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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“Us” and “Them”
May 9, 2012
12 Comments
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.
Read more Holy Ghost Church in the County Jail
March 26, 2012
3 Comments
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!
Read more Probation’s Ban on Church Attendance
March 10, 2012
0 Comments
An appeal for help in reversing the local probation office’s de facto ban on church attendance in Prince William County, Virginia.
Read more Becoming Our Past
February 26, 2012
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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
February 24, 2012
3 Comments
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.
Read more Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
February 22, 2012
15 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
9 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 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 Old Covenant Church
November 25, 2011
10 Comments
Why are most churches Old Covenant, rather than New Covenant?
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 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.
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Mentoring Entrepreneurs
September 4, 2011
0 Comments
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 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 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
0 Comments
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 moreLife!
September 3, 2010
0 Comments
My greatest joy is walking with guys as they learn to stop being knuckleheads and become men; to minister to hurt and wounded women as they find not just healing, but health and wholeness; to let others come forth into life and gifting as they exceed me in the Kingdom. For all of this, Lord, [...]
Read more Helping or Enabling?
June 21, 2010
12 Comments
For me, if the Gospel doesn’t work for the “worse” of us, then it doesn’t work for any of us. But I’ve learned some hard lessons along the way.
Read moreAuthentic Church
May 3, 2010
1 Comment
“So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight… Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a [...]
Read moreReboot
March 15, 2010
3 Comments
God seems to be laying a foundation for yet another of His periodic, history-changing interventions in the affairs of man. Over the last two thousand years there have been many such paradigm shifts, and it’s naive to think that our current, settled status quo will somehow be exempt from the unsettling but progressive advance of [...]
Read moreWhole Health
March 5, 2010
0 Comments
The more pastoral counseling I do, the more I realize how often people deal with life’s traumas, hurts and disappointments by suppressing their hearts and their spirits. Instead of being healthy, integrated people, they numb out or otherwise retreat exclusively into the realm of their minds — i.e., their analytical logic and reason. They are [...]
Read moreTrue Ministry
February 27, 2010
5 Comments
Last night, we had one of our best times of “participatory church” as we seamlessly shared a meal, partook of communion, fellowshipped and ministered one with another — and none of it depended on me! The last several weeks have been very emotionally and physically exhausting for me. On top of my best friend dying, [...]
Read moreRepentance, Forgiveness and the Kingdom of God
February 13, 2010
2 Comments
Recorded before a group of men in the local jail, this 55 minute audio teaching explains how we find peace and freedom when we allow God, through authentic Biblical confession, repentance and forgiveness, to change what we think, believe and perceive. That, in turn, allows us to know the righteousness, peace and joy that comes [...]
Read more Improbable Church
January 31, 2010
6 Comments
If you saw the church that meets in my home, you would laugh and wonder: “What can God do with these people?” Yet, isn’t that God’s way: to establish his Kingdom on earth by transforming lives, cultures, nations and history not with the ordained, but with the ordinary?
Read morePimping the Gospel
October 30, 2009
15 Comments
For the prosperity gospel televangelists, God’s highest purpose is to bless me by satisfying my carnal desires for wealth, health and power – but only if I bless them first.
Read more The Lost Art of Dialogue
October 18, 2009
6 Comments
Our whole paradigm for “doing church” needs to radically shift from monologues delivered from podiums that safely isolate our leaders from effective fellowship.
Read more Evangelical Prophets or Martyrs?
October 6, 2009
6 Comments
Why do those “on point” for the Kingdom of God increasingly seek refuge from the prevailing pop-theology (or dare I say lack of theology) and me-focused brand of Christianity that animates many of our church leaders and cuts believers off from the great historic doctrines and creeds of our faith?
Read more Participatory Church
September 17, 2009
23 Comments
My journey from traditional “church”, and some of what I’ve learned about being the church – the exciting, enticing, enthralling and multifaceted Body of Christ!
Read moreJim Wright
Church sower, mentor, teacher, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, author, attorney, entrepreneur, pilot and so-so bass fisherman.According to the internet tracking service Networked Blogs, Crossroad Junction is among the top 100 blogs worldwide on "Christianity", among the top 100 on "faith", and also among the top 100 blogs on "culture".
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 have nothing to sell, and nothing to peddle (not even myself!), but I love to hear from folks. You can contact me at Fulcrum Ministries.
Let’s Connect
- The Mythology of Tithing
- A Hollow Gospel
- Participatory Church
- Rethinking Missions
- Sufficient Grace
- Modern Day Pauls?
- Ordained to Fail
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
- Pimping the Gospel
- Does Jesus Want You to Vote?
- God in a Box
- Sufficient Grace, Part III
- Fathers and Teachers
- Peeking Through the Cracks
- “Us” and “Them”
- Is There Not a Cause?
- Millennials and Old Farts
- The Fierceness of God
- Sufficient Grace, Part II
- Inside Out
- Jim Wright: Thank you, Constantine. I agree....
- Constantine: Greetings from the suffering Athens, Greece. I...
- Jim Wright: A box is how we limit Christ to our own attitudes,...
- Ockert van der Westhuysen: I am curious about the 'legalism', which I don't q...
- Rob Kampen: Too often (always?) our view of who God really is,...
- Jim Wright: Esther, the points in my blog go "beyond" (no pun ...
- Esther: Hi! I haven't commented here before, but this pos...
- Barbara Alsip: This is good, Jesus wants us to be one absolutely,...
- Eli: brilliant, great challenge and encouragement. i ho...
- Janet Maxim: To look for Christ in others, rather than analyzin...
