Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
“When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.” Acts 22:2 Do you want to get people to listen to your message? Learn to speak their heart language. Communicate in a way they can fully understand. Then, they’ll pay attention to you; at least for a […]
Read More...Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about young pastors in their twenties—these leaders are in what demographers call the “Millennial generation“. This is the “baby-on-board” generation that has been frantically hauled around to various activities all their short lives. They are used to being busy, and they are used to […]
Read More...As a teenager I played in a few bands and wanted to “grow up” to be a rock star. I heard interesting stories about out of control behavior by the big boys. These performers would make ridiculous demands and then throw an expensive, destructive, expletive-laden fit if they didn’t get […]
Read More...Don’t be cynical and say your vote doesn’t matter. Even if it’s true, and the place where you live is overrun with people who think and vote differently than you do, study and speak up by participation. Become aware of the issues facing your city, your county, your state and […]
Read More...I’ve long-believed the health care system in the United States was broken. When there was some talk and hope of honest bipartisan work to be done on this issue, I actually got a little excited. I’m a pastor who serves people from every rung of the socio-economic ladder; you can’t […]
Read More...I’m sitting here with rapt attention watching the Chilean miners finally get rescued. This is an excruciatingly slow process. One by one, the capsule is lowered and then a single man is brought up who has been trapped for nearly 70 days. When the first guy was brought up, there […]
Read More...I was reading Luke 11 today and remembered that a big part of Jesus’ ministry was dealing with demonic issues in people’s lives. I’m not talking about some pre-modern misunderstanding of mental illness, but real demonic bondage. The reason I can’t shrug it off is that Jesus actually talked about […]
Read More...As I work with college students, one of the recurring issues I tend to deal with is initiative. As much as I may love an individual, I’ve discovered I can’t do much to develop a young adult who has little or no initiative. I’m just not built to be a […]
Read More...So, for the last few years I’ve been following the TV show LOST. I’m not a pastor who uses his favorite shows as the foundations for sermons—I think the Bible is the best place to start there—but I don’t mind posting a few thoughts about it in a personal blog. […]
Read More...Most churches I know have a great volunteer challenge. It takes a high percentage of volunteer workers in order for everyone to be served well within a given structure. But, season-by-season, those workers are hard to come by, and sometimes even harder to keep. Most mature believers will step up […]
Read More...I was just asked an important question from a bright young pastor: “Why is Easter a week when we would expect that un-churched people would want to come to church?” It is, in fact, a very good question with an answer that is not as easy as you might think. […]
Read More...Seeing the commercials for the ‘return of Jay Leno’ over the last couple of weeks has made me think… Five years ago, NBC announced that half a decade later Conan would sit in Jay’s chair hosting the legacy Tonight Show. At the time I was impressed. Here was a network […]
Read More...My friend Charles Lee is starting a sermon series on the Book of Acts at the church he pastors. As a part of his presentation, he included the following video that briefly explains the Missional Church. I saw it tonight and I like it. Though I’m not certain whether it can […]
Read More...Groups of people (companies, organizations, churches, etc,) develop traditions that are based on strong values, but the tradition may continue long after the underlying value is forgotten. This can become a problem; when traditions start to conflict with values, then we have trouble my friend (“with a capital “T”). Eleven […]
Read More...Continued from part 2… If God is a creative God and humans were created to reflect that image, then all-God/all-man Jesus paints a picture of what a fully creative human being might look like. In the first chapters of Mark, we discover a few things about creative, out of the […]
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