Love works, criticism is lazy.

Love is the thing that motivates the heart of God toward us. That love is executed through the church. So when mistakes are made, the proper way to handle it, is in love. When we fall God responds in love, when other's don't live up to our (unfair) expectations, love will change the entire dynamic.

Any other motivation is slap in the grace of God. (including getting your opinion heard and being right) Jesus was right but He didn't allow that to get in the way of redemption. He denied His "rights" to appeal, His "rights" to be heard, His "right" to be respected; to esteem others.

If that attribute is being reflected in you, consider yourself the 10% of the church that get's it.

-These and other truths brought to you by. . . the Bible, now in Technicolor!

the Devil is in the generalities and the details...

Grace vs. Us

The sooner we accept our ineptitude, the sooner grace changes us.



The problem in the modern leadership paradigm that we’ve created with our modern "spectacular rock-show exhibition seeker obsessive church-plant megastar media whore-of-a-ministry" model (whew) is that even though we place an immensely weighted emphasis on the gospel (which is wholly good) we also place more and more onus on our abilities and others.

If you took away all the pretense and all the glamour of your church experience could you stand to be exposed to a small room of 20 people studying and discussing the bible on its own merits and personal revelation? There is NO ability in us that transforms others, no value in our expertise; it is grace alone that changes men! Anything else is a demi-idol that threatens the true work of the gospel in men’s hearts.

We cannot partially rely on grace.

rePost from RESURGENCE:

from: Brad House 

I have recently noticed a trend of churches giving up on the notion that community is an essential component of church life.

Many are deciding that community is an optional experience that is helpful but not elemental to being a healthy disciple of Jesus. I think this is a significant mistake. There is no biblical support for personal, autonomous Christianity. If we want to truly make disciples who advance the gospel, we must not only see the importance of community, but we must understand it to be essential to the church.


Community is a gift of God’s grace and essential for the Christian life. Community is not a peripheral ministry. Our communities should be the most palpable expression of the gospel within the church. As culture reflects the values of its citizens, Community Groups reflect the values of the church.

If our church does not place a high value on community, then we are already disconnected from the gospel convictions related to community.

My experience has been that most churches consider community a value, but many have a hard time living out that value in a way that is visible and recognizable. The church is constantly pulled to do so many things that it can be easy to neglect or devalue Community Groups within the sea of programs churches provide.

Breathing Life Back into Your Small Group

If, however, we are going to breathe life back into the community of the church and see it function as God designed, we need to start thinking differently. Social justice, overseas missions, youth programs, food banks, sports ministries, and so on are acceptable programs, but they are not the center of God’s mission. They are support tools through which a gospel-saturated community can intentionally engage the world.


If we put all our energy into the tangential and neglect the center, we have no fertile ground where people can land and grow. I have heard such tangential ministries described as a funnel, drawing people into the church as they swirl toward the center. Ignoring the visual similarity to being flushed, the problem with a funnel is that it has a hole in the center.


Similarly, this has also been my experience when we neglect building the body of Christ. In order to breathe life back into your small group ministry, you must have a clear sense of its value and importance to your church.
You cannot hope to gain momentum and life in such a ministry while simultaneously marginalizing it through resource allocation or ministry dilution. Elevating Community Groups to the proper (and balanced) level of significance is critical 

You are the Movement

my new blog idea  =/<240 words

People often get the wrong impression when i say things like "we are building toward a movement", or "I don't want a ministry I want a movement." I'm guilty of a lot of things; one of my primary vices is saying the same things continuously with little (or no) exposition.

Yeah, it's shutterstock, So What?

What is this "movement" I'm so apt to throw around in casual conversation? Well, of course we want a lasting/impacting community that is authentic, spirit-led, and reproducible, but the intent of movement (as far as I’m concerned) is not organizational, it is explicitly individual and ever-increasing in measure. I want to see movement in singular hearts that ignites faith into action and action into deeper faith. Make no mistake, there is no reproducible system that is not first individually transformative and gradually tested.

That is all.