We all think we are preaching a holistic gospel. In all my years of interacting with pastors, teachers and leaders I have never met anyone who got into a pulpit on a regular basis and said “I think I am going to preach a one-sided gospel.” In reality, none of us are preaching a fully holistic gospel, are we? Obviously I don’t think so, or I wouldn’t have asked the question. I believe this is one of the reasons we need to continually be in dialogue with the entire body of Christ, Christians from all walks of life. We must know and learn from Christians from different racial, ethic and socio-economic backgrounds and even Christians from urban, suburban and rural contexts. It is in these conversations and friendships...Read More →
Category: Pastoring
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April 12, 2011
Two Super-Easy Steps to Preaching a Holistic Gospel
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September 16, 2010
10 Suggestions/Thoughts on Bi-Vocational Ministry
I’ve been bi-vocational in some way or another for about 9 years. Here is some random advice/thoughts to those who are beginning or in the midst of the bi-vocational approach to ministry: Try and find a second job that feeds your gifting and passions in some way. I actually really enjoy web design. It taps into my creative side and gives me an outlet for that kind of thing. So, while it has its frustrations, I really can enjoy the work. This has been very important as it doesn’t necessarily drain me as I engage the these responsibilities. Try and have your second job be a career type job and not just a part-time placement where the only positive is that you make money. While...Read More →
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May 28, 2010
In the Name of Jesus: From Relevance to Prayer
Last week I spend a few days here on the blog working out the leadership culture we are trying to create at The Well. Now, admittedly I am a big leadership book junkie. I love exploring the sociology of leadership and community. But, as much as I love that stuff I realize there is a danger in it. One can become so dependent on good leadership technique that we forget that it is the Spirit that works in and through us. While technique is important, and firmly believe we can’t avoid it, we must not depend on it. With that being said, I want to highly recommend the little book by Henri Nouwen called, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. This book...Read More →
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January 18, 2010
Bi-Vocational Pastors
As a pastor who has spent the last nine years living a bi-vocational life (sometimes tri-vocational), I appreciated all the discussion on David Fitch’s blog post back in November. I posted the rhythm I have been living for the last nine months back in November also. Things have changed a tad for me since I am working a lot less hours at Sbux and we are in the midst of a transition at The Well that will probably bring some changes to my current rhythm of life. But, if you are interested in the topic, read David’s blog and be sure to read all the discussion below. There are some really good thoughts and questions addressed. Also, Jason Coker is going to be starting...Read More →
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June 25, 2009
The Ol’ Pastor Swap
This weekend I am swapping pulpits with Rev. Greg Holston of St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Trevose, PA. St. Matthew is a predominately african-american congregation in our town that we partner with on occasion. Pastor Greg will be preaching at The Well, which I will be very sad to miss. I heard him preach at our combined Easter Sunrise service and he was awesome. He has a great handle on the scriptures and the gospel and preaches it with a ton of passion. I know The Well will be blessed and challenged by him this weekend. Part of the deal is that I get to head over to preach to his community. I’m tremendously excited about this as I love being given the opportunity to speak...Read More →
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May 12, 2009
The Next Steps for The Well
May 12, 2009 Dear Church Family, During our worship gathering on Sunday we took a break from our regular sermon series in order to look back at the early dreams and passions of The Well and to celebrate how God is making these dreams a reality. (You can listen to the audio on the church website here: http://church.thewellpa.com/podcast/the-history-next-steps-for-the-well/) The Well has four foundational values: Discipleship (we are a community of people becoming more and more like Jesus) Justice/Evangelism (we reach out and share the love of Jesus with others, especially those on the fringes of society) Locality (we are locally embedded in our neighborhood, especially through the use of our building) Unity (we are connected to the historical and global Church) On Sunday we focused...Read More →
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November 14, 2008
Leader: It’s Your Fault / Responsibility
Last week I wrote a little bit about how leaders need to take reponsibiltiy when things go wrong in their communities or organizations. Far too often we are quick to blame it on those we are trying to lead. Seth Godin says it in his book Tribes better than I did and clearer than Edwin Friedman did. He writes, If you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; its mine. If you see my new product but don’t buy it, that’s my fault, not yours. If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my fault too. If I fail to persuade you to implement a policy that supports my tribe, that’s due to my lack of passion or skill, not...Read More →
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November 7, 2008
The Church: Shaped by Prayer?
This month (Nov. 16th) we are meeting as a community at The Well for our quarterly discussion on issues that are important to our mission together. We call these meetings Midrash meetings. This month we’ll be addressing the issue of prayer in our community life. Our mission statement reads “…a community shaped my scripture and by prayer…” We’ve got some big time room to improve in being a community that is actually shaped by prayer. In preparation for this gathering, I’ve been doing some reading on the subject and picked up the late Stanley Grenz’s book on prayer called “Prayer: A Cry for the Kingdom.” It’s really a great book and here is a collection of short excerpts from the introduction. The greatest challenge facing the...Read More →
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October 31, 2008
It’s Not My Fault: A Word on Blame Displacement
I’ve been devouring this new book I have by the late Edwin Friedman called “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.” It’s been one of those books that came at the perfect time for me as a person and as a leader. One of the many great topics he discusses is our society’s constant blame placing and lack of personal responsibility. When challenges and struggles come, we are constantly blaming others. He writes that good leaders don’t do that and take personal responsibility for the situations. I am beginning to realize that to be a strong leader/person, you have to be willing to take the responsibility when things go wrong. Too long have we been too quick to “displace blame.” While its really...Read More →
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September 22, 2008
Pastors and Devotions.
I am sitting here doing some study / preliminary work on my sermon for this weekend. We’ve starting the book of Ephesians and I’m taking in Ephesians 1:3-10. Its a quite a full passage and I’m looking forward to the challenge of preaching on it. But for some reason, my mind is going to the idea that pastors need to be doing their own personal reading (call it devotions if you want) outside of the text they are preaching for the week. I get the concept behind that. But now I’m wondering, is this because we’re trained to approach the text that we are preaching in a way that doesn’t effect or transform our lives? We encourage those who are part of The Well to...Read More →
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September 22, 2008
Children, Families and Worship
This week at The Well we had a child / parent dedication. We do dedications in a pretty cool way and I’ll write about that this week, but I wanted to share something I wrote that outlines our overall approach to children, worship and community. Children & Families at The Well There is no question that children are a precious gift from God. Because of this, how they fit into the life of our community is no small matter. At The Well, we believe that the family is the best place for spiritual formation of children. It is the role of the church community to partner with parents in helping children to love God and love others. Therefore, our goal is to work alongside parents...Read More →
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September 8, 2008
Politics and Preaching
This post has been republished on Neue Magazine’s website This is really the first election year that I’ve spent a lot of time listening to the speeches and debates from the two main Presidential candidates. Usually, the only campaigning that I let into my system are the television commercials and that’s only because the DVR hadn’t been invented yet. This year, as I have taken in all these speeches and “debates” I’ve realized that there is something to be learned for pastors and people who teach or preach on a regular basis. Watching these two candidates has made me ask this question: As pastors and teachers does our preaching give way for conversion or does our preaching simply make those who disagree with us disagree...Read More →
