Category: ecclesiology
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A Response To “An Open Letter To Everyone Over 40 Who Has Left The Church”
Author Margaret Feinberg has penned a kind and genuine expression of concern for those who have left the institutional church at midlife. (Click here to read it.) She affirms the types of issues that typically push some empty-nesters out of the spiritual roost, then pleads with leavers to return in order to nurture the next…
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Teaching to indoctrinate or to educate?
It took me a long time to understand the difference between teaching (informing, enlightening) and preaching (re-presenting the Good News). It is unusual in our culture to find a church with leaders who are gifted preachers. Most churches we’ve attended have had teachers in the pulpit. Even those who claim to have a deep commitment…
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All In The Family?
Yesterday, the Out of Ur blog ran a post about one of the key reasons for the demise of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. The author of the post wrote, “A former Crystal Cathedral board member believes family dynamics led, in part, to the decline of the ministry.” After summarizing the low points of the long,…
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(Don’t) take me to your leader
What is it like to be led by a spiritual leader who has immersed himself/herself in Leader Culture? You probably know a leader like this: a man or woman who devours John Maxwell books by the pound, attends conferences devoted to training his or her inner alpha dog, and exercises a vocabulary packed with tech…
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Who read Scripture during your church service this morning?
Should women be permitted to read Scripture aloud in a church service? Probably for many of you reading this, the answer would be a simple yes. Neo-Reformed church leader and uber blogger Tim Chailles delivers an emphatic “No!” in this post. In his congregation as well many others in both fundamentalist and neo-Calvinist camps, including…