Lent is the forty-day period before Easter that commemorates Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness in preparation for the launch of his ministry. In the early church, Lent was a time to prepare for baptism. Today, it is usually regarded as a season of soul searching, privation, and repentance. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Maundy Thursday. …
Rory Sutherland recounts in a TED Talk the story of how potatoes were introduced to eighteenth-century Prussian peasants in what is now modern-day Germany. Frederick the Great wanted to bring potatoes to Prussia because the only source of carbohydrates at the time was wheat. He believed that the introduction of the potato would diversify and stabilize the economy, making it …
Over a decade ago, a friend of mine was a teaching pastor at a very large evangelical church in Southern California. While he was working at the offices, the senior pastor approached him and asked him if he could help organize the two-day staff retreat that was coming up. Keep in mind, this was a staff of over fifty people, …
I’ve been going at this church planting thing for a few years now. I must say that it’s taken more years off my life than my previous decade in ministry. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is a plethora of expectations pummeling a church plant. Many nights I’ve experienced myself tossing and turning over the projected …
I recently had the chance to share on the New Churches website about lessons in discipleship. The feedback has been really positive, so I’m sharing what I wrote for their blog here. I hope you enjoy. 40 Lessons in Discipleship Discipleship is the key to movemental thinking when it comes to churches that plant churches. Here are 40 lessons in discipleship and mentoring that …
I have confessed that I have been guilty of three leadership assumptions that work against the missional work of God. In case you missed it, here are those assumptions (the more I confess, the better it is for my healing): We just need to find the right program. More is better. Hub-and-spoke leadership is effective for missional leadership. The truth …
It’s one thing to verbally affirm that in our postmodern, post-Christendom world we face adaptive challenges. It is entirely another to respond to these challenges adaptively. We naturally assume (at least I do) that we can formulate the strategies, organize the resources, and outline the steps for leading our people in participating in God’s mission. But if we are in …
We fell in love with the idea of being missional before we actually started practicing it. It was just easier to articulate a missional theology than it was to start practicing everyday mission. Eventually, though, we realized we needed to start somewhere. We needed to get outside our normal rhythms of “church” if we were going to learn missional living. …
I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I hear the word evangelism, I have a visceral response. My heart sinks, and one of three images usually comes to mind: The bearded, scruffy-looking man walking down the sidewalk with the cardboard sign declaring, “The end is near!” The street preacher dressed to the nines on the corner, bullhorn in hand, …
One of the most pressing pastoral concerns of our day is addressing the overwhelming fear that binds us in the Western world, and particularly in the United States. The noted writer Marilynne Robinson has an essay in her recent collection The Givenness of Things that boldly names this pervasive culture of fear in which we live (I highly recommend reading …