If you cut me off in traffic, it will irk me — unless I know you’re rushing to the hospital. And, if you live next door, we’ll keep quiet at night so we don’t wake you — unless your apartment is on fire. Then we’ll be shouting and pounding on your door. What we understand […]
Category: church leaders
Discipleship: Character Qualities
Business books are big business. They help you hone skills, build winning teams, and improve your game. Every title boasts great stories and lots of win-win. Biographies and histories are similar. Learning from others is entertaining, provides context, and yields wisdom. It’s hard to beat having examples to follow. Discipleship books are a hybrid of […]
Doing discipleship as a church
Let’s say the goal of church is to help us become like Jesus Christ. Not just a few of us, but all of us, together. This theme is signaled by Jesus and repeated elsewhere in the New Testament. But what does it look like? A friend and I once interviewed scores of authors, pastors, and ministry […]
The fifth church essential: my own willingness to belong
It’s easy to write about church essentials. It’s like writing about exercise, or parenting. Until I’m committed, I’m only shouting from the stands. The reality of church for most of us is that we play a passive role. We’re the audience. Attendees. The best church on earth is only as healthy as the mindset of […]
Four essentials of a church: love
Love is like heat. So many things in life seem wonderful — pizza, a shower, a cup of coffee, a seat by the window, an iron — until you realize they’re cold. After all, what do you call a morning when you step into the shower and find there’s no hot water? A bad way […]
