The Problem of Christian Float

I call it Christian float: when believers can float into a church and even do all the "right" things in it (become a member, "plug in" to small groups or activities, participate in ministry) and somehow never end up fundamentally connected to anyone in the congregation. When they can show up faithfully and then leave the church after a day, a month, or after two years and find the reaction is exactly the same: indifference or ignorance. [Click title to read more.]

Why Fellowship Is Valuable When It Works

At its best, and as an ideal, Christian fellowship is (or should be) a place where we can drop pretenses, get comfortable, stretch our toes, look for and find and provide support, and enjoy the feeling of being somewhere that we're understood, loved, and supported. It's a community where the love of God is, at least theoretically, being made manifest constantly in surprising and wonderful ways. [Click title to read more.]

You Don’t Have To Go To The Huge Cool Church. It’s Okay To Think Small.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Huge Cool Churches. I do encourage you, though, to realize that a Huge Cool Church is not the only, nor always the best, option for worship. [Click title to read more.]

Churches: Don’t Work The Body To Death

When the next opportunity for service or ministry comes around, don't cave in to the easy temptation to call the same old people (who are really so dependable and who will do it on such short notice!) and ask them to serve, or minister, or help, or provide in some way. Find other people to do it. Let it be known loudly that it's time for that core group of workers to have a rest and that everyone else is going to have to start showing up. [Click title to read more.]

When “Take Responsibility” Becomes “Why Should I…?”

What I want to focus on is that very often exhortations for other believers to "take responsibility" for their church experience aren't our way of honestly trying to work out a difficult situation or to solve a problem together. Rather, too often, that question is a sly version of "Why should I...?" [Click title to read more.]

Don’t Be Flaky

While I don't believe that Christians should live as slaves to clocks and schedules, so caught up in doing that we forget what we're about, I also believe that it's vital to our relationship with Christ and with others to be...well, reliable. God holds Himself accountable to His appointed times; why should we do any less? [Click title to read more.]

We Need To Rediscover The Meaning of Fellowship

I suspect that much of our current definition of fellowship - and, if I dare say it, of "doing life together" - coincides little with the concept of fellowship that the ancient church shared. [Click title to read more.]