Craig Groeschel’s Winning the War in Your Mind has led me to see thoughts I sometimes have that definitely are not good. See below, and I think you’ll find application not only for pastors like me, but every Christian. Lies like these poison leadership and every kind of spiritual progress. Let me tell you what I mean.
Read MoreIf you’ve written off someone because of one mistake or dumb remark, you’re participating in what has become a growing problem, “cancel culture.”
“There is no single accepted definition of cancel culture,” according to Forbes, “but at its worst, it is about unaccountable groups successfully applying pressure to punish someone for perceived wrong opinions.”
In other words, you wrong me or offend me, and you’re dead to me. And you should be dead to all my social media contacts, too. I’ll tell anyone who will listen why you’re dead to me and explain why they should cancel you as I have.
The Forbes article gives several recent examples, some of them describing celebrities with careers ruined (although some eventually saw a boost in their following after an initial outcry over their remarks).
Read MoreYou are wondering if you read that title right. It is not a typo. Let me explain. If there’s one way the post-Covid church must be different than the pre-Covid church, it’s this: We must move from invitation to infiltration.
We must infiltrate because Jesus commanded it. He told us “Go [actually, as you go] into all the world and make disciples.” The place for disciple-making is the everyday worlds of the people who need to know about Jesus. Coming to church on Sunday morning isn’t even on their radar. Our only hope—and their only hope—is for us to go where they are. Who will show them Jesus if someone doesn’t take him to where they are?
Read MoreThese are why Jesus came. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16.) God loves the world. Not one group or ethnicity or skin color in the world, but the whole world.
“By his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Healed of our past. Healed of our failures. Healed of our hatred. Any effort to heal apart from the blood of Christ ultimately fails.
Jesus said he came to give abundant life (John 10:10). We’ll fully realize what he meant when we bow at his feet for eternity. But don’t we believe we’re supposed to experience that life here and now? And can’t we agree that Jesus wants that life for every man, woman, and child on earth today?
Many have asked me to make a statement about the racial unrest in our country sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Here’s my statement: The gospel of Jesus is characterized by love, healing, and life. And I believe our mission is to be ambassadors of that gospel (2 Corinthians 5:20): agents of love, healing, and life in our communities and in our world. My challenge—the church’s challenge—is to find ways to do that.
Jesus is our example. He spent time with the Samaritan woman, even though the Jews of his day viewed Samaritans as half-breed dogs. He healed lepers, even though the people of his day were afraid to get within ten feet of them. Now is the time for the church to make sure it’s not hiding its head in the sand, ignoring a world desperate for the love, health, and life that only Jesus will bring.
Read MoreThe day was all about ministry: how to lead, how to develop leaders (and how to live with the leaders you already have), how to penetrate our culture with the good news of Jesus. I loved the challenge of the sermons. I loved mingling with other leaders whose ministry sets an example for mine.
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