Relationships and Community on Church Programs

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The Message We Want to Hear in Church

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Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 2:18-29, Psalm 50:16–23, Luke 9:23–25, Matthew 23:25–28 , Micah 6:6–8, Amos 5:21–24

Churches want to hear nice, optimistic messages, free of the mention of sin or a call for repentance. Churches want nice, lean programs, directed at nice, clean families, leading to growth without sac...

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The Shock-Value of Attending American MegaChurches for Third-World Missionary Kids

Author

Neil Cole

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Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, Amos 5:21-24 , Isaiah 1:11-17, John 4:21-24, Matthew 18:20, Psalm 95:6-7

A missionary family who has started organic churches in some of the most dangerous fields in the world once returned to the states for furlough. On the first Sunday back, they visited a large Baptist ...

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Author

David Putman & Ed Stetzer

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Scripture

Isaiah 29:13, Malachi 3:10 , Exodus 20:8-10, Hebrews 10:24-25, Luke 4:16, Psalm 84:10

The Barna Research Group reports that in the United States about 10 million self-proclaimed, born-again Christians have not been to church in the last six months, apart from Christmas or Easter.

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Four Years Later: Reflecting on Pandemic Ministry

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Lessons Learned in Quarantine and Beyond Do you remember that first Sunday when you stayed cloistered in your home with the immediate family, when you exchanged your dapper church clothes for a pair ...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

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Scripture

John 1:14, Matthew 9:36, Luke 19:10, John 15:15, Mark 10:45, Philippians 2:5-7, 1 John 4:9-10

The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular and local. The ways em...

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Quarreling Yesterday & Today

Author

Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer

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In Paul’s day the church quarreled over the Jewish law and over genealogies, over meat sacrificed to idols and sabbath practices, and over favoritism shown to the rich patrons and negligence shown to ...

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Author

Kevin G. Ford

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Among healthy churches, 93 percent of members considered themselves to be involved in some form of ministry (though not necessarily at their church), compared to only 11 percent of members in the less...

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The Bar and the Church

Author

Keith Miller and Bruce Larson

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Scripture

Matthew 9:10-13, Luke 15:11-32, Romans 3:23-24, 1 John 1:8-9

The neighborhood bar is possible the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church. It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but...

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Staying in our Christian Bubbles

Author

Sam Metcalf

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I was in London browsing one of the ubiquitous British tabloids and an advertisement for a new health club grabbed my attention. The picture was of a magnificent gothic church sanctuary that had been ...

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No More Long Sermons

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

One Sunday morning in a more traditional worship service, a rather verbose minister stepped up to the pulpit and announced to the congregation, "I've been told that I'll be moving on to l...

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Author

Sam Allberry

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The membership of every local church is no accident; it is by divine design. There is no one there who is a spare part, a third foot, or second nose. There is no one there who is not necessary, or who...

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Author

Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 43:18-19 , 1 Samuel 16:7 , Jeremiah 7:4-7, Matthew 9:16-17, Mark 7:6-9, Psalm 96:3

In most cases, the existing church culture is from a former era that is only meaningful to those in the church, not those in the community.

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Working on Our Muscle Memory

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 18:20, 1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 10:24-25, Acts 2:42-47, Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 4:15-16, Romans 12:4-5

Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own sermons, as I was trying to help a congregation see itself not as a building, but the body of Christ. It has been adapted for TPW. No...

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Author

Nicky Gumbel

Keywords

Church is not an organization you join; it is a family where you belong, a home where you are loved and a hospital where you find healing.

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We’ve Added Color!

Author

Sam Metcalf

Keywords

I was taking a tour of the Church of Scotland’s beautiful Glasgow Cathedral, which is technically the High Kirk of Glasgow. It is estimated that over 50,000 university students live within walking dis...

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Gathering & Scattering

Author

John R. W. Stott

Keywords

The Missional Church

I sometimes wonder (although I exaggerate in order to make my point) if it would not be very healthy for church members to meet only on Sundays (for worship, fellowship and teaching) and not at all mi...

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Just as I Ain’t

Author

Andy Stanley

Keywords

Church Culture

I grew up attending churches designed for church people. No one said it, but the assumption was that church was for church people. The unspoken message to the outside world was, “Once you start believ...

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Adapted from Hebrews 10:19-25

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Scripture

Hebrews 10:19-25

Leader: Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, All: by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, t...

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Pastor: Who are you? Ministers: We are

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Pastor: Who are you? Ministers: We are God’s people, called by God’s love in Jesus the Christ, not because we are adequate or worthy, but because of God’s acceptance of us. Pastor: Why have you c...

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Missional Ministry: Crossing to the Other Side of the Street

Author

Leonard Sweet

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 18:1-8 , 2 Kings 4:1-7, Micah 6:8, Luke 10:25-37, Mark 10:45, Psalm 82:3-4

Leonard Sweet shares an interesting story in the introduction to Neil Cole’s book, Organic Church , about a parish pastor who lived in a Scottish village near Edinburgh called Davidson’s Mains. ...

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Adapted from Colossians 3:12-17

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-17

Leader: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience All: bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against an...

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Defining the Parish System

Author

Don Everts

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:4-7, Micah 4:3-4, Matthew 5:9 , Romans 12:18-21 , Psalm 34:14

This concept [the parish system] has helped Christians understand how interconnected all the pieces within a community are and the importance of pursuing the common good there. Jesus’ call to be peace...

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He’d Be Wrong!

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Segregation

Reporters Alex Alston and James Dickerson tell a sad story about a church that sought to integrate its ranks: The Mississippi Delta was in a tizzy over rumors that blacks might show up at white church...

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The Church of San Diego

Author

Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:12-13, John 17:21, 1 Corinthians 3:4, Romans 3:28, Acts 4:32

We were recently with a collection of pastors in San Diego and were asked to share about our common call to peacemaking. Fully aware of the posturing and isolation of many of these churches, we found ...

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God of mercy, we come before you with open hearts

Author

Keith D. Schroeder

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:9, 2 Corinthians 4:1, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 80:3, Matthew 16:18, Isaiah 43:19

Leader: God of mercy, we come before you with honest hearts. We bring not only our praise, but also our pain. We confess that at times we have lost heart. Hear now our lament, and kindle in us your ho...

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Turning from Conflict to Conversion

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Jonah 1:4, Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:21-35, Psalm 34:8, Romans 8:28

Maltbie D. Babcock, author of This Is My Father’s World and a Presbyterian pastor in Brooklyn, introduced a free pew system in his church, upsetting a wealthy woman who found strangers in her us...

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Hebrews 10:21-25 "And having a high priest over

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Scripture

Hebrews 10:21-25

And having a high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pur...

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The Church Split Over… What, Precisely?

Author

Michael L. Lindvall

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Presbyterian minister Michael Lindvall begins his fictional story about a pastor in the Midwest in The Good News from North Haven like this: I am the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church. There is...

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Waking People up to Christ

Author

Bruce Larson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Jonah 4:1-11, Numbers 22:21-34, Matthew 9:10-13, Mark 2:23-28, Psalm 19:12-14

It takes a great deal of freedom and love to be therapeutic with a group. Many years ago when Emil Brunner, the great Swiss theologian, was lecturing in this country, it was reported that when he prea...

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Author

Alan J. Roxburgh

Keywords

What is God up to in our neighborhoods and communities? How do we join with what God is doing in these places? Church questions are a subset of these far more important questions.”

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