Friendly Church?

“A pastor saw Robert Schuller’s TV program “Hour of Power.” One of the things that impressed him the most during the program was watching everyone turning around to shake hands with and greet other worshippers seated near them.
The pastor felt that his church was a bit stuffy and could use a bit of friendliness. So, [...]

Environment

God is a God of beauty.  God is creative and we see that in creation.  We have some creative people at Zion who can enhance our church campus with landscaping.  It compliments the architect and designers who planned the building.  The outer environment, when possible, should make a statement about what we believe about God [...]

Go Figure

1.2 million Lives saved by President George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for aids Relief (PEPFAR).
$2,450 Amount it cost to avert each death.
(Source: Annals of Internal Medicine)

11% Americans who think President Obama is a Muslim.
19% Evangelical Protestants who think this.
38% Evangelical Protestants who think Obama is a Christian. In October 2008, 45% thought so.
(Source: Pew [...]

How To Know What Time it Is…

The tradition of our church (like many others) is to follow a different calendar than the world.  Yesterday we celebrated “Pentecost”, the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Our Sundays beat to the rhythm of a different cycle – a cycle that follows the life of Jesus. And during the longest season, Ordinary Tine (Kingdomtide) we [...]

Blowing the Whistle

This news story makes me shake my head…
“Parents of girls on a Maryland soccer team have been banished to a distant hillside to watch games. The penalty was imposed after the parents crowded around a referee after a loss, complaining about his decisions, with one parent yelling at the ref’s daughter, “Your father should be [...]

Rick’s Got it Right…

In his first interview since delivering the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, Pastor Rick Warren made clear that he is not a consultant for the president but rather a friend.
“I’m a friend and I’m a prayer partner, but I’m not a consultant,” Warren said on CNN’s Larry King Live on Monday. “I’m not a pundit. [...]

United Evangelical Good Friday Service

I just got out of a meeting.  Leaders met to plan the Good Friday Service.  It will be held at the Christian High School this year on April 10 – 1PM.  
Kerry Wilson got roped into giving the sermon.  There was a great spirit of unity among the group as we planned.  And this was [...]

Anxious Times

Yesterday I learned a lot from another all day workshop: “Leadership in Anxious Times.”  Our leader was Peter Steinke, a church consultant.  He gave us a quick lesson on “family systems” theory and applied it to local churches.  I also learned quite a bit about how our brains are wired.
What did I learn?  People in [...]

Veritas

I attended an all day workshop entitled, “Veritas” which means truth.  The subject was about telling the truth about church revitalization.  The Covenant’s vision is to move all churches to be HEALTHY, MISSIONAL CHURCHES.  But Churches fall into four categories between life and death:

Healthy, Missional Churches
Stable Churches
Critical Moment Churches
At Risk Churches

Rev. Dr. John Wenrich taught [...]

Nobody

Fred Everybody, Thomas Somebody, Peter Anybody, and Joe Nobody were neighbors, but not the type that most would want to know. They were odd people, troublesome, and difficult to understand. The way they lived their lives was a shame. These men all went to the same church, but most would not have wanted them [...]