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Discipleship – for unbelievers
Check out what Erwin McManus has to say about discipleship in this video. Here are a few of his points: “Christians love to be discipled, get more and more information so I can know more and more about God without actually having to do anything about it. And when you look at the scriptures, what…
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Thursday quotage: church as business, life as practice, and missional theologians
A few quotes I’ve been thinking about… “Maybe if we stopped talking about and treating church like it’s a business, non-Christians would stop acting like we are trying to sell them a bag of goods.” – Shaula Overholt “I want to study less and live more, so my teaching is less theoretical and more experiential.”…
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Just two more airline stories
I’m moving on from the American Airlines posts, but this one is just too good to pass up. A few months ago, I went to the Burbank airport to pick up my mom, who was flying into town for a visit. As I was standing in the baggage claim area with about 30 or 40…
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A glocal church in Christianity Today
NorthWood Church was featured in Christianity Today. Check out the article here.
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Happy Birthday!
Today is my amazing wife’s birthday. If you don’t know her, you can’t be as excited about this as I am. So let me give you a little of her resume: She’s beautiful (how many people can look this good while hiking?) She’s creative She’s funny She’s intelligent She’s fun to be around She’s a…
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Wanna be on mission? There are two places to look.
You may have heard it before: “everyone’s a minister.” But what if I told you that everyone has two ministries? In life, there are two ministry areas we need to be engaged in. They’re both important, but typically we focus on one and leave the other to chance. You’ve seen it before: The pastor who…
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Move beyond a high-school mindset
I wouldn’t be a good tutor. Here’s why. If I had to teach math, I’d be tempted to be really honest with my students. “You need to know this now, but here’s the deal. Unless you enjoy it, just get through it. You need to know some basics, but most of this stuff you’ll never…
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Crazy drivers!
When we were planning to move from Fort Worth to Los Angeles, Grete and I had plenty of people warn us about the “crazy LA drivers.” And the first time we drove out here, it was, honestly, a little crazy. People speed around at 85 mph as a norm, weaving in and out of…
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Overheard on my flight…
Flight Attendant: Snacks for purchase! Man: What do you have? FA: Italian wraps, sandwiches, trail mix, chips, M&Ms, and a giant cookie. Man: I’ll take a giant cookie. FA: That’ll be $3. Man: I could get that at 7-11 for less than $2! FA: Well, I don’t see any 7-11s around here. Do you?
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They just expect less…
Grete just picked me up from the airport. My plane was an hour and a half late. I was disappointed, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised. I fly American Airlines pretty loyally because of their frequent flyer program. Been flying with them for probably 20 years (My family did conferences for teachers every summer,…
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Yes. Yes. And Yes.
One of the things I’m learning is how to live with the tension of opposites. I like to narrow things down and simplify them. What’s the best way? How can we improve this? What’s the one thing we need to focus on? But sometimes things don’t work that way. Take, for instance, church. Being in…
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Small group ideas – the year ahead
It’s official – another quarter of classes is done. Finished. Gone. And for once, I can say THANK GOODNESS! It’s been a crazy week. Between a couple of big events for our small groups and finals, I’m due for a let down! I finished up my last paper at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, and our…
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Communal dining is catching on
A fascinating article from the San Francisco Chronicle: From trendy neighborhood restaurants in San Francisco to casual breakfast spots in the East Bay, communal tables are cropping up everywhere. Designers are putting the big family-style tables into places such as Salt House in San Francisco, West County Grill in Sebastopol and A Cote in Oakland.…
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Are expectations changing for leaders?
I read part of a story in this week’s Newsweek this morning about what America, and the world, needs post-President Bush. Regardless of your political leanings, it’s an interesting article in considering what’s next. But here’s the quote that stood out to me: “In a new global survey, most nations polled believed that China would…
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What really matters in church
There’s a lot of talk in the church world about doing everything with excellence. That’s important. Many leaders have focused on it because for many years it was totally neglected in the church (still is in some places). It just didn’t matter. While culture improved how it communicated, the church stayed stuck in the same…
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Jon Sampson 