Consulting, Coaching & Chatter

I was working on a worship evaluation and thought that I’d share words and recommendations about a church’s welcome. If you’re going to be open and welcome to guests, you might want to consider the following. Read More!!

I get to see a lot of church newsletters pretty regularly. Some come by email, some with a stamp, but what they all have in common is that I get them. Since I’m not a member of most of these churches, I have to surmise that I’m not the only non-member who’s getting their news. In fact, I suspect that most visitors who bother to leave their contact information probably end up on the mailing list … that’s just good practice. Well, it should be good practice, but for many of the churches who are sending me newsletters, it would actually be a terrible practice. Read More!!

In difficult times, churches have a tendency to clap shut their shutters, hide their money under mattresses, and delay anything that might be innovative and new - especially if it costs more than a nickle. Okay, so I exaggerate. A little. But the reality is that when the economy or the political winds turn fierce, churches tend to put on their most conservative faces and practices, and I don’ t mean theologically (though I guess some of that too). Amidst those practices, the church often defaults to it’s oldest and wisest leaders for direction for almost everything. Decisions are made carefully, thoughtfully, and conservatively lest the actions make the situation even worse than it is. Read More!!

I wrote this entry the other day and I think I posted it … but in the great server switchover, it appears to have been misplaced. So, just in case, here it is again. Read More!!

Maybe it’s the circles I’m hanging with lately, but suddenly there’s a jump in the interest on house church. Bill Easum’s article in On Track (the 21st Century Strategies monthly E-zine) reviewed Frank Viola’s Reimagining the Church because of “the importance of the book.” And I agree, it’s an important book, just as Viola’s Pagan Christianity was important. However, when it comes to the mainline church, I suspect Viola’s message will mostly fall on deaf ears. Why? I invite you to read the books for the whole scoop, but here’s a reality of these books: they discount virtually every practice and tradition the church holds sacred. In these books, Viola slaughters more sacred cows than Iowa Beef Processors. Pulpits and pews? They’re gone. Vestments? So yesterday. Preaching? Gone. Buildings? Apostate … or almost … living rooms are okay. Read More!!

George Barna recently came out with a poll reporting that the majority of Christians don’t believe in either Satan or the Holy Spirit. Since then, I have received a small mountain of emails with Christian leaders crying “Where did the church go wrong?” I suppose these questions probably deserve and answer, but I’m not going to be the one writing treatises on where the church failed – at least not with this blog post. The sad fact is, that anyone who’s suddenly astounded with reports like these are woefully out of touch with the “real” world anyway. Read More!!

Today I’m beginning the last leg of three weeks on the road. It’s been an interesting journey that almost transcends history. Read More!!

Yesterday morning I was in my hotel’s breakfast nook with Trevor from Cambodia. Sitting at the next table was Glenn and Bob (not his real name). Bob was the only non-Christian among us and he and Glenn were having a typical “Geek” conversation about TYPO3 (the website content management system that was the focus of the conference we were all attending). Read More!!

I’ve been in one of my too busy to think jags for the past month or so, so blog posting has been in the back seat. Today, I’m in Dallas, Texas at the TYPO3 conference sponsored by the Web-Empowered Church (the 21st Century Strategies website and the Net Results websites are both TYPO3 sites), so blogging isn’t on the front burner either. So, I was having a conversation with Glenn Kelley, the head dude at Vine Hosting (who hosts our website - did I mention I’ve entered geek-world 2009?) and he suggested that during slow times like this that I should post some of my former writings. Once upon a time when I was a local pastor, I used to write a weekly column based on questions readers asked about “God, the church, the world, and everything.” I wrote weekly for seven years and produced over 350 columns that answered all sorts of questions, some better, some not. And so, now and again, I’ll be posting some of these columns. Because it’s a far stretch from church planting, coaching, consulting, transformation, or leadership training, I’ve created a new category called “Conversation Starters.” For those looking for something to talk about in small groups, these columns (posts) could be used to launch conversations. Or not. The good news is that if these posts aren’t your cuppa tea, then you can take a look at posts from other categories. Read More!!

I checked and it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve blogged. Those who follow this closely (both of you J) might have wondered if I’d fallen off the face of the planet or if I had suddenly got really, really busy. I’ll claim the latter, though sometimes it feels like the former. The bad news, I suppose, is that the near future doesn’t look much better. I’ve still got too many jobs and not enough hours to do them in. Read More!!