One of my favorite things to say about church planters is that almost anyone who knows and loves God, people and appropriately loves self can start a church of some kind. Here are a few people whose stories come to mind. There all named Bill. Bill Wagner: Racquetball and Iran Bill Wagner has planted ten churches in four countries: the …
Power is a tricky thing. I remember as a teenager discovering I had some speed and athleticism. I was no Superman, but I was a fast little goober that could throw the ball on target. That was enough in my small school to push me to the front. I made the football team and found I had power on the …
Today is Maundy Thursday! Are you ready for Good Friday? Holy Saturday? Easter? Christine Sine keeps a running list of Holy Week resources blog. They include: Resources for Celebrating Holy Week With Kids Resources for Palm Sunday Resources for Maundy Thursday Resources for Good Friday Stations of the Cross Resources for Easter Sunday
Lord knows the week of Easter can exist as a stressful, challenging, frustrating, adrenaline-laced time for most pastors. It continues to surprise me how much administrative work resurrection creates for the local church pastor. While Holy Week can generally be busy for the pastor, the workload can be particularly challenging for church planters, given that they often work with smaller …
It’s Holy week and Jesus journey towards the cross has begun. Many of us have already processed around the church on Palm Sunday. We have already bought our Easter eggs and hot cross buns, diverting our attention from the real meaning of Easter to its commercialized version. How many of us are sucked in? The Most Subversive Week of Jesus …
I love everything about preaching—planning sermons, studying and research, Sunday delivery, feeling spent on Sunday evening—all of it. I’d love to do it every Sunday, but I believe that it’s not best for me to do so. It’s also not the best thing for our church community Austin Mustard Seed. As I have written before, we believe that our liturgy …
For the last few years Dan White Jr, others and I have been part of a national initiative concerned with one goal: helping church planters recover the essentials for cultivating communities of disciples who are sent deep into their cities to embody the Gospel of the Kingdom. It seems fairly simple, but it is not. Culturally, we are swimming in …
St. Patrick’s day is upon us. Whether you are are a green-beer drinking Irish Catholic or an abstaining evangelical, the person and legend of Patrick is essential study for every missional leader. The First Missionary In his masterful history of the Celtic Church, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill makes the bold claim that Patrick was the first true …
So many people are working hard at “ministry,” but they aren’t necessarily doing discipleship. Clearly, this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. Register now for this free Q &A with Tim Catchim on Thursday, March 19, and be ready to ask him ANYTHING!
As I talk with various church leaders, I am discovering a common misunderstanding about the difference between ministry and disciple making. Describing the difference between disciple making and ministry is kind of like describing the difference between a square and a rectangle. A square can be a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. They both have four …