Building Vs Growing A Church
Why do pastors so often treat congregations with the impatience and violence of developers building a shopping mall instead of the patient devotion of a farmer cultivating a field? The shopping mall will be abandoned in…
Category: Church Series
Does Church Shape Us, Or Do we Shape The Church?
One of the things I’ve grown passionate about with our church is to really spell out and communicate our church practices. As it is these types of practices form us into certain kinds of people….
Churches Should Run Themselves
As theStory transitions away from having anyone at the reigns it allows us to practice and experiment with different ways of allowing the church to take on a life of its own. I’ve only ever…
When Attendance Equals Participation
Within the larger churches of North America there is the insistent need for people to feel like they are ‘doing something.’ So much that goes on in larger churches is organized and executed by a…
The Church is Representative of the Non-Violent and yet Powerful Rule of Christ
We are starting a series in Ephesians which is always fun as I get to work my way through the commentaries of brilliant folks. I’m excited to get back into some Witherington, Fowl and Wright…
Where Is the Church?
I don’t think we take the church nearly serious enough. Not even close. Church is still just a place we go to on Sundays to fulfill some sort of empty void that we only really…
Church: Where Children Fit
This week at theStory we spent some time talking about children and the role that they have in our community. It’s been something that lays heavily on our hearts because we don’t think that the…
Church: More Like Shrek
We’ve been having a lot of struggles with children and how they fit into the overall picture of theStory. We value our children and we have made it the point publicly many times that we…
Church: Evangelical Church -(=) Jesus’ Church
I’m starting to have doubts about the ‘evangelical church.’ Despite all the quotes we’ve all heard like “the church is a whore but she is my mother” and other likewise, I’m growing more skeptical as…
Church: Preaching without Community
I am reading the Great Giveaway right now by David Fitch, and I am loving this book. He is a very articulate writer and through his book explains how the evangelical church has given away…
Church: Focusing Outside
Dr Phil… *** NOTE *** I never thought I would ever start a blog with those words, but here we are a few days before the turn of the year and I’m starting it with…
Church: Without Man-Made Restrictions
It’s been a while since my last post, there is still some discussion going on about biblical inerrancy on the post two before this one, so check it out and participate if you want, its…
Church: A Beautiful/Pointless Habit
Growing up with Christian parents you go to church. Fortunately and unfortunately I was blessed and cursed with this habit engrained into my weekly schedule. To wake up on a Sunday morning without going to…
Church: An Idol
Darryl brought this point up last night and it struck me interesting and worthy enough to be posted. Since Darryl doesn’t have his own blog I’ll just get the ideas across. If you think Darryl…
Church: Kingdom or Pews?
My dad has been going to this new church in Sarnia for the past few weeks. It’s a church plant and they have only been together for the two weeks that my dad has been…
Church: A 24/7 Response
The longer I sit through services, especially worship services, the more frustrated with myself and the concept of these services I get. The idea of singing songs to our God is amazing; I love that…
The Transsexual/Transexual Church
trans•sex•u•al (tr ns-s k sh – l) n. 1. One who wishes to be considered by society as a member of the opposite sex. 2. One who has undergone a sex change. The church throughout…
Church: Who we are called to be
Lately I’ve been thinking about the whole idea of church, as you can tell because the last four entries have been about that. One of the key things one needs to do in attempting to…
Church: A Two Hour Substitute
After writing three points about what I have noticed church has become I knew that there were a bunch more I could point out. I was talking with my friends tonight (something think that is…
Church: Fast Food Utopia
One of my favourite sermons I have ever heard is by Erwin McManus. If you are interested, you can download it here. It’s not necessarily theologically without holes, nor is it a message that will…