If God is the object of worship, then worship must proceed from me, the subject, to God, who is the object. . . . If God is understood, however, as the personal God who acts as subject in the world and in worship rather that the remote God who sits in the heavens, then worship...Read More
Merry Christmas! The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NIV) In Ancient Future Time, Bob Webber wrote, “God united himself with humans in order for men and...Read More
Me-oriented worship is the result of a culturally driven worship. When worship is situated in the culture and not in the story of God, worship becomes focused on the self. It becomes narcissistic. . . . Much of our worship has shifted from a focus on God and God’s story to a focus on me...Read More
The church needs to be realigned to the intent of Christ, but it does not need to be reinvented. Reinventing the church is what we do when we allow the culture to shape the church. . . . Obviously the church must speak to the culture. It only speaks authentically and with integrity, however, when...Read More
Consumers want programs. . . . But nowhere in the Epistles do you find the apostolic writers urging the church to develop programs. Instead all the teaching is about a way of life, and that way of life is taught and caught in the church as it sees itself as the continuation of God’s story...Read More
Advent emphasizes what has been described by theologians as the "already, but not yet," the time between the first and second comings of Jesus, between the Kingdom unveiled and the Kingdom fulfilled. In a sense, the "already but not yet" is also the time between our own births and deaths.Read More
The church is to be a countercultural community. . . . God has raised up a people in a fallen culture to be a showcase of his desire for humanity—a people living in union with his purposes and in praise of his glory. . . . The church is to live out the new humanity...Read More
I have published a family devotional guide for Advent, the season of anticipation of and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. The daily material begins with Sunday, December 1 and actually runs all the way through the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). You can learn more about the book and purchase it at the...Read More
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through...Read More
There is a need to rediscover the very nature of the church as the continuation of the presence of God in the world. Reclaiming the incarnate nature of the church will shift us away from the business model of the church and help us focus on the church as the continuation of God’s vision for...Read More
I urge us all to stop looking at ourselves for the nourishment of our own spirituality and turn to the church and its worship to disclose God’s embrace and thus nourish our spirituality. The church, by its very existence, is the life of God’s embrace, and worship, when properly understood, is the continual experience of...Read More
