ChurchPlanting.com

Earlier last month I turned 51. Most of the major transitional boundaries of my own life occur the first year of a new decade and this year seems to be as much. As I am reflecting on my own life and the journeys it has taken I felt that a lesson learned from the man [...]

Here in rural North Carolina this past Sunday I announced three things for our women at the end of the service and asked all interested to sign-up afterwards –  tea & scones at my home; a class on “Learning how to handle guns” & our monthly Bible Study.  As I gathered up my things and [...]

I was sitting in a class with J. Robert “Bobby” Clinton years ago, dealing with life-long leadership realities.  His seminal statement was this:  “The difference between leaders and followers is perspective.  And the difference between great leaders and leaders in general is greater perspective.”  Right now, wherever you’re at, you need to have perspective. Earlier [...]

I read a statement a while back in Dan Kimball’s book They Like Jesus but Not the Church that burned me with conviction. He asked something like, “When you go to a movie or go to hang out with friends, do you do so only with your Christian friends?” All my adult life I have [...]

Every year an estimated 4,000 churches close their doors? (That is 334 each month, 83 each week, 12 each day). Fortunately, in 2010 denominations, networks and churches, for the first time, planted more churches than closed. Every living organism has a life-cycle; churches are no different. If those who lead the church are not careful, [...]

Yesterday I received notice that after 138 years—did you catch that number?—the Santa Ana, California United Methodist Church in which I grew up was morphing into a new set of congregations. It turns out that neighborhoods change in 130 years (smile), which requires missional decisions to be made for the future. But changing contextual factors [...]

I’ve been deeply challenged by the tireless efforts of the men and women that advance the cause of the “new atheism” into the empty hearts of postmodern westerners. Nature abhors a vacuum so in the absence of faith, unbelief or atheism becomes the anti-cause. The mission of these atheist crusaders is to rid the world (especially the [...]