Tag: Church Community

A diverse group of people singing and reading from books outdoors near a church building

A Community Supporting Itself

Leave a comment

“But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.” (Titus 2:1-8 CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the church this week. I mean, more than normal. Being a pastor, I’m thinking about the church all the time, but this week has been a bit different. I’ve got some ideas rolling around in my head this morning, and I’m going to take just a minute to start to flesh some of them out here. I had thought about writing about the new Punisher special from Marvel on Disney+, but there just wasn’t much to say there. This idea, though, has been nagging at me for a couple of days now. It will probably be explored even further as my sermon for next Sunday, but this will just give you a bit of a preview of coming attractions. I’m thinking today about what makes a church strong and impactful over time. The answer is Jesus, of course, but it’s also more than that. Let me explain what I mean.

Read the rest…

Real Community Matters

3 Comments

Above and before almost everything else, the church is a community. It is a community of Jesus followers called out for the purpose of advancing His message and mission in the world. As we wrap up our series, Authentic Church, we are going to be taking a look at this idea of the church’s being a community and why it matters so very much. If you want to know that a church is really a church, this is something you won’t want to miss.

Real Community Matters

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you are probably aware that there have been some protests on college campuses as the school year has wound down. Relative to the total number of college students in the country, these protests have been attended by a tiny minority of students (as well as a handful of non-students of varying sorts). They have ostensibly been pro-Palestine, but they’ve seemed to cross the line into being anti-Israel or even pro-Hamas on some occasions. In spite of their measly size, though, these protests have been covered endlessly in the media, making their messages and actions entirely more widely known than their actual numbers should have allowed. Yet while they are being cheered in some corridors, the reaction from most of the rest of the country has seemed to range between a massive eye roll at the sheer ignorance and ingratitude of these students and a hearty call for them all to be arrested and expelled. Schools that have tolerated or even placated the mobs have seen their reputations in the broader culture take a significant hit. 

Read the rest…