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 contempt for him. Their worship is so off-track that God wishes one of the priests would just shut the temple doors. This would […]
God Won’t Strike Us Dead If We Question Him 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 favorite people too. They include Job, Abraham, Moses, David, Mary, and even Jesus. I can’t recall a single verse where God strikes […]
Recently I had a birthday. Don’t feel bad if you missed it—I have everything I need and most of what I want—so it’s all good! For a birthday, it is the time spent with family and friends—be it directly or indirectly—that are the most significant and the best remembered. Not to be dismissed are the […]
A Yearlong Journey Encountering God, His Church, and Our Common Faith Visit fifty-two churches in a year? Am I crazy? Maybe. My wife and I spent a year visiting churches, a different Christian church every Sunday. This book is our story. I’m sure we visited a church just like yours. And wow, did we learn […]
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 a scheduled publication December 4, 2018. I only posted a fraction of […]
Be Intentional about Discussing Faith and Avoid Superficial Chatter After Jesus’s death and him overcoming death, he appears on the street headed to the city of Emmaus, traveling with two of his followers. But they don’t recognize him. He talks to them about God, the Scriptures, and faith. When they eventually realize who he is, […]
How many friends do you have? For many, a quick answer resides in Facebook. In addition to Facebook friends, some might consider Twitter followers or LinkedIn connections. But for most, the number of online “friends” overstates the situation. Try removing social media from consideration. For a revised answer, people may count the number of email […]
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 unity. Unfortunately, the world rarely sees our love and unity. Instead we model hate and disagreement. That’s what […]
Followers of Jesus Should Carefully Consider the Message We Send to the World A song from my youth carries the title, which repeats in the chorus, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” If you’re not familiar with this song, check out the lyrics or watch a video. Though not the style of music […]
Choose Labels With Care For They Reflect Our Identity and Theology By definition I am a Christian, but I’ve always shied away from that word. It means different things to different people, not all of which are positive. For too many, Christian is a negative label implying narrow minded, bigoted, or hate-filled people. Since these […]