Well, the news is out again. Gallup’s latest faith poll showed church membership is “down sharply”[1] over the past two decades. Relevant Magazine recently reported that young people are leaving the church due to perceived judgment and hypocrisy [2]. These types of reports are all the more common today, and it is getting harder for church leaders to navigate the …
V3 is thrilled to host our next free webinar “Healing Our Polarized Church” with Dan White Jr., author of the new book Love Over Fear and our host Elice Kim. This webinar is scheduled for May 16 @ 12pm EST. You can register here: Whether it’s the news, social media, or well-intentioned friends, we’re taught daily how to hate and …
I was trained by one of the 20th Century’s “Princes of Preaching.” And, “no” that isn’t an exaggeration. In 1996, Haddon Robinson was named in a Baylor University poll as one of the “12 Most Effective Preachers in the English Speaking World.” In 2006, he was recognized by Christianity Today in the top 10 of its “25 Most Influential Preachers of …
Building diverse spaces that span ethnicity, gender, age, and sexuality requires intentional design. In a previous post I discussed the importance for churches to embody diversity. It reflects unity in diversity demonstrated first in the Trinity. Yet in practice our churches are some of the most segregated spaces in the country. This is also a product of intentional design which …
If you’re a church planter like me, then you’re aware that there’s been a growing emphasis on the 5-fold person gifts found in Ephesians 4:11-16: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the …
Can I make a confession? I love zombie stories.The “zombie apocalypse” genre has always fascinated me, for some reason. I find myself attracted to movies, TV shows, and books that feature some version of a zombie apocalypse and what happens afterward.Part of the reason I think I’m interested is because of the questions these stories evoke: What remains when all the …
Trusting others is always a risk. Many kingdom leaders get burnt and slowly clam up or lose the ability to keep loving and trusting those around us. It is vital for church planters to consider how this issue of “trust” is influencing their life and relationships. I believe there are two aspects of trust: (1) the mechanics of trust (how …
Christianity Today put out a recent statistic on just how much a decline the religion is facing today … in an astounding trending data set, within the past half century, all of the religions including differing denominations have been either a.) incrementally sloping down in numbers or b.) flatlining and experiencing no new growth. Only one religion bucked the trend …
“It is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hours in Christian America.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the height of the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mused the infamous comment about the …
Leading in the way of Jesus is beautiful and incredibly vulnerable. We experience both joy and despair, fulfillment and loss, growth and disillusionment. Emotional cuts and bruises are inevitable, yet few of us know how to practice a spirituality that identifies, receives, and heals our pain. We need practices that anchor us in the love of God so hearts do not …