Search Results for: church

“Spiritual formation into Christlikeness involves an intentional public, personal, and communal commitment to living as Jesus’ disciples who are being transformed into His image in all aspects of our lives as we learn to obey His commands.” [1] Have you ever received a phone call that dramatically, unimaginably, and positively changed your life? I’m not talking about…

There’s a good chance you’ve heard The Parable of the Three Bricklayers.  There are several variations of this story but it’s important to know they are all rooted in real history.  After the Great Fire of 1666 that leveled London, the world’s most famous architect, Christopher Wren, was commissioned to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral.  One day,…

I’ll admit, I was late to the party – but I love the map apps on my phone. When the various map apps first came out, I was reluctant. I wasn’t keen on someone telling me to  “re-direct” my course. Now, I welcome the corrections and have no problem re-directing. Finding my way and arriving at…

We are in desperate need of disciple-making leaders in the church today. In my experience, these are rare finds. Instead, two types of leaders exist in most churches today; those who have never been discipled and those who have been discipled but never reach their leadership potential. Leaders who have never been discipled The first…

“I’m not good enough.” I don’t know why this thought established residence in my mind, but it did. Being “good enough” lives at the top of my list in the battle to obey and grow as greatest hurdle a disciple of Jesus. However, this phrase has been a powerful teacher, showing me the faithfulness of…

In two weeks, our youngest will return home from Basic Training. Back in the Spring, she enlisted in the Army Reserves, and her Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri began in late Summer. After three and a half months away, she will return home a different person. She will return home a soldier….

I went to a great seminary for my theological education. I learned Greek, Hebrew, and systematic theology. I took classes in Christian education, Church history, and preaching. I truly have no regrets regarding my seminary education. However, my seminary did not teach me much (if anything) about disciple making. It’s hard to believe that my education taught…

Because I work full-time at a secular job instead of full-time for a church, not everyone knows that I am a pastor. The people I work with can usually (hopefully) figure out I am a disciple of Jesus, but they often don’t figure out right away that my theology is fairly conservative. Even when people…

A disciple is a disciple-maker.  Plain and simple.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Yes, a disciple is one who is mature and steady in their faith, but also, one whose faith multiplies in the lives of others. Yes, a disciple is a Christ-follower, but also one who follows Him in order to become…

Several months ago, I found myself in a Midwestern hotel chain for three days at a working team retreat. Although we had many goals, our primary task was to revise our mission and vision statements. Having worked on mission and vision statements before, I was not looking forward to the process.  We word-smithed, cherry-picking the adjectives…

When I first joined the RDN (Relational Discipleship Network), one of the ways we had to shift our church was not in overall structure to our life groups, but in overall philosophy. We were already a church utilizing groups to teach and help people build relationships; we were also constantly encouraging people to be in…