Archive for October, 2010

Where Are the Miracles?

We have good doctrine.  We have modern, God centered worship.  We have a website and a twitter account.  We love Jesus and He loves us.

But where are the works of God that I see in this film?  I believe in miracles, but I do not see them like this.

Why is this not happening here?


Direct Link

[box]Let’s ask the hard questions. Saying that God simply doesn’t do these things anymore is a cop out, is it not? Clearly it’s happening. The hard question is why isn’t it happening in most of our churches. Is this really “normal” Christianity?[/box]

455 days ago /  Tagged: , , 1
image of man running in a hamster wheel

When Will You Stop?

I don’t know anyone that isn’t busy and on the go.  Regardless of profession, age, gender or income.  Everyone these days is on the run, all the time, running a gauntlet of stress, responsibility, and expectations.  Everything feels like a competition against a nameless character that goes by many different names: “they”, “them” and “everybody”.  Pastor’s do this, only we sanctify it by replacing the ambiguous “everybody” with the name of God and his Church.

It doesn’t take long for us to lose our grip on why we are running so hard and so fast.  Our priorities get jumbled.  Massive chunks of time fall out of our hands and then, if we’re so blessed, we wake up one day and realize that we’ve missed many of the things that make life beautiful.  We’ve spent our most precious resources on the least precious demands and there is no way to get that time back.

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456 days ago /  Tagged: , , 0
steven-furtick

Sincere Apologies to Steven Furtick

I do not personally know Steven Furtick and he will likely never read this post.  But I’m apologizing just the same.

Steven Furtick is the pastor and founder of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. It’s the kind of church that many people love to hate.  Smoke, lights, highly produced worship, topical sermons and a preacher dressed in designer clothes.  Even “worse”, it’s a mega church that became mega seemingly overnight.  No one hates success more than Christians.  After all, if they have grown in numbers so quickly and dramatically then they must have done it in a way that violates scripture or at least causes Jesus to shake his head with dissaproval, right?  Certainly they cheated somehow!

I must admit that I’ve discovered some of this sentiment in my own heart this week and I’ve got to kill it before it grows.

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464 days ago /  Tagged: , , 4

Capes, Faith, and Divine Imagination

kids-wearing-capes
Just a few days ago, my two youngest children decided to be superheroes.

They saw no reason why they should be limited by gravity and human physical limitations.  All they needed to overcome physics were beach towels.  They came running up to me, towels in hand, and asked me to secure the towels around their necks.  They had already tried stuffing the towels in their collars, but the towels-turned-capes kept falling out.  And we all know that a superhero cannot have his cape falling out in mid flight.

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470 days ago /  Tagged: , , , , 0

Alan Hirsch – The Forgotten Ways

These are some seriously challenging and compelling thoughts on church life and cultural engagement.  You may disagree with some of what he says, but you have to at least grapple with the concepts.  This is all worth watching.

 

What did you think?

Let’s discuss in the comments.

472 days ago /  Tagged: , , , , , 0
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