One Sunday evening, Jim Edwards, our former minister to young adults, illustrated a sermon point with a story about a hitchhiker. Jim said that when he was a college student making a long drive back to school in the Northwest, he picked up a hobo. As they zoomed along the interstate, the hobo kept seeing things along the shoulder.
"Look!" he'd shout. "There's an old coat. Stop so I can pick it up." ...
A lot has been written lately about the church and culture; most of it, however, refers to the culture around a church. Just as important is the culture within a church, the shared attitudes, values, and beliefs that define a church and shape its practices.
Fresh out of seminary, my husband and I began ministry at an established, 850-member church in a large city. During the interview process, we were ...
I felt like the "before" picture for effective ministry. You know, like the ones that demonstrate a spectacular new diet by showing how bad the person looked before. As a speaker described all that was wrong with the typical church—declining attendance, limited evangelism results, no visible spiritual growth—I realized he was describing my church.
I love the ministry, but after eleven years, not ...
When I was teaching an adult Sunday school class, one member, the CEO of a major firm, asked me to lunch. He started the conversation by saying, "I have a CPA to keep me liquid, a lawyer to keep me legal, and a doctor to keep me healthy. But I have no one to help assess my spiritual condition. Can you give me a 'spiritual audit'?"
I had never thought about such a thing. I thrashed around, trying to ...
I once asked Don Shula, longtime coach of the Miami Dolphins, "What are your goals next year?"
He said, "I think goal-setting is overrated."
"What do you mean?"
"Everybody in professional football has a similar goal," he answered. "If they have halfway decent players, they want to win the playoffs. If they have good players, they want to win the Super Bowl. So I haven't won more games because I have ...