Is Your Church a Cruise Ship or Aircraft Carrier? 10 Ways to Find Out

Recently my friend Emily told me she visited a church so big she needed a map to get around.  Coming from a relatively small church that meets in an elementary school, she was astounded at this sprawling church campus. The facility housed a restaurant, coffee bar, lounge, escalators, and multiple worship spaces, each with high-tech sound equipment. In the lobby massive concrete columns rose up three stories into a glass atrium and sunlight streamed in to illuminate the hip and modern architecture.  But the strangest thing, she said, was that this colossal building, filled with largely affluent congregants, sat in a crowded urban area in a poverty-stricken neighborhood.  As far as she could tell, no one from that neighborhood was present. The church reminded her of a cruise ship docked in a third world country!  The walls even had round, fishbowl windows, driving home the cruise ship effect.

The Preacher and The Emcee….

The emcee is but one element of Hip Hop, but this one element has become the most influential component of Hip Hop. Ironically the emcee began as the sidekick to the DJ. These days that equation has almost been completely flipped it almost appears that the DJ is either a sidekick or completely forgotten about.

LOL (Love Out Loud)

A review of Jean-Paul Heldt's, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.

I wanted to share some thoughts about an article I recently read by Jean-Paul Heldt, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.  Heldt introduces a statement by Robert Speer, “evangelization is nothing less than the good news in action."  

Unconditional Movie

Samantha Crawford's life is a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live. 

The Climax (Authentic Worship Part 2)

How do we know that we’ve reached the climax?  An aspect of the climax/worship one must consider in this tension is that “Worship…is not only the public acts we do as a gathered community [or private times of worship], but our very way of day-to-day life.”   

The Climax (Authentic Worship Part 1)

The object of people’s worship may be religious, material, ideological, or any number of things.  This is possible since worship, in its general sense, has to do with ascribing worth, and dedicating one’s self and resources, to someone or something.  Christians are not necessarily set apart from those who worship Mohammed, Buddha, or capitalism, etc., because of their acts of worship or their level of devotion.  Instead what sets true Christian worship

THE CHURCH, society's newest attraction?

Has the church confused the mission of the church with themed attractions?  Let me present form parallels between a roller coaster and church.  A person pays their admissions to get onto the roller coaster, raise their hands from the thrills, yell and scream from the emotional excitement, get off the ride, and decide whether or not to get back on ride.  The person may say, “That was a great ride” but may never return due to a lack of commitment.  Analogous to the roller coasters, churches have thrilled