Lots of people are talking nowadays about going from “doing ministry” to “life on mission.” And it’s an important and necessary shift we need to make if we’re going to really learn again what it means to follow Jesus.

But the transition to missional living is easier talked about than practiced. [Read more…]

I love this story. Maybe you’ve heard it:

A young woman was preparing a ham dinner. After she cut off the end of the ham, she placed it in a pan for baking.

Her friend asked her, “Why did you cut off the end of the ham?”

She replied, “I really don’t know but my mother always did, so I thought you were supposed to.”

Later when talking to her mother she asked her why she cut off the end of the ham before baking it, and her mother replied, “I really don’t know, but that’s the way my mom always did it.”

A few weeks later while visiting her grandmother, the young woman asked, “Grandma, why is it that you cut off the end of a ham before you bake it?”

Her grandmother replied, “Well dear, otherwise it would never fit into my baking pan.”

[Read more…]

Numerous studies confirm that the American church is in decline.

Alan Roxburgh, in his book Joining God, Remaking the Church, Changing the World, shares the following statistic:

• If you were born between 1925 and 1945, there is a 60% chance you are in church today.
• If you were born between 1946 and 1964, there is a 40% chance you are in church today.
• If you were born between 1965 and 1983, there is a 20% chance you are in church today.
• If you were born after 1984, there is less than a 10% chance you are in church today.

[Read more…]

Reading, 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 our team to give us a few favorite books from 2018, 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.)

[Read more…]