Colin Marshall and Tony Payne published a pivotal book in 2009. They challenged ministry leaders to re-evaluate their focus. A trellis is meant to lift up and support the vine, so that the vine may produce much fruit. How foolish would it be for a vine grower to put all their effort in building an elaborate trellis while ignoring the health of the vine. And so it is with the American church. We direct all…
About a year ago, during a lunch conversation with another pastor, he said this:"I am done reading the books, and going to the conferences on discipleship." We both had been on somewhat of a journey into the whole discipleship thing, "What exactly is Biblical discipleship?" "How do we do that today?" We had reached the saturation point. We have heard enough. Our knowledge tank was full. Fortunately we did not leave it there. We had…
In years past as I read and studied the book of Acts, I filtered my study through the lens of "That was then, but this is now." It was kind of like studying the events of the nation Israel in the OT. (You can pick up Life Principles, but need to be careful to keep in mind Israel lived under a different system, the Mosaic Law.) And so was my approach to the book of…