Leadership
Tim Avery at Christianity Today's Off The Agenda asked me to write an article on the way small churches are viewed by others. The result is Small Churches Need a Brand Revival, and I hope you read it. Here's how it starts: After the presidential election,
Congregation
"Students don't want to serve in the local church when they graduate; they want to do something more exciting." -- Southern Baptist seminary administrator A prominent seminary administrator made that comment to me several weeks ago. I've been rolling it around in my head
Uncategorized
Craig McDole of Oklahoma won, despite the fact that his Sooners lost! Craig has a great blog at Doorkeeper's Journal. Check him out. Congrats on winning the book, and thanks for playing, Craig!
Uncategorized
Congratulations to last week's winner of the Faith and Culture DVD series was Greg Lipps of Indiana! Today I'm giving away a new copy of Leslie Newbigin's The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. This is a classic and one of the books that helped
Culture
Remember the Friday is for Freebies! giveaway each week in 2009. Good free church stuff all for the taking. Click here for this week's freebie and rules. Outreach2Go.com is now live and has some good stuff on it. I'll be blogging there about the "
Uncategorized
The elves have been working overtime to bring you great new features just in time for the New Year! Are you ready? Here they are:1. Interviews with leading church influencers. I'll be talking with some of the best people in the churchworld today on a variety of
Culture
A funeral home in Hollywood, California reports that under-40s are taking their Blackberries with them when they go. I mean really go, as in dead. Sort of gives new meaning to the word mobile. One guy even had his GameBoy put in his casket. This trend apparently started in the
Congregation
Browsing in a Barnes & Nobles today, I saw a book titled, Lies My Teacher Told Me. Apparently the author takes issue with some historical stuff he thinks is misrepresented in public education. The title of that book got me to thinking about my seminary experience. While I would not
bless the world
One of the things I learned while I attended seminary in Texas was that dominoes are for more than lining up and knocking down. Be that as it may, we're headed for an ecclesiastical domino effect brought to us by an economy in recession -- a recession, we
Community
This week I was asked to pray at the swearing in of our new county treasurer, who is also a member of our church. I wrote Prayer for A New County Treasurer for that occasion. I also wrote Prayer for the Opening of Court a couple of years ago. Both
Culture
"In wildness is the preservation of the world," wrote Henry David Thoreau in his groundbreaking book, Walden. With Thoreau as a starting point, Bill McKibben has assembled the finest, most comprehensive anthology of American environmental writing one could hope to find. The combined work of 101 authors, running
Congregation
I'm reading Seth Godin's new book, Tribes. Godin packs his small book with pithy observations about the nature of "tribes" and the qualities tribes are looking for in leaders. Although he doesn't explicitly say this, it occurred to me that a small