ByLew
You all know my stance on vocational pastors. I’ve written about it over the past 6 years here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Not once have I ever noticed what Jesus says about those who shepherd for pay. It wasn’t until a comment I received on my blog last week that left me with…
ByLew
I am a member of a couple of “closed” communities on Facebook. Closed in the sense that they are “closed” on Facebook, but anyone is welcome to join… they’re more or less considered “safe places” to talk about what we believe. I am not even sure how to describe these groups, other than they are…
ByLew
Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; – Jesus (Matthew 12:25) Does this apply to Jesus’ bride, the church? The church has been divided against itself since before the New Testament letters were written. Don’t believe me, read the letters! Followers of Jesus are definitely not perfect people. We struggle on a daily basis…
ByLew
At the beginning of the year I was told about a project by Jeremy Myers. He was trying to gather stories from followers of Christ who have left the church, who are switching churches, or who are reform their understanding of “church”. I decided that I would write my own story about leaving the church…
ByLew
Eric Carpenter from A Pilgrim’s Progress thinks something is missing from Scripture and I agree. When we read the bible, it’s fascinating to find that something is missing that we probably would not expect. What’s missing? The answer is that when the church gathers together, preaching is missing. His writing is probably much better, much…
ByLew
I have not done a Words Not Found in Scripture post in a while, so I decided to pull out a quick one for everyone. Today I would like to talk a little bit about the word “pastor”. In the modern Evangelical Christian Church the Pastor is basically the CEO. He runs the show, his…
ByLew
What is said and done behind a pulpit is serious business to the average churcher. Sometimes you might hear someone say, “Can you believe what he said behind the pulpit?” [1] Another may believe that the pulpit is a ministry that is “absolutely essential to the vitality and health of the church as a whole….
ByLew
I’ve decided to start a series of some of the theological words and terms that we use in our everyday Christian lives that are not found in Scripture. The first word I want to talk about is “church”. Right now you’re probably screaming that the word “church” (and it’s derivatives) appear 112 times in the…
ByLew
To launch Dave Black’s new book, Christian Archy, Energion Publications is sponsoring an essay contest. The question at hand: What should a congregation following Jesus Christ in ministry look like? What a congregation following Jesus Christ in ministry should look like can be a pretty complicated discussion. We have to realize that even the early…
ByLew
Last week I wrote a post entitled, “This I Used to Believe‘. Which was inspired by a recent broadcast from NPR called This I Believe. I planned on it being a Meme, but it doesn’t appear that anyone has taken me up on my offer. Today’s post is going to elaborate on last weeks post….