What Are We Planting?
One of the new catchphrases in the missional church world is that we shouldn’t plant churches, we should plant the gospel. By being gospel-centered, rather than church-centered (normally pronounced, “Self-centered”), the mission can be preserved. It’s also a way of…
Pattern of Life
Most of the time that I have heard talk of “being Christlike,” it has usually been in reference to polite behavior. As if the gospel message were basically, “God is redeeming all of creation and has filled us with the…
A Wedding Sermon
I was privileged to perform my first wedding ceremony for my very dear friends Patrick and Luz in Los Angeles this past weekend. Below is, for the most part, the homily that I gave. A note about posting a bunch…
Ironic Church Planting
When I was in seminary, the head of the youth and family ministry department spoke to the new class of students and said that we shouldn’t go into youth ministry unless we were in it for the long haul and…
Day Old Manna
Here is the sermon I gave for our sunrise Easter service yesterday. Seems weird to be posting a couple of sermons lately, but an Easter reflection really would provide some closure to the posts from Lent. The title of this…
Saturday
[This is a sermon I gave to fellow students while I was in seminary. It is somewhat specific to that audience, but I thought I should maybe just put it out there for whoever to read. It is a reflection…
Lenten Question 3: “Are you able to drink this cup?”
The 1950’s were great. In fact, probably the high point of human society. Of the many wonders of the decade, the advent of mass produced home appliances has to rank pretty highly. They revolutionized home life by making mundane tasks…
A Quote about Church
Have been doing some thinking and reading lately about the idea of being a missional church. Maybe it’s not something that we can become gradually, but there has to be a near-complete break from what we’re doing now. Something like…
Lenten Question 2: “What do you want me to do for you?”
I stood in the hallway nervous, but pretending not to be. Inside, voices planned a psychological test–would the boy sit in the hard chair or the soft chair? Even at the age of 16, I was pretty sure they were…
Lenten Question 1: “Why do you call me good?”
Jesus asks an interesting question in Mark chapter ten, which I have never fully considered: “Why do you call me good?” He’s getting ready to go on a trip, and this rich man runs to him and kneels down, desperately…
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