Book of the Week: Stop Dating the Church!

This week’s book of the week is Stop Dating the Church!: Fall In Love with the Family of God. This small book by Joshua Harris is full of sweet goodness.  While Harris is a great writer, this book is a critical read for many people.  Many people (especially college students) have a tendency to church hop or church shop or …

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I Led Worship for a Bunch of Women (well, sort of…)

I was honored a few months ago when some of the ladies from the South Main Street Baptist Church’s Women’s Ministry asked if they could use one of my songs for the theme song of their upcoming retreat.  That retreat was this weekend up at the Cove led by my good buddy, Ruth McWhite.  Even though I wasn’t there and …

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2009 Bible Reading Plan

If you are looking for a good New Year’s resolution, why not reading through the Bible?  Many people always feel guilty about not reading the Bible.  Most of the time it is because they do not have a plan for doing it. I have tried different things, but this year, Amanda and I are going to do the Robert Roberts’ …

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Bad Church Sign of the Week: The Church Unchanged

This week’s church sign of the week speaks volumes culturally.  At the bottom of this sign, it reads: “The church, unchanged for over 200 years, is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.” While I imagine that this church is serving more as a museum than an actual meeting place from a church (or it may serve as both), …

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Bad Church Sign of the Week: Skip Church This Christmas

This Christmas season, please do not welcome your community in the following manner like this week’s church sign: “Think You Might Be Going to Hell?   Skip Church on Christmas and Make Sure! Service 12/24 7:30 PM”  Any church wants to see high attendance on Christmas, but maybe this method isn’t the best approach.  Christmas is all about Jesus coming …

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Book of the Week: Breakout Churches

This week’s book of the week is Thom Rainer’s Breakout Churches.  Rainer, the president of Lifeway, used to be the dean for the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth.  In this book, he studied churches who were making the leap to doing great things.  It is a great read with some great findings. Top 5 Ideas: Rainer’s …

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Book of the Week: Evaluating the Church Growth Movement

This week’s book of the week is entitled Evaluating the Church Growth Movement.  Edited by Gary McIntosh and Paul Engle, they gather five differing views on the Church Growth Movement.  Many churchgoers are probably unaware that great controversy exists on whether or not churches should try new things or incorporate new methods in order to see a greater harvest.  This …

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Book of the Week: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church

This week’s book of the week is D. A. Carson’s Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church. The emerging church is a relatively new movement in church world.  What’s hard about this movement is that there is a wide spectrum of people who are categorized as emergent.  I know of “emergent” church leaders who keep the gospel at the center and …

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The Unified Church

For those of you who “came to church” today, I hope that God changed your mind. Hopefully, after today, we will stop coming to church and we will start being the church. As we have continued in this Experiencing God series, I thought today was so helpful to remember that we are the “called out ones.” I loved Jeff’s illustration …

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Passion Church?! Giglio and Tomlin Church Plant?!

If you haven’t heard the buzz around the church world, a secret sort of leaked out last week. The rumor mill has been buzzing that Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin are planting a church in Atlanta, GA. Is it true? Yep. Actually, some of it is incomplete. Matt and Beth Redman and the Nockels (Watermark) supposedly will also be helping. …

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