Tag: Getting Church right

Digging in Deeper: Galatians 6:1

Leave a comment

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve been talking more and more often about the church lately, and today is going to follow in that pattern. I was reminded just last night while watching one of the shows my bride and I enjoy together of yet another reason the church matters so very much. This time, though, the reason is hard. It’s hard on both sides of the equation too. Yet in spite of the difficulty of this reason and its expression, its significance to our lives and to the life of the church more generally is hard to overstate. Let’s talk this morning about birthing babies, nearly missed affairs, and why the church is so important.

Read the rest…

Practicing for the Real Thing

1 Comment

Growing is hard. Sometimes it hurts. It means things won’t or even can’t be the same as they were before. But growing is also necessary. Things that aren’t growing are slowly dying. This is true about our bodies. It’s true about organizations. It’s true about the church. When the church is growing, we often experience growing pains. This week and next we are talking about a couple of key foundation points that can help us navigate those challenges should they come.

Practicing for the Real Thing

Do you remember having growing pains when you were a kid? Those were awful. I remember weeks when my legs would just hurt. I hadn’t done anything. There was nothing that I could do to stop it. It didn’t really keep me from doing anything. But they hurt. I’m not sure about a precise medical reason for growing pains, but I can offer a layman’s explanation that seems to make a lot of sense. When you are getting taller, everything has to stretch. Skin gets pulled tighter as it expands. Bones get longer. Blood vessels are lengthening to match. Lung capacity is expanding to push oxygen to all the new boundaries of your body. Everything is getting yanked and pulled and stretched out. I don’t know about you, but I feel that kind of discomfort when I try to touch my toes. Now, imagine a period of several months where your whole body is doing that whether you want it to or not. But instead of the stretch ending after a few seconds, it just keeps going. 

Read the rest…

Toward a Purpose

Leave a comment

This past Sunday we continued in our new teaching series, Nuts and Bolts. Last week we talked about what the church is. This week, we spent our time experiencing together what the church is for. I say experiencing because that’s more of what this service was. Below is the short message I gave at the beginning of the experience. For the rest of the experience and some powerful examples of what it looks like when we get the church right, watch the imbedded video of the service. When we get the church right, the work of Jesus is made possible. Check out some examples of what this looks like below.

Toward a Purpose

The church gets a lot of things wrong. Have you ever thought that? I have a pretty strong suspicion that even if you haven’t you know at least one person who thinks that. You may know a whole bunch of them. You may live with one—or more. Now, depending on how outspoken you happen to be about your own attachment to the church they may sit on those particular thoughts out of respect for you, but they’re there. Do you know why they think the church gets a whole bunch of things wrong? Because the church gets a whole bunch of things wrong. 

Read the rest…