Tom Sine’s latest book, The New Conspirators, celebrates the increasing diversity in the church. Sine’s book continues the theme of his classic book, The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, published in 1981. Sine was a ‘red-letter Christian’ before the official group existed, and in this hopeful volume he gives us examples across the spectrum of the 21st [...]
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Archive | August, 2008
Why cows are not Baptist
August 26, 2008
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I am not making this up. According to Reuters, scientists have discovered that cows line up with the North-South magnetic axis of the earth when grazing. Here’s how they figured this out: The researchers studied 8,510 satellite images of cattle and deer herds derived from Google Earth from around the globe, including 308 pastures and [...]
Read moreChurch membership reimagined
August 24, 2008
13 Comments
Some in my Southern Baptist denomination are calling for more stringent church discipline. That’s mostly because we can’t find about half of our 16-million members. Obviously, some of our folks don’t take church membership very seriously. The logical thing to do to solve that problem is tighten up — enforce church discipline — make members [...]
Read moreSermon: Living Sacrifice, Graceful Service
August 23, 2008
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Here’s the sermon I’m preaching Sunday, August 24, 2008, from Romans 12:1-8. I hope you have a wonderful day on Sunday.
Read moreAre sermons dying?
August 21, 2008
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Are sermons dying? I don’t mean is your preaching killing people, but are sermons themselves going the way of the dodo bird — headed for extinction? Worship in most evangelical churches, and that includes many small churches, still resembles evangelical worship in 19th century churches — singing, prayer, offering, preaching, invitation. Charles Spurgeon would be [...]
Read moreKeep warm and well fed
August 20, 2008
4 Comments
She called today. Soft-spoken, courteous, hesitant. “My husband just got laid-off,” she said. “He’s applied for unemployment, but that won’t start until next week. They’re going to turn our lights off if we don’t pay the $150 we owe. I was wondering if your church could help us?” The four churches in our small town [...]
Read moreSermon podcast: “Imprisoned by God’s Mercy”
August 19, 2008
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Okay, I’m trying to get back into the routine of posting my sermon podcasts every week. Here’s my sermon from Sunday, August 17, 2008, titled “Imprisoned by God’s Mercy.” The lectionary text was Romans 11:1-2, 29-32. I hope it’s helpful.
Read moreIt’s business AND it’s personal
August 18, 2008
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Remember that scene from The Godfather? Don Corleone has just been hit. Michael, Sonny, Tom, and the Corleone gang, are trying to figure out how to settle the score. Michael, the cleancut college kid and war hero, volunteers to kill the guys responsible. Sonny chides Michael for letting it get “personal.” To which Michael replies, [...]
Read moreSermon: “Imprisoned by God’s Mercy” – Sunday, Aug 17, 2008
August 16, 2008
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Imprisoned by God’s Mercy Romans 11:1-2, 29-32
Read moreAlltop.com features “Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor”
August 16, 2008
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Alltop.com is a new blog aggregator from the minds of the same folks who brought you truemors.com. Alltops aggregates a huge amount of stuff in a variety of categories, church.alltop.com being one of them. I am happy to report that we made the cut, or the grade, or whatever their selection criteria is. You might [...]
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Podcasts
- Living in the Power of Pentecost
- A Mother's Sacrifice
- Worshipping and DoubtingIn Matthew 28:16-20, we usually miss verse 17: "They worshipped him, but some doubted." What did the 11 disciples doubt during this post-resurrection appearance of Jesus? Did they doubt that he had been resurrected? Or that he was the Messiah, the Son of God? Or did they doubt themselves and their ability to carry on after Jesus left them? The inte […]
- If You Love Jesus
- Living in Light of Easter
