Tuesday, July 06, 2021

It's Tuesday: 'Small Church, Big Potential' and More


Small Church, Big Potential
We need all kinds of churches. We should celebrate churches of varying sizes, contexts and approaches. We must remember that the typical church, globally or in North America, has fewer than 100 people in weekly attendance, but significant gospel ministry is taking place.

Why Church Can’t Be the Same After the Pandemic
With COVID-19 vaccines making way for looser recommendations around distancing and masking, many congregations in the US have been able to get back to normal operations again. But some are not rushing to return to how things were, opting instead to rethink how and why they gather.

John Hus’s Company of Women
John Hus, the Bohemian Reformer who was condemned as heretic at the Council of Constance, was supported by a large number of women. This was, in some ways, unusual. The same couldn’t be said, for example, in the case of John Wycliffe, in England. One possible reason was that John Hus valued the active role of women in the church more than most medieval theologians.

How the Brain Stifles Church Change
If you want your church to thrive you can’t avoid church change. Yet it is seldom easy, even though we leaders see the benefits of change before others see them. One hidden reason that makes it so difficult comes from how our brains respond to change. I believe that the more we know how the brain works, the more effective change managers we’ll become. In this post I explain how brain processes in stifle change in your church.


Disciple Making Movements
The numbers, if they are to be believed, are staggering. Millions of Christian converts. Thousands of churches. And all this in a few years, with relatively little direct engagement.It is no wonder that the recent missionary strategy known as “Disciple-Making Movements” (DMM) has become increasingly prevalent in Western missionary sending agencies. To put this in perspective, one hundred years of traditional Reformed Presbyterian (RP) mission work in Syria resulted in two congregations with less than a thousand members.[2] As the RPCNA continues to look to new mission fields, how should we evaluate this recent trend in missions?

The Great Commission and 3 Types of Churches
The mission Jesus gave His disciples is our mission, the mission of the churches we serve and lead. My friend Ed Stetzer has said, “More than the church has a mission, the mission has a church.” The Lord has created a church to fulfill His mission. The mission is given to His people. The mission has us.

8 Easy Ways to Be Missional
Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: “As you go, make disciples;” “Walk wisely toward outsiders;” “Let your speech always be seasoned with salt;” “Be prepared to give a defense for your hope.” We can have a missional lifestyle in everyday ways without overloading our schedules.

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