So I was listening to "Theology in the Raw" (Preston Sprinkle's podcast) in an interview of Nijay Gupta. Gupta has recently published a book, "Strange Religion: How the the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling." I have only read a tiny bit of the book so far, but it looks very interesting. During the …
Continue reading Is the Primary Purpose of Church to Worship God… Really?
<Decided to place a post that I put on our family website here. https://bobandceliamunson.wordpress.com/> US at least, most houses have more than one entrance. The side door or garage door is commonly used by family members--- the family door. Often the front door, seeming the main door of the house, is used less and is …
Continue reading What Does Your Church’s Front Door Look Like
I have heard it said that if you are a REAL Christian, then you will, of course, want to join together as believers in church. And I have been in situations where I could really relate to this. I remember being in the US Navy (a culture with its share of toxicity) and going to …
Continue reading Churches That Make Avoiding Church Not Seem So Bad
Craig Van Gelder in "The Ministry of the Missional Church" describes six (6) things that led to growth and development of the primitive church as found in the book of Acts (of the Apostles). #1. Growth and Development through CONFLICT. Conflict is often seen negatively--- "Storming" in Group Dynamics. However, Conflict is necessary to address …
The following is a quote from the book by James F. Engle and William A. Dyrness, "Changing the Mind of Missions: Where Have We Gone Wrong?" (InterVarsity Press, 2000). Who can fault legendary evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who captured the mood of evangelicals at the end of the nineteenth century in his declaration, "I look …
One of my students is writing about the Missional Church movement as part of her dissertation. I will not steal her thunder. I will just make a couple of comments on the topic here. She noted that the term "missional church" has often been seen as another term for "missionary church." Over time, however, the …
I am presently serving as the interim pastor of a small church, and I am writing a book (with my wife) on pastoral care and pastoral supervision. I was a bit inspired by an overlap in the role of pastor and pastoral supervisor that I thought I would add a bit of our book here …
Today we celebrated the first year anniversary of our little church here in Baguio. It has been a challenging year... but I think we are stronger for it. Our older daughter sang a special number--- "Thank You Lord For Your Blessings on Me." She was trying to decide whether to sing that song or 'Thank …
The following was a diagram that I had in my book, CHRISTIAN MEDICAL MISSIONS: Principles and Practices in the Church's Role for Effective Community Outreach in the Philippines and Beyond. However, it is quite useful in Project Design for ministry, with special focus on the transitioning from a short-term event or project to a long-term …
Below is a link to an article written in 2006 by Ken Hemphill. It discusses the positive and negative aspects of the Church Growth Movement. I find the list quite accurate and seems to be as relevant today as it was when it was written. The Church Growth Movement started as a Missiological activity by …
Continue reading Article: “Beyond Church Growth: Kingdom Expansion”