What We Don’t Know or Do Know

When I first met Frank I didn’t know anything about him other than he was poor and homeless. I didn’t know his story. I didn’t know how he got into this mess. Did he drink himself homeless? Did he waste his money? Was he just lazy or refuses to work? Did something traumatic happen to him that caused him to spiral out of control?
But it didn’t matter. We were Jesus’ folk and we had to help him. So we did.

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I Hate It When I’m Right

They are purposefully taking the Church of England to court to force them to affirm their lifestyle. Not accept them as people, or grant them the freedom to marry, but to force the church to affirm their homoerotic relationship and bless it.
The new law, which received the Queen’s approval last month, stipulates that no religious denomination will be forced to carry out such services.
But, as the Religion News Service reports, that’s not good enough for the couple.

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Pastoral Traps: Tribal Arrogance

It is arrogant to believe our tribe is the only place for us to gain wisdom. I would encourage my friends, in the reformed tribe, to be more open to those in other tribes. Be humble enough to learn from those who are different. There are many helpful leadership insights and strategies we could profit from those people. To my non-reformed friends, take time to learn from the reformed brothers and sisters. Learn from their rich insights into Scripture, theology, and applying Christian thought to cultural issues. You may have certain opinions of the reformed tribe, but do not be like me and discount what you may be able to learn from them.

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Eleven Things You Might Not Understand About Your Minister

Now that I’m seven years removed from ministry, with no chance of returning, I want to offer some of these things to you who attend church regularly, hoping that they might be received in a different, more constructive spirit. I’ve really got nothing invested here any more, except love and respect for my brothers and sisters who do this for a living. And a hope that I can make someone’s life just a little better.

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Water of Division

Baptism, designed to unite us with Christ, has become for many an inflexible rite that divides. The flexibility of the early church is admirable.

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The Pardon That Wasn’t

God offers each of us a pardon, the chance to have our sins blotted out. We can escape the death sentence that sin has placed on us. We can be forgiven. Or we can ignore God’s offer and pay the penalty for what we’ve done.
Because a pardon that isn’t accepted is no pardon at all.

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Simplify: Let Go of Your Crutches

You can’t simplify without letting go of crutches either. Owning or bringing a lot of stuff for security, for example, is a crutch. Being busy so you won’t be bored, or so you’ll feel productive, is a crutch.
You have to find other ways of fulfilling these needs, without the crutches.

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What Teachers Want Parents to Know

If you rescue kids from every potentially negative consequence associated with their behavior, how will they ever desire deep change?

Why do we want to shelter our kids from the consequences of their actions?
Why do we side with our kids, not the teacher?
Why do we help them so much with their homework that it’s pretty much our project?
Why do we intervene in their relationships to make sure all the hurt feelings get eased?
Why do we pick up their socks and towels?

Doesn’t it make sense to let them experience some cause and effect early in life before the stakes are higher?

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25 Common Phrases That You’re Saying Wrong

Being a freelance writer, I often find myself messing up common phrases. When I’m unsure, I do a quick Google search to make sure that what I’m writing is actually what I’m trying to say. This inspired me to come up with a list of common phrases that people frequently get wrong. Some of them aren’t completely our fault because the incorrect way of saying them has actually become the “norm”. But we’re still wrong.

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Five Dads Surviving A One Direction Concert

Vice’s West Coast editor Jamie Taete (@JLCT) captured some amazing Instagram pictures of Dads attempting to survive a recent One Direction concert at the Staples Centre in L.A

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“God is Innocent” : Rwamasirabo on the Genocide in the Church at Nyange, Rwanda

During Rwanda’s 100-day genocide in 1994, Roman Catholic priest, Father Athanase Seromba savagely sacrificed nearly 3,000 members of his church in Nyange (a parish in the Kibuye province of western Rwanda).
Perhaps the most notorious atrocity of the more than 30 large-scale gruesome massacres that took place in churches during Rwanda’s genocide, this bloodbath happened at the very altar in the same church where, countless times, Father Seromba had offered mass.

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7 reasons for the death of Sunday evening worship

Historically, many (most?) evangelical churches have had a Sunday evening worship service. The idea, stretching back to the Protestant Reformation, has been that if the Bible is the authority, then it makes sense to have it taught as much as is practical.
Many of the early Protestant churches not only had Sunday morning and Sunday evening gatherings, but mid-week Bible studies as well. In Catholicism, the more you celebrated Mass, the better, and in the reformation that frequency simply jumped into services that revolved not around the sacraments, but around preaching. Eventually, as the reformation spread into Scotland and (sort of) into England, the practice settled into two Sunday worship services, both with different messages.

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Grieving Forbidden

Either way you choose to look at it, the line between “normal grief” and “abnormal depression” has now been thoroughly blurred with this change, effectively communicating that grief must only be short and sweet. So, yes, it does seem to me that if the psychiatric world had its way, grief would be basically forbidden, since it has so many symptoms that are similar to depression.

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5 Lies Christians Believe

1. We are invincible
2. We must always say “yes”
3. Success is measured by numbers
4. The Pastor is always right
5. We must be perfect

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Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes: Individualism

Imagine what church would be like today if we felt so much loyalty to our congregation that we’d turn down a promotion to stay with our “family.” Imagine that it was unthinkable to change congregations, not for doctrinal reasons but because your congregation is your household, your sisters, your brothers, and your parents. And just like your physical family, it doesn’t even occur to you that you should get to pick who is part of your “family.”

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Stupid Ministry Tricks: Do not do this thing

I have a former colleague who used to say he could solve the preacher-elder wars. To elders, you can’t make everyone happy. To ministers, don’t be stupid. I think both pieces of advice might be unrealistic.
But I do think that ministers can be smarter about issues related to change. So, here’s to making smarter ministers.

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Our Precious Freedom

Hearing 6 different people’s stories and how hard they are striving to get out of there really broke my heart. Regardless of whether they are there because they broke the law or because of some injustice, I saw human beings in great pain, most of them had tears in their eyes at one point or another in the conversation. Tears of regret, sadness, helplessness, desperation, whatever they were, these people are hurting, and I had to make a great effort to stay cool; more on the cold side, rather, because I was just there as an audio reproducer of the back and forth interactions between two people. No emotions of any type are supposed to be shown. Only repressed until the moment you get out of there.

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The “I Don’t Care” Behind My Sin

Arrogance derives from the Latin arrogāre, which means “to claim as one’s own.” When I sin, I shortsightedly lay claim over territory to which I have no right.

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Man arrested after calling 911 to report wrong McDonald’s order

Riggins told WALB-TV that all he wanted was respect; the police told WALB-TV that misuing 911 is no joke. The police also took Riggins to jail.
Riggins came away from the experience with a cautionary message:
“I would like to say check your food before you leave, always be careful when you go buy food anywhere you go,” he said.

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Can There Be Change Without Pain?

Leaders have to help their churches hurt for the things that Scripture tells us God hurts for. The body of Christ has to ache for those things that the Spirit of God leads them to, not the things they are told to hurt over by American culture and personal preference.

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The End of Denominations?

It’s time for the Church to get back on mission. The final command Jesus gave was not “get every nuance of theology right,” it was “go, make disciples of all nations.” We serve the same God, are saved by the same Christ, and were given the same Commission. Instead of focusing on our differences, we should focus on the One who makes us the same.

You Are Not Your Church Members

One of the biggest mistakes pastors make is thinking the people in the church are like them. You’re reading a Tim Keller commentary on Galatians for your next message series, but the people in your church are catching up on royal baby news via People Magazine online. And that’s not the only difference.

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There’s a Pedophile In My Church: What Now?

If others in the church can forgive an offender, they should never equate forgiveness with trust. They are two different things altogether. And the one who can forgive (especially a non-victim) should never expect a victim to forgive just because he was able to. To do so will only lead to revictimization.

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What do you do when a convicted sex offender comes to your church?

We also have to tell new members, for liability sake, about Matt. Actually, this has become a positive. Every couple of weeks, we have a conversation with potential members in a session we call, Tell Me About Shiloh. There, we recount Matt’s story and give them a DVD of the worship service. Typically, the response we receive sounds like this, “I want to be a part of a church that welcomes people in this way.”

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Am I going to die?

Oh, and about the seven year old. He is my grandson and he is in a family of faith, so the question was more curious than anything else. And he is doing well, but the answer is still yes he will die someday. As we all will. The real question is how we feel about it.

The Power of Analogies

Whether you’re in the financial services or insurance industry, technology or health care, education or a cutting edge B2B offering, if you’re going to be a leader with influence and impact, and if you want to sell your product or service, it’s incumbent upon you to take what is obvious to you and turn it into something easily graspable to others.

Living to 120 and Beyond: Americans’ Views on Aging, Medical Advances and Radical Life Extension

Yet many Americans do not look happily on the prospect of living much longer lives. They see peril as well as promise in biomedical advances, and more think it would be a bad thing than a good thing for society if people lived decades longer than is possible today, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

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Hot Topic of the Week – Why are Young Adults Leaving the Church?

You have to figure this one out. Forget everything you learned in seminary about how to do ministry. Forget everything you ever heard about what makes good worship. Forget everything those old books say about how to create community. Stop studying. Stop looking for the next quick fix. Stop scouring the web for the next ministry that is sure to get them in the door.

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10 Basic Facts About the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize

Mike Kruger, author of Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Crossway, 2012) and the forthcoming The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate (IVP, 2013), has a helpful series on the New Testament canon, linked below, “designed to help Christians understand ten basic facts about its origins. This series is designed for a lay-level audience and hopefully could prove helpful in a conversation one might have with a skeptical friend.”

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Thoughts on Preaching: The Beehive

But preachers take note! If you are keeping the church embroiled in controversy, stirred up through issues, irritated by sarcasm, and angry because you ignore who they really are … you are sticking your hand into the bee hive. In so doing, have drawn the attention to yourself, rather than God. And it hurts.

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Have I Become the Christian I Can’t Stand?

But as I have grown and changed and my level of disdain for pushy, in your face, literalistic, anti-homosexual, “turn away from sin, you sinning sinners” rhetoric has also grown, I have come to the realization that maybe I am just like those Christians that I dislike. Maybe I believe my way is the highway we should travel, disregarding others along the way.

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Five Reasons to Confront Even If You Hate Confrontation

All confrontations should be characterized by speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Each of the above statements must be viewed through the lens of the second greatest commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). As you do this, remember that confrontations can be good and our many excuses to avoid them may be robbing us of the relationships we want.

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Despite Administration Promises, Few Signs of Change in Drone Wars

The mixed messages of the past week reveal a deep-seated ambivalence inside the administration about just how much light ought to shine on America’s shadow wars. Even though Mr. Obama pledged a greater transparency and public accountability for drone operations, he and other officials still refuse to discuss specific strikes in public, relying instead on vague statements about “ongoing counterterrorism operations.”

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The Legend of The Oregon Trail

Despite all this, The Oregon Trail has endured. The iPhone version, released in 2009, has been downloaded more than three million times. The game’s Facebook page is thriving. Well-meaning parodies—like Fall Out Boy Trail, in which the band tours the country in an ox-towed van, and Organ Trail, in which players dodge zombies in a postapocalyptic landscape—abound. As Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, puts it, “The Oregon Trail taught generations of students not only about the history of westward migrations but also how to use computers.” He adds, “Any game that can survive so long in so many different variations has to be important.”

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10 Surprising Reasons Our Kids LEAVE Church

I spend a lot of time with them and it takes very little to get them to vent, and I’m happy to listen. So, after lots of hours spent in coffee shops and after buying a few lunches, here are the most common thoughts taken from dozens of conversations.
I hope some of them make you angry. Not at the message, but at the failure of our pragmatic replacement of the gospel of the cross with an Americanized gospel of glory.

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7 Vital Components of Church Revitalization

And, this experience is giving me the opportunity, fueled by this platform, to speak not only to church planters (who I still love by the way), but also those who are attempting church revitalization. In the process. I’m learning some things. There appear to be some vital elements for a healthy revitalization to occur.
Granted, the Holy Spirit must show up and God must be glorified. That can admittedly happen with a room of donkeys, but in general terms, working with normal church people (whatever that means ) there are components which need to be in place to see a church revitalize.

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Inspiration and Balaam’s Donkey

We aren’t donkeys, secretaries, or ventriloquist dummies. We are in fellowship with the Son of God. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. And we, like Paul, have not yet grasped everything but rejoice in our salvation as we continue to journey toward God.

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Who Am I to Judge? The Pope, the Press, and the Predicament

In other words, the Pope was not talking about those who are involved in homosexual acts or homosexual relationships. He was seeking to speak with compassion about people made in the image of God who are struggling with faithfulness against a homosexual inclination. This explains his criticism of a “gay lobby” within his church. He acknowledged the fact that persons struggling with a homosexual inclination are in his church and in the priesthood. So long as they obey Catholic teaching and live in faithfulness, “who am I to judge that person?” he asked.

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What If There Were Only One Choice?

But you see, there are times when we have to face the truth that not every option is equal and not every choice is valid. When it comes to eternal life, to salvation, to having a relationship with God, there’s only one way: through Jesus Christ.

Why Fewer Churches Offer Vacation Bible School

Overall, the biggest reasons why former VBS churches have skipped out in recent years are: lack of volunteers (cited by 3 in 10 pastors), lack of children (cited by 1 in 4), and lack of time (1 in 5).

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Don’t miss the point about VBS

Here is what VBS is about: God’s story in our lives. It is about helping children—and adults—see God’s plan for their lives. It is about motivating and inspiring people to want to be part of that plan.
It is about reaching into our community with the Jesus story. We are happy to have visitors from other churches, but that is not our target audience. We want the families that are not connected to Jesus.

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about the guy who wants better abs

This week as we talk about persistence, I was forced to think about my own journey to get in better shape and be a better person in the image of Christ. Because in so many ways – namely in my desire to become more fit – I have fallen off. I didn’t really get the results I thought I would get so maybe it isn’t worth it.

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Seduced by the Illusion: The Truth About Transformation Photos

I decided to take my own transformation photos to see what was possible with just a few easy tweaks. About six months ago I was around 185 pounds and about 16 percent body fat. I was feeling particularly bloated on the day, so I asked my girlfriend to take a before shot. I then shaved my head, face and chest and prepared for the after shot, which was about an hour after I took the before shot. I did a few push ups and chin ups, tweaked my bedroom lighting, sucked in, tightened my abs and BOOM! We got our after shot.

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