I am convinced that a fundamental aspect of ministry is that we must see people as God sees them: not just as they are, but as they could be. [Click title to read more.]
Category: ministry
I Am Starting To Have A Problem With The Church Outsourcing Its Work
I'm bothered that, as a church, we have outsourced the actual ministry of love and the work of any functional church to small group ministry. [Click title to read more.]
Pursue The Unremarkable Life
Have you ever noticed that very few people want to talk about being called to an ordinary, unremarkable life? [Click title to read more.]
Book Review: Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak’s The Art of Neighboring
A review of Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak's The Art of Neighboring. [Click title to read more.]
Sometimes It’s Good To Let A Trend Go By
Churches have personalities, just like people do. They can be reflective or extroverted, friendly or cheerful, shy or quiet. They vary in size and in demographic makeup. Because of that, it stands to reason that it doesn't make sense for every church to jump on every bandwagon - and yet, all too often, that's what happens. [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.]
Stop Caring So Much About Results
Sometimes you give your all and the results are nothing great. Nothing special. Sometimes actively awful. That doesn't always mean you're doing it wrong. [Click title to read more.]
Coincidentally, All Our Sins Always Happen To Be In The Distant Past
It's more than a little disingenuous to pretend that our 'worst' sins are always something that we recovered from a while back, the remnants of a time long-ago in early Christian-hood before we became the strong believers we are now. [Click title to read more.]
God Values Your Creative Ministry
All too often I suspect our faith is bound by the laws of logic - if not the logic of reason, then our own peculiar logic of how things are and how the universe should be. Or even by the logic of what our churches say "proper" ministry should look like. [Click title to read more.]
The Future of America Does Not Depend On Politics. It Depends On You.
It's easy to complain. It's easy to pretend to ourselves that one vote or one candidate will make or break something. It's a lot less easy to go out and do the work of love. For all of us who sit around complaining about the way the world is, I wonder: have we been doing all that we can do to serve? [Click title to read more.]
Samaritan's Song 