Giving Answers (1 Peter 3:15)

" /doh " by  striatic  is licensed under  CC BY 2.0 . Have you ever had someone ask you a question that you should have had an answer to, but at that moment you drew a blank and just did the best you could?  Of course, afterward the answer seems so obvious and you wonder why you didn't say that to begin with.  That is what happened to me this past Sunday. What's worse...this question was about outreach. We had a new family visit the church and afterward began asking many questions about the church.  I, and a couple of others, introduced them to life groups and told them our philosophy concerning our life groups (that they are inter-generational on purpose).  They seemed genuinely interested in finding out about all aspects of our church. Toward the end of our conversation together, they asked the fateful question:  "What does your church do for outreach?" I thought and shared our current situation with the uncertainty of "3rd Street Ministry"....

There are many great articles highlighting the dangers of "deconstruction".  Some of the best recent posts can be found here , here and here .  Trinidad and I even did a livestream discussing the matter here a few months back.  All of these are great resources. One of the things that I believe is overlooked in the debate over deconstruction is the proper understanding of feelings from a biblical worldview.  Those who are trying to throw people into doubt and confusion are honing in specifically on feelings.  Their often pithy posts are made specifically to evoke an emotional reaction for the purpose of confusion, not clarity.  They do so because personal feelings under either the progressive Christian viewpoint or the current secular humanist viewpoint is their equivalent to absolute truth, having rejected absolute Truth that comes from God's Word and the person of Jesus Christ.  It fits well with the deconstructionists view that "questions are more ...

Today marks my 18th year in ministry...at the same church! Being in the same place for nearly two decades gives a depth of perspective often not experienced by those in ministry because many do not make 18 years in ministry and even those who do often have that experience split between many different churches. So in honor of the 18 years of ministry I have been blessed to serve, I would like to share 18 things that I have learned during this time.  Some of these things are painful, some of these things are harsh truths and some of these things are insurmountable blessings. 1.  God uses incredibly flawed people, of whom, I am the greatest. I know myself better than anyone else.  I know how terribly flawed I am.  Yet, I am amazed that God still works through me, even on my worst days.  I can remember, on more than one occasion, where my attitude and my actions didn't line up with where God wanted me to be and the same day hearing how a sermon or teaching g...

Maybe you have heard the news, maybe you haven't:  Eugune Peterson, the author of the Message Bible, has recently endorsed same sex marriage, and even said that if given the opportunity, he would perform a same sex marriage .  By Clappstar (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons ...And it is sending a ripple effect through the Christian world.  LifeWay Christian Stores will be discontinuing the sale of the Message and Peterson's books upon confirmation of the statements made from his interview with Jonathan Merritt.   Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote a response to this news  worth reading. Many pastors have been captivated by Peterson's writings.  Some use the Message "translation" as either a primary Biblical text or supplemental text to Bible reading.  His book "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction"...

Is there such a thing as a "demotivational speaker"?  If there is, then I might be available for speaking engagements.  Read this post and see if I fit the bill for your congregation or youth group. Well, that's how I feel, at times. I have had wonderful people in our congregation tell me that they wish they could hear an uplifting message from me instead of all the hard sermons that seem to flow from my lips.  (I must add that it wasn't offered up as a criticism, as much as an observation.)  And to be fair, many of our sermons have focused on some hard passages of Scripture in the last few years.  We have gone through Judges, the Kings of Israel and Judah, the Gospel of Matthew and are currently in 1 Corinthians. I have been at camp and at conferences and have heard awesome men and women of God share messages and give testimony of God's greatness in their lives that make me wish that I could be like them.  I see the youth and adults flock to the alta...

Blessed.  Humbled. Stunned silent (if anyone can really imagine that for me). Over the last 15 years, I have had the privilege to be a pastor at Heights Christian Church.  During the last eight, I have shared the task of co-pastoring with Mark.  In 2008, with Mark coming on staff, we had just created our "new" mission and vision statement of "Love God, Love God's People, Love Serving God" for our church.  Our goal was to make a community where making disciples and truly desiring God was part of our DNA. I wish I could accurately describe how I feel about our fellowship.  The people there are more than just friends and fellow believers in Christ, they truly are family.  As a matter of fact, our children's godparents are there.  Our staff doesn't just have meetings together, we pray together, laugh together, get in one another's faces when necessary and more than anything else, love on one another.  Our elders are much the same as we pr...

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I saw it again the other day in an article that I read.  I almost blew a gasket.  However, I am also a patient man (well, sometimes) and I am reminded that a righteous man is supposed to be quick to listen and slow to anger (James 1:19-20). I decided that before I started my rant I should do some research in case I was wrong.  So I turned in my Bible (in this case biblegateway.com) to see if I could find any evidence in the Word of God that this was even supposed to exist.  However, try as I may, the word "revelant" wasn't found anywhere in the Bible concerning the church...as a matter of fact, it is nowhere in the Bible at all.  Just to be on the safe side, I also inserted the word "interesting" in its place and came up with similar results. For nearly 17 years, through Bible college and nearly every Christian publication that I have ever read, pastors and Christian leaders h...