A Recap of Churches 27 through 44 The churches are starting to blur. Every week seems the same, offering only slight variations on a theme. I’m growing weary of our journey. I’ve realized this for a few weeks but didn’t want to admit it. Yes, I still notice kindnesses offered and innovations presented at the […]
Preparing to Visit Our Next 13 Churches Going forward in our journey of visiting 52 Churches, we may bypass more churches on our list to vary the scope of our adventure. So far, we’ve skipped one that wasn’t a Christian gathering and another because they were in limbo, pending a turnaround. The next thirteen churches […]
The Allure of Something Fresh After a year or so of attending The Nonconventional Church, we receive a series of captivating postcards about a new church that will soon launch in our community. I soon call them the Postcard Church. I’m intrigued and want to learn more. My wife doesn’t. Though they’re part of a […]
Discover Why God Should Inspire Our Awe The word awesome is overused today, so much so that it’s almost cliché. When most people say awesome, what they mean is outstanding or really good. Yet slang aside, the primary definition of awesome is to inspire awe. Given this, in the strictest sense, only God is awesome. […]
God Made Us to Be in Community Does the phrase “two by two” conjure up images of God sending the animals to Noah to enter the ark two by two (Genesis 7:8-9)? This need for pairs of animals is so they can repopulate their species after the flood. A single animal accomplishes nothing. Be Fruitful […]
Waiting for the Service to Start I volunteer at a budget program where I teach classes and encourage people to manage their finances, unlearn bad money-handling habits, and dig out of debt. It’s a biblically based program, and it meets at a local church, which is also today’s destination. In the brief time I’ve been […]
Breathing Life into Old Practices The three churches nearest to us—The Closest Church, The Traditional Denominational Church, and The Church with the Fundamental Vibe—all have traditional-sounding names, meet in traditional-looking buildings, and have traditional-style services. I want a church with a fresh spin. A Denominational Connection This church, only 1.8 miles away and just past […]
When Christ Speaks, We Should Be Ready to Listen What Jesus says is important to us as his followers. The passages in the Bible that we need to pay the most attention to are the words of Jesus. Some Bibles even highlight Jesus’s words by putting them in red. We call these red-letter editions. People […]
Warm Inside Despite my encouragement, Candy has provided little input on the churches we visit. Though she recommended The Church with the Fundamental Vibe and The Nonconventional Church, I compiled the rest of the list. Today we’ll visit the closest church. Originally containing thirty-five names, I’ve now cut my list in half. While it might […]
1 John Bible Study, Day 2 Today’s passage: 1 John 1:2–3 Focus verse: We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. (1 John 1:3) Building on the phrase Word of life, John continues by saying that the life appeared—that is, Jesus appeared—whom John has seen and testifies […]