According to a recent Barna survey, 41% of Christians follow the liturgical year “very closely throughout the year,” with more people following it more loosely. This seems to represent a growing number of people over the past few years, according to informal conversations we have with those we coach and train.
Lent starts on Ash Wednesday (February 26 this year), and lasts until Easter Sunday (April 12th this year).
As a young child, I can clearly remember feeling that the height of failure was to be bored. Being bored meant missing out on the fun that others were having or lacking the creative juice to make fun happen right where I was. Somewhere, someone else was not bored and my boredom was evidence that I was missing out on the fun, or lacked the skills to be fun.
Many years ago I heard John Piper lament that in his experience, many Christians could not speak intelligibly about the holiness of God for longer than a few minutes. I was “young, restless, and reformed” at that point in my life, and so I took his words to heart.
[Read more…] about Getting to Know the God Who Looks Like Jesus“How is it that other people, who seem to have their {bleep} together, don’t seem to notice that there is pain in the world, or if they do, they can manage. But me, I see nothing but pain in the world and can only deal with it by getting high and numbing myself?”
[Read more…] about How to Proclaim the Allegiance Gospel: A Story
A few years ago I had the unusual freedom to attend a Christmas Eve service I wasn’t leading. In fact, it wasn’t in my home church at all. I was visiting friends and family out of town and attended a large, well-known church in their area for Christmas Eve.
But it wasn’t a great experience, unfortunately. It was all I could do to make it through without surrendering my Christmas spirit.
[Read more…] about How (Not) to Preach on Christmas EveReading, both widely and deeply, is a vital discipline for any leader. But reading is especially important for the Christian leader, because our way of leadership (following Jesus) isn’t just pragmatic. It’s a inherently theological pursuit that demands we reflect deeply on our relationships regularly.
We asked some of our team to give us a few favorite books from 2019, and we’ve got a list below, in no particular order. (Note: these aren’t necessarily books that were released this year, just books we happened to read this year.)
