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Jesus the Son told His disciples, “The poor you will have with you always.” God the Father told Israel, “There will be no poor among...

Servanthood is central to the work of the church simply because it was central to the work of Jesus. Jesus’ ministry included two types...

Yeah, I’m sorry about that title. And I'm really sorry about that picture. But it did make you look. In our last post, I talked about...

Let me lay my cards on the table by stating a central belief I have about the local church: it must be outward-focused if it is to...

When I was pastoring, getting sick was disastrous…especially when it happened at the last minute and you’re speaking the next day in four...

Years ago when I was pastoring, we had a group of people who would go to a particular place where the homeless in Cincinnati would meet...

So here’s an idea as we move into the Thanksgiving holiday… Paul’s short letter to the Philippian church underscored his belief that...

Yeah, I know, I know. It’s a tacky mashup of Pixar and Peanuts. But the point is: do we really need “church consultants”? I have to admit...

Don’t get me wrong: apologetics are important. From the launch of the Church in Acts 2, Christians have proclaimed the uniqueness of...

Recently I learned of Ron Sider’s death at 82 from sudden cardiac arrest. Fifteen years ago I had him speak at our church and took him...

In our last post, we talked about some best practices for recruiting volunteers. With many churches operating with less people...

In our post-pandemic world of lower in-person church attendance (averaging about half of what it was pre-Covid), many are left with...

Play along with me for a minute and let’s use our imagination. If a twenty-something artist named Michelangelo could create something as...

Over the years that we’ve worked with churches, it’s been our observation that of the four critical elements of healthy, effective...

I recently came across a fascinating geographical factoid. The writer at The Acadian Ideal overlayed the Mediterranean Sea map on top of...

I’m writing this on MLK Day. The non-violent protests for voting rights in the 1960’s, particularly in Alabama, had raised the ire of...

Sometime back I got an email from a church describing their discipleship pathway. They were particularly focused on “skeptics”. The way...

In the early days of our church, founding pastor Steve Sjogren coined a simple phrase for people to use in basic “servant evangelism”...

Here in the States we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. Forget the pilgrims and corn—let’s just talk about the concept of...

The church has always struggled with the tension between evangelism and holiness. I have friends who say when it comes to evangelism,...