Wow, what a day!
We spent the night at the DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, PA last night and then after lunch today we headed to the Strasburg Rail Road for some family fun!
Pictures are here.
Some clips from the train ride:
Archives For Linkage
One of my favorite pastor/authors has two books currently on sale in the Amazon Kindle store in E-Book format for just $2.99/ea.
I LOVED Christian Atheist and have just started reading Weird.
I remember being in grade school and one of my bus drivers picking me up at our house (a church parsonage) and telling me that he was a Christian, but had disassociated himself with the Church. I’m almost positive his reasoning was something about hypocrisy, but I may have been too young to understand such a word. I’m not quite sure why that conversation has stayed with me all of these years, but I have continued to hear of others who have explained away their church involvement (or lack of) due to being ‘disenchanted’ with church due to various reasons.
This morning I read through a terrific article by Pastor Matt Chandler (pastors The Village Church near Dallas, TX) that I think gives some great biblical insight into the subject – and I think you should read it.
Is Church Membership Biblical? by Matt Chandler
One quote to grab your attention –
“When church is just a place you attend without ever joining, like an ecclesiological buffet, you just might consider whether you’re always leaving whenever your heart begins to be exposed by the Spirit, and the real work is beginning to happen.”
The article rightly sets the foundation that church membership IS biblical and that encourages further conversation about what membership requirements look like – encouraging us to look at them through a biblical lens!
What do you think?
I can’t believe I never thought of this one:
see more There I Fixed It
I didn’t get to listen to the entire Techology Podcast LIVE this morning. I’m listening to it now here and I just heard something that I had to blog…
Here is the quote:
“Healthy things grow. Growing things change. Changes challenge us. Challenges force us to trust God. Trust leads to obedience. Obedience makes us healthy. Healthy things grow…” (author Tom Clegg)
I had to listen and read that a few times and I’m still allowing it to soak in. And I like it. Do you see the loop?
I also appreciated another statement that author Tom Clegg said in the same podcast, “It’s much more fun to make babies than it is to raise the dead.” while discussing why many young pastors seem to choose church planting over pastoring an established congregation. Good stuff.
Hearing Tom on the podcast today caused me to add his latest book, “Missing in America: Making an Eternal Difference in the World Next Door” to my wishlist.
More information on Tom Clegg at his website, tomclegg.com and missionaltransformationnetwork.com
