Search Results for: church

We like to look back on the previous year, as the new one begins, to note the things that stood out to us and the things we want to remember. So we want stop early in 2023 to note the top blogs that appeared on discipleship.org in 2022. Our list is based upon a strict…

The longer I am in ministry, the more clearly I notice the differences between true disciple making and Christian education. There are many people in church leadership today who think Christian education is the same thing as Jesus-style disciple making. They are not the same thing! Let me attempt to summarize the difference. First, Christian…

Silence. Although it was just over 10 years ago, I remember vividly the absolute silence surrounded me. Sitting on a log, I contemplated the walk through the snow back to my truck. I had spent the morning deer hunting and found myself less interested in the hunt and more wanting to hear from God. So,…

Jesus’ words have an urgency about them The New Living Translation picks up on it. “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work,” (John 9.4, NLT). We must quickly be about this business. Why? Because night is coming, soon no man can…

God’s intentionality in my life never ceases to amaze me. Seasons of transition and change are never easy, and this season began with my wife and I feeling released from our old church: the church where we thought we’d grow old. We were both on staff at that church, and we had been dreaming of…

“Why is every donut shop in California the same?” That was a question I asked multiple people after moving my family to SoCal in 2015 to plant a church.  It was an honest question that came from my experience of visiting multiple independently owned Mom and Pop donut shops. Here’s what I observed in my…

Kade* is a new follower of Jesus among the Moko* people. He lives in a large village of about 2,000 people. He is probably the only follower of Jesus in his village, and there are almost no Christians among his language group of 70,000 people. But almost two years ago, an African Vineyard church planter…

Church leaders like to measure things. We measure attendance, salvations, baptisms, and the offering. And that’s a good thing! Measuring matters and helps you do a better job as a church. The key question, however, is: what is the most important thing we measure? What metric is the single most important metric in Christ’s Church? If…

Mason Carmichael’s Story: Netflix, dinner alone, sleep, repeat. That’s how every evening went for me back in 2017. And I thought I wanted it that way. A few months before, I had decided to walk away from a staff position at my church to take a job in sales. I moved 40 minutes down the road, leaving…

“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,…