Fresh faith is more a meaningful way of loving and trying to follow Jesus. It begins with a reevaluation of the faith of our childhood or a questioning of the practices of the institutionalized church. It can be a painful process, but the end result is something very personal, very real, and very meaningful, which makes it worth it.
My very best church experience was when the church I pastored was going through a rebirth. Our small groups became like individual churches where the participants experienced true community. All kinds of needs were being spontaneously met. No programs were needed. People were given rides to the doctor’s office. Individuals… Continue reading
It has been forty years since I was in high school. I would probably flunk a content-oriented test in any of my courses because I just don’t remember that stuff, but I do remember two teachers. Mr. Blakely was a very intelligent social sciences teacher who taught our International Relations… Continue reading
When I was a pastor, there was a tendency among pastors to gauge a church’s success by the size of their attendance, building, and the number of staff members. I know, it sounds rather worldly, but it is true. It was thought the more staff you can hire, the more… Continue reading
Why are people serving an organization or institution whose real purpose is to serve them? The government that was born to protect our freedom, takes larger and larger chunks of our freedom and our income from us to feed its ever increasing appetite as it finds new ways to encroach… Continue reading
My first car was a 1966 Mustang with a standard transmission and a floor shifter. I loved to listen to that little sporty car roar as I ran it through the gears to impress my friends and enjoy that awesome surge of power. Just as if you play guitar, you… Continue reading
Church-going people are like everyone else. Some are very kind and some very cruel. Some are very loving and some very self-righteous. They are just people, but we tend to expect more of them because they wear the tag Christian. If becoming a Christian is just ascribing to certain mental… Continue reading
I am just going to come out and say it, church is broken. So are several other societal institutions. They just aren’t cutting it anymore. As institutions age they forget the reason for their existence of serving people. Eventually, the mission is traded for maintenance. The goal of serving people is subtly… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchroblog, entitled, Choosing my Religion. The participating writers are answering the question, “If you could change to any other religion in the world (other than Christianity), which would you choose and why?” The links to their contributions are posted at the end of this post. I am cheating. I… Continue reading
When pressed to summarize what he required, Jesus said, love God and love your neighbor. Paul, the Apostle fleshed this out by saying that God wants living sacrifices. He is asking for a huge religious paradigm shift that calls for an end to people trying to appease God. He is… Continue reading
Do we learn best from our failures or our successes? I learn a lot from my failures. I should, because I rehearse them over and over. I learn what an incredible screw up I am. I throw some gasoline upon my ever smoldering sense of shame. I paralyze myself from moving forward… Continue reading
John 4: 43-54 There is a near resurrection in this passage from John’s biography of Jesus. It was a government official’s son who was near death. His distraught dad had come to Jesus pleading with him to travel to his town and heal his son, but instead Jesus said, “Go back… Continue reading
Trying to nail down a post-institutional church theology and practice is a huge task and by attempting it, I am opening myself to misunderstanding. What I have typed out here is in no way meant to denigrate anyone who disagrees with me, but rather it is an attempt to describe what… Continue reading
Happy National Back to Church Sunday! I have seen lot about it being back-to-school time lately, even back-to-football time (which I have been looking forward to), but back-to-church Sunday was a new one on me. Today, I am enjoying my Sunday by taking in one gorgeous, beautiful, warm, sunny early fall day.… Continue reading
