Category: Church Life

  • Quick Hit Thought to Get My Monday Going

    When Paul came into Ephesus in Acts 19, he preached, the Spirit came on those there… and 12 men started an extraordinary work. It was a work that shook the core of the Ephesian economy and impacted a region. Twelve men. God doesn’t mind small. He’s not afraid. What am I believing for today? What can be started when I…

  • The Big OUCH

    I have seen the book on different sites, but this blurb gives some GREAT quotes. Be prepared to be mad, or say “Ouch.” Some of my favorites: They wish the church could be more diverse, but then leave to meet in a coffee shop with other well-educated thirtysomethings who are into film festivals, NPR, and carbon offsets. They want to…

  • Yawning at the Word

    Mark Galli has an excellent piece at Christianitytoday.com. We are so easily BORED with the Word these days. What is our problem? This paragraph is challenging to me: Whenever the Bible is read, a hush should come over us. We should be inching toward the edge of our seats, leaning forward, turning our best ear toward the speaker, fearful we’ll…

  • The New American “Christianity”, Part 2

    The article regarding this new moralistic deism had an interesting paragraph: All this means is that teenagers have been listening carefully. They have been observing their parents in the larger culture with diligence and insight. They understand just how little their parents really believe and just how much many of their churches and Christian institutions have accommodated themselves to the…

  • The New American “Christianity”?

    This study was done some time back, but a post by a friend on Facebook alerted me to this study. The new religion is called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” As described by Smith and his team, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.”…

  • The World Was Not Worthy of Them

    You can’t get harvest from a place you haven’t sown seed.

  • Thoughts on Reformation Day

    November 1 October 31 is Reformation Day. For Pentecostals like me, that usually means nothing. However, having graduated from a Lutheran seminary, I know slightly more about this guy named Luther and am thankful for his life and example. This was his testimony facing a trial in 1521: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by…

  • What Happens When We Dwell?

    Colossians 3:16,17: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. When we…

  • The Pope and the Anglicans

    I am learning of this story and beginning to see comments on blogs. This may have been something stirring for quite some time, since the American Episcopal church allowed a practicing homosexual to become bishop, but the news on this seems to come fast. Certainly the Pope didn’t walk into this lightly. This will have far more repercussions than I…

  • Church Fights You Can’t Quite Believe…

    There are church fights, and then there are church fights. Sometimes there is a dispute that causes one to truly think about the issues. This one baffled me a bit. Tullian Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s grandson, was elected new pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian where D. James Kennedy had been pastor for many years. This story details the issues, which I…