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Category: Church LIfe

Worship: Top 4 Liturgies!

What face does the church show the world? Mainly four, if we look at popular worship liturgies or “styles.” Drop in of a Sunday, and you will likely find one of four quite distinct liturgical

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The Revival We Don’t Need

America needs a great awakening, a shaking revival, a genuine stirring of the Spirit of God. America does not need a pseudo-revival, a movement that champions pseudo-Christianity, that uses religious fervor for unholy ends. Here

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Emmanuel

Gold leaves of autumn New buds in spring Summer’s warm magic Winter’s cold ring— Coming and going Time’s rise and fall Years building ages Time touching all— So our lives mingle So our lives blend

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The Advent of New Creation

Jesus’ resurrection was the dawn of New Creation in power. Yet we see signs of new-creation power already in Jesus’ incarnation, life and ministry, and sacrificial death. His victorious resurrection was the decisive vindication of

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I Gave Up Too Soon!

Late last year we had some birch trees cut down in front of our house. The trunks were over a foot thick. I thought the roots would threaten the house’s foundations. Also the trees’ frequent

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The Church and Dunbar’s Number

How large should your church be? Silly question, you say. Depending on your theology or worldview, you might add: * Large as possible! Bigger is better! * That’s up to God! * I’m shooting for

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Return of the King

Ponder these short parables: The king of a great land was about to take a long journey. He called his top three officials together. “I am putting you in charge while I am gone,” he

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Most Important Book of 2016

The most important book of 2016 is The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, by Alan Kreider (Baker Academic, 2016, 321 pp.). I say this after

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What’s Mission? Ask Jesus

  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says he came to “finish the work” the Father had sent him to do. He prays that his disciples all “may be one, Father, just as you are

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What’s Mission? Ask Jesus

  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says he came to “finish the work” the Father had sent him to do. He prays that his disciples all “may be one, Father, just as you are

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The Unfinished Work of Christ

“When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). Four other times in Scripture we find this phrase or fact of

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