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Read more about the article The Church Got Lost In Translation

The Church Got Lost In Translation

In 1525, one of the first people to translate the Bible into English, William Tyndale, translated the word ekklesia as congregation. However, in 1611 the translators of the King James Version of the Bible chose to completely drop the Greek meaning of ekklesia and to replace it with the English word church which has a different meaning.  Since then, most English translations have followed the King James example and used church to replace the meaning of the word ekklesia.

However, the Greek word ekklesia, now lost to most English Bibles, has a completely different meaning than the word church. Ekklesia literally means “the called out ones.” It also was the proper name of the governing bodies of independent Greek city-states. These bodies (Ekklesias) were open, participatory, interactive assemblies that gathered to conduct city business.

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Read more about the article The Only Decision That Matters

The Only Decision That Matters

People are no more lost now than they have ever been, and Jesus is no less Lord now than He will ever be. We dare not cower in our churches as though God has lost anything. The only decision handed down that matters is that the gates of hell cannot prevail against His church!

The first marriage was between a perfect man and a perfect woman. The last marriage will be between a glorified man, the Lord Jesus, and his sanctified bride, the church. Between those two weddings, humanity has marred and defaced the institution of marriage in many ways, including this new way. But the Lord Jesus will have the last say. Until then, I am doing all I can to make my marriage reflect the love of Christ for his church and to share the gospel of grace with everyone. No handwringing, no fear, no hatred, no bitterness. Just love of the Lord Jesus, of the truth, of my wife, of the Lord’s church, and of my neighbor–ALL of my neighbors. Though something in our culture has definitely changed, everything in the Word of God remained the same. I rest in that.

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Read more about the article Maybe Christianity Is Loosing Traction Because It’s Boring

Maybe Christianity Is Loosing Traction Because It’s Boring

And this is the problem with Christianity in this country. Not just inside our church buildings, but everywhere. It often has no edge, no depth. No sense of its own ancient and epic history. There is no sacredness to it. No pain. No beauty. No reverence. Or I should say Christianity has all of those things, fundamentally and totally, but many modern Christians in every denomination have spent many years trying to blunt them or bury them under a thousand layers of icing and whipped cream and apathy.

That’s been the strategy of the American church for decades: just try not to scare people. They put on this milquetoast, tedious, effeminate charade, feigning hipness and relevance, aping secular culture, and then furrow their brows and shake their heads in bewilderment when everyone gets bored and walks away.

There are still plenty of Christians who desire the true faith, but they are mostly ignored or scolded by the very people who should be leading them. And the Convenientists, of course, find no happiness in their secular Christianity, nor do they find it in secular secularism. Even if they don’t know it, they yearn in the pit of their souls for the true message of Christ, but they rarely hear it. And when they do hear it, there are a million competing voices, many from inside the church, warning them that if they go down this road it might involve changing their behavior and their lifestyle, which is a total hassle, man.

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Read more about the article Maintain Unity And The Bond Of Peace

Maintain Unity And The Bond Of Peace

“I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.” Like D.L. Moody, neither have I. Instead, most of us probably have seen too often how disunity hinders the Spirit’s work in the church and damages the church’s witness to the world.

Unity in the body of Christ can’t be taken for granted or taken lightly. Unity is a gift from God made possible by the cross of Jesus and made effective by the working of the Holy Spirit. It’s not something we can create, but unity is our responsibility to guard. The greatest threats to church unity come not from outside the church, but from within. So we need to be on guard against attitudes and actions that destroy unity, like these…

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Read more about the article Welcoming Makes Well

Welcoming Makes Well

“Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me” (Luke 9:48).

“Welcome” is a biblical word rich with a rich meaning. It is more than a smile and a handshake. It is more than what happens during the “welcome and announcements.” If we reduce a welcome to a greeting, we clearly have misunderstood the meaning of welcome.

When Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes this little child,” He didn’t mean “whoever greets … whoever shakes his hand … whoever puts on a friendly face ….”

A welcoming church is the fertile soil in which all people can experience change and growth through the power of gospel of grace.

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Read more about the article How The Church Can Help Heal The Abuser And The Abused

How The Church Can Help Heal The Abuser And The Abused

In more than a decade of research, almost every article I’ve come across addressing sex offenders in church communities reveals pastors and leaders focusing exclusively on the sex offenders—the theological grounds for their presence, the church’s obligation to care for them, how to support them, how to monitor them, how to protect ministries from potential lawsuits due to their presence, and so on—at the expense of the victims/survivors and those who love them.

But offenders are not the only ones in need of a welcome in our churches. Too often when victims/survivors are considered, it is offender focused. Survivors are told they are required to forgive or reconcile with offenders. They are subject to shaming, silencing, and the policing of their emotions and tones by those who feel entitled to advise or rebuke them. Such pressure toward reconciliation is often shortsighted and lacking in compassion.

It is time to move toward balance by shifting focus to the victims/survivors. The reality of sexual abuse dynamics means that if we want safe communities for victims/survivors and healthy communities for recovering sex offenders then we must find true empathy for victims/survivors and how sexual abuse has affected them.

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Read more about the article How To Raise Godly Kids Without Going To Church

How To Raise Godly Kids Without Going To Church

According to Scripture, it is the parent’s responsibility to raise up their children and teach them about God, but our modern way of doing church relinquishes these things to 45 minutes on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, in a building with a (generally) controlled environment, and to a person we don’t really know.

Isn’t that crazy?

How did we go from “Train up a child in the way he should go” (Prov 22:6) and “Teach these things to your children … ” (Deut 6:7; 11:19) to asking, “So what did you learn in Sunday school today?” on the drive home from church?

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Read more about the article Is Ministry For The Professionals Or The Body?

Is Ministry For The Professionals Or The Body?

Pastors are under a lot of pressure.

In most churches today, we employ one person (or a small team) to do the job of many. The Bible tells us that God “ordained some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, some to be teachers.” And yet, we position pastors to be all of these things at once.

The church already has everything it needs. We cannot outsource the work of the combined church to one individual, no matter how talented they may be.

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Read more about the article How The Church Shot Itself In The Foot Amid The Culture Wars

How The Church Shot Itself In The Foot Amid The Culture Wars

When Rome commandeered Christianity, it affixed to the faith something it was never meant to be marked by: Power.

That power, and the privilege, and ease, and comfort, and influence that came with it, at once became synonymous with the Christian faith. A movement that began as the very antidote to status, position, might, and social inequality; suddenly became the establishment, it became the norm, it became the very culture that Jesus pushed so hard against.

Modern Evangelical Christianity, especially in America, is up against a true identity crisis.

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Read more about the article False Doctrine Doesn’t Make You A Heretic, Divisiveness Does

False Doctrine Doesn’t Make You A Heretic, Divisiveness Does

So, in the New Testament sense of the word, “heresy” was the creation of a division, a sect, a faction, or a party. For this reason, the author of Acts uses the word to describe the different sects within Judaism (Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 14; 26:5; 28:22).

“Heresy” involved the dividing of a local assembly, not the rightness or wrongness of what the dividing party believed.

It’s true, of course, that a heresy could be created by someone pushing a false teaching on a local assembly, causing it to divide. Peter alludes to this when he warns that false teachers will secretly come into the church and introduce damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1).

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Read more about the article Worshiptainment: The Bane Of The Church

Worshiptainment: The Bane Of The Church

The great heresy of the church today is that we think we’re in the entertainment business. A.W. Tozer believed this to be true back in the 1950s and 60s. Church members “want to be entertained while they are edified.” He said that in 1962. Tozer grieved, even then, that it was “scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction was God.”

 

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Read more about the article Church’s Confusion About Its Identity Leads To Confusion About How To Belong

Church’s Confusion About Its Identity Leads To Confusion About How To Belong

Sometimes the world can feel overwhelming, especially among the younger people of my generation. There’s a really deep need to find our place in it. But it’s often the case that the institutions that used to broker connections—institutions like the church—are losing their influence.

We’ve forgotten how to belong—to institutions, to one another—and we need to recover some basic practices that remind us of our interdependence. The church could be a really rich place for that, but it can be confused about its identity, which makes young people like myself more confused about where to seek belonging.

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Read more about the article Men Are Sick Of Feminized Faith

Men Are Sick Of Feminized Faith

The dominant narrative at the moment is that, while church attendance is down across the board, men in particular are staying home on Sunday mornings. And while there has been much hand-wringing over this reality, there has, to my knowledge, been very little serious introspection over it.

Too often, when we talk about “attracting men” to church, what we mean is tricking men to walk in the door by baptizing whatever infantilized conceptions of masculinity the broader culture has invented.

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Read more about the article Kingdom Work Is Not Identical With Western Development

Kingdom Work Is Not Identical With Western Development

In the video above, Brian Fikkert points out how Western notions of success are flawed and lead to a failure to promote human flourishing. In complement to the video, Joshua Butler explains in the article below that we in the West often get confused about what constitutes kingdom work because of our devotion to Western ideals…

I’ve noticed an increasing tendency for Western Christians to identify “kingdom work” with Western development. I’d simply like to make a few practical observations on ways the church might actually be strategically positioned in communities for holistic transformation (ways we might easily miss if too fixated on our Western idols).

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Read more about the article C.S. Lewis Did Not Like Church

C.S. Lewis Did Not Like Church

The idea of churchmanship was to be wholly unattractive. I was not in the least anticlerical, but I was deeply antiecclesiastical.

It was, to begin with, a kind of collective; a wearisome “get-together” affair. I couldn’t yet see how a concern of that sort should have anything to do with one’s spiritual life. To me, religion ought to have been a matter of good men praying alone and meeting by twos and threes to talk of spiritual matters.

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Read more about the article What Would Happen If We Let Jesus Lead The Church?

What Would Happen If We Let Jesus Lead The Church?

Pastor Challenge 2015 — Step aside and let the living Jesus lead at least 1 Sunday morning church meeting all by Himself.

Here’s how:  Begin by reading 1 Corinthians 14:26 to the congregation from a microphone on the floor in front of the platform.  (“What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”)

Then go sit down in the congregation and watch what God does with ordinary people during the next hour or so.

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Read more about the article Why Believers Be Leaving

Why Believers Be Leaving

There are many Christians who have stopped going to church. They have not given up on God, have not renounced their faith, have not denied Christ, and have not become pagans. They simply are no longer going to church. That this is happening is not a matter of doubt, but why this is happening is in fact a difficult question to answer.

They can’t get enough of genuine Christianity and heartfelt worship. But they have gotten enough of churchianity. They are fed up with a church that increasingly resembles the world more than it does the New Testament.

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Read more about the article How To Criticize Church

How To Criticize Church

There comes a point in the journey of every Christian where cynicism starts to look inviting. Even mature.

But there’s a difference between looking for ways to make the Church better and looking for things to complain about. Mature, humble criticism is selfless and redemptive; immature criticism is usually self-focused and doesn’t generally lead to change.

Humble criticism means noticing a problem and articulating solutions instead of looking for problems and wallowing in anger. It means being temporarily disappointed without being permanently disillusioned.

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Read more about the article The Real And Raw Reasons Why People Are Leaving Church

The Real And Raw Reasons Why People Are Leaving Church

Hey Church, you may think you know why people are leaving you, but I’m not sure you do.

You think it’s because “the culture” is so lost, so perverse, so beyond help that they are all walking away. You believe that they’ve turned a deaf ear to the voice of God; chasing money, and sex, and material things. You think that the gays and the Muslims and the Atheists and the pop stars have so screwed up the morality of the world that everyone is abandoning faith in droves.

But those aren’t the reasons people are leaving you.

They aren’t the problem, Church.

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Read more about the article Being The Right Church Is Better Than Griping About The Wrong Church

Being The Right Church Is Better Than Griping About The Wrong Church

A very popular phrase I hear is that we are the church. So I would encourage you, if you are dissatisfied with an aspect of your church (not including faulty doctrine, of course) rather than trying to find the right church, ask God to help you forgive your brethren and begin loving on them. Ask Him to help you be the right church.

 

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Read more about the article 4 Bad Reasons For Joining A Church

4 Bad Reasons For Joining A Church

Like many in my generation, I’ve done some moving around and with each new move I’ve had to begin the difficult process of searching for a new church home. If you’re like most, a day is coming when you too will be on the search for a new church to call home. When that day comes, you may want to think twice before using these all-too-common reasons for making your choice…

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Read more about the article Finding Community In A Consumer Culture

Finding Community In A Consumer Culture

Community is core to the Christian faith. From the very beginning, fellowship and life together have characterized Christ’s disciples. But the centrality of Christian community to the church doesn’t mean that it’s easy—nor does it mean it always looks the same.

Today, as growing numbers of Christians struggle with the weekly gathering of a local church, the number of people attending church, and the frequency with which they’re attending, are declining. So what can leaders—inside and outside formal church contexts—do to foster true community amidst new realities?

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Read more about the article Frank Viola’s 10 Reasons To Leave Church

Frank Viola’s 10 Reasons To Leave Church

In honor of Throwback Thursday, we are recalling a previous post that features thoughts from Frank Viola about why people are exiting institutional church structures to find The Church.

A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.

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Read more about the article 8 Characteristics Of The New Spiritual Landscape

8 Characteristics Of The New Spiritual Landscape

During the 20th century, there have been two spiritual currents that have occurred outside the organized church in the West. The first current occurred in the late 60s and early 70s. That movement came to a peak in 1972 and by 1979, it had all but died.

The second current began in the late 80s and early 90s. Right now, the landscape is changing rapidly. God is raising up new voices and new expressions of church which look very different from the traditional expressions we all know.

Here are the eight characteristics of this new spiritual current…

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Read more about the article 5 Lessons The Tax Collector And The Pharisee Teach About Grace

5 Lessons The Tax Collector And The Pharisee Teach About Grace

Grace happened on God’s terms. Grace did not happen because of  spectacular accomplishments and achievements the Pharisee paraded before God. Grace did not happen because of  the Pharisee’s virtues. And grace did not happen because  prayer, a religious ceremony in a special
religious place, was taking place. Grace happened in spite of religious stuff.
Grace happened because the tax collector recognized his need. Grace happened because the tax collector knew that there was no way he had earned any spiritual commendations. He knew who he was, and threw himself on God’s mercy.

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Read more about the article Christians Are Addicted To Their Services

Christians Are Addicted To Their Services

I think we all know what I mean by a church service. There was a lot of time devoted to singing and then the obligatory public speaking (preaching), etc. etc. All of this undoubtedly organized by a clearly planned schedule. Most Western Christians have been to many “services,” some of us thousands of times. While there may be slight denominational variations, they are pretty much all the same, and they are all variations on a theme based on the prototype of the Latin Mass.

Jesus healed. Jesus delivered people from demonic oppression. The apostles healed and delivered people from demonic oppression. And, the early Christians did exactly the same thing. But there was something missing when they did it…the service.

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Read more about the article Sometimes Religious Structures Need To Die In Order For Discipleship To Thrive

Sometimes Religious Structures Need To Die In Order For Discipleship To Thrive

What if church, the gathering of God’s people in a particular local, was supposed to be a temporary thing, a seasonal ecosystem that cycled through life and death, or a snapshot of ecclesiastical, historical, and geographical history. I know, ‘church’ is not a place, it’s a people. We all say that, but still act as if it is a place.

 

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Read more about the article Believers In China Love Jews And Arabs

Believers In China Love Jews And Arabs

There was an early revival in China in the 1920s. Those early Christians had a vision to bring the gospel “back” from the ends of the earth (China) to Israel. They dedicated themselves to the “back to Jerusalem” movement. They felt they had received eternal life from the Jews and wanted to return to them the same grace.

The Chinese church loves Jesus, loves Israel and loves the Arabs. Today we are here, hugging you. Just as the sun rises in the East, so will this revival return to Jerusalem.

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Read more about the article Car Culture Is Really Affinity Culture And It Affects Church More Than You Think

Car Culture Is Really Affinity Culture And It Affects Church More Than You Think

The fact is undeniable: for megachurches, cars are essential. It’s probably more accurate to say that cars created the megachurch. Without them, these churches simply couldn’t exist in the form they do today.

The abundance of choices and the absence of limitations is the blessing and the curse of the car. And church shopping may not be a problem of character. Not only has car culture nurtured an emphasis on affinity, but it has also altered ecclesiology (our beliefs about the church). Cars have put church “consumers” in the driver’s seat like never before, and church leaders are forced to buckle up for the ride.

Note: Clicking the “Read More” button below will take you to the first of five pages of this article. Use the links at the bottom of the first page to navigate to subsequent pages.

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Read more about the article Moving From Churchy World To Authentic Community

Moving From Churchy World To Authentic Community

I resigned as a staff pastor and went on a rather long journey. I was searching for the type of genuine spiritual community found in the Bible: one without unnecessary church buildings, institutional hierarchy or imaginary titles. After all, the church Paul describes as the Body of Christ has many unique members but there is clearly a single authority, a single Head to this Body, which is Christ.

Thankfully I now have firsthand experience living in community with other believers who get to fully function in their callings during church gatherings.

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Read more about the article Let The Parish Thrive And The Consumer Church Perish

Let The Parish Thrive And The Consumer Church Perish

In honor of Throwback Thursday, we are remembering a post from June in which a vision for local gatherings of believers takes the place of larger consumer-oriented gatherings that we are used to.

A movement is growing that will radically shift this generation’s understanding of that perennially elusive word: church. Oddly enough, if you go looking for this movement on a Sunday morning you’ll probably come up empty. Thousands of Christians are reclaiming the ancient idea of the “parish” and weaving together a shared life in the place they call home.

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Read more about the article Can Organic Church And Institutional Church Play On The Same Team?

Can Organic Church And Institutional Church Play On The Same Team?

For several years now I have been involved in the “organic church” movement. For the majority of my Christian life prior to the above mentioned, I had been associated in some way with what is usually called the institutional church.

The question raised in this post is: “Can an organic church philosophy of growth exist within an institutional church?” I think it can, but only if the institution is willing to practice “release” instead of “control.”

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Read more about the article The Church Has A Central Role In Israel’s Spiritual Rebirth

The Church Has A Central Role In Israel’s Spiritual Rebirth

This video offers the perspective of a Jewish believer in Jesus on the topic of God’s plan for Israel and the Church.

Simply put, according to Scripture, the church is the chosen vessel of God to breathe spiritual life back into Israel. Romans chapter 11 reminds us about the mercy that we have received from God through our own salvation, that now we would release that mercy back to Israel. The Jewish people have been supernaturally blinded by God Himself until the appointed time of their redemption (Isaiah 6:9-10).

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Read more about the article How Many Churches Are There And Should There Be That Many?

How Many Churches Are There And Should There Be That Many?

Lets go through Ephesians 4:1-17 verse by verse to look at a Bible definition of the body of Christ. We need to deconstruct what we believe about the church for a minute and see what the Bible says about the body and our faith and it’s action. To make sure what we believe is how it actually is. Remember our beliefs must be from the Bible and the belief made from the Bible in this context of defining the church (since this is its product). As we go through this chapter you will see what the church really is. This is very important because it describes the church as it should be.

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Read more about the article 5 Things That Bring Unity To The Church

5 Things That Bring Unity To The Church

I’ve come to believe that instead of being a bunch of churches separated by music style or building, God sees one bride and one city church.

In my experience, we are a divided, fighting, graceless, defensive mess. If your facebook news feed is anything like mine you cannot ignore the Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church controversy that has everyone choosing sides. I do not believe that we should forsake truth or stop defending the oppressed for the sake of unity, but it is my belief that there is a deep problem that exists in our city that is larger than a single worship center or preacher. And unless we seek radical change, the disunity will continue for the Church of Seattle.

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Read more about the article What To Do When Church Gets In The Way Of The Great Commission

What To Do When Church Gets In The Way Of The Great Commission

I believe one of the greatest barriers to effectively fulfilling the great commission could very well be the Church itself. As someone once said, “The quickest way to ‘church the un-churched’ may very well be to ‘un-church the Church’.”

After spending years as a missionary, and more time in a stateside school of ministry that was born out of one of the recent great American revivals, I can tell you this: The Church needs to be reincarnated and redefined.

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Read more about the article A Church Without Volunteers Would Be A Powerful Thing

A Church Without Volunteers Would Be A Powerful Thing

Every church knows the value of volunteers.

Volunteers are skilled supportive servants who help improve the structure of the Church.

Yet churches that increase in favour and change the future of the city are thinking differently about volunteers. The Church of the future will move from recruiting volunteers to releasing trusted rulers.

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Read more about the article The Collapse Of Evangelicalism And Where It’s Headed Next

The Collapse Of Evangelicalism And Where It’s Headed Next

As I pointed out in numerous times on this blog, the center of evangelicalism is collapsing. In this post, we will briefly survey the four major streams within evangelicalism with an eye to Christians in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.

The common link that ties all four streams together is this: Each group believes that classic evangelical Christianity is inadequate. It has failed to give robust answers to their most serious theological questions and depth to their deepest spiritual longings.

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Read more about the article Instead Of Church Split, Try A Church Merger

Instead Of Church Split, Try A Church Merger

We hereby announce that our church [insert brand name here] has officially decided to merge with the Church that Jesus started almost 2000 years ago. Sorry for the confusion we caused by our decision to start a new church.

It’s time that our structures our statements and our actions reflect our faith in the Bible’s clear declaration that “there is one body.” (Ephesians 4:3)

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Read more about the article What To Do About The Problems Of Celebrity, Consumerism, And Competition In The American Church

What To Do About The Problems Of Celebrity, Consumerism, And Competition In The American Church

Mike Breen: If we think through Celebrity, Consumerism and Competition, the anti-body against all of these is sacrifice. Learning to lay down what builds us up and giving to others instead. Learning to serve, rather than to be served. Looking for anonymity rather than celebrity. To build a culture of producers rather than a consumers. To live in a vibrant, sacrificial community fighting a real enemy rather than competing against the same community God has given us to fight WITH rather than AGAINST.

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Read more about the article If The Church Loves For Money, Then Doesn’t That Make It A Whore?

If The Church Loves For Money, Then Doesn’t That Make It A Whore?

Today’s Throwback Thursday recalls a post from a couple of months ago in which the author considers the implications to the Church’s identity when it operates for profit.

“When a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?” There is only one answer to her question. The answer is “Yes.” The American Church, tragically, is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we love Him? We don’t even know Him; and I mean really know Him.

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Read more about the article How “Slow Church” Corrects The Imbalance Of Mega-Church

How “Slow Church” Corrects The Imbalance Of Mega-Church

Going to church these days can be a bit like eating at a fast food joint. It might be quick and tasty, but it won’t satisfy your soul.

C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison, are part of a loose network of writers, friends, theologians and pastors worried about what they call the “McDonaldization” of church. They say too many small churches try to mass-produce spiritual growth by copying the latest megachurch techniques.

Scott Thumma, a sociologist of religion at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn., says the slow church movement makes for good theology.

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Read more about the article N.T. Wright Says Disunity Is The Major Problem With Western Christianity

N.T. Wright Says Disunity Is The Major Problem With Western Christianity

In this 3 minute video, N.T Wright gives his perspective that the main problem the Western Church faces is a lack of unity.

What do you think? Is he right, wrong, or something else? Is there another matter you would contend is more significant? Let us know in the comments below… (more…)

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Read more about the article If The Church Has Jewish Roots, Then Might It Also Share A Destiny With Israel?

If The Church Has Jewish Roots, Then Might It Also Share A Destiny With Israel?

the church and Israel are part of one another’s identity. Israel is the nation that has given birth to the church and will forever be connected to it. The church was born from Israel and is tied to Israel through Yeshua and the Messianic remnant and will forever have its identity in that connection.

 

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Read more about the article Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prophetic Witness Against A Faithless Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prophetic Witness Against A Faithless Church

I worry that people will think that large gestures of protest are the way to change the world, rather than entering on the difficult daily path of ordinary resistance.

You see, Bonhoeffer had to be Bonhoeffer because the national church in Germany failed to be the church at all.

This is the forgotten lesson of Bonhoeffer: The Church in Germany had failed!

Note: See also the video about Bonhoeffer in the previous post.

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Read more about the article How To Love The Church Even After You Feel Like You’ve Been Lied To

How To Love The Church Even After You Feel Like You’ve Been Lied To

Truth and lies, hope and despair, real and fake – all tied up in a neat package with a bow and sold to us with the label of “Christianity”. The men in the suits with all the words told us that what they taught was true. We believed them because we were children, and because their voices were the only voices we’d ever heard.

Then we grew up.

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Read more about the article Community Church That Is Truly In The Community | Tim Soerens

Community Church That Is Truly In The Community | Tim Soerens

Today’s Throwback Thursday article recalls our previous post of an excellent conversation with Tim Soerens, the co-founding director of the Parish Collective. See what Tim has to say about disciples of Jesus committing to loving a place and how their presence in that place can be transformative.

Warning: This article might challenge your paradigm about church and community.

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Read more about the article What Evangelicals Can Learn From Catholics

What Evangelicals Can Learn From Catholics

The idea of Evangelicals learning from Catholics is not really a novel one. Many Evangelical missionaries study the history of Catholic missions to improve the effectiveness of their own missionary activity. Some Evangelicals, obeying St. Paul’s dictum to “test everything; hold on to what is good,” even study the writings of John Paul II on the theology of the body.

Although there are many treasures within the Catholic Church, the two that Evangelicals might find most beneficial are liturgical worship and an emphasis on unity.

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Read more about the article 10 Reasons To Exit Churchianity | Frank Viola

10 Reasons To Exit Churchianity | Frank Viola

Virtually every time I catch wind of the phrase — “leaving church” — almost always, the person using the phrase never explains what he/she means by “church.”

A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.
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Read more about the article Let Consumer Church Perish And Let The Parish Thrive

Let Consumer Church Perish And Let The Parish Thrive

A movement is growing that will radically shift this generation’s understanding of that perennially elusive word: church. Oddly enough, if you go looking for this movement on a Sunday morning you’ll probably come up empty. Thousands of Christians are reclaiming the ancient idea of the “parish” and weaving together a shared life in the place they call home.

 

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Read more about the article It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault That Disciples Are Not Being Made

It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault That Disciples Are Not Being Made

The refrain of the garden echoes through the halls of our churches. It’s always someone else’s fault. We have become masters at diverting responsibility and placing blame. Everyone is to blame except the one who is actually responsible and who will ultimately be held accountable.

The responsibility for making disciples does not rest with a denomination, a state convention, a seminary, a parachurch organization or a pastor and deacon board. The responsibility is given to all of God’s people in and through His church.

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Read more about the article I’ll Accept Your Fellowship, But You Can Keep The Guilt Trip

I’ll Accept Your Fellowship, But You Can Keep The Guilt Trip

I once believed that warming a seat in a religious meeting was directly related to one’s relationship with God.

I don’t religiously attend any religious service. I am an irreligious Christian. I occasionally attend a church service in a building with members of my family. When I am invited, I speak inside buildings solely dedicated to a physically organized church. But my allegiance is only to Jesus. All buildings, earthly ministries (including the one in which I am involved), congregations and denominations lag far behind my devotion to Jesus.

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Read more about the article A Case Study In Making Disciples Of All Nations

A Case Study In Making Disciples Of All Nations

People tend not to know us as individuals, but as part of “that group” that meets in “that house” behind the soccer field. I am Just fine with that. In fact, I prefer to be counted as part of a group rather than being known as a leader or “The Missionary.”

When one of our group was recently asked, “Where do you attend Church?” He responded, “Well, I don’t go to church per se, but I do gather with some brothers and sisters every Tuesday night in that house behind the soccer field.”

The lines between our professions and our “ministries” are blurry, and that’s good thing.

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Read more about the article Church As Hostel Or Church As Hostile

Church As Hostel Or Church As Hostile

How can the church guard against a fortress mentality that closes the door to the surrounding community? It’s not so easy to be missional. It’s much easier to close ourselves off from the world, where the church ends up looking like Vincent Van Gogh’s painting of the Church at Auvers. Like his Father, Jesus will never despise a broken and contrite spirit, only those who have built fortresses around their souls to keep him in or out, as the case may be. The church can only guard against a fortress mentality if it breaks down the strongholds of pride and presumption and remains open to Jesus. Repentance is the missing key. Humility, not hubris, opens church doors and keeps them open.

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Read more about the article Did We Ever Graduate From Children’s Church?

Did We Ever Graduate From Children’s Church?

I think the well-intentioned efforts to meet the worship needs of children has contributed to an increasing trend toward a narcissistic faith. The children have their own worship service separate from the adults. The rise of youth-focused programs in the 1930s and 40s eventually contributed to a kind of Christianity lite, today. In many churches today, the point is more about having my needs met rather than cultivating a life of service to God and others for God’s sake.

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Read more about the article 6 Ways To Jumpstart Disciple Making Movements

6 Ways To Jumpstart Disciple Making Movements

This article offers 6 insightful points about the beliefs and practices that lead to explosive and exponential growth of the Church in areas all around the world. When the goal is to make disciples who can reproduce and make more disciples who make disciples who make disciples and so on, these points make a lot of sense. Implementing these points might disrupt other methods that are out there, but maybe that’s a good thing.

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Read more about the article Church As Lover Or Prostitute

Church As Lover Or Prostitute

“When a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?” There is only one answer to her question. The answer is “Yes.” The American Church, tragically, is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we love Him? We don’t even know Him; and I mean really know Him.

I was pondering Martha’s question again one day, and considered the question, “What’s the difference between a lover and a prostitute?” I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but only as long as you pay. Then I asked the question, “What would happen if God stopped paying me?”

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Read more about the article Discipleship: So Crazy It Just Might Work

Discipleship: So Crazy It Just Might Work

This 9 minute interview shows how discipleship is not a mission of the Church, but THE mission.

“I don’t know any pastor who has been more personally fruitful in discipleship ministry than Randy Pope,” Tim Keller observes. “Nor do I know of any church leader who has had a more sustained, lifelong commitment to making the ministry of discipleship a pervasive force throughout his whole church.”

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Read more about the article Why Small Groups Fail At Making Disciples

Why Small Groups Fail At Making Disciples

Small groups are things that trick us into believing we’re serious about making disciples. The problem is 90 percent of small groups never produce one single disciple. Ever. They help Christians make shallow friendships, for sure. They’re great at helping Christians feel a tenuous connection to their local church, and they do a bang-up job of teaching Christians how to act like other Christians in the Evangelical Christian subculture. But when it comes to creating the kind of holistic disciples Jesus envisioned, the jury’s decision came back a long time ago – small groups just aren’t working.

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Read more about the article Celebrity Church Apologizes To Donald Miller

Celebrity Church Apologizes To Donald Miller

I believe every Christian needs the Church, but we need a different church than the American-idol version Miller and others may need to leave. So I am sorry Donald Miller, this is a real and sincere apology for a disproportionate response that we wouldn’t give other people who had decided to leave church, and for giving you such a good reason to leave in the first place.

It’s not you, it’s us.

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Read more about the article Is The Church A Family Of Families – Part 1

Is The Church A Family Of Families – Part 1

Any church that does not look like the ‘norm’ is always trying to explain itself.   This is a fact we know all too well at Grace Family Baptist Church.  We explain ourselves to those who visit us, those who call us trying to determine if it is a good idea to visit, those who are interested in finding or starting a church like ours, and those who are sure that we are some kind of “Patriarchy” cult.  Sometimes we explain ourselves in painstaking detail.  At other times we use shorthand.  One example of that ‘shorthand’ is our ubiquitous and somewhat enigmatic statement, “The church is a family of families.”

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Read more about the article Is The Church A Family Of Families – Part 2

Is The Church A Family Of Families – Part 2

Perhaps it will be helpful to describe the origin of the term ‘family of families’ within the GFBC context.  As we were meeting to form the core group that would ultimately plant GFBC, we had a number of discussions about the distinctives of the new work.  During that discussion, the term ‘corporate church’ was used frequently to describe the neo-traditional model (corporate church is much easier to say and explain).  In an effort to explain the distinction, we asked the question, “Is the church a corporation, or is it more like a family of families?”  It was from this discussion that the term ‘family of families’ was born.

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Read more about the article Millennials And The False ‘Gospel of Nice’

Millennials And The False ‘Gospel of Nice’

If only orthodox evangelical leaders would give up their antiquated beliefs, get more in step with the real Jesus, the church and the world would be better off.

Embedded in this narrative are two presuppositions:

• Young evangelicals are fleeing the church at a rapid pace.
• The real message of Jesus looks nothing like orthodox Christianity.

There’s only one thing wrong with these two ideas: They aren’t true.

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