Did you know that you have a spiritual temperament? This means some activities help you feel closer to God than what you do otherwise. And people have different spiritual temperaments. So, if you want to be drawn closer to God spend more time on the spiritual pathways that work best for you. These are insights …
How Spiritual Temperaments Influence Church Life Read More »
In the fourth century the Christian church took a turn that still handicaps traditional churches today. The Roman emperor made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Most consider this a good development. Institutional Christianity then took on explosive growth. For ministering in the 21st century that was an unfortunate turn. We old-line churches that …
When Jesus ascended he told his disciples to “wait for the power from on high.” The Spirit came in a dramatic way 50 days later at Pentecost. Does the Spirit come today? Many traditional and evangelical churches don’t act like it, beyond perhaps an annual Pentecost church birthday party. That was then. How does he …
The church I serve has the purpose statement “To Make and Grow Disciples.” We leaders work hard at bringing about that result. We all agree we have a long way to go. When that statement was finalized, I quibbled with the wording. Making and growing disciples is the work of the Holy Spirit, who calls, …
The first of the four Great Awakenings in American history happened in the 1730s and 40s. Arguably America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards, was involved but grew skeptical as the Awakening worked its way out. That movement brought great controversy. One side emphasized religious emotions as the essence; feeling the love of God was most important. …
At their first church convention, the earliest disciples made a policy decision. They announced it in a letter to the rest of the church with this phrase: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us . . . “ Have you ever seen or heard of a church today that announces a decision …
When I was Professor of Administrative Sciences, I taught the senior capstone course Strategic Management. I still read the Wall Street Journal and Business Week to stay up with how corporations are changing their strategies for keeping up with the fast-paced changes in technology. For example, it is amazing how much impact Amazon has had …
Suburban Ministry Needs to Leave the Village Culture Behind Read More »
Most of the New Testament, after the Gospels, was written about the church life of the first several generations of Christians. What prompted them to come together? Roman cities offered many hundreds of clubs and mystery cults to join, not unlike American cities today. Easiest to understand are the Jews already accustomed to synagogue life who …
The title of Pastor has been popular among Protestants since the mid-18th century. For centuries before then the title was Father, as it still is among Roman Catholics. The Pietists, who were at their peak in the 18th century in Germany and Scandinavian countries, used pastor to reduce the distance between the clergy and the laity, as the …
Do You Want Your Church Leaders To Be Shepherds or Builders? Read More »
Big changes are happening on the American religious scene. This is my constant theme. Many in the declining traditional Protestant churches often seem perplexed. Why are those community churches growing while we are going down? There is no simple answer, but some explanations are emerging. In the 1980s and 90s, there was a ministry discipline …
In general, the ministries of traditional mainline churches are done without conscious belief in the Holy Spirit—a belief that goes beyond mouthing the Creed. We mostly rely on the Father and the Son. But ministries lose their effectiveness over time without reliance on the power of the Spirit. Our ministries cannot remain effective without a …
Do Your Ministries Reflect Belief in the Holy Spirit? Read More »
Kevin Park is a member of our church who designed and by now has distributed 150,000 grace and mercy coins. One side has a cross and the words “Mercy is when God spares you what you do deserve.” The other side has a dove and the words “Grace is when God gives you what you …
Nicodemus was a prominent Jewish leader who came to Jesus under cover of darkness. He wanted to find out more about this new rabbi who had come to town. Jesus was proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, but no one can see it until he or she is born from on high. …
“When the Spirit comes, he makes a pure, free, cheerful, glad and loving heart—a conscience made righteous by grace, seeking no reward, fearing no punishment, doing everything with joy.” So observed Martin Luther in a sermon he preached in 1521. The Spirit was very much in the center of his thinking in those early years …
Growing Into a Free, Cheerful, Glad and Loving Heart Read More »
According to the Apostle Paul, a Christian congregation is a fellowship of the Holy Spirit, also called the body of Christ. In his letters to the early churches, he had many words of encouragement for those first believed. Offering his observations was participating in the Spirit’s work of building up relationships in a specific fellowship. …
Congregations have a church culture. Each is unique in some way but shares much with other congregations in the same church body. One denomination’s general culture is different from that of another. When traditionalists want to preserve their tradition, the necessary question is which tradition: the church culture of the 1970s, which is different from …
In the past, American Protestants have had two different kinds of church cultures. They emerged out of the colonial First Awakening of the 1730s-40s. One side emphasized religious emotions as the essence of being a Christian; feeling the love of God was most important. The other side taught that the heart of true religion is …
The understanding of truth and church are fundamental to ministry. A German Protestant professor in Zurich, Emil Brunner opened up for me new perspectives on each. He is regarded as one of the top four or five Protestant systematic theologians of the mid-20th century. He saw Truth as Encounter, the name of his book. In …
“Hard America” is a phrase used by writer and columnist Michael Barone in his book Hard American, Soft America: Competition vs Coddling. He describes changes that have happened in our American society in recent decades. Almost all institutions have run into heavy competition that forced them to change how they operate if they want to …
The congregations of the once-dominant Protestant established mainline church bodies (Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Reformed) are losing effectiveness in American culture today. The result is the forty-year decline in our memberships and influence. Mainline churches are becoming old-line, old fashioned churches. The driving question today is how we can regain the health and spiritual energy …
The Controversial Role of Spiritual Experiences in Church Life Read More »