Growing Deeper (Visiting Church #2) This Sunday we visit a nondenominational church. It’s three years old and I know a bit about it and its pastor, who I perceive as a mostly postmodern guy possessing a modern theology. I suspect the church will...
When Is the Right Time to Close a Church? Churches Close for Tangible Problems, But Maybe Some Should Close for Spiritual Reasons In the book of Malachi, God laments about his people. Specifically he’s down on the priests because they show...
Is It Okay to Question God? God Won’t Strike Us Dead If We Question Him; He May Even Like It Many people in the Bible question God. These aren’t fringe malcontents. They’re some of our favorite Bible characters and, I suspect, some of God’s...
A Friendly Church with a Homey Feel (Visiting Church #1) The first of fifty-two churches is a small Baptist-affiliated assembly. With forty or so normally in attendance, this Sunday has only seventeen. The service is not unlike churches my wife...
Do We Have a Positive Influence on Others or a Negative One? The Evil Queen, Her Good-Bad Grandson, and the Influential Priest In today’s passage we read about Queen Athaliah, her grandson Joash, and the priest Jehoiada. Here’s their story. The...
Our experience of visiting fifty-two churches in a year is over. I’ve shared the journey, as well as my recap and reflections on our pilgrimage. It was a great experience. What’s next? Quite a bit, actually. 52 Churches is now a book, with...
How Often Do You Have Meaningful Spiritual Conversations? We Must Be Intentional about Discussing Our Faith and Avoid Superficial Chatter After Jesus’s death and him overcoming death, he appears on the street headed to the city of Emmaus...
King Solomon’s Wives: A Subtle Source of Distraction Consider the foreign wives of King Solomon King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wasn’t so wise with his love life. In all he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Even worse, many of King...
If You Could Ask God for One Thing, What Would It Be? Solomon Asks God for Wisdom to Lead Well and God Grants It God appears to Solomon and offers to grant him a request. This isn’t a genie-in-a-bottle situation; it’s the all-powerful God showing...
What is Our Christian Witness? Our Actions and Our Words Determine Our Reputation In the post “They’ll know we are Christians by our love” we talked about the importance of our Christian witness. This is best accomplished by our love and our...
