ethics
I preached on Pentecost last Sunday as "Babel Revisited." In that sermon I repeated the conventional thinking that God punished mankind's attempt to build a tower to reach to the heavens. But listen to what Wendell Griffen says, Instead of reading the passage to mean that
Acts
On Pentecost, the community that was divided by God at the Tower of Babel is recreated in the miracle of communication at the coming of the Holy Spirit. Babel Revisited Acts 2:1-21 1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like
call and response blog
Gannon Sims offers excellent insight on watchfulness over at Duke's Call and Response Blog. He says of watchfulness: It's a good word for the church. In his instructions to the church at Colossae, Paul asks his readers to be watchful. Leadership trades more often in words
Outreach
I just finished writing "A Tour of Small Churches in America" article for Outreach magazine. I'm not sure that will be the final title, but in the article I sketch 7 types of small churches, and other writers are profiling a specific church in each category.
evangelism
I admit to some ambivalence when I received Shannon O'Dell's book, Transforming Church in Rural America: Breaking All The Rurals. I write for small church pastors and leaders, and one of the themes I keep hitting is "small churches don't have to be
Acts
Paul and Silas disturbed the city of Philippi when the power of the gospel interfered with business. Shouldn't our gospel disturb the city today? Sermon: Disturbing Our City -- Acts 16:16-34 NRSV 16:16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met
2 Timothy
I'm preaching the baccalaureate sermon tonight at Hargrave Military Academy here in our town of Chatham, Virginia. One hundred years ago, the pastor of our church became the founding president of Hargrave, so our ties go back to 1909-10, the first full school year. The Goal of a
Community
This week is National Police Week. All across the country, law enforcement officers and community residents are gathering to honor the memories of officers who have been killed in the line of duty. I was asked to speak at our local memorial service for fallen officers hosted by our church
evangelism
Outreach in the Crises of Life is the title of the workshop I'll be hosting at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego, November 3-5, 2010. This will be my 4th year speaking at NOC, and I'm looking forward to addressing this topic of reaching out
John
The lame man answered the wrong question when Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be well?" Sometimes we do the same thing. Answering the Wrong Question John 5:1-9 1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in
Leadership
The Strengths of Small Churches webinar went really well today, and BuildingChurchLeaders.com has posted our presenter notes from the first topic we covered -- authenticity. The notes actually contain some material we didn't get time to cover, so whether you logged in to the seminar or not,
Leadership
Only one more day until "The Strengths of a Small Church" webinar on May 6, 11 am to 12 noon EDT. You can join the almost 500 other participants by registering here. The free video webinar hosted by Christianity Today's BuildingChurchLeaders.com features Brandon O'