Posts Categorized: Evangelicalism

Hopeful Church

Spiritual experiences in church A ‘no’ or a ‘yes’?   by N. Graham Standish For years, when leading retreats and seminars on spiritually transforming congregations, I’ve often asked a revealing question: How would we react to someone who told us on a Sunday morning, “Hey, I want to share an amazing experience I had the… Read more »

Hopeful Church

Are we too religious to be spiritual? By N. Graham Standish  I’m a little bit obsessed with the phrase “spiritual but not religious.” I have been ever since I first said it about myself when I was in college: “Nah … I don’t go to church. I’m spiritual but not religious.” I still said this… Read more »

Hopeful Church

Stop telling them what you believe… Tell them why you believe by N. Graham Standish  I was knee-deep into listening on the phone to a potential church visitor when I had a sudden insight: We keep telling people WHAT we believe. What we really need to do is tell them WHY we believe. The man… Read more »

The Church for Today

Mystery Box Outsiders wonder what’s inside church  by Richard Hong   I used to live near a business that had an innocuous name – I forget what it was. There would usually be just a few cars parked outside. The windows had blinds covering them. I never figured out what it was. Was it a… Read more »

Swell

Church growth is not about the easy externals of church life. It is about communicating and embodying the good news of Jesus Christ, sharing it with your community in ways that they will hear it, daily laboring to follow in Christ’s steps as his disciples. It is about remembering that we are promised the grace that comes from a cross, not a smoothie machine. 

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Not Quite Right

One slightly unhinged pastor’s attempt to love (and laugh with) a slightly unhinged church, from the inside out.   We assume too much . . . and not enough Can we tell a better story about those different from us? by Joshua Bower Pardon the not-exactly-church-appropriate language, but here’s a saying I love: “When you… Read more »

Simplicity on the Far Side of Complexity

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes   Yes, I was that evangelical at the More Light Presbyterians conferenceHow evangelicals and progressives can cross the theological divide by Jodi Craiglow In… Read more »

Recovering Reverend

You can take the pastor out of the church, but you can’t take the Church out of the pastor.   Our patron saintsAre you a Donald Trump Presbyterian or a Mister Rogers Presbyterian? by Derrick L. Weston During the middle of the summer, I perused my social media and watched many recoil at the terrible… Read more »

Poking at Elephants

An evangelical’s (un)apologetic for the church   A future without memory
Why sources of authority are paramount by Brandon Gaide Monasteries are remarkable places. For example, most monasteries pray through all 150 psalms each week or month. I’m told that, particularly among the old-timers, their memory is so saturated with Scripture that they weave phrases from… Read more »