever have that feeling like you’ve lost something you once had? This week we go to church. It’s the place where we belong. It’s the people we call family and friends. It’s the time when time stands still. But it’s not a building. It’s not a time. It’s not a location or a service. It’s a people with a message and a mission.
Continue readingTag: church (Page 22 of 22)
It’s a shame but it’s the truth. Sometimes we have to warn people when we’re being honest. We live in a culture that’s become so sensitive to challenges of opinion that when a disagreement occurs we automatically jump to the defensive. But this isn’t healthy! We need disagreement to grow. If we can’t disagree with someone and talk through it, we are much to be pitied! To that end, if you’re not interested in truth, honesty and perhaps being offended then just stop reading right here. But if you think you can handle the truth, then carry on.
Continue readingThis week in our what we believe series we’re taking a look at All you have to do is walk into a church just about anywhere across America and you’ll see it. What used to be row upon row of chairs or pews filled with families worshipping together has become more of a barren wilderness of empty seats. The trends are startling! Fewer and fewer people are seeing the importance and necessity of attending a weekly worship service. An individual’s average attendance has shifted from weekly to maybe once every five to six weeks. But why? What’s the reason for this trend? Continue reading
I remember as a child running up to my grandpa, sitting on his lap and asking him to scratch my back. I used to love having my back scratched! There was something so soothing about it. It was relaxing to say the least. Anymore however a back scratch is more functional. It’s because there’s an itch that I just can’t reach. But there’s a problem. Continue reading
I’ll be the first to admit it. In church-topia we have our own dialect. Sometimes you walk through the doors of a church building on a Sunday morning and it’s like you’ve entered a foreign country. You hear all kinds of things that are just not part of everyday speech. Actually some of the things we do in a worship service are a bit confusing but that’s a topic for another time. Continue reading
In the last post I introduced the book Five Challenges of the Once and Future Church by Loren B. Mead. The first challenge we dealt with was the challenge of ownership of the ministry of the church. You can read more about that here.
The second challenge that Mead introduces is the challenge of structure. He spends much time talking about the denominational structures within which the church has operated for centuries. Continue reading