For the first time ever, Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast reveals the future! It’s the last episode of season 2, and it’s quite possible that your mind won’t be able to handle everything that takes place in this thrilling season finale. Your intrepid cohosts turn out to be not only pastors and […]
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Urban Ministry Podcast: Loving Your Neighbor in the Inner City
GUEST: Jamaal Williams Click here to listen to this episode of the Urban Ministry Podcast. If you’re the pastor of an inner-city church, should you live in the same neighborhood as your church? And, if so, what are some of the unique challenges and opportunities of living in the inner city? That’s what we will […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Developing Deep Community in Urban Contexts
Suppose God has called you to plant a church in the city, and you’re struggling simply to gather an initial core group to launch the new congregation. When someone asks you about small groups, you might wonder, “Do I really need to think about small groups? Why isn’t enough simply to have an outstanding Sunday morning worship experience and deal with groups later, after the church is growing?” If you think that gathering in small groups is optional, you need to listen to this episode of Urban Ministry Podcast. Today, my guest on the Urban Ministry Podcast is Brad House, the author of Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support and the coauthor with Gregg Allison of the book Multichurch. The focus of our discussion is the unique dynamics of small groups in urban contexts and the need for small groups even in the early stages of church planting.
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Sermon: The King Who Died with an Open Hand
In 2007, a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman wove a new phrase into the vocabulary of Western culture. This new phrase also happened to be the name of the movie: The Bucket List. A bucket list is a series of experiences that you want to have before you “kick the bucket.” Near the end […]
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Sermon: Learning to Live in Awe
“For this reason,” Paul declared in his letter to the Ephesians, “I fall to my knees before the Father” (3:14). When people fall to their knees in the Bible, we tend to assume that the primary purpose of their prostration is prayer—and that was indeed part of what Paul was expressing here. But that’s not […]
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Leadership: When Your Church Has Issues
It happens in dating, and it happens in friendships and marriage. You meet someone, and—for a while—this individual seems flawless. Sometimes it takes a few months, other times it only takes a few minutes—but, eventually, it happens. It becomes apparent that this person has issues. Chances are, they recognize the same truth about you. It […]
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Leadership: Becoming a Church That Both Stays and Sends
A look at Sojourn Community Church
[Read More...]PROOF: An Anthem of Resurrecting Grace
In PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace, a book I co-authored with Sojourn Community Church pastor Daniel Montgomery, we explain the biblical truth of “resurrecting grace.” What we mean by this is simply that all of us exist as spiritual zombies—the walking dead—until God’s resurrecting grace invades and enlivens our hearts: “Spiritual […]
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