Why are Young Christians Leaving the Church? - Part 1: Overprotective and Afraid of culture and Creativity)

Recently, I was asked by someone why I thought that we were losing the "postmodern generation"--why younger Christians are leaving our fellowship. It is a good question, and a question that other…

Loving Your Immediate Family and Church Family



Besides Christ, who is most precious to us? Is it not our immediate family and our church family? And yet, sometimes we fail to show our love for our family. Stress (which has been tremendous during The Great Recession), health isssues, grief, loss of a loved one, or just the busyness of life can cause us to take our family for granted. When facing life's challenges, we can have unrealistic, idealized expectations of our spouse or our…

Tony Jones stirred up quite a hornet's nest among the home school community by criticizing Christians who home school as failing to be "salt and light" to the community by withdrawing from the public schools. Jones declares them to not be missional.

This controversy has been picked up by local newspapers such as the St. Louis Dispatch in their article, …

This Sunday I am speaking on worship--a subject which is incredibly vast. What can a person say in one lesson that could possibly do justice to the subject?

As a sort of over view, I am speaking on Worship - Entering into God's Story. Worship in English comes from the idea of ascribing worth to something. It is very easy, however, to over emphasize what we do…

A recent Facebook discussion helped prod my thinking on the use of jokes and humor (what makes things funny), and then the best use of humor in sermons. Last week I used a really funny parable about Adam and Eve, but that is the first time in a long time I've used something like that. I think the funniest things come from real life.

For…

The Importance of Mission and Service in the Spiritual Formation of Youth

The spiritual state of Christian youth in the United States, much like that of adults, is not good. Kenda Dean, author of…

It is Christ, not morality, that saves us and attracts the world

Immorality is all around us. It is hard not to lash out say, on Facebook, to all of the immorality that we see. It is blatant. In…

A Christian Response to a Violent World

The recent, tragic shooting in Aurora, CO at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, is an event which calls for prayer, lament, and comfort to be extended to the victims and their families. It is a national tragedy, much like 9/11, and thus calls for a national…

To all of my Christian friends--I know that it is hard not to lash out on Facebook to all of the immorality that we see. It is blatant. In our face. And it is Christians who are mocked, made fun of, declared intolerant. I saw a high school friend just post that he had a hard choice to make about the Boy Scouts due to their stance on homosexuality. And that is just a…

7 Ways the Spirit Leads from the Book of Acts

This morning’s worship message and theme is “renewed and revived by the Spirit.” One book where the Spirit’s role n our lives is emphasized is the book of Acts. Below are seven different ways the Spirit leads us from this book.

1. The Spirit Helps Us “Translate” the Gospel in an Understandable…

Thom S. Rainer, author of a number of books on outreach and does research on this subject, wrote the following article, Evangelistic Churches and the MPI. This article gives research on some common things found in successful evangelistic churches.  I have copied the…

A Very Special Father’s Day: What we have learned from having a third child!

This Sunday is Father’s Day. While every Father’s Day is a wonderful day, this Father’s Day I am particularly mindful of the blessings of being a Father. Why? Because last Tuesday at…

Facebook--and technology in general--can be used for good or evil. Usually technology just intensifies or makes whatever we choose to do easier or faster to do. The news article tells how a mom choked a 14-year-old who was…

Today I read an article that caught my eye: More congregations turn to Facebook, Web, high-tech outreach. This article, and the video above, highlights how churches like Christ Fellowship in McKinney, TX, are using the Internet and High Tech to reach out to the community.

I am a Generation X guy, and our family was an…

Hi guys. I am looking for a website address that might be of interest to spiritual seekers, particularly those with a weak church background. Which of the following do you think would be best?

www.SeekingGodNow.com

www.SeekingSpiritually.com…

Hello Missional Outreach Network members! I hope that everyone is gearing up for Easter--but that you have been preparing throughout the year by going to the unchurched and to people in your community. 

We have had a number of people join MON this week. Today I wanted to highlight missional church planter and author John Richardson. John has recently written a book called "ReGifting God's Love and Money" (see below). It tells the story of how his church was…

On Easter Sunday some two thousand years ago, the disciples were depressed. They had seen their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ--their fearless leader--be crucified. In fact, two disciples that were on the way to Emmaus described their downcast position to a stranger that they encountered along the road.

They said that Jesus of Nazareth “19b was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be…

This coming Sunday, I will be speaking on “Experiencing the Passion of Jesus. Wikipedia gives this definition of passion:

“Passion (from the Ancient Greek verb paskho meaning to suffer) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. The term is also often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity or love - to a feeling of…

Church announcements are often ignored and easily forgotten. Here is a great example from Saddleback church on how to do announcements--on video! It is clear, adds music, interesting "b-roll" video, pictures, website addresses (including a visual how-to), and more. Great for this video and visual age--and it can be passed on virally to Facebook,…