Note from CM: Perhaps you’ve read stories in recent days about the separation of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) from its majority-world leadership in the Church of Rwanda. The AMiA (founded in 2000) is based in South Carolina, and has been under the oversight of the Rwandan province. It has grown impressively, having [...]
Public Scripture Reading: The Sublime and the Ridiculous
13 Dec by
UPDATE: Thanks to Mike Bell, who alerted us to this follow-up article by Tim Challies in which he explains his stance. I’m still not buying it. • • • Anyone who worships in a liturgical church and folks in every tradition that values the place of Scripture in corporate worship will find some points to [...]
Carl
12 Dec by
His name was Carl. An old New Englander, he was strong and mostly silent. He was always pleasant to me, a young minister who had come to the mountains to take the pulpit in my first church. As with many of the men who lived in those hills, it was his wife who was actively [...]
Mark D. Roberts: All Pastoring Is Personal
9 Dec by
All Pastoring Is Personal From The Pastor’s Workshop Used with permission of the author Earlier this week, we reviewed Mark Roberts’ book introducing Advent. How happy I was when I went over to his blog and saw that he too has been writing on the subject of pastoral ministry. In fact, he has an excellent [...]
We Have All the “Tools” We Need (3)
9 Dec by
This is the third and final installment of a little “back to basics” article for Christian ministers. Peter, the one Jesus charged to “feed [his] sheep,” wrote in his second epistle, “So I intend to go on and on reminding you about all this — even though you know it, and have been firmly established [...]
We Have All the “Tools” We Need (2)
8 Dec by
This is part two of a piece in which I contend that, in essence, no new tools have been invented since the days of Jesus and the apostles (save one) that are absolutely essential for us to fulfill the Great Commission or encourage spiritual formation in the church. My focus is on pastoral ministry, because [...]
We Have All the “Tools” We Need (1)
7 Dec by
These next two posts are going to sound hopelessly idealistic and naive. Sorry, but I don’t care. I am an educated person who is in his mid-fifties. I’ve been around the block a few times, and I understand fully that the world is not simple. I know we need competent people to do research of [...]
Open Mic: A New “Emerging” Church
27 Sep by
CM: I’m sorry I haven’t been able to moderate as closely as I’d hoped today. I’m going to close the comments. I think we’ve covered this enough for now. I’m more convinced than ever that we as Christians are going to have to learn to talk about issues like this in more loving and helpful ways. We’ll [...]
Another Look: A Suggested Program for the Church
13 Aug by
By Chaplain Mike Note from CM: One of the questions I received for the “Ask Chaplain Mike” series was this: “If you were in the process of becoming a new pastor in an established church, what would your first priority be? How would you arrive at it?” The answer to that question is bigger than [...]
Two Churches that Closed Down the “Show”
12 Aug by
By Chaplain Mike This week, as we’ve been discussing the church, I have read two intriguing stories of megachurches that began and grew explosively using an attractional, seeker-oriented philosophy of ministry, but then decided that approach was contrary to Jesus’ call to discipleship. So they closed down the “show,” re-ordered their priorities, revamped their programs, [...]
