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I don’t think I ever heard my Mom swear. Not my Dad, either. Well, sometimes, when caught in a really bad day, he would say “Damn!” and hit the steering wheel. I do remember that. Otherwise, pretty much never. Me, I like to drop the occasional F-bomb because it feels right or because I feel…
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7 Keys to engaging young adults in church
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5 min read
Walking through the doors and into the nave, I make pretty snap judgments. [The nave is what some denominations refer to as the sanctuary or worship space] “Oh, they hide the font in the back corner.” “They built a new altar so they could worship the high altar like an idol.” “Choir pews between the…
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Engaging Everyone in Church
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1 min read
Our primary operating assumptions need to be: Church is the people not the building. Every part of the church (the people) is essential. Every person has gifts. In baptism, we are all equal. Our expression of church should match our operating assumptions. My series on engaging everyone in church argues that every single one of…
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Mixtape Monday: the slow build
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1 min read
One of my favorite parts about music is the slow build. What I mean by this is the song that starts simple, soft, and slow. And it gets you listening to it’s quiet and before you know it you are raptly focused on the words, listening for something. You don’t know what. And then it…
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Whose son is he?
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3 min read
Proper 25A Matthew 22:34-46 In this corna! Weighing in at a paltry 135 pounds of emaciated flesh, Jesus of Nazareth! And in this corna! Weighing a combined 1,600 portly pounds, the Pharisees! [Booooo!] For the last few weeks, we’ve been dealing with this sequence in Jerusalem in which Jesus is tangling with the Jewish leadership.…
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9 Keys to engaging youth in church
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5 min read
[This post inspired my ebook, A Church for All. I encourage you to check out the information page to find out more!] When I started this series of posts on engaging different age groups in church (so far children and pre-teens), I deliberately chose the word church, rather than ministry. Engaging people in ministry isn’t…
Make a New Normal
