One of the shifts we are experiencing culturally is that experience is becoming the new spirituality of our day. In other words, we are becoming more “Eastern” in our sensibilities. This can be good or bad.
One of the shifts we are experiencing culturally is that experience is becoming the new spirituality of our day. In other words, we are becoming more “Eastern” in our sensibilities. This can be good or bad.
In a stunning op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State, and Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester, give a full-throated denunciation of transgender ideology titled “The Dangerous Denial of Sex.” Their position can be summed up in a sentence: “Increasingly we see a dangerous and antiscientific trend toward the outright denial of biological sex.”
For some time in this blog I have chronicled the “rise of the nones,” meaning the rapid increase of the number of people who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated.I was recently intrigued by the findings of political scientist Melissa Deckman of Washington College, who has raised the possibility that the rise of the nones may be slowing, and the overall number even leveling off.
What hinders churches are not failed goals, but the failure to set goals and launch them with boldness and courage. Too often we let the fear of failure determine the steps we take and, perhaps more importantly, the steps we do not take.
I have no intention of throwing rocks at other leaders who fall, for there but by the grace of God go I. But I do have a desire to keep other pastors from falling—including myself. I have a vantage point from nearly four decades of filling the role of a pastor. That means I have not only observed the temptations of my own life, but have also witnessed, often in up close and personal ways, the train wrecks that have sadly befallen others. So here are five reasons pastors fall.
There is no end of opinions regarding “the” biblical model of leadership. There is the leader as CEO, servant, shepherd, visionary, teacher, discipler, counselor, chaplain… and to make matters worse, most make their case by discounting the others. The one model of leadership that is often missing is the one that I do feel is the most biblical.
Yes, there is one thing that is arguably the most important thing a church can do if it wants to grow—besides pray, that is. And yes, I will tell you exactly what it is. But first…
At Meck, we send every first-time guest we have record of a questionnaire. The answers have proven invaluable. Where evaluation is needed is between that of an unchurched person who has been invited by a friend, and a very churched person looking for a new church home who found us randomly. It’s almost comical.
It would seem to go without saying that the clarion call of the church would be outreach, coupled with a renewed missional mindset that wrestles with the question Lesslie Newbigin pursued throughout his writings: “What would be involved in a missionary encounter between the Gospel and this whole way of perceiving, thinking and living that we call ‘modern Western culture’?” Yet many simply lament and pray for revival.
There are many pressing areas in need of fresh theological thinking in light of a rapidly changing world. The redefinition of family, the nature of sexual identity, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering... and the digital church.
