What Do My Friends and Family Hear From Me?

I was deeply moved this morning by Scotty Smith's prayer for the day from his blog Heavenward.  Click Here for the entire prayer post.

This is our defining and delighting identity as your church—your called-out, beloved people.

     Our organization and flow charts don’t define us.  Our ecclesiastical heritage and theological nuancing don’t define us. Our worship style and pulpit don’t define us. Our mission statement and ministries don’t define us. Your unbreakable commitment to us and inexhaustible love for us are what make us who we are, and thrill us beyond all imagining, Lord Jesus.

     We are the people upon whom you have set your heart, for whom you gave your life, and to whom you are returning as a great Bridegroom. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! There’s no other relationship that comes close to offering the peace, joy and hope as your relationship with us.

More Than Dreams: Muslims Coming to Christ Through Dreams and Visions

This past Sunday, I mentioned the phenomenon of Muslims coming to trust Jesus as Savior through dream encounters.  I promised to blog some of the details from that illustration, so here goes.

First, from a January 2007 article from the Lausanne Movement magazine,

Innie or Outie? The Externally-Focused Church

Are you an "innie" or an "outie?"  I'm not talking about your navel, though it is sort of related.  Instead, I am referring to a life-or-death "posture of the heart" for churches and church people.  When it comes to matters of faith, is your heart "internally-focused?"  Or "externally-focused?" 

Art in the Life of the Church

We had a great weekend with friends from the Grace Photography Team joining us here at Christ Covenant.  Grace Community Church was a season in my life where I began to connect in fresh new ways to an understanding of the Gospel and art in the life of the local church.  Even more fun, I got to join in Gospel community with others as we tried to live that understanding out.

Part of clarifying my own sense of how the Gospel vision of life and faith effects art was to differentiate other approaches to art in the life of the church.  As I look back through my own history, I can see several different approaches.  At the risk of setting the argument, I give them my own name and description.

Why Plant Churches?

I heard a number of startling facts and figures last week at the meeting of the EPC Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic - my regional accountability structure and "church planting support group."  For instance: There is an annual net loss of churches in the United States of about 2000.  Click here for more.

Let's put aside for a moment all the issues related to making statements like these: the challenge of counting churches, determining what are the churches you want to count, etc. etc. etc.  Even as difficult as it is to ascertain the particulars of the data, the conclusion is one that most people would affirm, even intuitively.  Fewer people in the United States today have a meaningful relationship with Jesus and His community than in years not too far past.