So who are we? I have had that question asked of me many times throughout my life. From birth to the present I have always been a member of a Christian Reformed Church (CRC). I have lived in three countries and on two continents, but I have always been a part of the CRC. In my youth the school I attended was across the road from a Reformatory. When I told other children that I went...
What do you value? Why do you do whatever you do? If you have lived for any length of years you have noticed that not every person is the same. No family is completely alike. No community is identical. The same is true of churches. There are differences, and these differences are based on what people or organizations value. Values have to do with one's identity, the core DNA or the specific culture of a group...
At times I get overwhelmed by the simple volume of tasks I have to achieve. And I am not alone. Every pastor and church leader has a keen sense that there are just not enough hours to do all that needs to be done. When I served the local church as their minister, there was always another sermon to write, another visit to make, an email to respond to, some planning to organise, a meeting to...
Speaking with the pastor I immediately realised what he was struggling with. The heart of his struggle was the complacency in his church. In spite of the ongoing decline in the church and the lack of conversions, most of the people in his church stood for nothing more than more of the same. People were not interested in doing a church analysis, and even less interested in implementing any change. People in the church readily admitted...
When was the last time you followed a plan? You planned to do something, like make a birthday cake for someone. You wrote up a list of ingredients and headed down to your local shops to pick up the flour, baking powder, sugar, and everything else you needed. You mixed all the elements in a dish and put it in the oven to bake. What a joy later on when you saw the smile on people's...
