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)
February 22, 2012
10 Comments
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.
Read more True Leadership
February 10, 2012
2 Comments
What is the true measure of leadership in the Body of Christ?
Read more Jesus at the Fringes
February 4, 2012
6 Comments
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.
Read more The Priesthood of All Believers
January 23, 2012
6 Comments
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….
Read more A Multilingual Jesus
January 16, 2012
1 Comment
God speaks to some subjectively, and to others objectively, and each often forgets that Jesus is multilingual.
Read more Planting Churches
January 3, 2012
7 Comments
I’m not sure why we make planting churches so complicated. It really isn’t. Here’s a recent story from the local jail.
Read more Room at the Inn
December 24, 2011
0 Comments
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.
Read more Ekklesia as Escapism
December 19, 2011
10 Comments
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.
Read more The Mythology of Tithing
November 26, 2011
30 Comments
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.
Read more Old Covenant Church
November 25, 2011
5 Comments
Why are most churches Old Covenant, rather than New Covenant?
Read more The Road to Grace
November 21, 2011
11 Comments
For the religious, the road to grace is the toughest journey they’ll ever face. But slowly, I’m finally starting to find it.
Read more Ordained to Fail
November 16, 2011
17 Comments
Those who take on the mantle of “Pastor” are operating within a framework, and on assumptions and traditions, that God never ordained.
Read more A Hollow Gospel
November 14, 2011
34 Comments
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!
Read more The Question of Leadership
October 31, 2011
2 Comments
We do it all backwards. We expect fellowship to emerge from leaders. In God’s providence, leaders emerge from fellowship.
Read more Going Organic
October 27, 2011
4 Comments
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.
Read more Crossing Jordan
October 24, 2011
5 Comments
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.
Read more I Saw Satan Fall
October 20, 2011
1 Comment
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.
Read more Starve the Beast
October 17, 2011
0 Comments
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.
Read more Narcissists with Power
October 9, 2011
3 Comments
I’ve finally come to realize that the most dangerous people, and the most charming, are narcissists with power.
Read more Tidy Whitey
September 28, 2011
0 Comments
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
September 9, 2011
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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.
Read moreAbuse, Church, Grace, Gratetude, Healing, Justice, Mercy, Pain, Redemption, Woundedness
Mentoring Entrepreneurs
September 4, 2011
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Here’s a TV program that’s been airing in our area about one of the ministries in which I’m involved. I, and others, have been mentoring and working with folks who are gifted with entrepreneurial aptitude. Our focus is helping them start and grow new businesses, based on solid, real-world experience and sound Biblical principles.
Read more Christian Counseling Class
August 29, 2011
0 Comments
I will be teaching a semester-long Christian counseling class beginning next Tuesday, September 6th, through early December. We will be meeting every Tuesday evening at my home just south of Manassas, Virginia, from 7:00 to 9:15 pm.
Read moreBeing the Church
July 31, 2011
0 Comments
This short video brought tears to my eyes over my longing for authentic church to take root throughout our communities.
Read more Confronting Abusive Pastors, Part 4: Civil and Criminal Law
May 30, 2011
12 Comments
So you’ve tried to follow the procedure of 1 Tim. 5, as discussed in Part 3 of this series, by investigating and exposing church leaders who abused their positions of power and trust. But what if you were rebuffed? Or what if – despite public reprimand, confession and repentance – you reasonably fear that they [...]
Read moreConfronting Abusive Pastors, Part 3: A Mandatory Public Reprimand
May 29, 2011
3 Comments
What if an unrepentant leader’s sin is public and brings reproach on the church, or is an abuse of his position of trust and power in the church? Then he must be openly rebuked as a public warning to all – no exceptions! 1 Timothy 5 teaches this.
Read more Confronting Abusive Pastors, Part 2: How Should We React?
May 28, 2011
12 Comments
How should we react to an unrepentant pastor who’s used his position of trust and power to prey on women – often after turning to him for spiritual counsel and support during vulnerable times in their lives?
Read moreConfronting Abusive Pastors, Part 1: My Personal Angst
May 23, 2011
9 Comments
Much to my dismay, God keeps bringing people to my door who have been abused by a pastor or other trusted church leader. Over the last year, I’ve taken on three cases against abusive pastors. Two involve significant embezzlement and fraud by pastors in different churches. A third involves extensive sexual abuse and misconduct by [...]
Read more The Storm
April 28, 2011
2 Comments
There is something in the prophetic personality that loves the thunder, the lightning and the storm.
Read more Understanding the Seven Motivational Gifts
January 2, 2011
0 Comments
This PowerPoint presentation looks at the seven gifts listed in Romans 12, and the motivations and ways that different people use those differing gifts.
Read moreChurch, Community, Faith, Fellowship, Gifts, Grace, Leadership, Mercy, Prophetic, Virtue
A Tale of Two Ministries
December 27, 2010
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In nature, there’s a word for a place with inflow but no outflow: It’s called a swamp. God’s people are not called to be dead, stagnant swamps, but to offer living water: Cool, fresh, flowing and life giving. Unfortunately, too many church gatherings are about inflow and not outflow. Churches today are focused on meetings [...]
Read moreDiverse Gifts and Church Meetings, Part 1: The Motivational Gifts
December 19, 2010
1 Comment
It’s one thing to embrace Paul’s metaphor of the church being the Body of Christ, where everyone participates and ministers one to another according to our unique spiritual gifts. It’s quite another thing to figure out how to do that in practical terms, especially when we meet together and abstract principles hit cold, hard reality.
Read moreThe Church in the New Testament: Its Form, Function and Purpose
October 31, 2010
2 Comments
Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! In this PowerPoint presentation, all that you think of as “church” is about to be challenged so God can woo us back to being, once more, the multi-faceted, wonderful, exciting Body of Christ.
Read moreJim Wright
Teacher, pilot, foe of tyrants, world traveler, passionate, attorney, entrepreneur, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, reluctant counselor, occasional mentor, brother in the Lord, adequate cook, pretty good host and so-so bass fisherman.According to the internet tracking service Networked Blogs, Crossroad Junction is among the top 100 blogs worldwide on "Christianity" and also among the top 100 on "faith".
As a friend said on Facebook, "I don't write things people need to know. I share things. If people care, they comment." I invite you to care.
I also invite you to contact me at Fulcrum Ministries.
- A Hollow Gospel
- The Mythology of Tithing
- Rethinking Missions
- Participatory Church
- Ordained to Fail
- Pimping the Gospel
- Dealing With Church Leadership Abuse
- Sufficient Grace
- Confronting Abusive Pastors, Part 2: How Should We React?
- Confronting Abusive Pastors, Part 4: Civil and Criminal Law
- Beyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 2)
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 1)
- True Leadership
- Jesus at the Fringes
- The Priesthood of All Believers
- We Have Met the Enemy
- A Multilingual Jesus
- Planting Churches
- Eli: Milts article is very helpful in the discussion, t...
- MISSION@RIES (@Missionaries): I appreciate your statement, "Jesus is subjective,...
- Beyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up | Crossroad Junction: [...] days after I posted my series “Beyond ...
- Eli: Personally I don't think the problem is with a foc...
- Eli: Thank you for writing this! I too gain a lot from ...
- Randy: Jesus loves his Bride very much. I get tired of th...
- Ron: Thanks Jim......
- : I love tithing plus. I've tithed for about 30 year...
- Georgia Ana Larson: "Sometimes our faith requires that we speak truth ...
- Jim Wright: Thanks, Bruce. Based on our more private commu...
