Church Leadership

Transition – Discovering God’s Call for Your Church

Many of you know that my calling is to a very specific field of ministry in the church. I am a transitional pastor. I help congregations discover God’s call for their collective of Christ followers. I met Bruce Cormier and his wife Lesia at my last transition. Together we, the collective of Christ followers called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship – Mimico and myself, set out on what ended up being an 18 month journey to understand what God was saying about the future of our church. We had a building. We had a small in-person congregation of about 30 and a similar sized online group who, in their younger years had attended in person. It took me 18 months to get to this point and Bruce managed to say it in just over 1500 words!

This little church has close to doubled in size and continues to grow under their new permanent pastor. The biggest question we needed to answer was about the building the church owned. As you read this, maybe your church needs to ask itself the same question they were asking:

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Bad Theology Leads to Good Living

I have made the decision to live out bad theology in an attempt to please God. This sentence in itself might be considered bad theology. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and yet I appear to be substituting a way of living for faith. This is only the beginning of me messing with theology. Worse still, I hope I can convince you to live out the same bad theology, to please God by substituting my thesis way of living.

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Sheep Stealing

It is considered the biggest offence a church/pastor can commit. Those accused of committing this offence often are unfazed while those behind the accusations feel wronged in ways that cannot be measured. Do some churches set out to steal sheep? Some. Do some churches have sheep go missing because they aren’t being good shepherds? Some. Do some sheep change sheep pens because the grass is always greener in some other sheep pen? Some. Do some sheep look for a new shepherd because the one they have isn’t shepherding at all? Some. Is the type of sheep stealing that the modern church concerns itself with actually something God is concerned about? Sometimes.

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Historically Prodigal

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I think almost everyone who attended Sunday school during the sixties and seventies has a memory of the high tech presentation systems used to etch memories in the minds of the young people who never missed a week. In fairness to this generation, attendance was not high because of the quality of storytelling but rather the willingness of a parent to use soap or the back of their hand to quickly put an end to any attempt to present an alternate to the fast paced drama that would unfold on the felt board every Sunday morning. We were told they were parables but we cared more about pulling the hair of the girl in the row in front of us or throwing a paper airplane at the teacher’s head. The felt board was a marvel of modern artistry but the stories got old really quick.

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – We Did It to Ourselves

Search yourself. Be honest. Don’t be afraid. Don’t hold back. Shine the light into the darkest parts of yourself. Question what you have come to believe. Put to the test the foundations of your faith. Examine the way you live out God’s truth. Covered by the grace of God through the blood of His Son allow the Holy Spirit to guide you, to convict you as you contemplate the following statement…

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Thirst

His title is The Most Interesting Man in the World (If you don’t know him click for videos) He is best known for his catchphrase, “Stay thirsty my friends.” He peddles beer, he doesn’t always drink beer but when he does, he has his brand. I don’t always drink beer. As a matter of fact I don’t drink much beer at all. I really don’t like beer although a few times a year on a hot day I have been known to have one and actually enjoy it. I know as a good Christian I should be a teetotaler, but I’m not a Christian at least not in the way we use it in North American, I am a Christ follower. I follow the guy who turned water into wine. By the way, I do like wine with a meal every now and then. Wait, how did I end up talking about alcohol? Oh yeah, I was talking about The Most Interesting Man in the World and his catchphrase, “Stay thirsty my friends.” I usually find advertising to be misleading but I must admit the product and the catch phrase are 100% on the mark…

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