Churchy: "Serve" Scriptures

I'll be preaching on the idea of "service" in about 10 hours. The Bible is full of great passages about this topic. Here are a few of my favorites:

Deut 10:12-13
12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in …

Encouraging Those Who Teach Us

Galatians 6:6 says, "Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor." Recently someone whom I'm just getting to know told me how God used a sermon (specifically 3 words from that sermon) to bring healing. I needed this. I'd …

Churchy: Correction

You may have caught a verbal slip of mine on Sunday. I strayed from my notes in order to add a bit of perspective and mentioned that the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) took place over a month after Jesus' ascension. I later realized that I wasn't thinking straight. It was 40 …

Dreams & Goals

Goal-setting has not been a strong part of my leadership. I need to improve. But dreaming and taking steps towards them is something that I'm getting better at. I read a great blog that I think holds great insight into both of these things. It points-out that our …

Churchy: What does "traditional" mean?

I have no idea what "traditional church" means. I think I get what people are trying to say, it's just very limited. For most people, their idea of "traditional" is how we programmed church stuff when they were growing up (30, 40, 50 years ago). But it's all subjective. …

White Space Day

I spent the day with Kenneth & Lane, two close friends & partners in ministry. We got the idea about 4 months ago & finally followed-through. The good things that happened for me personally are... 1. Personal accountability. 2. They helped me flesh-out some ministry …

Dinner for the basketball guys

We have a group of 30-50 guys who show up late on Sunday nights to play ball in our church gym every week. It's something I do to connect with these guys, and basketball provides a common ground. Most of them are in their young 20's or late teens and grew up in an urban …

The Perfect Match (A Short Film)

I did a little project last week that was fun for me, and stretched me. I had decided to enter a short film in a local film festival that raises money for the Child Abuse Network, and last Wed-Thurs was our window. I took a vacation day and spent about 16 hours on it. …

Churchy: "Church in the Magical Forest."

"Church in the Magical Forest"
written by Brian Jennings

Once upon a time
in a magical forest
Along came a priest
with a beautiful chorus

He wasn't fancy or eloquent
but had a simple call
You are not alone
in this world after all

He told all the …

Churchy: Cussing

Sometimes when guys are playing ball at the church building, they cuss. Usually, one of the other guys will get onto them, "Hey, we in the church." Often times they apologize to me. I appreciate this, and make sure they know that I'm cool with them. Honestly, I'm not …

Churchy: Amputation

Sometimes amputation is necessary to keep the body alive. It's true for physical bodies. It's true for the Body of Christ. I Corinthians 5 is a hard chapter, but an important one. The hope of confrontation ought to always be restoration, but sometimes someone refuses to …

Churchy: Scriptures

Tomorrow I'll be preaching about the primary metaphor that the Bible uses to describe the church - The Body of Christ.
There are so many insightful Scriptures that we won't have time to study them all, so I've pasted a number of these below. It might be a good study …

Churchy: "It just didn't feel like church..." (from Brian & Dale)

Sometimes when we don't meet in our worship center, we hear the comment, "It just didn't feel like church in there." I think this comment reflects a distorted view of church. Church is the people who follow Jesus. It's not the place. It's not the program. Gathering for …

Why Africa Needs Christianity (from an Atheist's perspective)

My wife found an article that gets to a truth that I believe with all of my heart. An organization can help people a little by giving them food, medicine and schools. But that help won't lead to true change. Change occurs when the heart changes, and only God can change …

Churchy: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

This morning we began a series called Churchy. I was a little nervous about today for several reasons?

1. We talked about how any local church can be good, bad or ugly. I wanted people to not misunderstand what I was trying to say.
2. I was feeling a little under …

Slumdog Millionaire - Not Cheap Entertainment

I finally got to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was emotionally gripping from the opening scene & never let go. It was all great - music, drama, cinematography - but the story is in a league w/ few others. It's intense & Beth about squeezed my hand off, but she loved it …