Monday's Catch: Church Planting Gathering Principles and More

What Sociology Can Teach Us About Church Planting

These gathering principles are important to keep in mind for bringing people together in a church plant. Read More

Seven Reasons Why We Need to Move Beyond the Church Size Debate

We need all churches. All sizes of churches. We need more churches. It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. Allow me to point out seven reasons why a debate on church size bears no good fruit. Read More

If Your Local Church Disappeared, Would You Notice?

If your local church disappeared would the community notice? Would they feel the impact of you leaving? If the answer to that is “no” then it likely won’t be long until you actually do close the doors to your local church. Read More

5 Steps for Finding the Best Property for Your Church

Here are five steps to follow when looking for church property. Read More

As in a retail outlet location can be critical. A church needs to be accessible--easy to reach--and visible--easy to find. In the 1950s a number of churches where built in the midst of a subdivision or in close proximity to one. The thinking was that the residents of the subdivision would attend the nearest church. It didn't happen. A Roman Catholic church with which I am acquainted was built at the entry to a subdivision in the late 1970s - early 1980s. The residents of the subdivision drive past the church on their way to church. The entry to the subdivision is at the end of a long drive that links it to the nearest highway. If the church had not erected a large sign on the highway, no one would know that it was there.

7 Lessons I Never Stop Learning

I’ve never outgrown the need to keep these lessons in mind all the time. Read More

How Should I Preach Chiasms?

A preacher’s study is like a pressure cooker. As he pours over the Word, everything on his mind—congregational sins, cultural concerns, faithful exegesis, gospel connections, and more—simmers and hisses, threatening at any moment to blow the lid. Why on earth would he add one more thing to the pot? Should a preacher really care about chiasms? Read More

Should Jesus be the Point of Every OT Sermon?

Does every passage in the Old Testament point to Jesus? Should every sermon on an OT passage point to Jesus? For the faithful preacher, there is not a bigger question to tackle than “how do I as a pastor get my congregation to the cross while staying faithful to the passage?” Read More

7 Evidences We Might Be Stuck in a Christian Bubble

It’s a problem for many of us. In fact, I contend that for most of us, the longer we’re in church and the higher we go up the Christian ladder, the more likely it is that we’re stuck in the Christian bubble. Beginning with me, we need to recognize some of the signs that we’ve insulated ourselves from a world we’re called to reach.... Read More

How Millennials Replaced Religion with Astrology and Crystals

Today, young people still seek the things that traditional organized religion may have provided for their parents or grandparents: religious beliefs, yes, but also a sense of community, guidance, purpose and meaning. But it can be hard for young people to find those things in their parents’ religions. So they're looking elsewhere. Read More

Sounds like the Baby Boomers in the 1960s and 1970s--astrology, tarot cards, I-Ching, Transcendental Meditation, reiki, and other forms of New Age (and not so-New Age) Spirituality. Create your own spirituality is not really new. It has its antecedents in theosophy and spiritualism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.