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Pastor Appreciation
I am a pastor, but I have been pastored all of my life. This is Pastor Appreciation Month. A whole month? Even father’s and mother’s only get a DAY! But I do want to give thanks for the pastors in my life: John Skinner taught me prayer and a love for the Word. He taught me Bible quiz and that…
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What to do with all the time…
Brian has chronicled some very interesting commentaries of late regarding the flight from evangelicalism. It is interesting reading. He DOES mention the Assemblies of God, and tries to remain kind. But, he wonders what we do with all our time once the emotionalism is gone. First of all, that is a valid question in many ways. When we don’t know…
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The Power of the Gospel
“The power of the gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, not in the threat of hellfire (certainly not in the threat of being “left behind”), which can be removed if only the hearer checks the box, says this prayer, raises a hand, or whatever, but in the powerful announcement that God is God,…
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Sizzle Always Attracts Headlines
When I blog, I actually try to come up with a snazzy headline. It doesn’t work, but I try. I know that when the Twitter feed or Facebook post pops up, most people only take in the headline. I get “likes” on some posts about three seconds after it hits Facebook sometimes, so I know they didn’t read the whole…
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The Challenge of Heaven
Surprised by Hope is full of surprises for me. It is an incredibly tough book to digest and process. I love NT Wright, and one reason I love his work is he takes me to the mental and spiritual mat time and time again. We need things in our lives that challenge us. Someone saw my “Minnesota Public Radio” sticker…
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Being the Flavor of the Kingdom in this World
In just the first few pages, I am drawn into Creating a Missional Culture by J R Woodward. He’ll get to the “problems” of the church… and that’s just a big fat target. But he starts with what the Church IS… as the Lord created us. Enough of what we think the Church is NOT… too many books and blogs on…
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And Yet Again, What of Evangelicals?
We have been decrying the decline of the “liberals.” Alternately, there has been the call for the end of “conservatives.” All in the Church. Not even in politics! Now, John Ortberg has us wringing our hands about evangelicals again. Not really. I just wanted to be sensational in my headline. This is a well-thought out column. We need to realize…
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Holy Creation!
Last year this time the word was “hell.” Rob Bell, Mark Galli, Francis Chan… all got in on hell. Now… the buzzword is CREATION. CREATIONISM. DARWINISM. All kinds of things flying around. Must be some new books flying off the presses in the next few months… Have fun.
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Reading in Community
Our church is gearing up to read the New Testament together. We are beginning with Luke. The challenge for us will be to read in community. It’s not just reading alone and then hearing a sermon. We want to set up opportunities to learn from each other. We can structure our Sunday morning service to reflect more on this model.…
Category: Church
