Category: Church Life
How A Church, and a Believer, Starts and Stays
You might find this surprising, but the greetings that begin Ephesians help us to think about the birth of the church in Ephesus, about church planting today, and even about our individual conversions. Here are those verses: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will...
Why Not Skip Church Meetings?
More evangelicals skip church meetings than attend them. That’s a fact . . . an embarrassing one. One leader claims even the FBI could not find many of them. Some churches have decided to take action to recover the inactive only to find that their church...
7 Ways to Strengthen and Develop Younger Believers
At the end of his life, Paul wrote these warm words to Timothy: “As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Timothy 1:4). When Timothy first joined Paul’s team (cf. Acts 16:1f), Paul was about 50...
Leaving Your Church for Another Close By
At least initially, no one who believed and was baptized and came into the membership of the church in Corinth could then leave that church and join another close by. That was not an option since there was only one local church in the area. Every...
The Old Church
There is no shame in getting old — not for you, or for churches. It is a bad mistake to demean a person for it, when you are headed the same direction and neither of you can stop it. It’s a double shame to defame a...
The Most Loving Church I Have Ever Experienced
The Lord saved me when I was a freshman in high school in the context of a para-church ministry. Unfortunately, I didn’t commit to a local church once I was a follower of Jesus. Oh, I attended church — actually, more than one. But I wasn’t...
The Endless, Downward Spiral of Harbored Hurt
“A man of great anger will bear the penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.” (Proverbs 19:19) I lived for many years beside a very, very bitter man. The slightest issue would set him off. If any neighbor children’s...
The Anatomy of Dissension
I have dealt with dissenters in the church for a good portion of my ministry, particularly during the first 30 years. Gratefully, since founding The Summit Church 21 years ago, I have not dealt with any of this in our church (so I now know it’s possible!) But,...
Because Christ is Building His Church…
Jesus Christ promised, “I will build my church” (Mt 16:18), and the growth of the church throughout history, all over the world, proves that he is keeping his word. If we’re not mindful of the reality of Christ building his church, then we’re missing the most...
Acceptance of Sin Isn’t Love
Many people who reject Christianity do so because of a perceived lack of love in churches. This rejection has caused a reactionary trend that seeks to soften God’s disapproval of sin and magnify a kind of love which isn’t really love at all. In order to...
