Our small group sat around the polished wood table, eating Subway sandwiches and kettle-cooked chips off paper plates. Licking up the last crumbs, the little children hopped off their chairs and ran to the kitchen to claim an ice cream cone. While ice cream dripped and children wiggled in their seats, Will turned the conversation …
Tag: change
Should A Church Have Rules?
Growing up, I was mostly very compliant with rules of any sort. I didn't just accept everything at face value--I often turned things over in my mind and tried to make sense of them--but I didn't usually challenge those things even if I thought they might be wrong. For me, keeping peace and avoiding hurt …
On discussing church rules
Dear friends, I'm writing to you about how I think you could do a better job of arguing for what you believe regarding church rules. Please, don't think me hopelessly arrogant. I'm not too proud to know that I'm as imperfect as anyone else. But the advocate in me wants to enable both sides to …
Working Toward Meaningful Change
As a child, I carefully kept my precious nickels and dimes in a ceramic pig. Sometimes after thinking about it for a few days, I went upstairs to my room and pulled out my piggy bank. I sat on my bed, turned the pig upside down, and pried the rubber plug loose. Shaking a nickel …
Navigating Adaptive Challenges
When I first read this paragraph from God's Country: Faith, Hope, and the Future of the Rural Church by Brad Roth, my mind leaped to a scenario exactly like Roth described: a community losing its missional bearings and directing its energy into constructing a recreational building. In the church, we so often favor the concrete …