One Sunday during last year’s Christmas season, my wife and I worshipped at the church of a young, dynamic pastor whom I had been coaching. His message was biblical, practical, and well delivered, and the worship music was uplifting and skillfully led. Only one thing was missing: Christmas! No mention was made of Christmas anywhere …
One Sunday morning in my early days of pastoring, I stepped into the pulpit and opened my Bible to where I thought I had placed my sermon notes. To my horror, they were not there. In an instant, I remembered that I had left them on my office desk. A sense of panic swept over …
A few months ago I worshipped at the church of a talented young pastor whom I had been coaching. His sermon was good, surprisingly good. While I was chatting with him after the service, another parishioner we both knew well joined us and told him how much she enjoyed his message. She then remarked, with …
A common mistake seen among church replanters is their failure to do the hard work of discerning the starting point of their church. If the church replanter fails to grasp the starting point then their plans and ideas are often unhelpful and typically face resistance. The difficulty of determining the starting point is compounded by …
On April 24, 2012, I became a grandparent for the first time. Prior to my grandson being born, I began asking other grandparents what it was like to be a grandparent. All I ever got was “it’s fun.” I replied, “but being a parent was fun, so what do you mean by it’s fun?” But …
Church replanting is the intersection or the merging of two key ministry centers; a Chaplaincy and a Church Plant. The Chaplaincy focus consists of loving the people who are there. In most New England church plants, those who are there are elderly. They have worshipped at that church for much of their life with a …
Churches have been in need of revitalization since the New Testament church began because churches are made up of sinners who individually and collectively need to be sanctified. Typically, churches go through seasons of growth and decline. Unfortunately, some times the decline is not addressed and the decline continues. The attendance numbers decline, the mission …
Why are Christians willing to suffer for the sake of others? Why do they choose to sacrifice for those they don’t even know? Why do they take the initiative to risk their lives in order to serve the lowly and marginalized of society? Time and time again, they choose to personally absorb the hurt and …
Bill Clinton made headlines with the phrase “It’s the economy stupid.” He wanted people to realize that there are lots of issues to talk about and lots of ideas to base a presidential strategy on but the key determiner in his mind was the economy. When it comes to deciding on where to minister there …
Is our ministry an incarnational ministry? Paul believed that the one doing the ministry is the one who ought to make the needed cultural adaptions out of love for those who don’t know Christ. Paul taught that those he was free from all men, he made himself a slave to all, so that he may …
