Value in the Church
Published September 2, 2012I was talking with a woman the other day, and I mentioned that we had just finished a new church building. I suggested that she’d like it because it’s a beautiful and comfortable place. Her response surprised me, although it shouldn’t have: “Oh, I come to be with the people…the building is just there.” So, here I am writing this today and reflecting on my value system. Do we really put more store in the building than the people? I know that if you held by feet to the fire, so to speak, I’d say, “Oh yeah…it’s the people. That’s [...]
read moreSpeaking the Truth In Love
Published June 22, 2012The local church is experiencing a deficit of confidence. God’s people have drifted away from sound doctrine and a proper respect for their pastors. This is showing itself much in the same way that raising our children caused tensions between us parents and our offspring. There were times in my personal experience when one of my children said to me, “You hurt my feelings and I hate you.” Yeah, okay…I can take it from a kid, but when the same thing happens with a parishioner it’s harder to take. There seems to be a large attitude in the local church [...]
read moreHoliness
Published February 23, 2012Today’s church has lost its sense of holiness. Everything has been “dumbed down”, so to speak, to fit the contemporary mood. We don’t dress up for church anymore. We don’t sing hymns; we don’t have stained-glass windows; we don’t preach the holy life, and we certainly don’t make trips to the altar “to pray through our sins.” What’s going on? Well, we’re pretty much on schedule for the end of age apostasy that the Bible speaks about. Peter writes to the New Testament church: “As He who called you is holy; you also be holy in all your conduct, because [...]
read moreRecovering the New Testament Church
Published August 12, 2010Home churches are all the rage now as believers reject the traditional church and seek a new religious satisfaction. They seem to think that by cutting out a paid clergy, buildings, doctrine and ecclesiastical order they’ll effectively find the New Testament church. I wonder. I recently spoke with one of our former members who lives near Tulsa, OK. She is part of a splinter group that is starting a home church. Jean gave them a copy of our “Church Organizational Pamphlet” to keep from reinventing the wheel. Their pastor liked it, and he asked for more info, which I sent. [...]
read moreCOS – Church on Sunday
Published June 15, 2010We’ve been traveling in Oklahoma and Texas. Wherever we go I’m interested in other churches and who they are and what they’re doing. Ran across one in Grove, OK, on Grand Lake that mystifies me. We drove by it and noticed the sign: COS. That’s what the sign in front of this nice looking, large building, with a big parking lot said: COS. I didn’t get it. It was obviously a church, but the bold declaration across the top of the sign was just three letters in caps. My wife called my attention to the line below, which I thought [...]
read moreStar Power
Published May 12, 2010The contemporary American church wants “star” churches. This is becoming more and more apparent as large churches get larger and smaller churches get smaller. The “religious community” it seems wants to go where there is “star power.” They don’t want to go to a small, quiet, humble, unpretentious, garden variety church where they are conspicuous and might have to work. I must be careful here to keep from being sarcastic. That won’t help. Nevertheless, being the pastor of a small membership church and praying daily for workers to come and join us in the ministry, I’m put off by “star [...]
read moreSideliners
Published March 10, 2010There are more American Christian people today sitting on the sidelines, and not going to church, than there are Christian people in church on any given Sunday. The reasons are many, but the ones that get thrown at me are the same: 1) Sunday’s my only day off (They like to sleep in.); 2) Church is boring (Compared to what?); 3) Church people are judgmental and irritating (As if the sideliner isn’t.); 4) I don’t like the music, the sermon, the building…etc.; and 5) I’m not getting anything out of it (Church has no value.). There are variations on these [...]
read moreTiger Woods: A Double Standard?
Published December 30, 2009I despise double standards. Yet, that’s exactly what we’ve got now in America. A new, deadly and twisted double standard, where the church is criticized for being judgmental while the same critics rip apart their own, is being legitimized. Case in point: Tiger Woods. Yes, he’s sinned. He’s sinned against his wife and children; he’s sinned against his profession and himself, and he’s sinned against God. But his critics, who I would confidently say reject the church for being judgmental, have no problem condemning Tiger. Well, you may say, “He did awful things.” Really? By what standard are you judging [...]
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