Links To Go (January 8, 2019)

5 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2019

  1. Charismatic Expressions of Church Will Grow While Attractional Churches Will Continue To Stall Out
  2. Online Church Will Evolve To Become A Front Door and Side Door, Not A Back Door
  3. Churches and Organizations Will Begin Staffing Online like It was a Real Thing
  4. Consumer-Centered Approaches To Church Will Continue to Lose Momentum
  5. You Will No Longer Be Able to Get Away With a Bad Workplace Culture

52 Ideas for Inviting Someone to Church This Year

A study by LifeWay Research found about two-thirds of churchgoers made it a point to invite someone to church in the last six months, but nearly a third said they hadn’t extended an invitation to anyone.
As God puts people in your life pathway, will you intentionally invite them?
You can do this! Here are 52 ideas to help you get started. Some are for individuals; others can be adapted for your small group or the entire church.


Six Reasons Why Some Church Members Resist Growth

  1. Relational patterns are disrupted.
  2. Many are too comfortable with the status quo.
  3. Some have a me-centric view of congregational life.
  4. Church members may want the pastor on call to take care of them.
  5. Others are simply uncomfortable with any emphasis on numerical growth.
  6. New people are different.

It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It

It is such discoveries that are turning our ideas of genetic causation inside out. We have traditionally thought of cell contents as servants to the DNA instructions. But, as the British biologist Denis Noble insists in an interview with the writer Suzan Mazur, “The modern synthesis has got causality in biology wrong … DNA on its own does absolutely nothing until activated by the rest of the system … DNA is not a cause in an active sense. I think it is better described as a passive data base which is used by the organism to enable it to make the proteins that it requires.”


Why Twitter Is Even More Toxic Than You Think

But behind those angry, hyperbolic tweets (well, the blue-check-marked ones, anyway) are people, and those people are disproportionately the most engaged and most influential men and women in American public life. It’s “just” the American political class putting its rage and intemperance on display, hoping to remake the world in its own irate image. And the surprising success of that attempted makeover should scare you, whatever your own political views are.


So What is a Parent to Do?

Being a parent can be hard — very hard. Yet, you and I can do this by the grace of God, learning relentlessly, praying fervently, and surrounding ourselves with a few wise people to whom we will really listen.


From Seminary President to NFL Head Coach

This fall, former Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) Charlotte campus president Frank Reich began his first season as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.


People are falling off buildings in search of the perfect Instagram shot

In the meantime, risk taking for social media fame is getting more extreme, and the number of fatalities seem to be on the rise. As the public slowly begins to understand the potential harm of social media–the addiction, the loss of time, the risk of depression–our best hope is that it also takes notice of the physical danger it can engender.


This couple quit their jobs to open a floating pizzeria in the Caribbean

The couple bought a 37-foot, termite-infested boat that had been abandoned for nearly a decade. It took two years to transform it into a fully-equipped commercial kitchen.


Irish woman who married ghost of 300-year-old pirate says they have split up

Amanda Teague, 46, from Drogheda, Co. Louth, married the Haitian pirate named Jack earlier this year.
The wedding to her ‘soulmate’ took place on board a boat in international waters off the Irish coast.
However the Irish Mirror reports the couple have called it a day after less than a year.


Drunk man goes into wrong house, sleeps on dog bed with 150-lb. Mastiff

Authorities said the man was “heavily intoxicated” after celebrating New Year’s Eve, “accidentally entered the wrong residence” and fell asleep with her Mastiff named Benton on the doggie bed.


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