As we recognize that Christ is all – even outside our own box of biases, giftings and sensibilities – we begin to experience the fulness of Christ.
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Sufficient Grace, Part III
As I learn to adjust to the reality of diminished capacity, I’m seeing God prompt people who I’ve invested my life into and mentored in the Lord. Others are now step forward – without me asking – to fill the voids. This, to me, has been the most precious affirmation of God’s grace,
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Fathers and Teachers
Fathers (and mothers!) in the faith are compelled to help others be more than themselves and to exceed their own understanding and experiences.
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“Us” and “Them”
The real Body of Christ is an inclusive “us” – you and me. It is not a divisive “us” verses “them”. Rather, we find grace as we submit one to another by esteeming each other in our differences.
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The Fierceness of God
The Apostle Paul wasn’t persecuted and eventually killed for loving Jesus, but because that love made him confront and do things that upended the cultural, religious, economic and civil systems of his day. Some popular Christian authors insist today, however, that believers must refrain from such engagement.
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Holy Ghost Church in the County Jail
I don’t want to shake up anyone’s theology, but the Holy Spirit was grooving to some powerful, spontaneous rappin’ that was going on!
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Outside the Box
Yes, Christ can be found in the box. But He does His best work, I’ve found, apart from and outside the box.
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Modern Day Pauls?
Beware of gifted but itinerant men and women who want to “help” your local church as modern-day Paul’s, but lack roots in, commission from and accountability to another functioning local church.
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The Great Commission
The newly touted idea that “ekklesia” (the Greek word translated “church” in the New Testament) and the Great Commission are at odds is itself odd.
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Probation’s Ban on Church Attendance
An appeal for help in reversing the local probation office’s de facto ban on church attendance in Prince William County, Virginia.
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Becoming Our Past
Often, longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds are like old, familiar friends. We let them become so engrained into our sense of identity that they begin to define us.
Read moreBeyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up
Two days after I posted my series “Beyond Evangelical?”, Milt Rodriguez – who I took to task in that series – wrote his own blog which helps close the gap, so to speak, that I was addressing. Here’s some follow-up thoughts.
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Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
A challenge to my “Beyond Evangelical” brethren: If you are not called to something, don’t discredit those who are. Trying to say we must be like you is narcissism – a key characteristic of post-modernity – at its worst. In essence, it’s trying to impose on others a Jesus created in your own image.
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Jesus at the Fringes
It’s amazing how Jesus takes root in the fringes of society when you empower Christ in folks rather than trying to bring “church” to them, take them to “church” or do “church” for them.
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The Priesthood of All Believers
Then how is it, brothers? When you come together, ONLY ONE of you can have a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation….
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A Multilingual Jesus
God speaks to some subjectively, and to others objectively, and each often forgets that Jesus is multilingual.
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Planting Churches
I’m not sure why we make planting churches so complicated. It really isn’t. Here’s a recent story from the local jail.
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Room at the Inn
This Christmas, the question yet remains: Is there still no room at the inn? Take a chance. Embrace the Joseph’s and Mary’s of our age.
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Ekklesia as Escapism
Too often, we say it’s all about Jesus, when in reality we create Jesus in our own image – shaped by our hurts from the wrongs we have suffered – and use Him to justify our safely-ensconced retreat into self-constructed cocoons.
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The Mythology of Tithing
In the 13th century, an increasingly complex and self-serving ecclesiastical hierarchy started to adopt the Old Testament tithe to fund their huge cathedrals and support other unbiblical prerogatives they were increasingly assuming for themselves.
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The Road to Grace
For the religious, the road to grace is the toughest journey they’ll ever face. But slowly, I’m finally starting to find it.
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Ordained to Fail
Those who take on the mantle of “Pastor” are operating within a framework, and on assumptions and traditions, that God never ordained.
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A Hollow Gospel
Broken lives and real people are inconvenient and demand more than your hollow gospel and podium-oriented focus can give. But praise God, you have great meetings!
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The Question of Leadership
We do it all backwards. We expect fellowship to emerge from leaders. In God’s providence, leaders emerge from fellowship.
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Going Organic
Going to enjoy a sermon and the worship team in an institutional church is like going to McDonald’s, while forming community and participating in organic church is like cultivating and enjoying a healthy, wonderful garden.
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Crossing Jordan
For many who leave the institutional church, there is a season where we react to things not out of freedom, but rather out of not wanting to to be like the institutional church. When we remain in a reactive mode, however, we remain in bondage to our institutional church experiences.
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I Saw Satan Fall
Confession, forgiveness and repentance have become forgotten ordinances that we have twisted into ineffective spiritual abstractions. As a result, most churches have lost the ability to meaningfully administer those graces today.
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Starve the Beast
People are cutting back as they see how their tithes and offerings are typically misused by churches. It seems that folks are fed up with all the money grubbing for ego-buildings, staff who are increasingly detached from real ministry, and life-sucking programs that don’t really advance the Kingdom of God.
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Narcissists with Power
I’ve finally come to realize that the most dangerous people, and the most charming, are narcissists with power.
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Tidy Whitey
Why is it that white, middle-class suburban Christians persist in acting as though God is white, middle-class suburban?
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Beauty from Ashes
I take on pastoral sex abuse cases not only because I believe in justice, but because I also believe in redemption. Often, I have the privilege of seeing God’s grace shine through as healing comes and the survivors begin to find the strength to reclaim their lives – and their stolen voices.
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May 25, 2012

Church sower, mentor, teacher, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, author, attorney, entrepreneur, pilot and so-so bass fisherman.