Worship Multitracks for Church Plants

Recently my wife and I started off on a new adventure. We are planting a church. This is my 3rd church plant and this was the first time I didn’t have musicians for the new church. Before I could always lead worship myself if I had to. However as I have gotten older, my skills as a musician have diminished and my voice is not what it used to be. I wouldn’t call it “good enough” anymore. So I started looking for options. One of the technologies that I had become aware of was worship multitracks. However, most of those options were more expensive than our church plant could afford.

That led me to have to start digging to find some low-cost alternatives to Ableton Live Performance and the Prime App used by Loop Community. Read More

Also See:
How To Design Successful Goals For Your Worship Ministry

The Confessions of a Recovering Evangelist

In a society full of people who would rather speak than listen, people are starving for someone who is willing to offer them their ears.

Years ago, I flew to Colorado to help people increase the quantity and the quality of their God conversations in a church in Colorado Springs. On the shuttle ride over from the Denver airport to my rental car company, I struck up a conversation with a young man in his early twenties. He had just flown back into the U.S. after a year of graduate study abroad. We started talking about his career aspirations after his studies were finished.

Timeout: As we are going about our day, I believe Jesus intended for us to take the initiative to be friendly and openhearted (outwardly focused) towards those we meet. In a society full of people who would rather speak than listen, people are starving for someone who is willing to offer them their ears. Often, this simple practice of seeking to understand before we seek to be understood allows us to find common ground with others. The secret of being interesting in a conversation is to be interested in what others are passionate about. Read More

Sharing Jesus with a Jehovah’s Witness

As we seek to share the gospel with Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is vitally important to understand that it is the organisation, not the Bible, that governs the life and practice of every Jehovah’s Witness. That is why, if you ever get into Bible ping-pong with them, it very rarely gets anywhere. Allegedly, you cannot understand what the Bible teaches because you are not in the ‘organisation’.

The ‘united organization’ is the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. This is the organisation that they think is under the ‘protection of the Supreme Organizer’ (Jehovah). It is to this organisation that every Jehovah’s Witness pledges allegiance. Therefore, in the mind of the Jehovah’s Witness, to leave the organisation is to leave God, and to leave God is to forfeit any chance of surviving God’s impending judgment. Read More

The Nations Share Your Home. Are You Missing Them?

My hometown consists of less than four thousand people. Growing up, our community events, schools, sports teams and church all seemed to share a common demographic with little to no variation. The perceived lack of diversity, I assume, is probably not much different than that of your own cities. Yet, not all perceptions are reliable, and my perception was terribly mistaken. While it's true that the hard statistics aren’t comparable to larger metropolitan regions, even my hometown is a home to the nations, and I missed it time and time again.

Great Commission-minded believers — which many of us would claim to be — often posit, “The nations have come to us!” If that is the case, and I agree it is, I overlooked that reality for far too long. How could I have neglected the beauty of God expressed in the diversity of humanity right before my eyes?

The reality is that I neglected the Chinese family running their business. I neglected the migrant workers five minutes from my home. To my shame, I even neglected the Hispanic congregation my church shared a building with. I missed serving, loving, and encouraging them. I missed being loved and encouraged by them. I missed a reflection of the eternal throne room of Christ as I buried my eyes in temporal convenience.

Just maybe, I succumbed to believing the stereotype that my hometown didn’t have the nations —that there were no foreigners to love and no cross-cultural relationships to build because the very notion of “cultural diversity” in small-town Appalachia was supposedly laughable. I excused myself from my cross-cultural responsibility based on a blinded mind and a perpetuated ignorance. Read More

Church Planting: A Low Road with a High Calling

Do you love Jesus?

The answer may be so obvious, it could come off as slightly insulting.

After all, if you didn’t love Him, you would not be spending your limited energy laboriously church planting or contemplating beginning the journey if you have not already. Read More

Also See:
Church Planting at Home and Away [Podcast]
Eight Non-Negotiables for Church Planters, Pt. 1
Eight Non-Negotiables for Church Planters, Pt. 2
Eight Non-Negotiables for Church Planters, Pt. 3
Eight Non-Negotiables for Church Planters, Pt. 4
5 Ways to Ruin a Partnership
E-book: Covocational Church Planting
How to Plant Your Church without Losing Your Spouse: Pay Attention

10 Questions for Emotionally Healthy Preaching

I ask myself these questions as I’m preparing a message.

Emotionally Healthy Discipleship impacts preaching in multiple ways. Over a 24-year period, I organized these learnings around ten questions that I ask myself, and others, when preaching a message. Read More

Also See:
Preach More Conversationally
9 Ways To Trim Your Text To A Preachable Size
16 Things You Can Do Right Now To Get Unstuck In Your Sermon Prep
You May Be Called To Preach, But You Still Need A Role Model

4 Disturbing Trends in Global Christian Persecution

More than a quarter of a billion Christians currently face high levels of persecution, according to the latest report from a ministry focused on global persecution and aid.

Open Doors recently released their 2020 World Watch List which details instances of severe persecution and ranks the worst offending nations.

The organization reported 260 million Christians experienced significant persecution in the 50 countries on the watch list, a 6% increase from the previous year.

In 2019, 2,983 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. On average, eight Christians were killed every day for their faith last year.

Additionally, 3,711 Christians were detained without trial and 9,488 churches or Christian buildings were attacked.

Open Doors noted four troubling trends concerning modern-day Christian persecution. Read More

Also See:
The Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Be a Christian in 2020

‘Progressive’ Churches Return to Seeker-Sensitive Model

“A Sunday service that is part therapy session, part standup-comedy routine, and part live concert. . . . This is not your grandmother’s idea of church!”

That’s how PBS NewsHour began their recent segment on New Abbey Church in Pasadena, California. The segment on this LGBTQ-affirming church shows a standup comedian opening for a female pastor who talks about her wife to a crowd of hipster congregants.

The church was founded by pastor Cory Marquez, who left a large evangelical church when he realized why young people weren’t coming: they didn’t find it “relevant” to their needs.

On the differences between his new and old church, Marquez says, “It’s less about form and more about content. If the content is literally not healing you, not connecting you to something bigger, then you’re wasting your time.”

Little surprised me about the segment—but that line did. Read More

Also See:
The Gospel According to Satan
Atheists Are Sometimes More Religious Than Christians
The Elusive Phenomenon of Churches without God

The Deficient Great Commission

As I was reading the book I could tell the author was driven by the prospect of making disciples. Every other word was “mission” “culture” “multiplication” “evangelism” “outreach” and so forth. Governing the author’s intention was his understanding of the great commission which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This is a good start.

“We exist to make disciples of Jesus,” a church’s mission statement might say. You’ve probably seen that on a website or a church sign before. There are some in the evangelical world — especially some in the non-denominational church-planting networks — that place a heavy emphasis on making disciples. They want to see lost people come to Christ. And this should be commended. Too many churches have become an insular Christian bubble that never see anyone come to Christ. Worse, they don’t seem to care about outreach at all. Yes, those who are reaching those far from the God of the Bible and encouraging others to jump suit should be emulated.

But is the great commission only to make converts for Jesus? Read More

Will Mancini: Beyond Vision Casting

How churches can cast a missional vision that extends into people’s everyday lives.

Will Mancini is the founder of Auxano and Denominee, and the co-founder of Younique, three interconnected consulting groups aimed at equipping churches and helping them clarify their vision. He is the author of several books, including Church Unique (Jossey-Bass), God Dreams (B&H) and, most recently, Younique: Designing the Life That God Dreamed for You (B&H). We caught up with Mancini to discuss how churches can not only cast a vision but also equip their members to be everything God created them to be in their vocations and everyday lives. Read More

Also See:
One-on-One with Will Mancini on being ‘Younique’

Awakening in the Land of the Rising Sun

In Japan, statistics show that 99 percent of the population does not have a relationship with Christ. Those statistics represent people—living, breathing image-bearers of God whom Jesus Christ died to save. While the task of reaching them with the gospel seems daunting, God is stirring the church in Japan to reach the nation. Even now, churches and missionaries in Japan are praying and planning for gospel opportunities as the country opens its doors to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

What might happen if churches around the world committed to daily prayer for the churches, missionaries and people of Japan between now and the end of the Olympics?

With its complex nature of culture, history and former geographical isolation, Japan has been hard to reach with the gospel. Steeped in ancient traditions of Buddhism and Shintoism, religion in Japan is a cultural identity more than a personal reality. The concept of a collective identity through religious history has made for slow progress in reaching the hearts of Japanese people.

Today in Japan, however, winds of awakening are beginning to blow. Prayer strategy leaders in Japan long to see the nation transformed by the hope of Jesus, and they’ve committed to pray daily for the nation. There is excitement and enthusiasm for what they see God doing. Rather than yielding to the darkness, they are invigorated by the light of the gospel. Read More

The Anglican Church in Japan is the 日本聖公会, which is translated as the "Nippon Sei Ko Kai" in the Wikipedia article on the Anglican Church in Japan and the NSKK website but which also can be translated as "Nihon Seikoukai," literally "Japan + sacred (holy, or pure) + public meeting." The NSKK was among the first Protestant churches established In Japan after Japan was re-opened to the world in 1854. I have been learning the Japanese language at my local university for the past five years. During that time I have had the pleasure of meeting a young Christian woman from Japan. I believe that God has great things in store for the Japanese Church and that Japanese Christians can in powerful ways be 塩, "shio," salt, and 光, "higari," light, to the Japanese people during the twenty-first century.

On Preaching, the Supper, and the Unity of the Church [Podcast]

Recently, the well-known pastor and author Francis Chan made some alarming comments about preaching, the Lord’s Supper, and the unity of the church. In this episode of Pastors’ Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Bobby Jamieson, and Mark Feather about Chan’s comments in particular and the topics of preaching, the Supper, and unity more generally. Listen Now

Starting (or Restarting) Men’s Ministry In Your Church

Hardly any pastors are totally satisfied with what’s happening when it comes to their men. It seems the women’s ministry runs circles around the men. It’s not necessarily a budget thing either. It’s just this sense that there could be more. More participation, more depth, more passion, more commitment is possible. Read More

The two-odd years that I was involved in a new church plant in Waldheim, Louisiana changed my perceptions of men's ministry. In the previous churches in which I had been involved, men's ministry was typically confined to ushering, preparing a monthly pancake breakfast, and hosting an annual barbecue or fish fry. At Hope Church men were encouraged to participate in group Bible studies related to their role as husband, father, employer, employee, and member of the community and to take an active role in the worship, life, and ministry of the church. They were also encouraged to serve the community in various ways, for example, they did maintenance and repairs to the homes of senior citizens in the community and hosted recreational opportunities for children in the community.

Should Followers of Christ Use Recreational Marijuana?

What has grass to do with the gospel?

My father, a pharmacist, was convinced that smoking pot meant going to pot. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with the impression that even a casual flirtation with Mary Jane would be my ruin. Consequently, I have no personal knowledge on which to draw to address what for many Americans has become, or is becoming, the new normal: the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Where does recreational use of legalized marijuana fit into Christian ethics and living? Jesus says his yoke is easy (Matt. 11:30), but a toke is easier still. What, if anything, should pastors say? May disciples light up as they take up Christ’s cross? Read More

I was a university student in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A large segment of the young adult population experimented with the use of marijuana for recreational purposes despite the scare tactics of movies like "Reefer Madness," which warned against the devastating effects of marijuana use on teens and which actually became something of a cult movie among marijuana users. Marijuana did not have as devastating effects upon this segment of the young adult population as "Reefer Madness" portrayed. However, it did have some detrimental effects like the well-documented "amotivational syndrome." Heavy marijuana users tended to loose their motivation.

Most of the marijuana trafficking at the local level was not by "pushers" but by other marijuana users. This, however, did not mean that a criminal element was not involved at some point in the supply chain. While marijuana was imported illegally from outside of the United States, it was also grown in the United States, often locally by marijuana users themselves. Marijuana was grown in a number of rural areas surrounding the Louisiana town where my university was located. I recall vacationing in Kentucky and seeing in the post offices large posters urging residents of the commonwealth and visitors to the state to report to the authorities any marijuana plants that they came across.

While marijuana was claimed to be a gateway drug that led to the use of other drugs, this claim did not hold true except in a small number of cases in proportion to the number of young adults experimenting with marijuana. The personality of the marijuana user, his psychological makeup, and his life circumstances were and still are major determining factors in whether that individual might experiment with hard drugs like cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine, oxycotin, and other opoids.

What is not mentioned in the article is that smoking marijuana is a sacrament in certain religious cults. Its use along with the use of LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and other hallucinogens was also idolized in the 1960s-1970s drug subculture.

As far as the recreational use of marijuana by Christians is concerned, I believe that Paul's advice is applicable. Just because doing something is lawful is not sufficient reason to do it. We should consider the effects upon others of what we do as well as its effects upon ourselves. Using marijuana for recreational purposes may not harm us but it may harm others. Based on our limited knowledge of the effects of marijuana, its use in religious cults, and its idolization in the 1960s-1970s drug subculture, the wisest choice is to abstain from its use. In the 21st century technology is also having an opiate-like effect upon the general population and we do not know what the long-term effects of this addiction will be. Christians need clear minds and a high level of motivation if they are to fulfill the Great Commission in this century.

I am not, however, suggesting that we adopt a hostile, critical attitude towards those who use marijuana for recreational purposes. To adopt such an attitude would create unnecessary barriers to the gospel. I do believe that we need to be clear about why we have chosen not to take advantage of the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. At the same time I believe that it is important to do so in loving, non-threatening way.

7 Ways to Make Baptism Memorable (and Helpful)

I can’t think of anything in a worship service I enjoy more than baptisms. I love to preach, and I love leading worship, but few things fill me with more joy than baptisms.

The picture we paint of someone being “buried with Christ and raised to walk in a new way of life” is enough to make my heart flutter and my eyes get misty.

Recently, I had a friend reach out with questions about the how-to of baptisms as he prepared to do his first, and as I answered, I couldn’t help but write a few practical tips for our readers, even if baptisms are second-nature to many of us. Read More

If their baptism is to be memorable, candidates who are adults, school age, or even preschool, should get really wet. The Book of Common Prayer prescribes either dipping--immersion--or pouring. By pouring, it means one or more buckets of water poured over the head and shoulders of the candidate so that he or she is drenched with water. A damp hand on the forehead, which passes for baptism in a number of Anglicans churches, is not memorable. Children who were baptized as infants or toddlers should be invited to witness the baptism close up. Sprinkling is not a genuine Anglican practice and embodies a misinterpretation of Scripture. 

The Eleven Commandments For Long Winded Preachers

Eleven… because these are not divinely inspired, but I hope they point in the general direction of wisdom. Read More

Many Churchgoers Don’t Know If Their Pastor Is a Republican or Democrat

Still, three-quarters of evangelicals say they agree with their church leaders on politics.

Churchgoers are most likely to say they don’t know whether their pastor is a Republican or a Democrat—and many preachers believe that’s a good thing.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that almost half (45%) of people who attend services at least a few times a year are “unsure” of their clergy’s partisan leanings. Over a quarter (27%) say their clergy are a mix of both parties, while 16 percent say they lean Republican and 11 percent say they lean Democrat.

The job of the pastor is to help churchgoers see that “neither party has a corner on true Christianity, and neither party is working out the values of Christ’s kingdom in its fullness,” said Bill Riedel, pastor Redemption Hill Church in Washington, D.C.

Riedel told CT he was pleased to see that almost half of churchgoers do not know their pastors’ political leanings, but he would like that percentage to climb even higher. While pastors have a right to their political opinions, Riedel said, pastors should, like the Apostle Paul in Corinth, be willing to set aside their rights for the sake of the gospel.

“To be a Christian doesn’t mean you ascribe to a particular secular partisan ideology,” he said. “I don’t think pastors should be fake about who they are either. It’s an entire grid of how we think about politics that ought to be changed.” Read More

5 Differences Between Ministry Consumers and Contributors

We’re standing at the end of centuries of Christian tradition that has crippled the body of Christ. We’ve started treating the church like it is a place you go as a believer, not a people you advance the kingdom with.

We’ve viewed church only as a hospital to bring people to instead of an equipping outpost to send people out from.

A Barna poll from 2018 revealed that 51% of churchgoers said they had “never heard of the Great Commission,” and that 25% of those polled can recall hearing the words but not knowing what they meant.

This means that the primary mission of the church—the mission that Jesus himself gave to his disciples—has been either watered down or replaced entirely.

Instead of making Jesus’ final words our first work, we’ve relegated them to instructions for staff members, thinking that our sole purpose is to come and sit, not go and serve.

The effect of this is undeniable and measurable. Three years ago, I headed up a task force to study the current state of my denomination and found something troubling: Over the last 20 years, we’d baptized around 7 million people, but the total number of people involved in our churches had dropped by 20,000.

Our task force proposed a single remedy: discipleship with Bible engagement. Read More

Also See:
Coming Together as a Team for the Kingdom
How to Make Evangelism More Normal in Your Church’s Life

Church Design Trends for the Next Decade

Prepare to see more bulletproof nursery walls and outdoor fireplaces.

When footage of an inferno engulfing Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris flashed across our news feeds on April 15, 2019, the world collectively gasped. What would Paris be without this iconic cathedral to anchor it?

One day later, the fire barely extinguished, $300 million was pledged to restore the nearly devastated 800-plus-year-old building. Before the end of the week, donation pledges had reached $1 billion and counting. People voted with their wallets: Sacred space matters.

Notre Dame Cathedral notwithstanding, it’s unlikely that we’ll see churches attempt to recreate the physical spaces of the past. Read More

Four Signs of Bad Church Bylaws [Podcast]

While the thought of church bylaws may not interest you at first, what you don’t know about the complicated nature of church governing may very well lead to trouble. In today’s episode, Thom and Sam unpack why church bylaws exist and four signs of bad church bylaws. Read More

Bad church bylaws can prove a serious impediment to the mission and ministry of a local church. The bylaws of the small Anglican church where I sometimes lead worship and preach require the use of the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer at all services of public worship. They form a major obstacle to reaching the younger generations in the community and the region, who for the most part show no interest in learning the Jacobean English of the King James Bible and the 1928 Prayer Book. They account at least in part for the decline of the church. The jurisdiction with which the church is affiliated permits the use of other translations of the Bible beside the King James Bible, including modern English translations, and the use of other forms of service provided that they conform to the doctrine of the 1928 Prayer Book. The bishop of the diocese has no objections to the use of modern English services as long as this requirement is met. The bylaws, however, prevent pastors and other church leaders from taking advantage of the jurisdiction's canons and the bishop's flexibility and introducing changes in the services of the church that might help to arrest its decline. To my knowledge the only changes that the church has made to its bylaws in recent years was how any assets remaining after all the liabilities of the church are discharged would be disposed in the event of the church's dissolution. Rather than being used to further the cause of the gospel such as helping to fund a new church plant, they would be divided equally among the surviving members of the congregation.

Dining in the Dark: Is Communion Christ’s Flesh?

“Transubstantiation of the Eucharist” is terminology with which I was au fait by age ten. My family was decidedly Roman Catholic; my uncle had trained in theology at The Vatican, under Pope John Paul II. My dad was a minister of the Eucharist, which is to say he was one of the few men entrusted with the license to handle the body and blood of Christ during the mass.

As a kid, I enjoyed our weekly catechism classes more than most. I aced the dogma quizzes on communion: “Trans = change, thus transubstantiation is the mystical change of substance from bread to flesh.”

It was common for me to get the chills, moved with wonder, at the ethereal sound of the altar boy’s chimes, sounded at the precise moment at which the bread of communion changed substance into the body of Jesus. I was a card-carrying Catholic, a preteen company man.

Then I turned eleven. Read More

Can We Speed Up the Return of Jesus

Like everyone else, U.S. Protestant pastors may be closely watching the recent events related to Iran, but probably not because they think it has anything to do with the return of Christ.

Pastors are more than three times as likely to believe Christians can speed up the return of Christ by the spread of their faith than by backing certain geo-political changes, according to a new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

“While Scripture specifically says we cannot know the day or the hour of Jesus Christ’s return, we were interested in pastors’ views on whether Christians can play a role in bringing about that return any sooner,” explained Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. Read More

Also See:
Most Pastors Say Middle East Politics Won’t Speed Up the Second Coming

A group of evangelical and charismatic pastors, however, do believe that we can hasten the second coming of Jesus by stoking the regional conflicts in the Mid-East and precipitating the final battle of Armegeddon. 

Bible Literacy Crisis! (And What You Can Do About It in 2020)

You may recall the 2012 news story about a 17-year-old girl who collapsed at work with a swollen tongue. Turns out she’d eaten almost nothing but McDonald’s chicken nuggets her entire life. No fruits. No vegetables. Just deep-fried chicken. She learned it the hard way: man doesn’t live by breaded nuggets alone.

Scripture says something similar about our relationship to God’s Word. We’re more than just physical beings designed to live off fruits and vegetables and the occasional chicken nugget. We’re also spiritual beings, designed to live off of “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; Deut. 8:3). This means if we neglect the Bible, the aforementioned story of malnourishment can become an enacted parable of our spiritual condition.

And yet it’s astonishing how spiritually malnourished we can be amid such an abundance of biblical availability. For most of God’s people throughout history, hearing God’s Word was literally the only means of access. It’s not as though each individual Hebrew in the desert had his own personal scroll. We, on the other hand, have print Bibles and e-Bibles. Bibles on our phones and Bibles on our shelves. Bibles in dozens of good English translations and specialized study Bibles—all at our fingertips.

Are we any better for it? Has our knowledge of and commitment to reading the Bible kept pace with this increased availability? Read More

Small Group Launch Checklist

Leaders launching new groups want to have a strong start and welcome input on how to do it. Therefore, offer just enough guidance so they know what to do BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER their first meeting without overwhelming them. This is an example of a single page resource you can customize to help group leaders think through important steps so their new small group can launch successfully and stay together for the long-haul. Read More

Eight Social Media Trends for 2020

More than 3.2 billion people worldwide are active on social media every day. It has become the way we communicate, relate and learn. As such, it is simply indispensable to the mission of the church. This means that keeping abreast of the biggest trends within social media is critical.

Here are eight trends being forecast for 2020, gathered by Deep Patel at entrepreneur.com, that are the most relevant for the church.... Read More

Scam Lures Speakers to Fake UK Church Conferences

Hundreds of American Christian leaders have been invited to Anglican events—then asked to pay up.

Late last year, writer Jonathan Merritt was offered the keynote spot at a church conference in Scotland. The cathedral provost emailed him, saying, “we received the Lords direction to invite you to speak in this event.” He detailed the tradition of annual lectures at St. Andrew’s in Aberdeen—this year’s theme “carefully chosen by the Lords’ inspiration due to the backdrop of the present situation in the United Kingdom”—and offered to pay Merritt a speaking fee and cover his travel expenses.

It took a few more email exchanges before Merritt and his assistant realized that these messages weren’t really from Provost Isaac Poobalan at all—typos and clunky language began to tip them off—and that the supposedly 600-person conference scheduled to take place at the church later this month wasn’t even happening.

“I almost flew to the UK in 2 weeks for a FAKE event!” the author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch tweeted last week. “In Nov 2019, someone impersonated a real religious leader to invite me to speak. I thankfully caught it last min, but some creepy European out there wants a Jonathan Merritt flesh-coat baaaadly, and I’m not even kidding.”

This email scheme has become the “Nigerian prince” offer of the Christian speaking circuit, with hundreds of US Christian leaders invited to events at UK churches by scammers who hope to collect hundreds of dollars in visa fees ahead of the purported conferences.

The real administrator at St. Andrew’s, Lynda Johnston, says at least 30 Americans targeted by the scam have contacted the cathedral, including a number of “very interesting and potentially well-off individuals.” The church had to put up a notice on its website saying, “no such conference happening here at the Cathedral, and no emails were sent by Provost Poobalan.” Read More

Image Credit: Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Nagesh Badu / Kari Shea / Aaron Burden / Rodrigo Santos / Unsplash

From Isolation to Community: How the Church Can Mitigate the Loneliness Epidemic

It’s morning rush hour in New York City. A Manhattan-bound subway car is crammed with at least 100 people, but aside from the familiar squeal of wheels on metal, it’s eerily quiet.

No one is talking. No one is making eye contact. A handful of people appear to be asleep; the rest are wearing ear buds and grasping glowing screens.

They’re pressed in together, shoulder to shoulder, but occupying a hundred different worlds.

If a recent national study holds true, about 43 of those people feel isolated. Almost half of them would say they are sometimes or always lonely.

And about 47 of them would say they don’t have meaningful face-to-face interactions with others on a daily basis.

The younger people would most likely express the greatest struggle in this area; it’s no longer older Americans, but young adults between 18 and 22 who claim the title of the loneliest generation.

These are a few snapshots from a survey of 20,000 Americans conducted by Cigna, one of the largest health insurers in the country.

The company called the results “alarming” and joined a growing number of voices speaking out about a “loneliness epidemic” with dire consequences.

Americans of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and income levels are struggling with loneliness, whether they hail from sleepy, one-stoplight towns or “The City That Never Sleeps.” Read More

Image Credit: Eddi Aguirre/Unsplash

3 Steps to Clarify Your Church Planting Vision

Pay attention to these vital steps before you launch a church.

As honest and experienced church planters will tell you, there are mountains of work that go into planting a church. “Three steps” in any title barely scratches the surface of the prayer, planning, people-gathering, fund-gathering and other preparation that goes into the months—or years—leading up to the start of your new church. But as it relates to your church’s vision, there are three distinct and vital steps to go through before you declare your church’s birthday and throw a big launch party (or a simple first-Sunday gathering) for it. Skipping or moving too quickly through any of the steps can be dangerous. Read More

Don't Let the Angry Ten Per Cent Control the Direction of Your Church

In any organization of size, there are likely angry people.

They are unhappy with the organization. They don’t like change. They don’t like the leader.

But here’s the catch: In most organizations, they are a distinct minority. I use the quantifier of ten percent more anecdotally than not, but I would conjecture most organizations, including churches, would have a number close to that.

In churches, I see pastors, again and again, yield to the pressures and criticisms of the ten percent. I get it. I’ve been there and done that. May I suggest some perspectives on this issue? Perspectives are not solutions, but they can help us persevere when the ten percent get really loud. Read More

What To Do When Your Church Doesn't Value Children's Ministry

Are you in a church that doesn't value children's ministry? Do you feel like you are the only one who really cares about reaching the next generation? Is there little to no money budgeted for kids? It can be frustrating when God has placed a passion in your spirit for children's ministry, but you find yourself in this situation.

So, what should you do? Here are some steps you can take. Read More

Also See:
20 Ideas for Your Kids Ministry This Year

Image Credit: Ben White/Unsplash

What Does It Really Mean to ‘Deconstruct’ from Evangelicalism?

This week on the Gravity Leadership podcast, pastor and author Skye Jethani explored some of the factors influencing why people are “deconstructing” from American evangelicalism, whether they are rejecting all or part of it. Jethani believes that one key factor influencing this rejection is the moral failures that people are witnessing in the church.

“One of the dilemmas that pop American evangelicalism is having,” said Jethani, “is a lot of especially younger people…are looking at the leaders they’ve put on these pedestals, and they’re recognizing they have really rotten fruit…And then what ends up happening is you meet someone from another tradition, whether Christian or otherwise, who holds very different theology, and you go, ‘Oh my goodness. They have more compassion and love and grace and maturity and fruit of the Spirit than I’ve found in my evangelical tradition, so I’m going to jump ship from that one to this one.’” Read More

After some thought I decided that a set of children's building blocks better represents the process that Skye Jethani describes as "deconstruction" in his article--a process in which a Christian reevaluates and rethinks his beliefs and values. Through trial and error a child learns which blocks can be used to build structures that do not easily topple and fall and which blocks, if they are used, will build structures that will collapse even before they are completed. 

5 Features That Made the Early Church Unique

In the first three centuries, Christians were persecuted more than any other religious group. Because they refused to honor other gods or worship the emperor, they were seen as too exclusive, too narrow, and a threat to the social order.

So why, if Christians were seen as offensive and were excluded from circles of influence and business and often put to death, did anyone become a Christian? Larry Hurtado explores this question in two books, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? and Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World.

One main reason, Hurtado explains, was that the Christian church was a unique “social project.” They were a contrast community, a counterculture that was both offensive and yet also attractive to many.

But what made the Christian community so different? Read More

Ten Truths about a Liar

Is Satan capable of inception? Does he whisper temptations in our ear? Is Satan’s authority, power, and relationship to unbelievers the same or different from Christians? These are all valid and, frankly, somewhat haunting questions. I am not left emotionally unmoved by the many destroyed marriages and ministries around me Satan has devoured. I trust your experience is comparable. It is vital that you and I rightly discern and evaluate Satan. He is not to be trifled with nor buffooned, but in Christ, his back was utterly broken on Calvary’s hill. Therefore, it is important we establish a few implications that help us to discern the person and activity of Satan.... Read More

Amid Abuse Scandals, Legal Challenges Test Clergy Reporting Exemptions

Implications for church leaders loom as Montana reverses $35M judgment and other states continue tightening reporting laws.

The Montana Supreme Court this week unanimously reversed a $35 million judgment against the Jehovah’s Witnesses for not reporting sexual abuse to authorities, saying church representatives fell within a clergy exception found in the state’s mandatory child abuse reporting law.

Montana law requires officials, including clergy, to report child abuse to state authorities when there is reasonable cause for suspicion. However, the state’s law exempts clergy from reporting when the actual or suspected abuse is discovered in the course of a confidential conversation—such as confession—that is protected by the clergy-penitent privilege.

The high court said in its 7–0 decision that the Jehovah’s Witnesses fall under the exception in this case, which involves a woman who had been abused as a child in the mid-2000s. The congregation handled the allegations internally in accordance with church practices. Read More

Also See:
Montana Court Reverses $35 Million Child Abuse Verdict Against Jehovah's Witnesses

In states in which clergy, church staff, and volunteers are exempt from being mandatory child abuse reporters, churches need to take the lead in pressing state legislatures and state governors to remove their exemption. They need to become child advocates rather than passive perpetrators in the sexual abuse. A passive perpetrator is someone who, while they are aware of the sexual abuse, fails to do anything about it. I was involved in child welfare work for the state of Louisiana for more than 25 years. It is well-documented that organizations, religious and otherwise, are apt to protect themselves rather than the child who was sexually abused by one of their members. It is also well-documented that organizations are more likely to believe adults over children. Most organizations' procedures for dealing with child sexual abuse allegations are woefully inadequate. Making clergy, church staff, and volunteers mandatory reporters is one way of rectifying these problems. Adequately funding, training, and resourcing state and county child protection agencies is another way.

Talking to Jehovah’s Witnesses? Start Here

It may come as a surprise, but some of the most popular articles on the Stand to Reason blog are on the topic of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In fact, in 2019, two of the top ten articles were on specific challenges from Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The reason for this isn’t complicated. People—like you and me—are being challenged by Jehovah’s Witnesses and, as a result, are looking for answers.

Over the last few years, I’ve responded to a number of objections from Jehovah’s Witnesses. Until now, these articles were scattered all over the STR website. I decided it would be helpful to put them all in one place. Read More

Jehovah's Witnesses are very determined in their pursuit of new converts to their beliefs. As well as The Watch Tower and other tracts, they now use handheld electronic devices like tablets and digital presentations. After I moved to western Kentucky, I was visited by one Jehovah's Witness for the better part of thirteen years. Sometimes he came alone; other times he brought a companion. My extensive library of Bible study aids did not deter him. He suggested that I get rid of the books. When I told him that I preached at a church in a nearby community, he did not blink an eye. While I have serious difficulties with his beliefs, I had to admire him for his doggedness. Jehovah's Witnesses have learned that persistence pays off.

Jehovah's Witnesses are particularly adept at targeting people who are in the midst of a crisis or major transition in their lives when they are the most vulnerable to proselytization. A high school friend of mine was a Jehovah's Witness. His father who had been a Roman Catholic became a Jehovah's Witness after the death of his wife. He raised their three sons at Jehovah's Witnesses. His efforts to convert me to the beliefs of the sect prompted me to explore for myself what the Bible really taught. I borrowed a copy of Bernard Ramm's Protestant Bible Interpretation: A Textbook of Hermeneutics from the local public library. Protestant Bible Interpretation wetted my appetite to learn more about the science and art of Bible interpretation. 

How to Leverage the Super Bowl for Gospel Outreach

For many Americans—whether football fans or not—Super Bowl Sunday has become a national holiday of sorts. Throughout the country, people gather to eat, cheer, critique high-priced ads, and sing along to a big-name halftime show at the Super Bowl.

Not only is the crowning of the NFL champion the year’s most-watched TV event, it’s also a great outreach opportunity for faith communities. Some churches host viewing parties while others collect soup or other donations for people in need. Other Christian groups use the game to raise awareness about sex trafficking and pornography.

Now a campaign devoted to game-day outreach is encouraging churches to impact not just their local communities on Super Sunday but to help transform the world. Read More

Hosting a viewing party is one way a small rural church can reach out to men who live in a 10 mile or larger radius of the church and who might not otherwise show their face in church. It will be even more effective if it is one of a series of events targeted at men. These events should be geared to the specific locality and the particular interests of the men living in that locality. These events should be planned well in advance and the men at which these events are targeted given ample notice of each upcoming event. A rural church plant in which I was involved organized fishing trips for men and youth in the surrounding area. The church then sponsored fish fries to which individuals and families living in the surrounding area were invited. The church also created other opportunities for members of the church community and those outside the church community to interact with each other and to get to know each other. The purpose of these events is not to evangelize those who attend them but to foster better relations between members of the church community and those outside the church community, create good will, and overcome negative perceptions of  the church. It is also to demonstrate that the church takes an interest in the well-being of those living in the surrounding area. If the church collects canned food or other donations in conjunction with a particular event, these donations should be for a cause to which those making donations can see the benefit of donating--the local food bank, the regional children's hospital, and the like.

A Rule for Worship in the Twenty-First Century

By Robin G. Jordan

Since the Reformation orthodox Anglicans have sought to conform their worship to what they believe are the standards of the Bible. In this regard orthodox Anglicans have generally fallen into two schools of thought. The proponents of what is called the regulative principle argue that we should do only what the Bible clearly enjoins. The proponents of what is described as the normative principle argue that we may do what the Bible does not expressly forbid. If we carefully examine the history of Anglican Church from the Reformation on, we will discover a tension between these two schools of thought.

Both schools of thought have their weaknesses. In the application of the regulative principle flawed hermeneutics may be used to claim a Biblical mandate for a practice for which there is no command or precedence in Scripture. The fact that a passage’s author mentions a practice in the passage does not ensure that the author intended that others should follow the practice. There must be satisfactory evidence in the passage itself, in the surrounding passages, or elsewhere in the book, gospel, or epistle that the author was seeking to establish a precedence, one he expected others to follow.

In the application of the normative principle the absence of a specific prohibition may be used to justify a practice that conflicts with what the Bible teaches or which is at variance with Biblical practice. For example, the Bible does not explicitly prohibit the invocation of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon material objects like bread and wine and water. However, one will find no genuine example of this practice in the Bible. What one does find is the practice of invoking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon people.

In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul stresses the importance of orderliness and edification in worship. What we do should be done in an orderly and reverent manner. It should edify, or build up, the Body of Christ. Paul also stresses that what we are doing should be understandable to the visitors to our gatherings. The same examination of Anglican Church history reveals an uneven application of these principles. We have tended to overemphasize the first of these three principles and have been spotty in our application of the second. We have frequently neglected the third. Because we understand what is going on, we are apt to assume that guests understand it too.

A number of other principles that are applicable to our worship can be garnered from Paul’s epistles. Two particularly warrant our attention.

1. Because we can does not mean we should. We may have latitude to employ certain practices in our worship but doing so may not be the wisest thing to do.

2. Consider the consciences of others. Under certain circumstances it is wise to defer to their scruples even though we realize that there is nothing wrong in what we are doing.

Our risen Lord, before he ascended to the right hand of the Father, gave the Great Commission to his first disciples and to his Church. He commanded us to make disciples of all peoples. Earlier in his earthly ministry he had given us what is known as the Great Commandment, summarizing the Law and the Prophets into two commandments—to love God and to love others. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment form together the overarching guiding principle for our worship. While giving expression to our love for God and our love for our fellow human beings, our worship should also serve the task that our Lord has entrusted to us. This principle enables us to put the other principles in perspective. What it entails is sacrificing our own preferences to accomplish the priorities that our Lord has set for us. The danger is that we will be tempted to replace them with priorities of own. But if our worship is truly to glorify God, it must not stray from these three priorities.

How Much Does The Pastor's Personality Affect Church Growth Or Size? (Survey)

Can you take this short survey to help us understand more about small churches and their leaders?

Most churches in the world are small. As many as 90 percent are under 200, 80 percent under 100.

Is this because the pastors of those churches haven’t mastered church growth? Or could there be other factors at play here?

These are valid questions, but they have surprisingly few solid answers because very little research has been done about them.

Sure, you can find a lot of good material about how to break through numerical barriers, but what about the vast majority of churches that not only stay small, but it seems like that’s how they and their leaders serve at their best? Read More

After Soleimani’s Death, Iran’s Christians Brace for ‘Tsunami of Disaster and Opportunity’

An interview with Lazarus Yeghnazar on why Western Christians should focus on leaders not numbers in the Islamic republic.

The killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani by order of President Donald Trump last week sent shockwaves around the world and prompted retaliation from Iran, an Islamic republic cited by some Christian groups as having one of the highest conversion rates in the world.

Lazarus Yeghnazar, whose research suggests as many as 1 million Christians now live in Iran, has been expecting something like this for years. He believes that, if war comes, it will create a humanitarian crisis but also an open door for evangelism—“a tsunami of disaster and a tsunami of opportunity.” And the 70-year-old Iranian Christian is in a position to know.

Yeghnazar and his wife, Maggie, married in Tehran shortly before the Islamic revolution in 1979. Love for their country and the Iranian church, as well as a successful engineering business, led them to stay in their home during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

Shortly after the war ended, the couple emigrated to the United Kingdom, where they began sending money to friends and church leaders in Iran. That effort eventually became 222 Ministries International, a church-planting and training network—still run out of Lazarus’s converted garage—that includes satellite television broadcasts and more than 50 underground churches in Iran. His brother, Sam, founded Elam Ministries, and his nephew, David, now leads that outreach to Iran.

In an interview last year, Yeghnazar predicted that Iran would open up soon and explained how Christians should prepare. In a follow-up this week, he explained how Suleimani’s death affects Iranian Christians. Read More

We Need Fewer Chicken Littles and More People of Hope

“The sky is falling!”

One little acorn hitting the head of Chicken Little led him to proclaim the world was coming to an end.

In the famous children’s story, Chicken Little fretted, worried, and in turn, caused everyone around him to become unreasonably afraid.

Imagine if Chicken Little had a social media account. He’d post memes and opinions with little facts attached that carried the overall message: “The sky is falling!”

As we glance across the landscape of Christianity in America, we should ask ourselves, “Have we become like Chicken Little?” Has our first message become one of gloom and disaster that proclaims the sky is falling? Read More

Preacher, Know Your Task

Whenever I preach at another church, I’m always curious to hear how the sermon is introduced. Am I the “preacher” or the “speaker”? Will I “share the word”, “bring the word” or “preach the word”? And should the church expect to “hear from Adam” or “hear from God”?

Maybe this is much ado about nothing—a mere semantic hang-up. After all, who cares how we describe preaching as long as we actually do it?

But words matter.

Our description of the sermon might just shape our church’s expectations of it. If “today’s speaker is Adam who will explain the Bible”, what should our church expect to hear? Whose voice should they expect to hear? And how should they be expected to respond? Read More

Spiritual Maturity: 5 Signs You DON’T Have It

The issue of spiritual maturity seems to provoke one of the super strange conversations in the North American and Western church today. Here’s the bizarre part: Some Christians end up criticizing other Christians for not being “deep” enough or committed enough to be “real” Christians. (The fact that this may not sound bizarre to you is, in itself, evidence of how bizarre this has gotten.) There is apparently a certain subset of Christians who have maturity figured out, and the rest of us, well, not so much. And yet often what we call spiritual maturity…isn’t. In fact, at least five of the common claims we make about having spiritual maturity actually show you lack it. Read More

Also See:
Powerful, Life-Transforming Lessons That Jesus Teaches His Disciples

Communing with Christ in the Supper

Recently, a video of Francis Chan surfaced in which he tries to explain what he now believes about the real physical presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. Without wishing to dissect the many erroneous arguments Chan made about the unity of the visible Church throughout the first fifteen hundred years of Church history and the role of preaching in the early Church, I do wish to make a few observations about his misplaced statements about how the Supper was viewed throughout Church history–and especially by a few of the leading sixteenth century Protestant and Reformed theologians.

Chan insists that the Church unanimously accepted the idea that the bread and the wine become the real physical body and blood of Jesus. He says, “for the first fifteen hundred years of church history everyone saw it as the literal body and blood of Christ.” But this fails to understand how the theory of transubstantiation was first formulated in the ninth century by Paschasius Radbertus, a Benedictine abbott, and how it was later adopted as dogma at the Fourth Lateran council in 1215. In his article “The Meal that Divides,” Keith Mathison gives a helpful survey of the development of Radbertus’ doctrine of transubstantiation, and an explanation of the controversy between Radbertus and Ratramnus over the presence of Christ in the Supper in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Chan then blames the Protestant Reformation for divisions that exist in the church—largely with respect to the Lord’s Supper. He says, “it wasn’t ’til five hundred years ago that someone popularized a thought that it’s just a symbol.” Of course, this is a failure to understand the contention between Luther and Zwingli, as well as the distinctions between the view of Calvin and the members of the Westminster Assembly. Read More

Also See:
Is Francis Chan Right about the Lord’s Supper?

I found Francis Chan's video full of oversimplifications, inaccuracies, and omissions. I am posting links to these two articles because they address a number of the erroneous arguments that Chan makes in the video.

The Rule and Songs of Puritan Worship

When we build on the foundation of the Gospel in our worship, what rule should govern our building? By “rule” I mean what controls, regulates, and fills what we say and do in worship. Again, to appreciate the Puritan stance on the rule of worship, we must begin not with the Puritans but with the Reformation. Though Luther had allowed practices to remain in the church so long as they did not seem to contradict the Bible, the Reformed movement taught that worship must only include that which the Word of God authorizes and warrants.

Worship is service given to the King of kings for His pleasure and honor. Christ alone is King of the Church; all our worship is obedience to His Word. Calvin taught that the Church has one King, our Savior Jesus Christ, and He is “the sole lawgiver of his own worship.”[i] For the Puritans, too, cleaving to Christ as our Lord means submitting to the rule of His Word in our worship, and opposing humanly-devised worship.[ii]

This idea today is called the regulative principle. Robert Godfrey writes, “In its simplest terms the regulative principle holds that the Word of God alone regulates, directs, and warrants all elements of worship. . . . We may worship God only as he has commanded us to do in the Bible.”[iii] As the Puritans saw it, the basic form of biblical worship was three-fold: Word, sacraments, and prayer. Each of the three elements can be divided into two parts: the Word (read and preached), the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and prayer (spoken and sung).[iv] Read More

Also See:
The Roots of Puritan Worship
The Foundation of Puritan Worship

The link in this article to the earlier article, "The Roots of Puritan Worship," will take you to an index of Reformation 21 articles. The link on this page will take you directly the article. Some Anglican writers claim that Anglicanism, like Lutheranism, follows the normative principle. My own research suggests that in Anglicanism a tension exists between the regulative principle and the normative principle. The English Reformers applied the regulative principle in primary matters while applying the normative principle in secondary matters. This may be described as a two-tiered approach.

The Crucial Priority Our Churches Are Missing

The old saying, Take two Aspirins and call me in the morning, doesn’t really apply if you have a fast-growing cancer in your body. You need something far more drastic.

But if you don’t know the cancer exists, you’ll never take the necessary steps to address it. You’ll just continue self-medicating, hoping that eventually it’ll go away or fix itself.

To address a problem, we must first become aware of the problem. In order for that to happen, we must intentionally look internally and recognize any warning signs or symptoms that may provide indications that something is wrong.

When we as disciples of Jesus Christ take an honest look internally at our hearts, our passions, and our priorities as Christ-followers, we’ll discover there are certain things we naturally emphasize, and certain things we don’t prioritize at all. Read More