Category Archives: church

church or "preaching center"?

Vitamin Z has posted an excerpt from the book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. here is an excerpt from the excerpt: “The Bible calls the church a family. It describes the church as a community that shares … Continue reading

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Christless Christianity

I am going to read this book in the near future. Challies has reviewed Christless Christianity by Michael Horton and the review is awesome. Take a little time and go read the whole review. here is a bit from the … Continue reading

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free books

John Piper and Justin Taylor’s book Stand: a Call for Endurance of the Saints is available for sale or by free downloadable pdf. Hat tip to Said at Southwestern where the book is also reviewed. Also the first nine chapters … Continue reading

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laity at work?

John Chandler has a post up with some David Bosch quotes and discussion regarding the importance of regular church attenders (as opposed the role of paid staff) to accomplishing the mission of God. Its a great post and you should … Continue reading

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True or False?

Here is an excerpt from Quitting Church My research suggested that people are simply not being pastored. Often ministers are out of touch with what’s happening on the ground, as they are surrounded by a wall of secretaries and voice … Continue reading

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Ed Stetzer on Suburban church planting

Ed was interviewed at sub-text regarding the challenge of church planting in a suburban environment. As usual, he had some interesting and useful things to say. I liked this three part answer to mistakes pastors make in the suburbs: First, … Continue reading

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are you a church planter

The director of Acts 29, a church planting network, has a post up listing 20 characteristics of church planters. Here is the link to a more detailed PDF of the same material. Not all churches have a vision for church … Continue reading

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podcasts

we started a study of Luke at Vista Church three weeks ago. The podcasts are here. I highly recommend all three of them. Jeff Mangum has been on flaming fire. three of the best messages that go right at the … Continue reading

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Something only Mark Driscoll would do

here is something that only Mark Driscoll would write and that only he would do with it once it was written. Over the years, much of my ministry has been to men in general, and young, single men in particular. … Continue reading

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driscoll on piper

Here is a post by Mark Driscoll on the Resurgence blog telling us why he loves John Piper. It includes an embedded video interview of Piper by Driscoll. Excellent stuff and worth your time (almost 50 minutes long). Here are … Continue reading

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Michael Novak's view of evidence

Here is Michael Novak’s view of the evidence for the virgin birth. John Derbyshire does not trust the word of Mary the Mother of Jesus, nor the word of Luke the Evangelist. It was to Luke that Mary told the … Continue reading

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Mohler on preachingq

Some quotes from this book. “The audacious claim of Christian preaching is that the faithful declaration of the Word of God, spoken through the preacher’s voice, is even more powerful than anything music or image can deliver.” “If we do … Continue reading

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more on megachurches

Catablog has links to studies regarding the current state of megachurches (over the last few years). Here are some of the findings, but go to Catablog and hit the links to the source materials for more detailed information. “Megachurches – … Continue reading

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where we are.

according to George Barna, in 2001 8% of americans were evangelicals defined as follows: All Barna Research studies define “evangelicals” as individuals who meet the born again criteria; say their faith is very important in their life today; believe they … Continue reading

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megachurches on the slide?

is the age of the megachurch showing signs of beginning to pass? here is a fascinating look at this question in USA Today. statistical blip or the start of a trend? On paper, megachurches look like a trend still on … Continue reading

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Is the church for evangelism?….continued even further

In a way this whole discussion seems weirdly artificial. All of our life as Christ followers is the gospel. Everything we do or say is because of the presence of God in us. I am not a preacher (vocational pastor … Continue reading

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is the church for evangelism?….continued

Ken Stewart, professor of theological studies at Covenant College, had a comment posted to Tony Payne’s thoughts that I mentioned in this post. The comment was elevated to the text of this post Here is the beginning of what Professor … Continue reading

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elder led

In an earlier post regarding congregationalism, I made the point that God’s model of leadership in the local ekklesia is elder led. Phil Newton has written an article for Tabletalk magazine touching on this topic so I can link to … Continue reading

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Is the Church for Evangelism?

this is the question posed by the Ramblin’ Pastor Man and by Tony Payne. It is a more difficult question than it appears on the surface. Tony makes some good points and here is one of them: However, even if … Continue reading

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think a minute

This is from a post at a blog called “stupid church people” Here’s some passages from an introductory text entitled “The Sociology of Religion” that I found interesting. “The role religion plays in maturation is highly problematic. While it is … Continue reading

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New link in the sidebar

I put a new link over to the right to this excellent page on Resurgence. It is an excellent refutation of doctrinal errors that some leaders are making in an attempt to be culturally relevant. I post here again Driscoll’s … Continue reading

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more reading

do you agree or disagree with congregationalism? (governance of the church by the congregation). I grew up Baptist which means basically that we were pastor led congregational governance model churches. I never really thought about whether or not that was … Continue reading

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some weekend reading

a three part series over at the Ligonier Ministries blog explores “the church, the Body of Christ. here is part one There are fundamentally two views of the church…..The first conception of the church is stated as follows: It is … Continue reading

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here is where we get hung up

originally posted on 8/27. everyone needs to listen to part two at this link. seriously. if God is sovereign over all like He says He is in Ephesians 1:11, then it necessarily follows that God wills that evil exist. “God … Continue reading

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Piper on the importance of doctrine

John Piper has a post up pointing to and discussing briefly Joseph Bottum’s essay on the decline of protestant America. Mr. Piper quotes a last point from Bottum and then concludes: What happened? “The churches’ desperate hunger to mean more … Continue reading

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