Church Leadership

Evolution And The Church

For those who have already fired up your search engines or copied a link from your favorite creation website; hold your horses. As much as I would like to debate 6 day creation (not really), evolutionary traits in nature (not my thing), and Darwin vs the Bible (not smart enough), this is a post about church change over the years not biological change over millions of years. If you are still all worked up over evolution in the church, would it help if I made it clear I am against evolution in church?

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Can You Lend Me a Hand?

If you listen closely you will hear this question echoing through the rooms in every church. If you really open your ears you will hear more than just the words, you will sense the desperation. If you linger long enough you will experience the undeniable nudging of God to do something. If you respond. If your fellow Christ followers choose to act. If your collect of Christ followers makes it their vision. Something new, something fresh, something sacrificial takes over the very being of who we are as individuals and as a collective of people who follow the Son of God.

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Pulling The Plug

It is perhaps the hardest decision anyone will have to make. The negative implications of choosing any of the options loom large over those who are given the task of deciding what future if any lies ahead. Choose to let her live and she might still die. Choose to pull the plug and her death is on your hands. Still, something has to be done. She can’t go on like this. She can’t exist in a coma like state. The way she’s propped up by life support is not really living but it’s not death either.

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A Little Understanding – A Culturally Relevant Landscape and Décor

When you hear we need to make sure our church service is culturally relevant, be excited, but approach it with cautious optimism. Both the Christ follower and those who are trying to find out what this Christ following thing is all about understand everything in terms of the culture in which they live. This makes a culturally relevant church necessary. The problem only comes when cultural relevance becomes cultural dominance that dictates the message presented so that the ways of the world become the ways of the church…

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A Little Understanding – The Protective Wrap

I have used the words “protective covering” to describe the roof, but why have I chosen to create a whole different section and name for the walls when they serve the same protective function?  The walls that frame the outside of the building share many of the design basics as the roof, and yet I call it a “wrap,” not a “covering.” The answer is simple. There is one thing that we find in all protective wraps but in very few protective coverings: windows and doors. Necessary but counterproductive, they invite the outside in.

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A Little Understanding – We Need More of God

“Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17 (NIV)

A Little Understanding – The Entryway isn’t Enough

Childlike faith is the key to the entire floor plan, starting with the entryway but going far beyond. We must believe that there is more, laying out our lives in such a way that we can discover it. Childish faith is just happy where it is, in the entryway. When the entryway dweller does become a little restless, their options are limited by their one-room floor plan. They can look all over the space they have and discover there is no more to discover! The only way to improve the entryway is to give it a facelift. Make things look better. Continuing with the entryway metaphor, adding a coat of paint, a new closet organizer, updated tiles, a table for cell phones and keys, and new door mats should do it. It may be the same room, but it looks so much better!

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