Preparing for 2010
I wanted to write this note last night when I got home from the church's annual business meeting, but a few minutes after I sat down on the coach and I was gone. It was a good kind of exhaustion though, like the tired that you feel after a good workout, both sore and content.It seems like we got a mountain of work down yesterday. The evening began with my presenting a "state of the church" celebrating our successes and identifying our challenges for 2010. From there we marched through the business of the church which included approving next year's budget, our church's first ever Statement of Faith, adding Mark Staples (a great guy!) to our deacon board, and approving a project t

Living like the Church
I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about the best way to relate to people outside the church. Within the last couple of decades there have been all kinds of different strategies of how to get people into our churches. On the one hand that's a good thing because hopefully they will hear the Gospel, accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, and grow as a Christian. On the other hand I think we have to ask the question, what sacrifices did we make to get people to come into the church?Recently I heard a pastor remark (unfortunately I can't remember which pastor) that Christians have had no trouble convincing the world that we can live like them. What we struggle with is showin

The Faith/Life Balance
The last few weeks have pushed my ability to remain balanced. With the planning for the Community Picnic, the actual picnic, the preparations for the church's annual meeting, thesis deadlines approaching, and my strong desire to spend quality time with the family; I have thought a lot about balance.Most of these things relate more to time management skills with a bit of overcommittment thrown in. There's another kind of balance that I am seeking in my life, the faith/life balance. By 'life' I mean the way that I live my life.On the one hand I know for certain that God loves me and that because of my faith in Jesus Christ my sins are forgiven (Eph 2:8-9). On the o

What is Church?
Years ago I would have never even thought to ask this question. Somehow the concept of church just made sense to me. I'm sure that this had a lot to do with growing up in a single church from a very early age. Now that I am a pastor I meet people who have come from a wide variety of different church backgrounds and styles. Sometimes the challege is seperating what is biblical from what is traditional.Others have already tackled this question from a biblical perspective. I'd certainly recommend reading Clowney's Church or Dever's analysis of a healthy church.I certainly wish the Bible was more clear on certain aspects of church government and administration,

9 Marks Weekender
It's Thursday and I am finally starting to get to the bottom of the mountain of things that built up last week while I was away at the 9 Marks Weekender. It was worth it though. For those of you who are not familiar, 9Marks (www.9marks.org) is a ministry of Capital Hill Baptist Church in downtown DC. The name refers to 9Marks of a healthy church. It has been pointed out that there could be quite a few more marks added to the list, but these are ones that seem to be absent in many of our churches today.On the top of their list is expository Bible preaching, biblical theology, and the Gospel. Amen.