What does it mean to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth”? (Gen. 1:28)
Wolf Simson’s video is important because it will help you see how big God’s vision is for the multiplication of these vibrant families of Jesus in our day. And, it will build your confidence about the process of multiplication that God has in mind (think “starfish”!).
Can we afford to leave the work to the mega church?
Here’s a thought provoking blog post from Neil Cole… I have seen a report of research to determine what it would take financially to reach the US. The report is broken down by cities listing the financial costs to reach particular cities for Christ using the traditional attractional model of church. The results are alarming. […]
Seth Godin: The definition of a revolution
The name of this blog is “Stories From the Revolution”. It’s taken from George Barna’s book, Revolution.Concerning this revolution, Barna writes, “(It is) an unprecedented reengineering of America’s faith dimension that is likely to be the most significant transition in the religious landscape that you will ever experience.”Seth Godin gives us further insight into the nature […]
Increasing number of Americans are saying “No!” to traditional church
Check out this remarkable article from The Huffington Post: Something startling is happening in American religion: We are witnessing the end of church or, at the very least, the end of conventional church. The United States is fast-becoming a society where Christianity is being reorganized after religion. In recent decades, untold numbers of people have […]
Youth Ministry: A 50-year-old failed experiment (2)
Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future, weighs in on this issue of youth ministry… We typically hire children’s and student ministers to run programs for children and young people. In fact, this approach by the church may do more to decimate the home as a spiritual center than anything coming into the home on […]
Youth Ministry: A 50-year-old failed experiment (1)
A recent book on youth ministry by Scott Brown is causing quite a stir. Here’s the title…A Weed in the Church: How a culture of age segregation is harming the next generation, fragmenting the family and dividing the church.What’s the weed? Age-segregation.“There is a crisis among the Christian youth. They drop out of church. They […]
“The end of church planting?”
I recently received an email from a friend with the above title. It was referencing a blog that suggested that we may be coming to “the end of church planting” by means of the “professional entrepreneurial pastor” (Rick Warren would be the prototype for this kind of church planting). Here’s my response… Thanks for the […]
Eugene Peterson: “Crowds more dangerous than sex or drugs”
Pastors of traditional churches are trained to do everything possible to increase the number of people in their Sunday morning congregation. Great preaching. Inspiring music. Excellent childcare. Adequate parking. The list goes on and on. Success or failure is measured, to a significant degree, on the pastor’s ability to draw (and keep) a crowd. […]
Mega church pastor: “We are completely off base with what discipleship means”
Shaun King stepped down on September 1st. Shaun resigned from the church in Atlanta that he started three years ago. Called “Courageous Church”, it was, in Shaun’s words, a “super cool Sunday worship-service-centered church with 700 people”. A mixed race congregation, it was seen as one of the cutting edge churches in the city. […]
The revolutionary house church phenomenon
Dr. Ralph Winter was one of my profs at Fuller Seminary over 30 years ago. He was the founder of the the U.S. Center for World Missions in Pasadena and the editor of of “Mission Frontiers”. In the March-April 2005 edition of that magazine he wrote the Editorial below. Seems to me he had some […]